I only nodded, deciding to change the subject before I broke down in front of everyone. “So how did the director of the FBI end up taking in ten-year-old Grayson?” I sat down on the couch, my legs like jelly.
The director sat down on the arm of the chair that Mary sat on. She smiled warmly, rubbing his knee affectionately.
“I was just an agent then. First one to respond after a call from the police.” He frowned down at the floor.
It wasn’t a pleasant memory for him either.
Grayson stiffened beside me, steeling himself for the rest of the story.
“I found him in the ambulance, holding his mother’s hand after they had loaded her up. The police had called the social workers, then all but forgot about him in the chaos.” The director shook his head. “I still don’t understand what came over me, but I loaded him into my car and just drove home.” He chuckled. “I was breaking all kinds of laws but all I could think was that the boy needed a mother.”
Dianna stood behind the director, a hand on his shoulder, smiling down at him.
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I clasped a hand over my mouth. She was so beautiful. Her features sharp and perfect, just like Grayson’s. I had seen her before, I realised. I had seen that smile in what felt like ages ago. In the mist, in my atrium.
A lump sat heavy in my throat. “It was Dianna. She couldn’t rest until she knew her son was going to be okay.”
Director Devereux smiled to himself. “I like to think so too.”
Grayson leaned closer to me, pulling my attention from his mother, his eyes filled with mischief. “A good thing for me, but not so great for them.”
Mary laughed. “Oh, yes. He was a menace! Raised all kinds of hell for us.”
Grayson shook as he silently laughed.
I looked up at him, feeling light as a feather. “Like the devil.”
He pushed a curl behind my ear, his eyes intense and sparkling, like it did under the rainbows. “Like the devil.”
After dinner, I stole Grayson away. Dianna reminded me of something that I had kept for Grayson. Even when I was hellbent on seeing him dead, I had held on to it for him. Treasured it.
I snuck into Rachel’s room with Grayson in tow. “She brought it!” I squealed excitedly, seeing our jewellery box on her vanity.
I opened it and found the flash drive inside.
Thank. You. Rachel!
Back in our room, I turned the TV on and stuck the drive into the USB port.
Grayson had flopped down onto our bed, one hand propped under his head, watching me adoringly.
“I found something. Or more like it found me.” I smiled at him. “When we went looking for clues in your parents’ hometown. I found this. And I kept it for you.”
He looked up at the TV as I pressed play, the amusement dropping from his face immediately.
On the screen stood a young Dianna at the high school talent competition. She adjusted the mic with a shy smile that was as dazzling as Grayson’s, then clutched her guitar nervously. “I wrote this song for someone very dear to me.”
Goosebumps overtook my skin at the sound of her voice.
“Varon!” a bunch of boys hollered in the background. “Just kiss already!” they jeered.
Dianna rolled her eyes and began playing—the same happy melody that Grayson always whistled while cooking.
Grayson was sitting upright on the bed now, his face frozen in utter devastation. I sat down next to him, holding his trembling hand while we watched his mother sing.
“You used to pull my pigtails and told me I looked stupid.
But if anyone dared to laugh, they would end up with the fishes.
