Chapter 55 – Frosty Predicament, Bozeman Christmas (Brennan Conrad POV) Pt. 10

Why do some people instantly or immediately compared to others find a person untrustworthy? Was it about gullibility? Or did the façade used fool others because they did not want to see the truth right under their nose?

Thaddeus for the longest while, maybe even two years before the devastating death of Silas, held only distrust for Taylor. I mean I'm not sure when it happened or what was the last straw for him but all I can remember is him whining when Harleigh would give out an invitation to something we were doing to Taylor.

Sure it could pass as him just wanting to spend time with his girlfriend and not share her with us. I personally understood that.

But it went further than that for Thaddeus. He was constantly telling Harleigh not to trust Taylor, or throwing digs at her but I think she only took him to be joking. I don't know. Either way, while even my parents had welcomed Taylor in our home and saw nothing wrong with her –

No. I take that back. As I wait for granddad Antone to call my parents I strictly recall my mother saying that Taylor's behavior was because she was scared by their sisters death.

"It's does something to you son, you learn to live with out the person there that you love and knew, but it takes so long to become whole again," the memory is all too fuzzy but the words had been repeated to me for a long while. My mother was not just saying it for Taylor but Devin as well.

And yet, how did Javier come about?

A small voice in my head thinks up the most absurd explanation: he was too busy worrying about whether or not Taylor would kill him if the opportunity presented it self for him to become spoiled and unapologetic. I snort silently to myself in the same second realizing that I might be closer to the truth than I know.

What I didn't understand was why Shannon and Javier even lied?

Cleary I can see what they gained, whom they protected but look at what it cost my family? Hell, look at theirs!

Taylor did not just wake up one morning and decide that she would kill her sister to remove her from the picking lineup. From what Javier explained I could almost imagine just how the pieces fell together in his family. Wanting to protect everyone... Shannon and Javier wanted to have their cake and eat with a damn golden spoon.

My parents would never have sent them away had they spoken the truth about what happened to their family. Instead of the true events they made up one that left them able to hide their problems, keep Taylor's reputation spotless and still be welcomed into a safe and well taken care of den.

They sent her to Sonya, but what the hell did she do?

"Just let me show you the real me," Taylor had pleaded with Samson again I want to roll my eyes, snort, and scoff. Who the hell was she? If she was able to kill at just five... Sonya did not help her put away those behaviors that put others in danger. All that woman-

"Okay dad, we can see you," my mother said as Javier and I flanked Antone's left and right, looking at the travel laptop we had. Looking all I see is the interior of my father's bus he's traveling with, no sign of where he's going but like a mind quickly jumping from thought to thought, ideas slipping through my fingers almost I grab one just as it almost gets away from me.

"Does Sonya have information about where Fatima was?" I blurt out before any discussions could be had. "We obviously aren't staying in Arizona and I mean I never found information for this house on the list," and the rambling began.

~ 0 ~

Ansel Conrad POV

Dad wanted to talk again. This time, he requested it happen face to face, warning me ahead of time that Brennan and Javier were with him. I longed to be where they were, but with the timetable, and the fact that at the moment we were traveling to a location that when Angela looked it up there was nothing but forestry shown? We had to keep going on. Set things up for when the kids and other families arrived.

The second we have an established connection; I'm hit with the unexpected.

"I know I'm not in the position to ask questions or have you guys place any information in me, but what about Samson and Faith? I know you guys aren't with them... what if that's where they are heading? Where Faith was? Doesn't Sonya know the truth? Which means she could be waiting for Samson and Faith and they wouldn't even know it!" Brennan my oldest began rambling, the word vomit accelerating.

"I just – did mom know?"

"Did she not want us to treat Taylor differently because she was young when she killed Jules?"

"Grrr," Antone growls, hisses really, glaring at my son who had been speaking quite fast, manic like.

In that moment I am only staring at the screen, eyes wide as I put together what was being said. Brennan was speaking in an unknown language. Yeah. That's it. A language that sounded like one I knew, but the words held different meanings.

One where "she killed Jules," meant something different. Something pleasant like they painted pictures together. Or made sandcastles. Hell, at this point I'd take that it meant that Taylor was a mermaid!

Kalenah to my right, Angela to my left, my parents behind me, Scotty and Peter resting before their fourteen-hour drive to meet Antone – from just near Lincoln Nebraska – down in Texas.

"What did you just say, son?" Kalenah asks a smile in her voice despite the fact that when I glance at Angela she looks at me with terror in her eyes. So it wasn't just me? Right?

I look over my shoulder at my father questioningly. He too looks at Kalenah with a strange look in his eyes.

Tuning it all out, before Kalenah's dad can answer, I'm shocked it comes from Javier.

"When my family moved and found your den," he says looking down and it's in that moment that I stop focusing on Brennan. Really paying attention to Javier I note his pale skin, the redness in and around his eye, the deep purple bruises before that redness. "Mom and dad lied," he says defeated.

"Jules did not die in a fire that the Elders caused. They didn't murder her," his voice shakes and coming from the back room Andy and Naomi take a seat in front of us.

"What do you mean?" Kalenah prompts.

Did too much finally happen? Was that it? Surely I knew where this was going, but why was... instead of worrying about what Kalenah was getting now, I placed my arm around her shoulders. We'd ground each other.

As Javier bravely recalls the truth, the hidden secrets that Shannon and Javier asked a young boy to carry – a burden that should never have been his to begin with, I feel Kalenah shake besides me.

"T-Taylor she is – she's the one that killed your sister? Not the Elders?" Kalenah asks and with a knot the size of a softball in my throat I push my emotions down.

It would do me no good to lose any bit of control on my demeanor. I had fallen apart one too many times since we left Bend, the overwhelming information too much under the stress of relocating not just my family but multiple others.

Javier sighs, wiping his face with the back of his hands. "She put the pelts in the cereal and two days later, Jules was so sick... instead of taking her to the hospital-"

My eyes widen.

"You never took her to the hospital?" Angela blurts out. Silently I correct her; Shannon and Javier never took Jules to the hospital. Not Javier. He was a kid.

"Javier when did you tell your parents?" Kalenah grits out next. The coldness in her voice alarming.

The image blurs I first assume, but I realize that Javier was sobbing silently and it was his body shaking. Not the image. There was nothing wrong with the connection.

"They came back – back," his body spasms uncontrollably, "and Jules said she didn't feel well, and she had thrown up in the car. She was crying, holding her stomach and at first, they thought maybe she had the same stomach flu like I did. I can remember," his closes his eyes and I see Antone lay a hand on Javier's shoulder.

"They put us on the sofa together, and she was crying and crying and, she had a nose bleed. So – so much blood," he says shivering.

"I saw Taylor with the poison in the morning, and sometime that night, I woke up and they were trying to cool Jules down, dad was holding her and – and mom had a wash cloth, patting her down, cleaning up her face," he whimpers. My mother leaves my father standing instead going to sit down next to Naomi, a hand to her mouth.

"I – I didn't – I only heard what sounded like..." he repeats what he said before, hoping to make it clear a fourth time that he did not see Taylor putting the poison in the bowl of cereal. "I went to them when they were holding Jules, it was just us downstairs and I told them that I saw Taylor dip her hand in the box, it was blurry and I didn't see her put it in the food but..." he shrugged.

"They – when they asked Taylor why she did it, she said that Jules always got to pick, now she would not get too." I had no words for what I was hearing. Instead, I thought of my two youngest children, Amy and Simon, they were the same age as Taylor when she fed Jules poison.

They weren't perfect. They didn't always like to share and sometimes like the scene Javier depicted, they did not want to do the same activities. One wanted to swim, the other play ball. One wanted to go on the trampoline the other hang upside-down on the monkey bars. Like Shannon and Javier we taught them to compromise. Going a step further. If they did not like the suggested plan they were welcomed to sit out and not have any fun.

God, it wasn't even just my youngest. Kalenah and I had –

"I'm so so sorry," Javier cried, mournfully, apologizing to us repeatedly.

"Javier," Kalenah called, voice thick, ready to break but holding strong for now. "This is not your fault!" She says while he continues shaking his head. "She – she – I – Sonya was supposed to help!" he wails and I have to swallow the tears and knot in my throat.

"Calm down son," Antone says in his rough voice. He was not much of a cooing type, but he was trying here. "You were a boy, this is on your parents," he adds that part coolly.

"Sonya knew? My Sonya?" Kalenah asks leaning towards the screen. "She knew?"

Still jerking in place, his chest rising and falling quickly Javier nods. "I told her because I saw her alone without mom and dad, remember?" he asks in a small voice and for a minute I'm reminded of that little scrawny kid that was dutifully polite. The quietest Rosario child. Now I know why.

Lenah nods, and I feel her hand come down on my thigh and while her face remains forced, I can hear her teeth grinding against one another. Then her nails squeeze into my thighs, "Sonya isn't with you guys, right?" Brennan asks worriedly as Javier leaves the frame, but is still heard sniffling.

Kalenah reassures our son, before abruptly ending the call.

The silence that follows is filled with tension; no one saying a word hell, Andy just hung his head looking down at his thighs.

Naomi clears her throat, as though she is going to say something but Lenah speaks first. With a quiet rage, my wife turns to me. "Call Shannon." It's an order.

As I observe her, the built up fury, where her mind could possibly be, I nod, giving Angela a nod to set up the call. As my sister begins working Lenah turns to Naomi.

"Is there any way to send a message to your family? Do we know if they got to Cynthia in time?" Naomi nods slowly. "Yes, well, if I shift into my fox, I've gotten my sixth tail, which means I can communicate telepathically with others who are in fox form."

"Faith saw Sonya, she had information on Faith that I gave to her, I'm not sure what else Faith revealed to her, however, she needs to be taken care of," Kalenah responded in a fake, calculated tone that made my heart ache. Betrayal did this to her.

"I can pass that message," Naomi confirms.

"Thank you," Lenah responds in a flat tone.

When Angela pushes the phone, attached to her laptop towards Lenah, I give one glare around and everyone but Angela and my father leave us alone for the time being.

The grip Lenah has on my thigh doesn't loosen. Kalenah is close to breaking skin through the jeans I currently wore. Instead of removing her hand, I just lay mine atop it. As the phone rings, I feel my stomach turning, twisting unpleasantly.

"All the hurt our family endured, it could have all been prevented," she whispers sorrowfully.

"Hello?" Shannon answers strangely calm and all the bells and whistles in my head go off. Why the hell would she be answering the phone so calmly? After, everything we've found out?

"Shannon," Kalenah grits out, "How. Could. You?" I expected a variety of reactions. Crying, pleading... Denial. Worry over Devin and Javier. Begging to not abandon Javier and Devin - should Devin find us. As far as they knew she hadn't. I know Shannon so I expect maybe some type of apology from Javier Senior.

Shannon doesn't respond to the question and I almost think she's hung up. "Where are you guys? Are you with Devin and Javier? Did Devin find you all? Can you – how could you all leave us behind like this Lenah? I thought we were friends?" Angela who had moved slightly a foot or two away from me, I noted from the corner of my eye. Her head dipped forward as her eyes widened and mouth dropped open, gaping at the phone.

"Can you believe Devin just left Taylor? Javier and I had to wire her money when she called us and informed us that Devin just abandoned her after we explicitly told Devin to go back to her sister!" The grip on my thigh that Kalenah was holding, cutting off all circulation goes slack for the first time in nearly ten minutes.

"Taylor already has all the locations for the new compound. We do not want to go driving all over the U.S. Now, tell us where you all are," my own mouth dropped and before anything else was said, I ended the call.

"What the fuck was that?" Angela asks her blue orbs wide. Matching my own. Really? What the hell was that?

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