UNWANTED SON-IN-LAW

CHAPTER 8

Two girls that looked the same stood on each side of the small place. Same face. Same body. Same mark from her eye to her face.

Nathan’s gun went back and forth. He could not know which Sarah was the true one.

“Nathan, move away from Victoria,” the Sarah in the door said. “That girl has lied to you all the time.”

“Hear me and you die,” the Sarah from the window said back. “She is the one who works for David Porter. I try to help you live.”

Victoria put her back on the wall. She held the small thing with files. “Nathan, I do not know who these two are.”

“Be quiet!” both Sarah’s said at the same time.

Nathan kept his gun set. His mind went through all times with Sarah. All talk. All warn. He looked for a thing that would say which was true.

“If you are the real Sarah,” Nathan said to the one in the door, “say what you told me in the basement the night we got out.”

The door Sarah did not wait. “I said your dad told me the thing is in the time piece. The one you sold three years back.”

“She could have been told that,” the window Sarah said. “Ask some thing just you two knew. Ask about the night at the place when you saw James die.”

“James said trust no one,” Nathan said with care.

“He said more.” Window Sarah’s eyes got small. “He said trust no one, not even blood people. And you asked what he meant. I said all people have been play you. Even me.”

Door Sarah’s face went to a new look. “She is true. I said that. It is the truth.”

“So you are both the same one?” Nathan’s head felt like it went round.

“No,” Victoria said soft. “They are two from the same birth. And they both play with you.”

Both Sarah’s put their guns at Victoria.

“The thing with files,” door Sarah said. “Give it to Nathan. Go.”

“Do not give it to some one,” Sarah said hard. “That thing has false proof that Caroline Blackwell put there to make Nathan not trust his dad.”

“That is what David would want you to think,” door Sarah said back.

Nathan put his hand tight on the gun. “One of you say the truth or I shoot you both.”

The window Sarah put her gun down a little. “Good. You want true? We are two from the same birth. Emma and Sarah Mitchell. Our brother James was in the fire three years back. Or we thought. David Porter told both of us that James was alive, held some place. He said to Sarah that the Blackwell group had him. He said to me that the Vale group had him. He made us hate each other. He used us both as his tools while we thought we save our brother.”

“That is a lie,” door Sarah said, but her voice was not strong.

“Is it? Then why did David tell you to come here with a gun to kill Nathan after you get the files? I heard him. I was out at the safe place.”

Door Sarah’s face went white. “How you…”

“Due to I have watched you for many weeks, sister. I saw you work for David. I saw you lead Nathan into bad things while you act to keep him safe. You think you are his true soldier, but you are just one more fake thing.”

“And who do you work for?” Nathan asked window Sarah.

She did not want to say. “Harrison Vale. He took me in two years back. He said he had proof that David Porter killed our brother to fake his own dead. That the body in the fire was James. He said if I help him, we get what is fair for our brother.”

“So you both sell yourselves,” Nathan said with sad. “Whoever pay gets you.”

“We stay alive,” Sarah said. “And right now, alive means get that file thing to one who can say the truth. Not David. Not Harrison. Not Caroline. One who is not part of all this bad.”

“Tell the cops,” Victoria said.

All three of them saw her like she was not smart.

“Cops get paid off,” door Sarah said. “Half work for the Blackwell group. Half work for the Vale group.”

“Then the feds,” Victoria said hard. “The real law people. They came to ask my dad before he died. They look at the Blackwell group now.”

“They look at the fake permit thing,” Sarah said. “Not death. Not big tricks. Just money crime. And with no big proof that tie all of it as one, they will make a deal with who give them facts first. That will be Caroline Blackwell, and she will put all the rest down while she walk free.”

Nathan’s phone made a ring. David Porter.

He take the call and put it on for all to hear.

“Nathan, where do you sit?” David’s voice was tight with anger he tried to hide.

“I get what is true.”

“From Victoria Blackwell? She feed you lies to make you not trust me.”

“Then say why you sit with Caroline Blackwell all these months for three years.”

Quiet. So long the quiet say it is true.

“I see,” David said last. “Sarah came to you. Which one, I ask? Emma or her sister?”

“You knew two were there,” Nathan said with no feel.

“Yes, I knew. I pay them both. Not the same. Each think they are my only one. Each tell me about the other side. It is how you keep safe, son. You do not put all in one.”

“You use them.”

“I use all. That is what win men do. Now, hear good. What Victoria say about Caroline and me is sort of true. Yes, we sit and talk. Yes, we make plans as one. But not for why you think.”

“Then tell me.”

“Caroline Blackwell has been my spy for three years. After I fake death, I go to her with a deal. She help me break Harrison Vale and the Vale group, and I keep her the head of the Blackwell group when all end. She get rid of her bad husband and get all the power. I kill my foe. All win.”

“But not me. Not Victoria. Not all the ones you use as things.”

“You are not things, Nathan. You are the start of what I build. And what you build some times need to lose some to get big gain.”

Victoria got the phone from Nathan’s hand. “You break my wed. You break my life. You make me do bad things I never say yes to. All so you and my mom can play mean games?”

“Victoria.” David’s voice got soft and like a dad. “Your mom and me do what we had to do to keep safe. You all ways would get the Blackwell group. We just make it go faster. Now Edward is gone, your other brother is not smart, and you sit ready to take all. You should say thank you to us.”

“I never say thank to you.” She threw the phone on the wall and it broke.

Window Sarah went to the door. “We have to go. Now. David will send men to make all go away. All of us in this place are bad things he want to hide.”

“She is true,” door Sarah said. For the one time, she go with her sister. “What we think of each other, we all want to live past the next hour. Peace?”

“Peace,” window Sarah said yes.

They both look at Nathan.

He look at Victoria. “Do you trust the file thing?”

“With all I am,” she said. “All is in it. Meet ups. Swap of cash. All the plans. If we get this to one who the foe can not pay off, we can say all of them do bad.”

“There is one,” Nathan said slow. “One the foe do not know of. Some one from my dad’s past who has no want to keep him safe.”

“Who?” all three girls ask at the same time.

“My mom.”

The place got no sound.

“Your mom die when you were ten,” Victoria said with care. “Your dad tell me that.”

“My dad tell you a lot of things that are not true.” Nathan pull out his fold bag and got a old piece of paper he hold for eighteen years. A note. In the hand of one he not forget. “She do not die. She go away. And she say when I am set to know the true of what my dad do, I find her.”

He open the note. At the end was a place. Far away. Seattle. A name he never say out loud.

“Eleanor Price,” he read. “News woman who ask hard things. If all one know the facts, she break this story and no one kill her for it.”

“Seattle is so many steps away,” door Sarah said.

“Then we drive.” Nathan go to the door.

Victoria hold his arm. “Nathan, wait. If we go, we are the hunt ones. The true hunt ones. Cops will hunt. Your dad will hunt. My mom will hunt. We run and never stop.”

“So we run and say what they do. And then we hide.” He see her eyes. “Do you want to stay and let Caroline kill you?”

She hold tight the file thing. “No. I am done with the Blackwell name.”

They go from the place as one. Two girls that look the same. A girl who play wife with no true. And a boy who do not know which lie is the real lie.

Behind them, the door go open fast.

David Porter stand in the open with six men who hold guns.

He look at the place with no one in it. The glass that break.

“Hunt them,” he say low. “And this time, make sure they do not come back up.”

In his hand he hold a small thing. On it was a dot that move.

David smile.

“Run, my boy,” he say soft. “Let me see how good I teach you.”

Three long blocks away, Nathan move the car with Sarah next to him. Victoria sit with both Sarah’s in the back.

None of them see the small thing under the back of the car.

It send where they go every ten time counts.

It take David Porter right to them.

And to Eleanor Price.

To the one girl who know all the true of what David Porter do twenty years back.

The true that will break all of them.