"Before I start, let me tell you this much. Your brother...everything he did, it was for you." Jack hesitated. "I'm going to talk a lot, but  don't say anything, okay?" He stopped again, then shook his head, resolving to begin.

"Your brother came to me looking to get in on some gambling. I didn't believe him at first, but when I saw how good he was with cards, I agreed. I let him play after I introduced him as a friend, and he won most of the games he played. Eventually, he asked me for more than that. He asked me to help him gather information. I asked him why I should help him, and he told me that I had something invested in it too. So I asked him what he was investigating, and he told me that he was looking into the going-ons at the camps, the 'Female  Communities,' as the government called - calls - them."

I blinked, trying to minimize my reactions to everything Jack said. Why hadn't Evan told me about this?

"I asked him what I had invested in the camps, and he started telling me everything he'd found out so far. Did you know that those camps are  covers for human trafficking?" he asked me, his eyes reflecting pain, and I nodded blankly at him. Why did I fight so hard to escape? Why was I reduced to this kind of life? Maybe it was because I didn't want to be shipped in a crate to a foreign country with a 'fragile' label on the side.

"They took a few here and there, not enough for anyone  to notice, but I noticed. That's why Evan found me. He knew that..." Jack picked up a rock and threw it in, his eyes half-lidded. "He knew I'd noticed what they were doing because they took my sister, and that's  why he found me. He knew that I hated the camps as much as he did. I asked why he was so against them, but he didn't answer me, just told me that he needed me to gather info from my underworld sources. So I did, and between the two of us, we compiled a file. Evan was going to publicize it, let everyone know what was really happening, but he was killed." He threw another rock. "That was the government's doing. I'm almost positive. It's hard to tell because when he was digging around in the underworld, a lot of people were mad at him. They made money off of the trafficking of girls and were mad that someone would jeopardize  that. But they didn't know about the file, so it had to be the government. They didn't want the file getting out, so they tried to  delete it...and him. But they didn't know that Evan had given his friend  Aaron a message. He told Aaron that, in the event of his death, Aaron would send the file and a sealed letter to a certain address." He stopped, slightly breathless. "So I got the letter and the file in the mail. Evan used Aaron to send it because the government hadn't been watching Aaron at that point in time, at least, not closely. Now..." He trailed off, throwing another stone into the river and watching it sink. "I'm not one hundred percent sure, because Aaron and I never actually met, but I'm relatively certain that he was the guy that tracked you to Chicago."

I blinked some more, remembering the guy who'd stood in the kitchen. I'd pulled out a gun and shot him. Twice. One of my brother's two most trusted friends.

"So anyhow, I got the file and I hid it.  Then I opened the letter, and in the letter, Evan explained everything. That's how I know about Aaron, because Evan told me about him. He told me that he had a sibling, that Aaron was aware of this too, and that eventually, that kid would turn up somewhere around me. He..." Plunk. Plunk. "He told me that when I found a quiet kid who was a genius at cards, that I should take them in and protect them, no matter the cost. I had to hide them from the government and protect them from the dangers of the  underworld." He took a breath, looking emotional for the first time besides today. He met my eyes. "Like I said, everything he did, it was to protect you. Do you know why he was interested in those camps in the first place?" Jack asked, not looking away, not fidgeting, almost as though he were about to say something that he wanted me to deny.

"No," I said softly, throwing another rock in the river. "I don't know why."

"Don't lie to me!" Jack suddenly yelled, looking inexplicably vulnerable,  reaching down and pulling me up to a standing position. From there, he ripped off my gloves and removed my sunglasses. "He did it because you're a girl, because you're his sister!"

Even though Jack was holding on to my shoulders, I couldn't look him in the eyes, so I  looked to my right, watching the water flow by. "No," I denied blankly,  "No. It's not true."

"It is true," Jack argued. "No matter how you look at it, you're Evan's sister. You're the one Evan told me to protect. You're the one that he did all this for. Not just because he  was worried about you, but because you'd been in the camps and you'd escaped from them. He risked his life to get information to free you."  He stopped, as though he didn't know where he was going with all of  this.

"You probably hate me then, right?" I asked quietly, still not  looking at him. I didn't quite understand why he was getting so worked up over someone else, someone who was dead, no less, especially when he had never revealed any emotions before today.

My question seemed to throw him off guard. His grip on my shoulders loosened just a bit as he laughed weakly. "How could I hate you, Card?" Looking as though he couldn't believe himself, he sat down on the bank, looking at the river.  "Evan didn't know...He didn't know that after he came to me, I had him investigated. I watched him for a week so I could be sure that he wasn't  some kind of trouble. He...Evan didn't know that before he was killed,  before that letter was sent..." He shook his head, trying to find words that just wouldn't come. Finally, he said, "Evan didn't know that I  already knew about you."

I finally looked at him, my eyes wide.  "Wait, you're saying you've known that I'm a...You've known who I am?  Since you started working with Evan?"

He nodded, looking miserable. "I've known about you ever since Evan came to me. Why do you think I agreed to help him?"

We sat on the riverbank until the sun just started to come up, and then I got up without a word and walked away.