The Chase, Volume 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

of longing as I watched the house disappeared out of view. Even though I was a big boy now, there were many things I still didn’t understand. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t live with them. I didn’t understand why my mother didn’t like my sister and her bother.
    “Mom, why couldn’t we stay for dinner?” I finally asked my mother when the car pulled up to the parking lot of our apartment complex.
    She sighed and looked at me with a sadness I had became use to seeing in her eyes. “You don’t understand now, Trent. But honey, trust me. I’m the only one that cares about you and your future. I’m the only one that has your interest at heart.”
    “But Blair and Dad love me. And Cindy does too!”
    “Don’t talk about that bitch in front of me.”
    Her sharp words made me flinch.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. Just trust me. They don’t really care about you.”
    I crossed my arms and felt upset by what my mother was telling me. I refused to believe Blair could ever stop caring about me.
    “One of these days, you will hate her as much as I hate her mother.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    I pushed the car door open and stomped all the way our apartment. Besides my mother, Blair was the most important person in my life.
    You’re wrong, mom. I’ll always love Blair. I can never hate her.
    ***
    One Year Ago
    I stared at the papers in my hand with a slumped shoulder. These were the only documents my mother had left me under her will. I had no idea it’d change my life the way it had. I had no idea what I was going to be smacked with when I opened the yellow manila envelope that my mother’s lawyer had sent me. I had no idea that it’d signal the moment Trent Parker died.
    I gathered all the documents and placed them back inside the envelope—all of them except for one. One of the two letters my mother had left me under the will. Tears burned my eyes as I read the letter again, allowing its words to hurt me against like cold dagger to my chest.
     
    My dearest Trent,
    This is the second letter that I’ve instructed my lawyer to include in the envelope of documents I’m leaving you when I leave this world. Please make sure you read the other letter before you continue with this one.
    I hope after the other letter, you do not hate me for everything I have done. I just could not bear to let you go. You are my son and I am your mother. Nothing can change that.
    There was something else I had kept from you. I had planned to take this secret to my grave, but I received some news today and it made me realize that I needed to tell you. Maybe all the guilt that’d been eating me alive for the last twenty-five years. Also, I knew that if you were to go looking for your biological parents, you would find out anyway. So I wanted you to hear it from me.
    I wasn’t completely honest with you in my first letter about why your birth parents and I decided to things a secret and keep it from you and Katherine. You see , I knew I couldn’t let you go. I loved you too much, and you’re all I had. Your birth parents, however, wanted to meet you, they wanted to see if we could all be parents to both you and Katherine. I convinced them that this was a bad idea. But in the beginning, they had demanded to see you, and threatened to take you away. The only way I was able to convince them to keep things a secret was to pay them. I had hired a private investigator and found out that your birth parents were buried in debt and were barely making end meet. I knew they were desperate for money. So I had promised them that I’d send them monthly payments so they could live a comfortable life and be able to provide for Katherine.
    But last week, the monthly check was returned to me. I found out that your birth parents were recently in a car accident. I’m sorry you have to find out this way, but they didn’t make it.
    Honey, I do not know how you will react to this news, but I wanted you to hear it from me