“So this first group!” She looked down at the paper with me as I pointed.
“That’s the ones with all the money, they started it, but guess what, it’s hundreds and hundreds of years old.”
“I’m confused, how are they hundreds of years old if they’re still alive today?”
She rolled her eyes and took the paper back from my hands. “Not the people, the group. Lily says if you want to find something you go all the way back to the source, she likes history and genealogy.”
“Go on!”
“Okay, so we looked up groups that used to do this stuff before and it kept going back and back until hundreds of years ago maybe even thousands but we couldn’t get that far because there were no records. But then we found the names of some of the members of that first group there. It was from the sixteen hundreds, at least in this country, but Lily said it was a thread we could tug on, so we did.”
She looked up at me like that was all the explanation I needed as she handed me back the paper. “Catalina do you know what this is?”
“It’s to help you so you can go to school with Todd.” I hugged her with tears in my eyes.
Tears because my baby sister was doing something so sweet for me, and more so because my baby sister was knee deep in investigating a human trafficking ring that went back centuries.
I was scared shitless, because I knew I had to show daddy that piece of paper. How had he and the uncles missed it when two little girls had put it together? It made no sense.
Though I’m not sure about all the ins and outs of what daddy and the uncles are up to, I know they’re very good at what they do. Then again, Catalina’s brain is far above most people’s and apparently so is her friend’s.
“Is it okay if I show this to daddy?
“Uh…um…let me think about it. If you tell him he’ll make me stop.” She pouted and jumped down off the bed headed for the door. “I have to do my homework now and uncle Hank is coming.” She ran from the room back to being an innocent eight year old kid.
I stared down at the paper after she left until I heard movement outside my door. I hurried and put it away under my pillow just as Todd knocked and walked in. “Hey, let’s go for a walk around the old neighborhood.”
He walked in all smiles and reached for my hand, pulling me up from the bed. “I see daddy didn’t kill you.” I guessed things were okay between them when he pulled me into him and kissed my forehead.
Downstairs mom and dad were in the kitchen feeding the triplets and Cody and daddy didn’t bat a lash when I announced that we were going for a walk.
We met the twins and Caleb on our way out and I had to wait while he greeted my brothers who have ever been fond of him before we could set off on our walk.
“So, what did daddy want?”
“You know, just the usual.”
“Oh no not again, did he threaten you?”
“Nope, I told you, your dad loves you, he wants only what’s best for you. I just have to convince him that I’m the same and things will be fine.”
He swung our hands between us as we walked and the conversation turned to much lighter stuff. I found myself feeling shy now that we were alone together; it had been so long.
Since we spent every day on the phone or Facetime together I thought for sure we’d just slip right back into the way things used to be between us, that ease of friendship we always shared. But as we turned the corner onto grandma’s street, the street where his house is, I realized that a lot had changed.
Now that I knew daddy wasn’t about to run him off and my nerves were a little bit more settled, I was able to take him in. He’d grown in the time since I’d seen him last. Now he was almost as tall as daddy and his shoulders and arms seemed more buff and his face…
Todd has always been a nice looking boy, now he is a handsome man. For the first time I realized that he’d grown up while I still felt like the same little girl he’d left behind. There’s no way he’s gonna wait like he says, look at him. Even the goobers around here are having sex with their girlfriends in high school. He’s in college now, where there are girls from all over.
Sophisticated girls, girls who do more than hold hands and giggle. I felt like I wanted to die on the spot as my heart ached. No matter what he says, he’d never make me believe that he’s okay with the way things are.