by Keya Jay
***
Skylar was confident as she entered the room where Brooke was being held, she knew that she was right about this it all made sense to her now. Brooke looked up to see Skylar enter and she showed her shock for a split second before quickly covering it and going back to being uninterested.
“Brooke,” Skylar said in acknowledgement as she took the seat across from her. “Why are you here Brooke?” she asked. “We both know that you didn’t do anything so why won’t you tell them that?” she asked yet another question she already knew Brooke wouldn’t answer but she knew that this next one would get her attention. “Why are you protecting her?” Brooke looked up at Skylar shocked but still said nothing—Skylar anticipated this. “You realize that she knows you’re here, she knows that there’s high—high possibility that you can be thrown in jail for this yet where is she? Are you really willing to hold this secret for her knowing that she’d let you rot in jail for what she made you do?” Skylar asked as she watched Brooke’s eyes fill with tears. Skylar couldn’t keep up the tough act anymore this was her best friend and she truly felt for her didn’t want to see her throw her life away like this. “Brooke listen to me you can’t do this…” she said pausing so as not to show how chocked up with emotion she was getting for her best friends.
“Skylar, what is it you think you know?” Brooke asked with a cock of her head. Skylar knew what Brooke’s question really meant; she wanted to know how much exactly she was safe to say without giving away too much.
“Trust me when I say that I’m almost positive I know it all, even parts that you may not have been aware of yourself. See Brooke this has been going on longer than you think,” Skylar said as she pulled out the documents.
“Hank Henderson? What about him?” Brooke asked confused. “What does he have to do with anything?”
“Everything actually,” Skylar answered. “Hank Henderson is not really Hank Henderson as a matter of fact the real Hank Henderson was Sidney Fields’ birthfather before he went off to war and died by the hands of fake Hank the moment he had tried to return for his family, the same family that he had put in the hands of Aaron.”
“This makes no sense what are you getting at?”
“Hank Henderson, the one who tricked you…who had really tricked us all is actually a man named Erin Brooks. I’m not sure if the name sounds in anyway familiar but I think it might if you think a little harder. Erin Brooks used to be one of your mothers patients.”
“I remember a little boy named Erin,” Brooke said sitting up a little higher.
“I knew you would,’ Skylar commented. “Was he not the kid you were trying to tell me reminded you of Hank?” Skylar asked.
“Yea, it was him.”
“Well then in a way you knew all along.”
“I’m still not seeing any connections, what does he have to do with me or Aaron?”
“You know I find it funny that you don’t call Aaron dad, or father or even daddy, something ‘you’,” she said putting quotation marks around the word you, “have called him many times in ‘your’,” she said again with the quotation marks, “emails to him.” Brooke looked uncomfortable as Skylar continued. “Brooke your mother and Erin Brooks have known each other for a long time until all of a sudden Erin declared that he no longer needed a psychiatrist. Though your mother was no longer Erin’s psychiatrist they still saw each other on a regular basis—”
“Are you implying that my mother was cheating on my father with one of her patients?” Brooke asked shocked.
“NO, at that time she wasn’t cheating they were just…platonic friends no relationship had truly developed—yet. I believe that Erin had become obsessed with your mother and everything she had promised and there were promises but he knew that none of those promises would come true as long as Aaron was around. Aaron falling for Ciana—Sidney’s mother was coincidental but him divorcing Karen—your mother was not in any way shape or from a coincidence.”
“How do you know all of this?” Brooke asked.
“What? Are you implying that you didn’t know any of this?” Skylar asked faking to appear shocked.
“No and you know I didn’t!”
“Really? I mean I kind of figured you knew all about it seeing as though ‘you’ wrote about it in one of ‘your’ emails to Aaron.” Brooke’s face paled as she realized her mistake. “I know it was your mother Brooke I knew it the moment I came in here all you have to do is stop protecting her and admit it,” Skylar said softly. Brooke began to cry openly now.
“She said that we’d be able to become a normal family again likes it’s always been if I did it…I believed her so…I did it, I did everything she told me to,” she said between sobs.
“Are you saying that she had put you up to it?”
“I didn’t want her to marry Hank,” she said on another sob.
“Is that what she said she’d do if you didn’t help her?” Brooke nodded her head slowly.
“I just…I’ve always wanted my family back you know that I hated being someone’s secret I didn’t want her to treat me like she claimed my father had so yea she put me up to it and I did everything she told me to.”
“And you were not aware of Hank’s involvement in all of this?’ Skylar asked.
“No, she told me that she would no longer see Hank if I did this for her and I believed her.” Skylar could see Ethan standing in the doorway of the conference room they were in with a pair of hand cuffs in his hands. Skylar caught his eye and shook her head. Ethan raised a brow in question and Skylar ignored him.
“Brooke I need you to tell me where Aaron is,” Skylar said. Brooke looked up at her with pleading eyes.
“He’s…dead,” she whispered. Skylar looked at her confused.
“Dead?” she questioned disbelievingly.
“Yea,” she said nodding her head wildly. “Hank had gotten mad when Aaron wouldn’t declare rightful owner ship of the Book of secrets to him and…the fight got pretty ugly. He killed him…for real this time,” she said with more sobs.
“I’m sorry,” Skylar said before getting to her feet and walking over toward Ethan.
“Safe to make the arrest now?” he whispered. Skylar looked back at Brooke feeling bad for her best friend. “What’s going to happen with her,” she said gesturing toward the still sobbing Brooke.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said. “She’s old enough now not to need her mother anyhow so I guess it’s really up to her,” he said as he exited the conference room with Skylar following close behind him. “Good job,” he said smacking her on the back before he went his separate way. She nodded her head slightly before leaving as well. She walked with a little skip to her step happy that they had truly solved the case, now all there was left to do was tell Sidney’s mother the bad news.
