Chapitre 90: Chapter 89: The Truth Shall Set One Free
The Quinn Residence, The Backwoods, Temperance, South Dakota...
By the time Brick and the boys came riding up to Layla Quinn's house, there had been a good deal going through the lead biker's mind. The scattered clothes and tossed-about boxes and suitcases had been a clear indication that Jarrette had been there but the dog and Layla had been on the front porch. Layla had been stuck there staring at the scattered mess and the tracks from her father's pickup left behind as she sat with Brutus and they had been getting on famously. Brick had noticed that she'd been upset and he had known all too well that she had plenty of reason to be given what he'd just found out and had a guess that she might have been told a measure of the truth about her so-called father from the man himself.
Brick parked his bike and rushed over toward Layla who had looked up at him through tear-stained eyes. Brutus whimpered as he wagged his tail in greeting just as Layla stood on her feet and rushed over to Brick who held her in his arms as she finally let loose and cried her heart out in his welcome embrace. Chauncy Beaulieu had come up to the porch taking off his hat as he greeted Layla Quinn for the first time in sixteen years.
"Layla...this is Chauncy Beaulieu...Jarrett's brother." began Brick unsure how she'd take what needed to be said to her. "He's got somethin' to tell you, and I ain't rightly sure how you gonna take it, but just know you ain't alone I'm right here any time you need me."
Layla did not seem to like the sound of that but she turned her attention to Jarrett's brother, the man who was supposed to have been her uncle.
"What's he got to say?" she asked wiping the tears from her eyes as she turned in Brick's arms to face the other Beaulieu brother.
"As your man here told you I'm Chauncy, Jarret's brother." began the older man. "I wasn't a part of nothin' him and Dixie had done you understand I only knew about it when she and I got together and she brought you to my place."
"Dixie?" said Layla taking a moment to associate the name with her so-called mother.
"Yes, Dixie Dawkins was her name and she met Jarrett while working a carnival as she told it, he took a special interest in you and your folks when you were a little girl and she took an interest in him," explained Chauncy. "You see Jarrett wasn't all bad at one point, his story had been sort of tragic, he lost his little girl, Layla some time ago and has been an onery son of a bitch ever since...folks have back home been keepin' up rumors for a long while about him bein' the one to do his ex-wife in for Layla and her boyfriend and drug dealer just the same."
Layla couldn't believe what she was hearing but listened anyway if only to find out the truth for herself.
"Little Layla had died due to negligence on account of her bitch mother and her drug dealer boyfriend, Jarrett tried everything to save her, even ran to the hospital on foot when his truck didn't start, by the time he got there, there was nothing anyone could do...word was he took up a gun and aired out his exes trailer and took off after the fact." continued Chauncy. "My heart went out to him and my little niece, little Layla...and my heart goes out to you young one but you see there ain't no way you could have ever been Layla Quinn, she died at the age of four but I reckon with a good DNA test you might just turn out to be little Sara Downes, the little girl Dixie helped Jarrett kidnap from their carnival job a while back."
Layla's eyes widened when she heard the name "Sara Downes", the missing girl from Brick's cold case, the little girl her so-called mother had been accused of kidnapping.
"T-That's not possible..." said Layla not at all believing it. "Daddy wouldn't do that he would have told me that...no you have this all wrong..."
Brick met Layla's rather confused and tearful eyes and sighed.
"I'm afraid it's true." he chimed. "Your father, the man that kidnapped you made you think you were his long-dead daughter after killing your real parents at the carnival...now it's mostly a theory given Jarrett's history and why he took off without you, I suppose he figured it was time you knew the truth even if he didn't like it, you were old enough to figure it out on your own anyhow."
Layla or rather Sara had been at a loss for words.
She did not know what to think and the possibility of her father's crime being so great that he had actually killed her biological parents all to claim her as his dead daughter.
Brick noted the confusion on her face and attempted to comfort her. After all those weeks of looking for Sara Downes, he'd finally found her, just not in the place or aspect in which he had expected. There was of course the matter of DNA testing to prove it outright but there was a definite fact that she had not been Layla Quinn aka Layla Beaulieu at all.
"I am so sorry for what my no-good brother did to you honey," said Chauncy with a sorrowful expression. "He ain't had no cause to bring you or your family any harm and took it upon himself to do it anyhow."
Layla or rather Sara had not known what to say or think in that moment. All she had known was that her life had been filled with nothing but lies. The only thing she had been sure of was that she wanted to be with Brick Kennally no matter what and given what she learned about herself from her former long-lost uncle, she no longer had a reason to stay in Temperance, South Dakota.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone