"Obviously, you don’t have to tell me if you don't want to, but what happened to your family?"
Staring into the darkness, he considered his response. Hamm knew all about his family, but only because he'd insisted on hearing Cade's whole story before he hired him. His other colleagues knew that Hamm had found him on the streets, but he'd never told them details of his past.
Talking about his upbringing made him feel weak, and he had spent his adolescence and adulthood ensuring he'd never be as vulnerable as he'd felt as a child. So he hid the memories away, pretending the past hadn't happened, or distancing himself so much it felt like it happened to someone else.
But this was Tristan, and maybe the dam broke, or else he gave up trying to fortify and hide behind it.
"My parents died in a car accident."
He heard a soft gasp. "I'm sorry. That's horrible. When?"
"When I was four."
There was a pause while Tristan seemed to absorb that information before asking, "Do you remember anything about them?"
Long dark hair and hugs, the smell of strawberries. Being carried on a man's shoulders and feeling tall. A red bike with training wheels at Christmas. A birthday cake with candles and chocolate frosting. A gray cat named Kitty.
"Not really. Just flashes, vague memories."
"You don't have any siblings?"
"No."
"And no relatives? Grandparents or aunts and uncles?"
"No."
Again, Tristan seemed to consider those answers, assembling pieces to the puzzle.
"So you went into foster care?"
Cade flinched. "How did you know?"
"Logical conclusion. Plus, your reaction when I said that one victim was a foster kid."
Cade didn't know how to respond, so he said nothing.
"How long were you in foster care?"
"About eleven years."
He knew he could speak up, stop this line of questioning, but he couldn't make himself say the words.
Tristan seemed to hesitate, then softly asked, "Did you get moved around a lot?"
Twelve placements after I learned how to count.
"Yeah."
"Is that why you couldn't play baseball anymore?"
Damn, he doesn't miss a thing.
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
Unsure of the appropriate response to that, Cade didn't reply.
