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At the same time, I can’t ignore the anger currently picking away at me like a hungry crow. Halle lied to us about who she is. She’s been keeping some pretty big secrets. The kind that could put us and our family in danger but maybe that’s why she’s been keeping her past a secret. I quickly tell myself that’s the reason. It makes sense in my head.
How do we keep Colby Nash away from Halle, Sammy, and Luna? He’s found them and from what I’ve just learned about the man he will do whatever it takes to get them back in his evil grip.
13
Eric
The fury I feel is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.
Wyatt and Chase seem to be taking the news of Halle’s true identity better than me. Why is that? Why does this bother me so much, even though I, much like my brothers, immediately understood why she chose to keep everything a secret?
I race home in the afternoon, dropping everything I had left to do on my day off in order to talk to Halle about what I’ve found out. For hours, I hesitated. As soon as I got Chase’s text messages earlier today, I was tempted to go straight to the firehouse and confront her. But I knew it wasn’t the time or place.
Chief Holt and the others in our crew are better kept out of this, at least until we can speak to her directly. My brothers are right, Halle’s safety is at stake here. Her safety as well as her children’s, whom I’ve grown increasingly fond of. So I went about my business, biding my time to the best of my abilities.
But the fury has finally taken over.
The sun sets in an angry red west of the city as I pull up outside our house with a screech. A split second later, I walk in and close the door behind me. At the same time, Halle comes rushing out of the kitchen with a worried look on her face. “Are you okay?” she asks, almost breathless.
For a moment, I soften up, just a little bit. She’s worried about me.
“I’m okay,” I say, gathering myself and taking deep, measured breaths. “You, on the other hand… Halle, you’re not okay.”
“What?” she blinks a few times, genuinely confused. “I’m fine. I just got home. I wanted to get dinner ready before I have to go pick up Sammy and Luna. Your parents have movie tickets for tonight, so I figured I’d get the kids out of their hair earlier.”
“Who’s Helena Nash?”
She freezes mid-step, eyes wide, her lower lip quivering in horror. I can see the tension gathering in her shoulders.
“What did you just ask me?” she manages, shaking like a leaf.
“Helena Nash. That is your real name, isn’t it?”
“How? Where?”
“So it’s true.”
Tears fill her grey-blue eyes. It’s tearing me apart on the inside to see her like this, but the truth needed to come out.
She looks so beautiful in the simple white cotton dress she’s wearing. Her chestnut brown hair flowing in elegant curls. For the life of me, I cannot reconcile this vision of her with those newspaper photos. It’s as if I’m looking at a completely different person altogether.
“Eric, it’s complicated,” Halle can barely speak, choking up on her tears. “I’m so sorry—”
“What is it you’re sorry about? Lying to us? Not telling us your ex is a verifiable psycho?”
“All of it,” she cries out, the tears now rolling down her pink cheeks.
It’s getting increasingly harder to keep my composure since the only thing I want to do right now is to walk over and take her in my arms. But I cannot overlook a slight this big. This is a huge fucking issue, especially given our degree of intimacy. If the trust is broken, we’re doomed from the very beginning.
“Eric, I’m so sorry. I was scared. I thought I was starting a new life, but then the diner burned down, and—”
“Did you know it was him?”
She appears not to register the question at first, but then she does, and her eyes grow even wider. “What?”
“Colby. We’ve got enough evidence to consider him the primary suspect at this point,” I say, carefully gauging her reaction.
Halle had no idea. The shock that is currently setting in drains the blood from her face. She can barely stand, slowly leaning into the wall next to her for some semblance of balance.
