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He’d been traveling when it happened.
Of course, only one person knew he ’d been traveling when it happened, given how everyone else thought something else was the truth.
“Anything to protect Ulgar.”
Anything, of course, meant faking his death while getting the operation to replace his defective heart with an artificial one, for which surgery didn ’t quite go off as planned.
“I’m glad I convinced my friend to help me with this until we could get more evidence. Ulgar will be safe.”
Except, he wasn ’t.
He was staring up at the news broadcast talking about the group of lost teenagers on a trip he ’d taken with absolutely no trace despite the fact there should have been. And every single one, including the small child—
They were a clone.
“Of course, they didn’t want any trace left. Not with the act that forces them to register their DNA, which would weed out the fact they made illegal clones.”
And—
Ulgar was dead. He ’d done all of that, only for—
Finn felt ill and nauseous.
“They still left a paper trail, one we were following before this happened.”
“A paper trail we thought we had until the older clones turned twenty to get sorted out, but now—now they’ve destroyed all of the evidence,” Finn said. “You’re a cop, so you know how important that evidence is. And…”
He decided to watch her from a distance.
Their mother.
And what he saw as a mother that wasn ’t grieving, or at least not for the child she’d recently lost. She didn’t see him, noticing she didn’t care, but then he’d known. He’d kept mum about what he’d learned, or thought he’d known, thinking it was best for Ulgar, for Ulgar not to believe he was the child of an affair that their mother was pretending was her flesh and blood despite knowing he wasn’t.
And she ’d had no choice, which made her come to resent his younger brother.
“From what we can tell, she didn’t know.”
“While that may be true, I don’t know how she’d react. Particularly since I’ve no evidence to go in accusing her, but if I showed up, I’d have to explain everything. Why I faked my death.”
“It was to protect your brother.”
“My brother, the only clone for which the birth certificate is correct, minus the small detail of being a clone,” Finn muttered. “A clone of myself, who now can’t have the life I wanted him to. All because of that bastard father of ours.” Finn turned. “I’m going to travel some more.”
“Oh?”
“It’s not as if I have anywhere to go.”
“What about the case?”
“I’ve not given up on it, but—“ Finn sighed. “It’s going to be harder without the kids. It was harder than I thought, using my connections after faking my death. If it weren’t for the fact—“
“You and I both know what would have happened if you hadn’t faked your death when you did.”
“Yeah. I know.” Finn said. “Back to traveling, Astra.”
He would have preferred to be traveling with Ulgar.