30

30

The room was silent.

Lauren stared blankly at him. “Oh. Well, I know he wasn’t, I’m asking who was.”

Hutson leaned forward. “Honey, I’m saying Jonathan Burns, your grandfather was one of the men who raped and murdered those young girls in the photographs that way. He was a sick man who…”

“Hutson, enough.” Aaron stepped forward and knelt before Lauren as she stared at Hutson, her face white as a sheet.

“Lauren?” Aaron held her face between his warm hands. “Baby, you hear me?”

Lauren felt cold, her eyes trailed slowly to Aaron’s and she blinked. “He said...Aaron, he said... pops…”

“I know, baby. I’m sorry.”

Lauren frowned and jerked her face out of his hands, getting out of her chair and across the room.

Her knees were wobbly, but she held onto the wall, keeping herself upright.

It felt as though the life was being sucked out of her body. Her pops? The one who’d pull on her pigtails in her childhood with the biggest smile on his face? The one who was always the hero in all of Aunt Abigail’s bedtime stories?

Lauren laughed. Loudly and even clapped her hands, using her butt to push away from the wall.

“You’d nearly convinced me,” she said shakily. “Like, really. I actually believed you for a second—”

“It’s no joke, child,” interrupted Hutson, looking at her over the rim of his spectacles. “People died. Were murdered to be exact. That cult was led by Jonathan Burns, who’d brainwashed the people of this town into following him for years, so badly that they still look up to him even after he’s died.”

Lauren shook her head vigorously, eyes now overflowing. Thoughts filling her head and making it reel. Their mysterious deaths, her mother’s journal, nothing made sense! “That makes no damn sense! My grandfather was an amazing man who helped so many people in this town! My mother and aunt adored him, and I’m sure he tried h-his best to protect them as Aunt Abigail said—”

“Monster.”

All eyes turned to Selena and Lauren felt tense. Again with that word.

“What?” she questioned fighting to not fall apart.

Selena’s eyes were glassy as she stared at Lauren.

“She said he was a monster. Cathy never adored that man.”

Lauren felt herself go cold all over. It couldn’t be. The monster her mother wrote about...the one that she said she ought to have killed...the one that she’d seen watching her daughter...that monster was pops?!

“No…” Lauren shook her head, tears forming thick streams down her face. Her gaze sought out Aaron’s. “Say something…”

His jaw visibly clenched. “Lauren, I’m so sorry, honey…”

“How can it be true?!”

“It is, baby. I need you to try and calm down, okay?”

Lauren hugged herself. “Calm down? How can I calm down? My whole life is such a gigantic mess! I grew up resenting you, Aaron! Loathing you, the man that I’m now so in love with and my pops...my pops, who was always called a hero, you’re telling me that he was a monster?!”

“He was!” said Hutson. “And you need time to take it all in, I understand that, child, but better be quick about it because time’s running out—”

“Hutson.” Aaron glared at him over his shoulder.

The old man pursed his lips and leaned on his cane in silence.

Turning back to Lauren, Aaron slowly approached her, hand held out.

“I’m sorry things had to turn out this way, Lauren, but all of this is the truth. Okay? Come on, now. It’s alright.”

Her hand rose of its own will and her fingers curled around his palm. Lauren let herself be led back to the sofa where Selena sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her stiff shoulders.

Still trying to wrap her head around it, Lauren glanced slowly up at Richard.

“Uhm…” her voice came out in a whisper and Lauren cleared her throat, trying to blink away tears. “So...so my pops...my pops killed all those girls? All of them?”

Richard nodded slowly. “Yes, Lauren. He and his associates.”

She gulped. This was crazy. It was insane.

“How did you find out?” Aaron questioned, trying to piece things together himself.

Richard sighed and placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “It was purely by chance. One day, I happened to be at the Reverend’s office in the chapel, and...he wasn’t there at first. At least that’s what I thought. I’d gone to drop off a package that had arrived for the church and since Burns wasn’t in his office, I figured I’d leave it in his drawer where nobody could take it, and leave.”

Lauren began to grow colder and Selena rubbed her hand up and down her arm.

Richard rubbed a hand over his face and continued. “I opened the drawer and the first thing I saw was a photo of the mutilated naked corpse of a young girl.”

There was a soft gasp and Lauren wasn’t sure whether it was hers or Selena’s. She focused on Richard’s words, feeling her stomach churn.

“And...and my pops did that?” she asked incredulously, her voice barely a whisper.

Richard swallowed. “Yes. I wasn’t sure, but then I heard them in the office back room. It was him and Martin Stanford Snr, discussin’ how they’d ‘played’ the previous night, describin’ every perverted detail of their ‘favorite’ moments. I was disgusted, horrified. I stood there rooted to the spot as they both came strollin’ out of the back room with smiles on their faces. They saw me and the drawer that was wide open, then everythin’ went south.”

“That was a day before the storm when you went to the Chapel…” Selena, in horror, murmured up at Richard and he nodded.

“That’s right, honey,” he agreed. “I didn’ have time to do anythin’ at all, besides protecting my family, so I left every single thin’ I had. It broke my heart. I left for the Cleavedale mountains, where only Vincent Krowski, the young man helping me knew my location. I made sure Monty stayed in Aaron’s life. When they put the blame of the Reverend’s murder on Aaron’s shoulders, I made sure Monty defended him before the council. I’d never really left you, son.”

Richard’s gaze sought out Aaron’s and Lauren saw him swallow.

“Are you saying that you knew about Jonathan Burns’ death? You asked Hutson to be my advocate for all these years?” Aaron questioned.

Richard nodded.

“So you’ve always been watching then? Even when we were in the most pain, Ma and I. You just watched.” Aaron huffed out a laugh. “Is that how you knew where to find Lauren?”

Saddened by his son’s words, Richard could do nothing besides nod. “Vince is Stanford’s current Deputy Mayor. He became my eyes in Woodfair twenty years ago when it became too dangerous for me to keep watch myself. He was only a youngin when I met him and set him on Stanford’s campaign, but he was a lad keen on helpin’ me. And he did, ever since I started living in the cabin in the mountains. He informed me of Marcus Stanford’s plans after a night of drunkenness with the young Stanford and that’s when I decided that it was time to end things.”

Aaron stared silently at his father, not knowing how to feel now that the anger had worn off. Should he be happy, overjoyed that his dad was alive? Should he continue to hold a grudge worth twenty-five years?

Having no answers to his questions, he turned away from Richard, wrapping his hand around Lauren’s and pulling her up and into his arms, where he folded her into his embrace, filling it with as much comfort and love as he could.

“We should rest for tonight,” Aaron murmured against Lauren’s head. “Grayson will take care of the protestors for tonight at Town Hall. Tomorrow, we set our plans in motion.”

“Indeed,” sighed Hutson tiredly as he stood, rapping his cane on the floor.

Lauren peeked at the sharp-tongued old man and he gave her a tender look. “It’ll be well, child.” With that, he walked to the door where his nurse and car awaited.

Tiredly, Aaron began to lead Lauren away, but she quickly gripped Richard’s hand and he looked down at her.

“Do you know who the real killer is as well?” she asked.

Richard’s eyes grew veiled and he lifted his gaze to Aaron’s.

“Please,” Lauren pleaded, her grip tightening. “Please, tell me. I know it wasn’t Aaron, so who killed Jonathan Burns... and who killed my mother?”