Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Boys,” Mom said, eyeing Atlas who’d raised his hand to retaliate. “I swear to God. Y’all are grown-ass adults. Act like it.”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Hollis said as she got her own salad. “Can you tell me how you managed to have all these multiples, and arrive sane at the other end?”
“Sane?” Dad said as he arrived with the lasagna and placed it in the middle of the table. “You think she’s sane?”
Mom rolled her eyes. “I’m sane… now.”
That was the truth.
Mom was a nut job when she’d been raising us. She was much nicer now that she wasn’t running us ragged and making us do what she wanted, when she wanted.
I moved out at the age of eighteen for a reason.
“Well, I was nineteen when I got pregnant with the triplets,” she said. “And it wasn’t too bad. My parents were still very young. And Germaine’s family moved down from Michigan to help. Auden and Atlas came a year later, totally out of the blue. I was on birth control and breastfeeding. Then it happened again another year later with Ande and Addison. We managed to actually plan out our fourth pregnancy, but again, we had multiples—Garrett and Gable. We’d always wanted a large family, but after realizing that multiples were just going to be my thing… we decided to stop. And we both got promoted, which meant more work, and from there we decided that nine kids were enough.”
“Nine.” Hollis shook her head. “Was enough? You are a superhero.”
“I’m just a mom who came from a family of fourteen siblings and thought… as long as I don’t have fourteen, I’m good.” She smiled.
“Did twins—or triplets—run in the family?” Hollis asked right before taking a bite.
“No,” Garrett answered for them. “Not a single twin or triplet birth in any of the sides of the family tree. Mom is just a mutant.”
“Hey,” Mom cried. “Be nice!”
“Yeah, be nice. Mutant spawn.” Auden threw a roll.
“Boys,” Mom pinched her nose. “I swear to God. All of you are over thirty yet act like you’re twelve when you get around each other.”
Dinner went well after that.
My girl talked a lot.
My brothers included her in the conversation as much as they could.
Even Keene was there, inviting her to his next show tomorrow night.
“All of my sisters are going to be there, so it’s going to be a good show,” he was saying. “Not saying that they’re not usually good without them, because they are. But my sisters have just been doing it for so long, and we all work really well together. Theatrically, it’s just more seamless. More fun and exciting because they’re a little more free with their stunts than the others are allowed due to insurance reasons.”
I’d seen plenty of shows in the five or so years that Keene and Ande had been married. They were way more exciting when the sisters were all in attendance.
“I’ll take you,” I said around a mouthful of bread. “As long as I don’t catch a murder.”
“Hey, speaking of murder,” Dad said.
Dad was the assistant chief.
He knew all that went on at DPD.
Meaning, he probably knew that I caught a lead on an unsolved case as of three days ago.
Though I hadn’t seen him in that time.
“You had a breakthrough in the unsolvable case.” Dad grinned. “Great job.”
“I think the crime scene techs were…” I searched for the correct word.
“Complete bullshit?” Auden offered up.
“Fucking around when they should be doing their job?” Gable offered.
“Thinking about lunch when they should be combing a crime scene to help solve a murder?” Quaid offered up.
“Boys,” Mom interjected.
“What case is this?” Hollis asked curiously.
Normally, I wouldn’t be able to talk about a case that was ongoing. But since this case was so high profile, and the media got wind of it yesterday, there was no hiding it now.
“The biggest case of Quincy’s career,” Atlas answered. “He’s close, I can feel it.”
“A few years back,” Dad said as he reached for another slice of lasagna. “There was this case with a girl that committed suicide. Parents said that she had a fight with her friends. They accused her of stealing—using her credit card without permission. So, the girl storms off in a pair of shorts and flip flops. Walks down their quarter-mile-long driveway. The parents were down the driveway—the family have a sort of compound where the parents live at the top of the property, and the kids live at the back. All in their own houses. So, like seven houses total.”
“Uh, huh.” Hollis was listening raptly, her fork still loaded down with a bite of lasagna.
I placed my arm over the back of her chair and waited.
My dad knew the case. Hell, all of my brothers and my mom knew the case. My sister had heard her fair share of it, but she didn’t get into the sessions with me as we brainstormed.