Coming Clean Part II
“What did you do, Mom?” January asked her quietly.
“I thought,” she cleared her throat, “that maybe Ernst was his spy.”
Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.
“Are you kidding me? Ernst?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not the spy.” She sighed loudly. “Mom. What did you do?”
“I couldn’t tell you. If I tell you then Terrance goes to jail, so I told Davis that the best way for me to get you to stay away from Gulliver is if I pushed you towards him. Reverse psychology. He seemed to think it was working because you went out with Ernst a couple of times.” She took a breath, “but I also knew you would go to Gulliver to keep you safe. I knew that if I pushed you out of the house, that Gulliver’s team would be watching you more. If I make you leave us, then Gulliver will step up the security and keep you safe from him. It wouldn’t be my fault, and Terrance would be safe and you would be safe from Davis.” She looked at January. “Then on Saturd, I 13:04
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knew,” she choked on the words, “if I upset you enough, if I really laid it on thick, you would leave town to go where Kaylee is. If you were with Gulliver then you were away from Ernst and the people in the town who are spying, and you were safe. I knew if you spent time with Gulliver you would realize you still loved him and if you admitted you loved him, you’d be safe. But I kept telling him that you were the kind of woman who did the opposite of what I wanted. I said if I pushed you to him, you’d balk but I knew you wouldn’t. I had to push you hard because I needed to save you.”
January stared at the ceiling in disbelief. “Are you telling me, you’ve been a righteous bitch for the last couple of weeks because you convinced Davis that you were playing reverse psychologist to make me hate Gulliver more but in fact you were driving me to him because you knew I’d go where Kaylee is and Kaylee is with him?”
“Yes, well that and I knew you love him.” She waved at them. “You’re together right? I wasn’t wrong. I’m so sorry, January. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You are supposed to talk to me,” Terrance said seriously. “Analia, you should have talked to us.”
“He said he was watching me and if I said anything to you, he’d know. I was scared.”
“We went through the house and removed all their spyware.” 2/5
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Gulliver tried to follow her rationale. “We went through the shop where Terrance works. We went through January’s shop. We cleared your yard, your cars, your phones.”
“He said he had spies in the town. I knew January was confiding in Ernst. If Ernst is his spy.”
“Mom, Ernst is not the spy. Ernst is a good guy.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am sure. We are sure.” January looked at Gulliver.
“He knows things, January. He was telling me about Gulliver being in your shop. He knew what you ordered when you went out with Ernst both times. He knew you went to look at the house. He wants to arrest Gulliver and then convince January to be with him.”
“Here is the problem, Analia.” Gulliver said with a sigh. “Because you delayed in telling us, in confiding in your husband and your daughter, we are now running behind. I can’t keep her safe the way you want me to keep her safe if you hide shit. If there is someone in the town working for him and we missed it in our preliminary review of the townspeople, then that means that person has a headstart.”
Analia started crying, “I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose my family, but I knew if she left to go:04
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be with you, you’d keep her safe from his insanity. If I made it look like I was playing along with him, Terrance would be safe. Today he called me and was yelling at me that my plan failed, and I told him it wasn’t because you were only there for Kaylee. I said you called Terrance and complained about how much Gulliver was being overbearing and that you told him you were buying a house without him.”
“You were literally driving me out of the house into Gulliver’s
arms!”
“It was for your own good.” Analia pouted, her eyes red rimmed and puffy. “Davis bought it right up until this morning. He said this morning that he knew you two had spent the night together. He was pissed with me. He said if I didn’t find a way to fuck this,” she waved at them, “up, he was going to go to the DA and get a warrant for Terrance’s arrest.”
“Davis is a psychopath, Analia. You should have come to me.” Terrance sighed loudly.
“I’m sorry. To both of you. I just didn’t know what to do other than to do what he was telling me to do but to really do what I wanted to do. I know you two love each other and I would have let you find your own way, but I was desperate, January. I was so desperate to make sure you were safe. I’m sorry.”
January pushed out of her chair and rounded the table and pulled her mother into her arms. “Foolish woman,” she hugged 4/5
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her tight.
Analia broke down when Terrance got up and wrapped his arms around both women and hugged them tight.
“Your ass is going to be sore for a week or two, my love,” he kissed the top of Analia’s head.
“Ew, Dad, don’t say shit like that when I’m in the hug!” January made a gagging noise, stepped away from them, and watched as her mother pretty much melted right into her father’s embrace.
She looked at Gulliver, “now what do we do? We have a spy in the town, and it’s got to be someone close to us. You also have a spy in your entourage. What are we going to do?”
Gulliver smiled a sinister grin, “now, we catch some dirty cops.”
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