Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
"And?" Aunt Lo demanded, wanting the whole truth.
"And I found it. And I tracked her down. And I got in touch."
"Without telling me?"
"Yes," Chris agreed again, nodding.
"Why? Why wouldn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want her to," I cut in, drawing attention back to me. And, well, I simply couldn't look at my mother right then, I couldn't stand the hurt and the confusion I would likely find there.
"Yeah, well, that shouldn't have mattered," Aunt Lo declared, turning back to Chris. "Since you answer to me, not her."
"That would be so if you hadn't given me control, told me to handle operations that I found that I was passionate about. You gave me full control. You told me to show you what I was made of. You can't have it both ways, Ma."
"You know the hell we were going through not knowing where she was, if she was okay."
"You knew she was okay. She wrote every week."
"But none of us had contact with her. How could you keep this from us? From me?"
"Because you would have made her stop," Chris told her, sticking with the truth even though she was clearly losing a little bit of her cool.
"You don't know..."
"That first time, when she was in surgery for a punctured lung, yeah, I do know. I know. You would have gone there en force and made her come home. You never would have let her out of your sight until you were sure she was done, that she decided it wasn't worth it."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my Aunt Rey shuffling the young kids out the back door, likely knowing that where this was going was not something they needed to be part of.
"Decided that what wasn't worth it?" Aunt Lo demanded, voice steel.
"Lo, let this drop," my father cut in, giving her a heavy look, having a silent conversation.
Sometimes, my father forgot that he couldn't get anything past my mother.
The look she gave my father didn't need any interpreting. It said I know you have been keeping something from me, and you are going to answer for it later.
"Chris," my mom said, giving her the Mom Look, the one that said you better not lie to my face, no matter how uncomfortable the truth might be. "What has Ferryn been up to that you thought was worthy enough of a cause to keep all this from us?"
Chris's gaze slid to me, seeking permission even though we both knew it had to come out now. All of it. To everyone.
I gave her the nod she was looking for.
"She's been hunting down human traffickers. Specifically, sex traffickers."
There was a crushing silence following the words, everyone in the room trying to process this new information, this uncomfortable truth.
See, no one could object to it, could they?
After what Chris had been through especially.
When she found out what I was up to, of course she had wanted to help in any way that she could.
Help she did, too.
If not for Chris, I was sure I would have been dead years ago. I definitely wouldn't have been able to get out from underneath the crushing medical care debts.
She did the research for me, having the resources available to her up at Hailstorm where hackers and dark web trackers were a dime a dozen. She found the guys; she found where they were staying; she gave me all the information I needed so I didn't go in blind. On top of that, she provided funds.
"I don't understand," Aunt Lo said, shaking her head. "You've made a good ROI with the money we have funneled to you for your cases. There is no money in murder."
She said that word casually.
Murder.
It was a word that made most people flinch.
And I think it was telling that not a single person in the room flinched at it.
Not even my mother.
"I only funneled Ferryn five percent of the money you gave me. And I cut down to a minimum crew to make up the difference on the other cases. Really, Ma, you waste a ridiculous amount of money at Hailstorm. You could cut down costs by a third and use that money to fund good causes."
"Like making your cousin a murderer," Aunt Lo said, gaze steely.
"Ferryn was already a murderer," Chris shot back, shocking everyone else into stunned silence even if they all knew it.
It was what they likely all thought was the reason I ran in the first place.
Holding up that gun.
Aiming.
Pulling the trigger.
Shooting my own maternal grandmother.
"That was different and you know it," Aunt Lo insisted. "That was a life or death situation. Your life, if you recall."
My grandmother was going to shoot Chris.
That was the tipping point.
That was what turned me from a relatively normal girl into a killer.
And I had never, ever regretted it.