My arm went around Lorna’s shoulder, pulling her closer. “You have your answer.”
Lorna lifted the paperwork. “Then it should say one hundred percent.”
Dr. Dixon took a breath and sat back, her neck straight. “Lorna, three pubic hairs were found, one on your skin and two in the fibers of your underwear. Those three pubic hairs were not yours or Reid’s.”
The resolution we’d sought, the one that had been so close, was stained by the presence of three hairs. Red filled my vision as I worked to stay seated.
Lorna’s head came to my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
My hands went to her cheeks as I turned her face to mine. “We will find out who did this.” Still holding Lorna’s face, I turned to Dr. Dixon. “I’m assuming you have DNA or some identifying data?”
“It should be turned into the authorities.”
Releasing my wife, I stood. “Doctor, I think you know.” I put out my hand. “We are the authorities. No one else needs to be involved.”
Dr. Renita Dixon had been involved with the Sparrows for too long not to fill in the blanks. Nodding, she reached into her purse, removed a second sheet of paper, and placed it in my hand.
“Thank you, Doctor.” I looked down at my wife. “I told you that you’re a fighter.” I reached for her hand, encouraging her to stand. Once she did, I stared down into her emerald gaze, wishing I could make all the sadness and indecision disappear. “Sweetheart, you are here with me and that’s what matters.”
Dr. Dixon also stood. “Lorna, I can imagine these results don’t answer all your questions.”
“I don’t think all my questions will ever be answered.” She took a ragged breath. “But this helps. I wasn’t raped.” She looked up at me. “Thank you for having the kit done.”
The last thing I deserved in this situation was praise.
“Sexual assault,” Dr. Dixon began, “isn’t limited to penetration.”
Before she could continue speaking, I stood taller and interjected, “Dr. Dixon, thank you for making a special trip and delivering this information in person. I’m sure Robert is waiting. May I walk you to the elevator?”
She nodded before turning to Lorna. “You have a great support system. That includes me. Anytime you want to talk, Lorna, I will make the time.”
“Enjoy the symphony.”
“Get some rest.”
As Renita and I left the apartment and walked through the common area, she paused. “Reid, I don’t expect that I’m saying anything you don’t realize, but as I was about to tell Lorna, sexual assault isn’t limited to penetration. Your wife was not penetrated. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t assaulted. Without her memory, we can only speculate at how those hairs made their way onto her body and clothes.”
My teeth clenched as she spoke.
“It’s a misconception that only the act of forced or coerced penetration is psychologically harmful.”
The paper she’d given me with the DNA information on the hairs was in my front pocket. I patted it. “Doctor, we will take care of this.”
Though she wasn’t much older than us, her gaze shone with the wisdom that comes from both experience and knowledge. “One day, Lorna may remember. On that day, that minute, that second, she will need to know that even if it wasn’t what is commonly referred to as rape, her trauma is real and she should be free to express it any way that will help her deal with it.”
My Adam’s apple bobbed. “You’re saying not to downplay it. You don’t need to worry about that. Whoever this DNA belongs to isn’t long for this world. Downplaying is not my plan.”
Renita pressed her lips together. “You have dealt with trauma too. It’s important to realize this isn’t only affecting her. I hope that you two can come to the point where you can help one another. What is best for you may not be best for your wife.”
I reached out and hit the button for the elevator. Once the doors opened and Dr. Dixon was within, I hit the G. “Thank you. Enjoy the symphony.”
As the doors closed, the phone in the pocket of my jeans vibrated.
It was a text message from Sparrow. He was on his way back to the tower and wanted a briefing with all of us.
When I opened the door to our apartment, Lorna wasn’t there.
A brisk walk to our bedroom and I found her in the bathroom, pulling her long red hair back into a ponytail. I went behind her and wrapped my arms around her. The top of her head came below my chin as we both stared into the mirror.
“Sparrow wants me on 2.”
“That’s fine. I’m headed up to the penthouse.”
“Are you sure,” I asked, searching her reflection for a reaction from the test results. “Laurel said they’d bring food down. I can come back as soon as the briefing is over.”
My wife spun in my arms, a new smile on her lips as her petite hands came to my chest. “Reid, I have an answer. I wasn’t raped. Now I can search for more with that reassurance.”
Her voice was strong and clear, and her eyes were no longer moist. The signs were there that everything would be better, but what if it was a facade? What if, like Dr. Dixon said, even this slice of peace would be annihilated when her memories returned?
“Come up to the penthouse for dinner when you’re done on 2,” she said, walking into our bedroom before she stopped. “Oh, and tell Mace we can talk about my dream another day.”
“Your dream?”
“Yeah, he heard me telling Laurel and freaked. I know he’s hiding something, but tonight, I don’t want more confrontation.”
“Hiding something?”
I knew what he was hiding. It was what earlier today I’d told him needed to be shared.
There was a woman on ice in a makeshift morgue on 1. It was amazing what resources we could find when we needed them. It wasn’t like we could take her to the Cook County morgue. There would be questions whose answers we didn’t know or weren’t willing to provide.
“You know what?” she asked. “Tonight, I don’t want to know what he’s hiding. No more information. I’m on overload, and this was one bit of good news.” She tilted her head to the side. “Can you talk to him and make sure he understands?”
“Sweetheart, if that’s what you want.”
Lorna came back in the bathroom and after resting her hand on my chest, lifted to her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. “I do. Thank you.”
As she walked away, I contemplated a thought I hadn’t had since Mason’s accident, since Lorna found the tickets to England. It hadn’t occurred to me since, but now it was here.
Maybe it was time to take my wife away to someplace safe and leave the dangers of the Sparrow world, the Order, and the underground behind.
While that thought swirled through my mind, the paper in my pocket brought me back to reality. First, I needed to know the owner of the hair.
Lorna
At nearly midnight, with sleep just out of my reach, I stepped from the shower. While steam rippled through the bathroom, water dribbled down my body in small streams to the bath mat below. My nipples hardened from the cooler air as, forgoing a towel, I walked nude to the vanity and turned on a heat lamp above.