My mom refused to let me fix the clogged kitchen sink pipes, and what I eventually found inside left me speechless.

He wouldn’t explain anything. Just said if anyone came asking questions, I should tell them I’d never seen him.”

I turned on the phone. The battery showed 3 percent.

The call log had dozens of numbers, most of them from the same contact: “G.”

I dialed it from my phone. “Yeah?” A man’s voice answered, rough and tired. “Is this Gerard?”

A long pause.

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Jeremy. Lisa’s son.”

Another pause, longer this time. When he spoke again, his voice was different… and softer.

“Jeremy?? You’re my little brother, right?”

***

We met at Murphy’s Diner on Highway 9. I spotted Gerard immediately.

He had the same dark hair as mine and the same stubborn jawline that Mom always said came from her side of the family. But where I was soft around the edges from too much travel food, he looked like he’d been carved from stone. “You look like her!” he said, sliding into the booth across from me.

“You look like me, brother!”

He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “God, this is weird.”

“Tell me about it.” I leaned forward. “What the hell is going on, Gerard?

Mom’s been scared out of her mind for weeks.”

His face went serious. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a badge. “I’m a cop.

Eastside PD. I was working undercover, trying to infiltrate a drug operation that was moving money through the city.”

I froze. “You’re a cop?”

“Was.

Am. It’s complicated.” He rubbed his face. “I got in too deep.

These guys were into everything… drugs, weapons, laundering money through fake businesses. When they started getting suspicious, I had to disappear fast.”

“So the money..?”

“Evidence. And my own savings.

I needed Mom to hold onto it because I couldn’t risk them tracing it back to me. And yeah, I took some things from the house. I was desperate, trying to maintain my cover.

I planned to pay her back for everything.”

“She thought you were a criminal.”

“I know.” Tears welled in his eyes. “My adoptive parents told me I was adopted. I tracked Mom down through the agency.

I couldn’t tell her the truth… not without putting her in danger. The less she knew, the safer she was.”

“The case wrapped up last week,” Gerard continued. “Three arrests, two convictions.

I’ve been waiting to make sure it was really over before I contacted her again.”

I stared at my half-brother — this stranger who was family… and the cop who’d lived in the shadows to protect people like us. “She hid it in the pipes, man. And she’s been washing dishes in the bathtub for two weeks.”

He winced.

“I’ll fix the sink. And I’ll explain everything to her. I owe her that much.”

“We both do.”

***Continue reading…