Chapter 30

Josiphina

Silence.

“I-I-”

“The choice is yours,” Gunfrid said cringing.

“You don’t have to,” Zach grabbed my arm.

“Why.”

I swear everyone stopped everything and looked at Danver. Even he frowned and looked down.

“There are things you were never told,” the doctor began, “Infact, I wish I weren’t the one who had to, but you must know.” He suddenly got a very distant look in his eyes that made me wish I hadn’t asked. Should I take it back? Listen. “Josiphina,” he looked at me again, “There was a man here once,” now this was sounding like a fairy tale, “who was unbeatable. He was our very best. He was never caught. He died… but we hoped one day to find someone as great as he.”

“Why me?” I asked. Both Zach and Gunfrid cringed and looked away.

Dr. Danver looked me right in the eye. “He was your father.”

No! “Wha… no that’s not possible,” I jumped to my feet. “It can’t be, my father was a good man and you’re all…”

I ran from my seat and flew to the exit door, shaking it as if I could break the lock. Zach came  running up behind me and swooped me up into his arms. I let him. I buiried my head into his chest, glad to find a soft spot of his heart.

Then the tears came. They flooded my eyes and spilled over like a broken dam. Zach pulled me closer. I was glad he didn’t say, “don’t cry,” or something stupid like that. He let me cry. He din’t try and board up the dam. And for that, I liked him.

Coddie and Gunfrid burst through the meeting room doors and froze, staring ahead at the scene.

It was them.

I should have recognized the two men imitietly. No wonder they cared so much about me. They were the men who came late the night my father never came home. The men who made my mother cry…

I imidiatly hated them both.

Zach pulled up my chin and stared into my eyes. “Did you know I was named after your father?”

I nodded.

“Do you want to leave?”

He read me well.

Zach pulled out his car keys and thrust them at me. “Go,” he said. “Run, now.”

I took them in my hand, but didn’t move.

“Go! Before they catch you,” he pushed me.

I turned away and ran for the car. I paused reaching the driver door and looked up at Zach. He kept his eyes on me even as the other men tried to pry him away. I kissed the keys and slid in side. Starting the car, I tore down the gravel street and out into the highway. 36 miles to home, I thought.

Those miles were the longest of my life.

I was torn. Should I not hate Zach for everything? Yet I still loved him for what he did. Was David behind any of this? Can I still trust him? He did say he couldn’t tell me about the smuggler infromation. Was Zach his resource? I was too tierd to think, and to tierd to argue with my consious.

All I knew was that I owed Zach. He was hired to get me. And yet he still helped me in any way possible. He was a friend. Was David? David lied to me and abandoned me. Was he a friend anymore. I hoped so. Because I had accidentally driven to his house. I was about to pull away when someone burst out of the door. I rolled down the passenger window. Running toward me in shock was…

“Gloria?”