Tristan paused, seemingly to collect himself. “I hadn’t known he’d told Zane he hadn’t wanted me. I decided to let it go, but then I got this email from him after the Christmas break.” Tristan snuck a glance at Brennan before saying, “That time was pretty hard for me, so I was actually glad to hear from him.”
I made a mental note to ask Brennan what Tristan meant by that, but then realized it wasn’t any of my business. My goal was to figure out who the immediate threat was and eliminate it, no more, no less.
“We started emailing back and forth. His name was Ray…Ray Andrews. He…he seemed really interested in my life and told me how sorry he was that he hadn’t been there for me when I’d been growing up. He said my mother had taken me away from him when I was a baby and that no one had ever reached out to him after she’d died.” Tristan shook his head. “I was so stupid…I believed everything he said.”
“You’re not stupid,” Brennan said, his voice firm.
But Tristan shook his head and continued as if Brennan hadn’tspoken. “I told him everything about me. About my fathers, what they did for a living.”
I already knew from the research I’d done on the Barrettis as part of the effort to find out who was hurting Eli that Dom and Logan Barretti were extremely wealthy, so I suspected the direction Tristan’s story was headed.
“The first time he asked to borrow some money, it was a really small amount. He said he needed to get his car fixed so he wouldn’t lose his job. My dads gave me money to live off of every month and I had some money saved up from when I used to work at this theater where the Seattle Symphony performed. It wasn’t much so I wired it to him.”
“Where to?” I asked.
Tristan’s pained eyes met mine. “Las Vegas.”
“He was a gambler,” I said.
“He said he worked in a casino. I…I didn’t make the connection.”
“What happened?”
Tristan dropped his eyes again and I resisted the urge to force his chin up so that he’d keep looking at me.
“He kept asking for more. All his excuses made sense to me. I told him I couldn’t afford it, but he was insistent. He kept saying how he wanted to save up enough money to come to New York to meet me.”
“You were going to school in New York?”
Tristan nodded. “At Julliard. I play the piano.”
“Did you send him more money?” I asked.
“Yeah, a few more times. I finally stopped answering his emails and phone calls. I didn’t hear from him for a couple of weeks and then I got a text saying he was in town and he really wanted to meet me. I knew it wasn’t smart, but I…”
“You were still curious about him,” I offered. “You wanted to know where you came from.”
“Yeah,” Tristan whispered. The shame in his voice had me following through on my need and I reached out to lift his chin up until his eyes met mine.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Tristan. It’s natural to want to know something like that.”
“But I shouldn’t have needed to. I had the perfect life. I had the best parents anyone could have asked for.”
“I did too,” I admitted. “My stepdad was the only father I’d ever known. But it didn’t make me stop wondering about my birth father. I was lucky enough to have my mom to tell me stories about him. It didn’t mean I loved my stepdad any less. Your fathers will understand that.”
Tristan shook his head violently, pulling his chin from my hold. “No, they can’t know.” He looked at Brennan. “Brennan, please, they can’t know.”
Brennan settled Tristan with a touch to the back of his neck. “They won’t know until you’re ready to tell them yourself, okay?”
Tristan breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Tristan, what happened after your father showed up in New York?”
“I met with him a couple times, but all he ever talked about was himself and how all these people had ripped him off…his previous employer, his former landlord, his ex-girlfriend. He started asking for money again. I gave him what I had left and told him there wasn’t anymore – that he had it all. I didn’t hear from him for a few months after that. I thought maybe he’d gone back to Vegas. A few weeks ago I was getting ready to come home when he showed up at my residence hall. He said he was in trouble and he needed money.”
Tristan focused his attention back on the cat. “The amount he wanted…it was crazy.”
“How much?” I asked.
