[Criminal Minds] years before love

Chapter 136

"My father abandoned me when I was seven years old." Owen stared at the hamburger that Hotch put in front of him, and suddenly opened his mouth after a while, but after saying this, he fell into silence again.

Hotch raised his eyebrows, but didn't press him.The desktop had been tidied up, but a thick stack of folders with blank paper inside was placed by his hand.

"Mother told me he was dead." Owen smiled mockingly, "Those days..."

He shook his head and didn't continue talking.

Hotch gently pushed the water glass towards him, he could understand the difficulties of single mothers raising children.

"A few months ago, I saw him again."

"Your, father?" Hotch was a little taken aback, as far as he knew the kind of man who disappeared after a divorce at a young age rarely reappeared after many years.

"Yeah." Owen reached out to hold the glass, "In a... deserted gymnasium."

Hotch frowned.

"Sometimes I'll do odd jobs, more often I'll just wander around and see if there's anything of value that other people have thrown away. The other day... I walked up to a gym and it was full of cobwebs and weeds and looked It's been abandoned for a long time." Owen paused, "I like the gym, and there are often some things I didn't take away, such as barbells and sticks, which can be sold for money. Sometimes I can find something else."

He sighed slowly, "I walked in and found that there were quite a few people sitting inside. I thought I was mistaken, and there were still people using it, so I planned to leave. But I saw that standing on the raised platform The speaker, I, I-"

"Your father?"

"I haven't seen him for a long time, and he's not the same as before, but I can't admit my mistake, I know it's my father." Owen breathed hard, and the scene of that moment seemed to come back to his eyes, "He stopped , I knew he saw me too, and then everyone turned to look at me."

"Then I heard him say, welcome to join us, good boy, you're a child of God just because you're here." Owen's voice trembled a little, "It sounded like, like he never knew who I was .”

"Owen, if that is really your father, then he has been separated from you for a long time." Hotch comforted softly, "He may not have recognized you."

"No, no, I know he recognized it." Owen shook his head, "His eyes are so shocked."

"And you joined them?"

"I can't refuse." Owen buried his face in his arms, "That's... my father."

"What is he doing?"

"I don't know." Owen wiped his eyes, "He preached to everyone, he said that God will come to save us, that God is not satisfied with this world, and said—"

"What?" Hotch stared at him.

Owen almost trembled, "Also said, he is a god."

"Did he not recognize you?" Hotch asked.

"No, he didn't." Owen bit his lip and sighed, "He always called me God's child, but never...never mentioned that I was his child, but I knew he recognized me, every time he The eyes that looked at me were so complicated. One day he handed me a box and asked me to find a place to light it to see how many things could be burned. I don't know what he wanted to do, but I just... found an empty room The house, the kind with a lot of suburbs, I'm sure there's no one in it!"

He shook his head with difficulty, with tears in his eyes, "I tell them every time, make sure there is no one inside, that person, that person is not what we did! And I always think, if I do everything well, he will Will you admit me and take me and my mother home one day?"

"Owen." Hotch asked slowly, narrowing his eyes, "did you tell your mother you found him?"

The young man was stunned, "No, I don't know how to say it, she told me he was dead for so many years. She seemed to miss him at all, I don't know, but she never said what happened to them back then..."

Hotch nodded.

Owen covered his hands and wept softly.

Hotch forced him to look up and asked, "When will your god come."

Owen looked at him in horror, but Hotch didn't want to let go, just stared at him like that.

Finally, Owen opened his mouth trembling, "He said, at midnight on December 12, when the New Year's bell strikes, God will come to the world, and he will lead his pure and sinless people through purgatory to heaven. —isn't that true?"

"No." Hotch replied short and crisp.

Owen watched him turn around, and suddenly asked, "Officer, do you think there is really a god in this world?"

And Hotch's whole body was shocked, he pursed his lips almost imperceptibly, "If you believe it."