Chapter 76 A FACE I ONCE KNEW
Linda’s POV
I watched as she drank the entire cup of beer before setting the glass aside. The anger on her face was still clearly visible.
“Want another glass?” I asked.
She shook her head.
For some reason, I just couldn’t read her.
“No, I’m good. I have files I need to go through, so I can’t get drunk,” she declined.
“Well, this is the first time I’ve seen you drink alcohol in five years,” I said carefully. “Do you want to tell me what happened in Brentmere?”
I knew something had happened, but she didn’t look like she wanted to talk about it.
“A lot of things happened,” she said quietly. “Things I don’t really know how to explain. But someone died while I was in Brentmere.”
Sadness immediately clouded her eyes, and my heart skipped at the thought of who it might be.
“Don’t tell me something happened to Jaxon Lennox,” I began.
But she immediately shook her head.
She placed both hands on the table, then buried her face in them briefly. Taking a deep breath, she slowly ran her fingers through her hair before looking back up at me.
“No,” she said. “It’s a girl named Zoe. She was one of the girls I met at the party in Jaxon’s hotel in Brentmere.”
She looked completely devastated.
“I think they silenced her,” she added, trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall.
Then realization hit me.
“This is the reason you’re disbanding the team, isn’t it?” I said, already knowing the answer. I knew her well enough.
She was trying to protect us.
“I know you warned me about the dangers of this case,” she continued quietly. “But I didn’t really listen to you.”
She paused for a moment before continuing.
“Well, now I can’t have you guys getting into trouble because of this case.”
Her words only unsettled me.
“What about you? Doesn’t that mean you’re in danger too? Or do you have some nine lives I don’t know about?”
I hadn’t expected my voice to come out so strong, but I hated how she included everyone in her safety plan—except herself.
“I have Jaxon. He’s going to keep me safe,” she said, the tears she had been holding back finally slipping down her cheeks.
“Jaxon will keep you safe? Since when did you start believing so much in Jaxon?” I questioned angrily.
“Since today, Linda. Since today,” she replied. “I am going to find Mia. I need to find her.”
I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Nancy, this is insane. It’s already obvious that this is a losing game. Why don’t you leave the head officer and his team to handle this case, huh?”
Nancy’s POV
Linda’s panic-stricken, pleading eyes locked onto mine as she grabbed my hands.
“I’m sorry, Linda. I’m not going to sit around anymore. I will find Mia and Ravyn Vale,” I said gently, pulling my hands away from hers as I wiped the tears running down my face.
“But—”
“Linda, please,” I pleaded, needing all the support I could get. “I’ll be fine. And I don’t want another body to follow after Zoe.”
She let out a sigh before nodding in response, though her eyes still showed she wasn’t entirely comfortable with this.
“Wow, I never thought I’d one day meet a Nancy who is ready to work with Jaxon. It sounds like a prank,” she joked.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Tell me about it,” I added.
Her gaze rested on mine for a moment before she reached out and gently wiped the tears from my cheek.
“Just promise me you’ll stay safe, no matter what.”
“I promise,” I replied.
She made me seal it with a pinky promise.
We talked for a while before eventually parting ways. I took a ride home, while Linda returned to the station.
By the time I got home, it was already late. Everyone was asleep.
When I got to my room, I went to check on Rena and found her fast asleep with Alba curled up beside her on the bed.
As soon as I stepped into the room, Alba’s ears immediately perked up. His piercing gaze rested on me before a soft groan escaped him.
“Hey, buddy.”
He stared at me for a moment, uncertain, before catching my scent. His pointed ears immediately drooped, and his tail began wagging excitedly.
I ran my hands through his thick fur, and his excitement only grew.
Walking over to sit beside Rena, Alba returned to his position and lay back down.
I adjusted the blanket over Rena and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before quietly making my way out of the room.
Alba immediately followed after me.
I let him trail behind me as he followed me back to my room.
Dropping onto the bed, I immediately grabbed my phone and dialed Brianna’s number, but the call wouldn’t connect.
I tried a couple more times, but the result was the same.
On my fifth try, an email notification suddenly popped up on my phone.
Opening the message, the headline appeared immediately.
“November 22, 2004 – Accident involving Mrs. Lennox and her son.”
I scrolled down and began reading.
“An accident occurred late on the night of November 22, 2004, on the A-15 Coastal Highway of Brookleigh.
The victims, Mrs. Lennox and her son, Jaxon Lennox. Their car was hit by a truck, forcing the vehicle off the road and down the hills of the Coastal Highway.
The incident left Jaxon Lennox in a coma for three months, while his mother’s injuries were not as critical as his.”
The report ended there.
I scrolled further down and found another headline.
“Twelve-year-old Jaxon Lennox wakes up after three months in a coma and may have been diagnosed with a mental disorder.”
My heart skipped as I continued reading.
“Doctors claimed he was stable until the moment he woke up asking for his mother. Mrs. Lennox arrived at the hospital to see her son, only for him not to recognize her.”
The next headline made my breath catch.
“Mrs. Lennox forced to leave her son’s room after he aggressively claimed she wasn’t his mother.”
Another one followed.
“Twelve-year-old Jaxon Lennox unable to recognize his mother after coma.”
The pictures that were supposed to accompany the file seemed to have been removed, and the headlines kept repeating the same disturbing story.
My heart pounded.
I immediately grabbed the physical file Troy had given me earlier and went through the copies of the photos inside.
Most of them were pictures of Jaxon and his mother from when he was a toddler.
But then I froze as my fingers stopped on one photograph.
A photograph that struck a memory.
A memory of a face I thought I had long forgotten.
It was him.
The devastated boy I saw on the night of April 22nd, 2005.
A white bandage stained with blood, his face swollen from constant beatings. But above all were those eyes—those young, sad, pain-filled blue eyes.
“This is impossible…” I muttered under a shaky breath.
Grabbing the photos, I walked over to my work desk and turned on the desk lamp before placing the pictures of Jaxon on the table.
From his toddler years down to the one photo that had caught my attention.
Grabbing my phone, I searched for his current photo online and placed it beside the others as I stared at them.
The resemblance was there.
It was him.
I didn’t know how long I stood there staring at those photos, trying to piece everything together.
I couldn’t believe it.
Jaxon was that broken boy I had spent the worst two weeks of my life with when I was a child.
The resemblance had always been there.
How had I never noticed?
Grabbing a handful of my hair, I stumbled back, my legs suddenly going weak beneath me.
A shiver ran down my body as one question echoed loudly in my mind.
What kind of game was life playing with me?