Rekindling

Chapter 6 - Betrayal

I am not a very patient person.

That becomes even more obvious when Jordan and I wait for Alex to come out of the police station. Said "minute" for Alex to come takes forever. I am ready to burst into a trillion little pieces as the seconds are ticking away like molasses. My mind is in absolute chaos and the longer it takes for my oldest brother to make an appearance, the worse it gets.

Tom is an FBI agent!

Never in a million years would I have seen this coming.

It doesn't suit him at all. I can't imagine him chasing bad guys. Let alone using a weapon. At least I assume that is what he has to do in this job. The mere thought of Tom showing up at a crime scene and flashing his badge – like these agents love to do in those crime shows I sometimes watch – just seems too weird.

Tom is one of the nicest and most gentle people I have ever met.

Maybe I am doing FBI agents injustice by thinking like this. Agent Lewis seems to be a pretty nice guy. Not to mention Tammy. She gave off very comfortable vibes in that dreary meeting room. I actually really like her.

"Can't you sit still for a sec?" Jordan grumps next to me, interrupting my thoughts.

Normally, I would be happy for the distraction – any distraction – since waiting is something that drives me nuts. But I don't feel like talking to my previously favorite brother right now. I don't even want to be near him, to be honest. Unfortunately, I have to stay here if I want to find out what is going on. The sense of betrayal that has taken hold of me when Jordan confirmed my suspicion about Tom, however, is still very prominent in my memory, making it almost impossible to be in his presence.

How could he lie to me all this time?

How could any of them lie to us like this?

I am pretty sure that Noah and Aidan don't know about this, either. They could never not have told me. If it comes to keeping secrets, they are really, really bad at it. Noah is slightly worse than Aidan, because he's the more talkative, socially engaged twin. I am still surprised how he managed to keep our own secret "investigation" to himself. But never in a million years would either of them have been able to lie to me for so long about Tom, if they knew that he is not who we think he is.

I have no idea about Jack and Will. They were in the dark regarding Sienna and also it seemed that they didn't know about our father still being alive. Maybe they know about Tom's job though. I simply can't imagine that it never came up over the years or that they never suspected anything. It is such a mystery to me how I never figured it out. I spent plenty of time at his and Josh's place since they moved in together and I find it incredibly weird that I never saw anything that would have pointed to him being a federal agent.

No badge.

No weapon. Not even a weapons safe, like Alex has one in the closet in his bedroom.

No calls in the middle of the night for Tom to go into work because of a case, like it happens with my oldest brother all the time.

No wardrobe full of boring black suits, which is like the uniform that these guys wear – again according to my not-so-vast TV show knowledge. Tom's dress sense is definitely way better than that of those fictional characters on the small screen. More like the guys in lawyer TV shows. Josh must have inspired him to be more fashionable since the two of them are definitely the best dressed in our family.

And finally, no suspicious injuries. I don't remember that Tom has ever been hurt since I met him four years ago. Not even a scratch. Also, he doesn't seem to get sick, either, which could make him be mysteriously absent to, I don't know, recover from any injuries.