“Well what does it say?” I ask hoping that it is something
to get Percy back. Grace clutches on to the note. My dad seeing the panicked
look on her face grabs the note out of her hand. "To the beloved older sister, I will
start with you. Do not worry you won't be the last just the first step in
getting your pervious baby brother back. All you have to do is tell your
secret. You know the one. Follow the pictures if you need a little motivation.
Remember what you have to lose. But don't worry if you're not strong enough to
tell your secret and what Enrique does for you. I won't kill Percy just cut his
arm off. You have one week. After that it will be your beautiful mothers
turn." My dad looks at Grace.
"Well what's your secret?" My dad says. Grace looks at my dad and then my mother and
just turns and starting running out of the house. "Go get her!" My
dad yells at me. I start to run after her. I probably shouldn't even try as
Grace is a cross country runner and number one in the state. Grace is so far ahead of me there is no way
of me catching up. I finally stop trying and she is still going. I should work
out more I can barely breathe. I start to walk back to the house. Both of my parents are standing there at the
front door waiting for me. I walk past them down the hall to the kitchen to get
a glass of water. "Well." My mother says to me. "I am sorry I don't see you running
after her." I say as I guzzle down the glass of water. "What kind of
secret could she have that would make her run like that?" my dad asks me.
"You're really asking me? It's not like she and I do lots of sharing. But
if you're asking my opinion in a family of serial killers, yeah I have no idea
what kind of secret she could have that would make her run." My mother's
face looks unamused by my statement. My
mother lays out the pictures on the counter top. "Maybe these will help
us." I look at the pictures.
We
haven't said anything in almost 30 minutes; we have just been here staring at
these photos. "So any idea what any of these could mean?" I ask my
parents. My dad picks up the picture of him and Grace. "Do you remember this day?" He asks
me. "No why would I? That is a
picture of you and Grace." My dad laughs. "Grace was about 8 here. It
was take your daughter to work day. So I naturally brought both of you. We were
in a merger meeting." My dad paused and put the photo down and looks at
me. "You really don't remember any of this?" My dad asks me. I shake
my head no at him. "Well we were in the middle of this meeting talking
about the new company we had just bought out. We were having problems with some
of the old managers that had stood with the company and you looked up from your
drawing and said daddy I thought you were the boss? When I said yes I am. You
said then fire them and pull up the next in line. When they start to cry for
their jobs back, daddy give them a job
but with less with power and lower pay. That way you have their knowledge and
now they will know who is boss.” My dad looks at me with such pride. “So
because I told you to fire people and hire them back for less money and power
you were proud of me?” I ask. “Yes you had such a mind for business even at a
young age. You were so smart and logical, well were.” He looks so disappointed.
“What does any of that have to do with Grace and this picture?" I ask him.
"Everything, they asked me to take a picture with my beautiful daughter
and you pushed Grace toward me. You gave me a look and I saw how sad Grace was
that we all were admiring you when she was the one who got all dressed up to
come to my job. You on the other hand fought your mom for hours just to get you
into a dress that you instantly put your leather jacket over. That was one of
the few things that didn't change after the coma was your sense of style."
my dad chuckles. "So this picture was to make Grace feel better?" My
dad nods yes. "I told her you couldn't be in the picture because they
asked for my beautiful daughter not my headache daughter. She had the biggest smile and so did you.
That was the only thing that made you smile back then was Grace being
happy." My mother picks up the picture of her and Grace. "This must
be why this picture was picked as well." My mother is holding her picture
of her and Grace before handing it to me. "When was this?" My mother
sits down. "This was only a few weeks before the accident. It was my rose
contest. I had some of the most beautiful roses in the community garden but
stupid Stacy Anne's roses were just a little bigger than mine." I look at
my mother trying to figure out where she is going with this. "So...????
Why would this picture have anything to do with what I and dad were talking
about?" My mother smiles. "You poisoned her roses for me to
win." My mother says so
proudly. "Okay? So tell me
about this picture?" I ask her.
"Well that was your one thing you asked for. You told me to have Grace help me in the
garden and wanted to credit her for the help. So I did and we took this picture
for the paper." I look down at the
picture and realize all of them are times I did what it took to make Grace
happy. What does that have to do with a secret??
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