Page 107 of Shattered Silence Duet

“What? Did you find something?” I ask him curiously.

He lifts his gaze to meet mine, his eyes wide in shock.

“I—I found her,” he says, still sounding surprised.

“That’s great, why do you look so shocked though?”

“She’s been reported missing for the past fifteen years… by her father.”

Chapter 8

Mina

Iwake up feeling warm and comfortable, but my body still hurts. I look around and see all the guys are still here with me, making me smile.

Dom, noticing I’m awake, helps sit me up and turns me in his lap so my back is against his chest again. He must be tired of sitting with me, but I’m not going to waste my voice on complaining right now.

Everyone notices my movement and puts away their phones quietly.

“How are you feeling, Sugar?” Tucker asks, coming to sit on the side of my bed, brushing a stray hair out of my face. I worry it’s greasy as I haven’t cleaned myself in two weeks. I must look and smell terrible.

“Sore,” I whisper, my voice still raspy. Ben comes to sit on my other side and holds a straw to my lips, which I take eagerly.

“I’m glad to see you’re awake, Mina, because I have some news I wanted to share when we were all together,” Ben says to me, before he looks around the room.

“What is it? Tell me it’s good news, I can’t take any more bad news,” Max groans.

“I… I’m not sure. I think it is, but only Mina can be the judge ofthat.” I swallow the lump in my throat, afraid of what he has to tell me. I nod, to let him know I’m ready to hear it, whatever it is. Tucker takes my left hand, carefully avoiding my finger, and gently rubs my wrist and arm, while Dom hugs me to him and Ben takes my right hand with his.

“Mina, I looked up your name and the birthday you gave me. Through some digging, I… I found you. Mina Stevens, born May 13, 2004 in Waco, Texas. Your father filed a missing persons report for you when you were six. It was assumed your mother ran away with you.”

Holy moly.That is not what I expected—or remembered. It doesn’t match my last conversation with him, but now I wonder how accurately I remember something that happened so long ago when I was only six.

“He—he left me,” I whisper, unable to hold in the tears as Dom wraps his arms tighter around me, nuzzling my neck with his face.

“What do you mean?” Jasper asks from where he stands at my left side with his hand on my shoulder.

“He—he—” I start coughing and Ben offers me the straw again. Max, who stands beside him, takes it from him to help me drink, while Ben pulls out his phone and offers it to me with the text to speech app opened up. Dom holds it for me while I regain my composure. Atlas and Gideon sit at the foot of my bed, each gently rubbing a foot through the blanket. They’re all touching me in some way, offering me help and their support, and it means the world to me.

I’ve never had anybody care for me like this, not since my dad was around.

I shift my attention to Ben’s phone and type out what I want to say.

“He told me he had to leave, but would be back for me soon, then we could be together. Just the two of us. But he never came back. I thought he abandoned me. My mother always said it wasmy fault he left.”

Ben shakes his head sadly. “I don’t think that’s what happened. It looks like he was in a rehab facility for alcoholism for about six months. When he got out, you were gone. That’s when he filed the report.”

Alcoholism? I don’t remember him drinking or acting drunk. He was always just my dad, playing games with me and reading me stories, cuddling me to sleep at night.“I don’t understand,”I type into the phone.

“Well, if you want, you could ask him,” Jasper says, and I look at him with wide eyes.

“He’s alive?” I rasp out in my own voice. For some reason, I always imagined he was dead, otherwise, why hadn’t he come for me?

He nods and Ben continues. “Yep. It seems he spent years looking for any trace of you. I’m not sure where he is right now, but I found a few links online that I can use to trace him down if you ever want to try to meet him.”

“Think about it—you don’t have to make any decisions now, Kitten,” Dom whispers in my ear, and I nod.

“Alright, how about a change in subject?” Gideon asks.