Chapter Twenty-Four

Scott holds the door to Cody's office open as I walk up, I'm gonna level with you when I say I was so nervous. I know Cody trusts Scott obviously, as he's his Beta and he wouldn't let me walk in a room alone with him if he didn't, but I don't have many good things to say about him. Yes I know I said at the dinner he was a nice guy, but I also said how I didn't know if he was playing some kind of act. Once I'm in he closes the door behind me, that didn't add to me being terrified at all! I smile as he walks around to Cody's desk opening the file, I didn't know people actually carry around those file folder things, I just thought it was in movies and tv shows. "Okay, I have loads of information on your mum, sorry it's taken me this long" he says pulling the different documents out, I totally forgot I asked him to help look for my mum. This is what he's been doing while I've been silently bashing him in my head, that's not cool Erika! We've all learnt a lesson here, think before you bash. "Now normally, it would have been easy to find a human that's entered the pack due to hardly any, well entering the pack, we have one every few years but in the last few weeks, we've had over four hundred" he explains while I just stand there frozen from anticipation, I know he's being kind and explaining stuff, but I just need him to spit out if he's managed to find her or not! "Well there is a lot of us" I smile hoping to not add to the conversation more, I didn't want to seem ungrateful or ignorant, but I just wanted to know. "All thanks to you" he smiles looking up at me before walking back around the desk, this time with papers in his hands "now I somehow managed to sieve through all the documents, trust me I don't know how I did but I managed to come across a woman with your mums name" he says which does immediately make my heart sink, so my mum could have been here all along? "I'll give you some background first just to deduct any points that don't sound like your mother, than I won't get your hopes up when I show you the photo" he explains which does peak my interest. "A photo?" I ask looking at the papers in his hand, maybe even if I get a glimpse of her hair I could tell if it was her or not. "Yes, when anyone enters the pack we take a photo to keep on our database, let's say someone fled their pack due to a horrible crime they committed but stay here for years, when they're finally tracked down they could have changed what they look like or just aged, but because we took a photo as soon as they entered the pack we have that" he further explains which was really smart, I wonder who came up with that idea "so we have a photo of your potential mother on file, which will help you because she will look the same as she did the last time you saw her" he says with a smile, why do I keep flip flopping over if he's a nice guy or not?! "The woman I found went by, Maria Parker, she was 35 when she entered the pack with her mate, Raymond Rickman" he says reading off the information from the paper, her age matches up to how old she was when she left and obviously her name is the same "she is his second chance mate as he's first died, they married a year later where she took his last name, also why is took me a while to find her, does this make sense?" He asks looking up but I think he could tell by my face that it did, he sends me a sympathetic smile before handing me a photo. I gulp while taking it but didn't look at first, this is just like how I felt when my dad handed me the photo of Cody. Looking at this photo could mean two things, if it's not her than it's most likely my mum is dead and that's it, if it is her it means she's been alive all along and just ran off and let us believe she was dead, I don't know what option I prefer to be honest. I take a look down at the photo tears immediately welling up in my eyes, it's her. I hand the photo back to Scott before turning to pace the room, my mums actually alive and has been this entire time. She made us believe she was died when really she's been here with her mate all happy, my dad was right when he said she's just forgotten about us. I mean how could she do that? I know they're mates but we came first! "Is this not the outcome you were hoping for?" Scott asks while I still pace, honestly I didn't know if I knew the answer to his question. "It feels like a double edged sword, yes I'm happy that she isn't dead somewhere in a ditch, but then it just sucks that's she's been alive and well this entire time but chose to abandon her family and live here, maybe her being dead would have been easier to accept" I sigh a single tear leaving my eye as I spoke, I didn't know what I was expecting when I asked Scott to help find her "thank you Scott, you didn't have to do this but you did, you've really helped me and my family out" I smile while wiping said tear away, it wasn't the time to start bawling my eyes out in front of him. "You do not need to thank me, as I said you saved my mates life, I will forever owe you" he says but I shake my head, I didn't want someone to feel like the owed me something. "You don't owe me anything Scott, I helped Martha and all the other girls because it was the right thing to do, I didn't do it for praise or recognition, I did it as some peoples heads have changed due to recent events but mine hasn't, I done you a favour and now you've done me one, we're even" I smile while he hands me over the file full with all the documents, I guess I need to explain to my dad what's happened and this will help. "I will forever be thankful that you saved her and if you need anything else, I'm here" he smiles for a second but that smile soon drops "I know Cody told you that I was the one that started the attack, it's true I was the one that instigated it, I found some information out from someone I'm close to and I just lost it, I can tell every time you're near me you're trying to work me out" he says which takes me by surprise, I guess I wasn't being that sly when I was doing that. "But I just want you to know I am a good guy, you don't need to worry about Martha or if I'm gonna blow up and start attacking the town again, that was an impulse decision that I made that I certainly regret, I just ask that you don't hold that over my head and view me as a bad guy because of it" he says placing his hands behind his back, I still don't know the information he's heard but I can't knock him for being honest. "Starting here, clean slate" I smile which soon makes a smile light up his face, he nods thanking me before his phone starts to ring. I excuse myself leaving him to talk privately on the phone, I walk away from the door and a little down the hall before stopping. I slowly pull the photo out revealing my mums face, the face of the woman that abandoned her family. Since she went missing all I've wanted was answers, now I have them I wish I didn't.