"I—" She gasps. Maybe she's slowly piecing all of this together. "Oh my God. Oh, my God! How could you not have told me any of this?”
I let her get it all out of her system, knowing there is going to be legitimate anger upon learning that I had this information all along. "I don't know," I tell her. "I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't get myself to say it."
"I just can't understand why you didn't trust me enough to tell me," she continues.
"Really?" I say with haste. "You're asking me why I lied when you were lying to me too?"
Haven stands up from the bed and paces the room a few times before facing me. "I don't even know what to say…that's why you dropped out of high school and…you started stealing from the local shops? That's why you were homeless…"
"I was hungry, and I needed to find work so I could help support Lenore and Lauren, which meant I couldn't go to school anymore."
"Who are Lenore and Lauren?" she cries out, scratching her nails down the sides of her cheeks. The time we spent together in the past consisted mostly of me learning about her, finding more dirt on the mayor, and keeping all of my demons to myself in fear of revealing my secrets to the daughter of the man who ruined everything in my life.
"Lenore had been our housekeeper since I was two. They became family, but our situation was unique as she stayed on Granddad's salary even when she and her daughter, Lauren, moved in with us when I was around twelve. Anyway, Granddad left all his assets to the three of us, but we basically got none of it," I explain.
"Well, where are they now? Lenore and Lauren."
I huff a nervous laugh through my nose. "I have no idea. The homeless shelter in the center of town is gone now, as I learned the day I got out of prison, and I have no way of finding them at this point."
"Crap! Raine," she shouts. "My dad did this to you. He destroyed your life."
"Yeah, he did," I tell her, calmly.
"I'm going to help you," Haven says.
"How?" I hate to remind her that she's in the same kind of shape I'm in now.
"I don't know how yet, but we're going to get your money back. I'll help you find Lenore and Lauren. I'm going to help you fix all of this, Raine."
I'm stifling the laughter threatening to erupt. There's nothing Haven or anyone can do. "Haven, I appreciate the offer, but I'm a realist, and I know there isn't much to be done now."
Haven looks down to her fidgeting fingers as she plucks at a thread from the tattered comforter. "I've been held back for years. I've been a puppet for everyone who has claimed to love me. I have kept my mouth shut in fear of acting out of sorts for the person I represent, but do you know who I truly am inside? The woman who has been beating the inside of my body senseless with a baseball bat trying to break free?"
"I may be scared to answer this question," I say, offering a small smile.
"First, I'm just going to let you know that I will skip over the part where I should be angry as hell at you for lying to me or keeping this secret all this time since…I deserve it. Second, I won't even tell you we're even, only because I was dumb enough to get caught in my lie. Clearly, you're a little smarter than I am. Third, my dad messed with the wrong person. When love is no longer involved in a matter, it becomes easier to do what needs to be done. And I don't love my father. Whether I'm supposed to or not, he has made it impossible."
The pinkness that had left her cheeks moments ago is returning now, quickly evolving into a dark scarlet hue. Haven stops pacing and makes her way over to the door without saying another word.I thought I was scared a minute ago, but now I'm more than a little concerned.
I step into my shoes and grab the key to the room before following Haven down the concrete steps. We walk in silence for several minutes, but I'm watching thoughts pass through her almost faster than the steps she's taking. "Haven," I call ahead to her.
"Come on," she says.
"Can you fill me in on what you're about to do?" I grab her by the elbow, stopping her from her fast pace. "Come on, you need to calm down for a minute."
She laughs, a laugh I've never heard from her. "No. I don't have to calm down for a minute. For twelve years, I have felt guilty for what my father has done, and I didn't even know who the hell he did it too. Now I know, he did it to the one person I have ever truly cared about, and he's going to pay." She releases a shuddered breath and pulls her arm from my grip.
"I just think we should plan this out—whatever you want to do—before we do it." I don't want to end up back in prison.
"So, my dad knows you are the person he stole from?" she asks.
"Yes," I respond, simply. Though, there is nothing simple about this.
"Why were you working for him as our gardener?" she asks, continuing to walk ahead of me.
"He felt sorry for me, offered the job, thinking I wasn't on to him, but just in need of any kind of work since no one would hire me around here without a diploma. But, I was on to him. He didn't know I had called the state to follow up on the debt your father accused my granddad of owing. It was all false information, but your father had already become a wealthy, well-known man with my money, and he was untouchable by a young, homeless, starving kid. A few years full of rage passed before my need for vendetta grew to a point where I had inappropriate thoughts of spying on him—waiting to find information to blackmail him with." Realizing how stupid my plan was, I digress for a moment. "I was dumb enough to think I could win it all back if there was just a little proof to prove my case, and mowing your lawn was the closest I could get to watching him."
Haven finally stops walking and turns around. "He must have known about us," she says. "That day I got you the second job, working for him…"
