Chapter 31 – Before Thanksgiving (Kalenah Conrad POV) Pt.3

"Mom," Brennan calls me. Pleading. Looking away, my back turned to him, I hang my head forward. My breath warms the window, fogging it up.

I follow Ansels' taillights until they're out of my line of sight.

"Mom, I swear I didn't know that there was any danger-"

Whipping to face Brennan, the dissatisfaction of this situation seeps over.

Covers my face.

"You didn't know there was any danger? As though that is the reason you would have come to us?" I ask in complete disbelief.

Brennan was – is – smarter than this.

"Brennan the minute Devin began hacking our systems, you should have came-"

"I didn't see the harm," he whispers in that small voice that he used when he was a young boy.

Except this isn't my young boy.

My baby.

He knew better.

"You were okay with Devin hacking into our computers? Spying on your siblings? That's a gross invasion of privacy, Brennan."

He nods slowly, "I know – but I just... I didn't see the harm at the time," he pleads softly, voice breaking.

The betrayal I felt, not only for the trust we placed in Brennan, but Devin was astounding.

"Devin she doesn't – should wouldn't purposely hurt someone mom-" Brennan begins but with tears in my eyes, and my own anger building, "Brennan!"

"How do you not understand that she was purposely hurting us and you let her..." sure he had to see the bottom line here.

My hand goes to my mouth, shakily as I hold back everything inside me fighting to get out. The bile creeping up my throat, the anger and distress from Brennan's actions.

"I – I know this is just an excuse but I just thought that it was better that she was trying to infiltrate our network than someone elses where she could get caught. She's – I love her," Brennan whispers softly, the words heartfelt. I know him. I also know that my son only had love for Devin.

I was not even placing the blame only at Devin's feet.

She might have invaded our privacy but for nine months Brennan has known she was. At any time he could have come and inform us but-

"Tell me what to do to make this right," Brennan whispers.

Frowning, I shake my head. "This – this isn't something that will be fixed by you taking out the trash Brennan. Do you understand that you abused the trust that dad and I put in you?"

Please let him at least see that? He had to be aware of that much.

Thankfully Brennan bows his head.

His apologetic behavior wasn't enough to quell the anger of being deliberately deceived.

"I feel really crappy," he says shrugging, eyes welling up. As much as I want to answer that 'he should' I just remain silent. "I thought she had stopped months ago."

I blink confused.

"You said nine months Bren?"

Rubbing his face roughly, a move that the boys all picked up from Ansel, he nods. "Yeah, I told her to stop after the first few times and I thought she had," he confirms reluctantly.

"But?"

Gulping down nothing but air, Brennan looks up at me brokenly, "Taylor wanted information on Faith, so Devin tried to hack Faith's computer but couldn't. Then, she – she promised that she would stop but asked me to talk to Samson for Taylor," nodding I start seeing where this was going.

The tiniest part of me felt badly for him, if at the moment I didn't think of what Ansel was thinking. "So Devin asked you to speak to Samson and she listened in on the conversation," I go with what I assume timeline here.

Barely holding on, he whips his head from side to side, "I wouldn't – after speaking to Samson mom. I called her and I didn't tell her about what Samson said... but then she confronted him and I thought – I thought that," blue eyes well up and again the parent in me feels for him. But I couldn't just push the bigger picture aside.

There was a big possibility that Devin was the reason that those that reached out to Ansel and I, had gone missing or were found murdered.

We couldn't be sure. Yet, it explained why all of a sudden no matter what Ansel and I tried, we had lost many.

"I broke up with her and – and now I heard her saying that she'd break into the Headmasters office for Taylor but only after the break," he says a bit stiffer than before, cold.

Again, each word Brennan volunteers fills in a bit more of the puzzle. For whatever reason he came to us now, but the damage had been done.

Brennan could have remained silent, letting this build until Devin and Taylor had found out of Faith's past by any means necessary. However knowing what we did now, maybe Ansel and I could do something.

Brennan would be punished.

Being our son didn't make him exempt.

If anything we – Ansel and I – held him to a high standard. Expected him to be a role model to his peers.

Yet what really continued slipping through and coming to the forefront of my mind was that Shifters were no longer a secret. Should Devin and Taylor get into trouble, get caught... there would be no getting out of that trouble. Human laws were no longer going to be swept aside.

Shifters and other supernatural beings would have to pay for their crimes.

If they were caught that is.

Did Brennan realize this?

Emotions warring with one another, I do not bother asking why he came to us now. Was it even part of some plan? Or was it Thaddeus coming forward that nudged Brennan to coming clean?

I know he had his morals but what happened to them for the last months? Why did it take Devin agreeing to gather data on Faith for him to finally come to us?

I wanted to say that all that matters is that he came forward now, but rage was currently my primary emotion. Nothing Brennan said was going to help my anger.

What happens to Devin? I asked myself drawing a complete blank. What were Ansel and I going to do? What would be fair?

.

.

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© 2016 roxann_season All Rights Reserved

So this is short but today was crazy. I wanted to post something as promised. I'll update again tomorrow (Saturday for me).

So... who thinks Devin deserves a second chance?

As for Brennan... Should he and Devin get the same punishment?