Page 36 of Intolerable Bishop

Covering my face, I put my head between my knees and tried to breathe past the splintering pain and panic in my chest. My family wanted me dead. Family, I didn’t even know, and it was because of my mum.

I sucked in a gasp and shot up straight. “Oh no. My dad. Do you think they got him? Do you think that’s why he’s been so strange with me and why he dropped me off and told the school not to let me leave?”

“Breathe, Ren, you need to breathe before you pass out,” Blake said. I nodded and focused on his face as he breathed in and then blew out.

“I’m okay, I promise.” I looked at Theo. “Please tell me. What do you think?”

“I think that it’s a good possibility that the illegal involvement with Lawrence is not a coincidence. I think Lawrence found out who your mom was and there for you were all along.” Theo took off his glasses and crossed his arms as he stared into my eyes. “I think Lawrence targeted your dad, and your mom may or may not have known who he is if she’s been out of the loop in hiding. Who knows? But the fear she lived with was very real. If you’re up for it, I’d like to show you something?”

Was I ready for this? Yes, yes, I was. No matter what, I had to know the whole story now. I needed to understand why my mum left her family. Why they killed her, and why they were hunting me.

“Yeah, I’m up for it.”

Following Theo, Myles walked with his arm around my waist while Blake held my hand as we made our way up the stairs. It shouldn’t feel like I was walking the plank, but it did. Stepping into my mum’s room, I stopped and took a moment to remember. Not only the bad but the good. From the smiles we had over reading our novels as if the two of us were a book club to sitting by the window as she rested and watched the leaves in the trees. I’d spent almost as many hours in here as I had my room, and yet now it seemed I’d never known anything at all.

“Are you ready,” Theo asked from where he stood by the long bookcase. I nodded. Reaching up, he pushed on something that I couldn’t see, and there was a whirring sound before part of the bookcase slid out.

“Oh. My. God.” My hands went to my mouth as I stared at the rack that held more guns than I’d ever seen before in my life. Handguns and ones with long barrels that I couldn’t name. Ones that looked like they belonged in war and not in a home. “What the hell is this?”

I stepped closer, trying to take it all in. Theo held up a large black duffel bag and unzipped it. I gasped when he held it open for me to see what was inside.

“This is called a go bag. There is a million dollars in cash, mixed between four different currencies.” He dug around inside and pulled out a handful of passports. “Fake passports for you, your mom, and your dad. There are Canadian, American, European, and even Russian.” He flicked one of them open. “This is your Russian passport, and it says that your name is Lilya Ren Ivankov.”

He held it out for me. I tentatively took it from his outstretched hand, taking a deep breath as I looked down at the name. This had to be an alternate reality. Stuff like this only happened in the movies and spy shows.

“Is this real? Is this my real name?” I never thought I’d be saying that.

Theo shrugged. “Without a birth certificate, I can’t say. Could be another alias, but….” He sighed and pulled out another photo from his back pocket.

“How many more photos do you have back there?”

He smirked. “Last one, I promise.” He held it out and pointed to a tall, handsome, yet very serious man holding my mum’s hand. I couldn’t tell if my mum was happy or not. She was smiling, but their faces were small, so I couldn’t see if it reached her eyes. “That is Christov Ivankov, and that picture is from the announcement of their engagement.”

My eyes flew up to meet Theo’s. “What? I need to sit down.”

Turning, Myles grabbed me and helped me to the edge of the bed. “But…that…if he is…then…my dad. Who is my dad?”

“I’m sorry, Ren. I don’t know. That is part of the puzzle I don’t have an answer to. Nothing here in any of the boxes or secret compartments has any more information. But if it is true, then Christov is your father, and it looks like your mother left him and married Neil. Making him your stepfather, not your biological dad. But….” He held up his hands. “This is all speculation. We need your birth certificate, and unless you have it, it’s not in this house. I have searched everywhere, including air ducts, the back of toilets, and every nook and cranny. Nothing.”

I covered my eyes as I tried to process this information, and I suddenly understood why Theo said that sometimes it was better not to know.

“So, tell me this. Why would the police think my mother died of natural causes?” All three guys looked at one another, and it annoyed me when they did that. “Tell me.”

“Snowflake, enough money can buy anything, including fake coroner reports,” Myles said, and then wrapped me up in his arms as my bottom lip trembled.

MAY 27 – SATURDAY 1:25 AM

Ren

Of all the people in the world that I could want to contact or talk to about everything I’d learned, I never expected it to be Nash. I sat up between Myles and Blake, both of them sleeping, their deep breaths comforting, but my mind wouldn’t rest. I was convinced that the guys wouldn’t have randomly decided to search my house without Nash telling them to, and the more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off.

I’m going to regret this.

R: You awake?

I nibbled my lip and contemplated removing the message when it said read, and I cursed myself as I held my breath for what he would say.

NASHOLE: Well hello, Princess. What are you doing up? Thinking of me in the middle of the night seems to be your thing.