Coming Clean Part I
Analia sighed loudly and dropped into a seat at the table. “No. I didn’t sell this family out. God. I’m not going to do anything to cause my daughter and granddaughter actual harm.”
“Could have fooled me,” Terrance growled.
Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.
“You are my husband,” Analia glared at him. “Could you at least try to be supportive of my feelings?”
“I would if your feelings were valid in the least. Whatever is going on with you, is clouding your judgement and making you act like a giant asshole.”
“Terrance!”
“Tell me I’m wrong!” he threw his hands up in the air. “Your daughter is standing there sobbing that she thinks you hate her and you haven’t offered a single comforting word to her. Instead, you’re sticking to your dumbass excuses for being a first–class bitch. This,” he waved at her, “is not the woman I married, and it is not the woman I raised our daughter with. Whatever is going on with you, is making me question whether Iegen know you at all.”
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Analia looked away and then she looked at January, “I’m
sorry.”
“Not good enough,” Terrance snapped. “I want the truth and I fucking want it now.” He punched the top of the table. “Now, Analia. You tell me the truth about what is going on, or my next conversation is going to be with Gulliver’s legal team to start divorce proceedings because I will not be with a woman who thinks it’s okay to treat her daughter and granddaughter like they are burdens one minute and then accuse them of being selfish the next.”
Gulliver gently pushed January back into a chair, and he moved to put his hand on Terrance’s shoulder, “let’s take a breath. January has said more than once that your relationship has always been the benchmark for her. Love and respect and transparent communication. Those are the attributes by which she has sworn. I keep thinking of her story about the shopping trip.”
Terrance sighed and turned his back to the table as if struggling to get his temper under control.
“Analia,” Gulliver spoke softly, “talk to us. Whatever is going on, we can help you through it.”
January, sniffed and reached for a tissue and then looked at her mother who was staring at her fingers on the tabletop silently
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as if she didn’t want to speak.
“This is dumb.” January said quietly. “You’re willing to throw your family away for some kind of spiteful reaction to us.”
“Analia. You need to talk to us or you’re going to lose them.” Gulliver pressed her.
“Davis.” Her mother said quietly. “Davis called me the day before Gulliver showed up here the first time. He told me all kinds of things about how dangerous Gulliver was and,” she cleared her throat, “he let it slip that he loved January.”
The three people at the table were staring at her as she picked at her fingernails.
“Go on,” Gulliver encouraged her, giving Terrance a look warning him to unclench his fists.
“I asked him if he was serious and he said he was. He was,” she cleared her throat, “erratic in the call. I think, looking back, he knew Gulliver was closing in on finding her. He has someone close to you, spying for him, because he knew you were in Vermont looking for her. He told me that you were coming and that he was the only one who could keep her safe. It creeped me out. Then he said,” she blinked back tears, “that he hadn’t put all this effort into January to let her go so easily. I thought he was just being weird.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me?” Terrance asked quietly.
“He called us all the time, Terrance. It wasn’t uncommon for him to call and lay it on thick about how dangerous Gulliver was and so I simply chalked it up to another weird Davis call. I didn’t think too much of it until the next day when January showed up in a panic saying that Gulliver found her.”
“You should have told me then.”
“Honestly?” she sniffed, “I forgot about it in the moment. Gulliver had us all freaked out and then we went to dinner and January punched those two officers and I was starting to put two and two together. Davis was using his team to get Gulliver but the way he was monitoring us,” she whispered, “I got thinking the cameras in the house were for his benefit.”
“It still doesn’t explain why you didn’t talk to me, Analia.”
“He said that” Analia wiped her cheeks with trembling fingers, “he has information about you and your brother which could put you in jail if I didn’t cooperate.”
“He can’t put me in jail, Analia.” Gulliver tried to reassure her.
“Not you, Gulliver.” She looked at Terrance. “You. He said your brother did a lot of things as a cop which were borderline and that he’d asked your help more than once. He mentioned the time you helped your brother with the chop shop. He said you 4/6
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did some illegal things, and he had the evidence to get you put into jail and how there was no statute of limitations on the crimes.”
“Analia,” Terrance sighed loudly.
“I know you did things with him back then you weren’t talking to me about, Terrance. You said that he’d asked you to do something you weren’t comfortable with, but he was your brother, so you did it.”
“What did he ask you to do, Analia?” Gulliver asked quietly.
“He wanted me to make sure that January kept her distance from you, Gulliver. He said you were in danger and only he could protect you and he said he was in love with her, and he would find a way to make her love him back. He forbade me from saying anything. He told me if I tipped her off and told her he was still watching her then he’d put Terrance in jail. He wanted me to drive a wedge between Gulliver and January.”
“Jesus Christ.” Terrance flung himself into a chair he yanked away from the table. “Analia!”
“He told me he was watching us. He has eyes on the house, spies in the town and he would know if I tipped her off.”
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