David Turner stroked the cat in his lap and didn’t bother waiting for a salutation when he heard the line being picked up. “He knows.”
“Everything?”
“Well, not everything, but he knows enough.”
“That’s what we wanted. Isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Turner took a deep breath. “We’ve let him grope around in the dark so long, when we could have just sat him down and told him at the beginning.”
“But then we would have had to tell him everything...” The voice stressed “…Everything…and that’s the last thing we want. This way he finds out enough of the truth to correct all of our mistakes…”
“Most of our mistakes.” Turner corrected.
“Fine, most of our mistakes and we all live happily ever after.”
“You don’t know him like I do. There will be a price to pay.” Turner said almost to himself.
“Is that a problem?”
“No.” He insisted. “This just isn’t going to be as easy as it sounds.”
“It never is.” The voice added. “It never was.”
“There’s more.” David Turner bit his lip. “I’m pretty sure there’s someone else who knows or at least has figured it out.”
“How on Earth could someone else figure it out, David?” The voice scolded him. “We’re not even 100% sure ourselves.”
“Then why?”
“Then why what?”
“Why is someone trying to kill him?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. “You’re sure? It wasn’t just a one time occurrence?”
“There have been other definite attempts. The FBI is even very discreetly involved.” Turner smiled. “I’m not supposed to know, but then I end up knowing everything.”
“Almost everything. I recall one or two important facts that managed to slip your attention.” The voice reminded him. “How could someone else figure it out?”
“I don’t know…” Turner stroked the cat and thought. “Unless…”
“Unless?”
“They could just be guessing.”
“Like we are.” The voice suddenly insisted. “End it, end it now. It could be the only way to stop anyone else from getting hurt.”
“And what do I say? I’m sorry but the liars believed a lie that had them looking for a unicorn in the wrong garden for oh about fifty years, give or take a year, and now we feel so guilty we’ll do anything to make it up to you short of telling you the reason why it all happened?”
Silence again. “You’re right, and still it’s a shot in the dark. He may very well not be who we think he is.”
“We decided we didn’t care about that anymore.” Turner reminded them. “We decided that it was the most likely hunch and true or not he was in fact the most deserving of all the possibilities.”
“There’s still so much we don’t know.”
“I know for a fact now that he is the one.” Turner insisted.
“You have proof?”
“Finally, I do have proof.”
“How?”
“Young Justyn’s not the only one with a Genetics lab on speed dial.”
“David…”
“I had a DNA test of my own run.”
“Isn’t that illegal?”
He smiled. “Since when has bending the law a bit stopped us from getting what we want? That’s what started this whole mess in the first place.”
“And the test was conclusive?”
“There is absolutely no doubt that he is the one.” David Turner sighed, and his lips trembled as he said it out loud for the very first time. “Ian Justyn is my grandson.”
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