"Thank you." She smiles at me.
The timer rings for the oven and she gets up to pull out the mac and cheese. If she won't dig any further into this car accident, then I will.
I walk into the house with the tray of mac and cheese and find everyone seated around the kitchen table.
"Do you not check your phone?" Em snarls and I cringe. I fucking forgot to check it before I left.
"Sorry Babe," I shrug. "I was having a little talk with Ma."
"She's okay?" The anger is forgotten and true concern shines from her eyes.
"Yeah." I hold up the tray. "She sent mac and cheese. I also have a story to tell you all."
"We found some shit we need to talk to you about, too." Travis nods.
I sit at the table and Emmett opens the tray, eating it straight from the dish, so we all join in the same.
"What did you talk about?" Em asks.
"About my Nana and Grandpa." I look up into Em's wide eyes. "Your grandparents too."
I watch as they look at each other and then Travis says, "we want to talk to you about that. We opened the file containing the car accident involving E's grandparents."
"I know," I nod. "Nana was in there too. She worked for them and they were going for their weekly lunch."
"That's the connection." Em's shoulders deflate with relief. "I read the official report and saw she was the third victim in the car. I was worried she was there against her will."
"There are some weird circumstances concerning our grandparents, I wish Debra and Scott were here to fill in the blanks." I tell her.
"Like what?" Adri asks.
"How my grandfather died is one. There was a hunting trip and Jack returned to say my Grandfather was accidentally killed."
"What?" Em gasps.
"Yeah and everyone was just like 'oh okay cool' carry on."
Em gets up from the table and brings the box we got from McKay over.
“There’s a few redacted reports in here and some pictures of recovered teeth that match dental records. So, we can confirm they are all actually dead and this wasn’t a cover up orchestrated by my grandfather.” Em says as she hands me some photos. “The car was burnt completely to the frame, which really makes no sense without an accelerant.”
“It really does look like someone tried to cover up the fact that they were killed, but if Raphael really did it then why would they cover it up?” Travis asks.
“Because this little town doesn’t handle scandal so well.” Adri chimes in. “They would all rather bury their heads than to deal with anything like that. Look at my parents, they rarely come home.”
She has a point.
“Plus, if our grandfather was as fucked up as everyone is saying then I can’t really see them trying to investigate too much. More of a good riddance attitude.” Emmett adds.
“That’s also true.” I nod. “The question is, do we want to blow this shit wide open?”
“Do you want to? It was your nana in there.” Em asks.
“I would like to know why she had to die.” I admit.
“We’ll find out then.” She lifts the paper. “The prior fire chief is someone by the name of John O’Conner.”
“He passed away a few years ago,” Travis says. “Remember they had that parade?” He asks Adri.
“Oh yeah.” She nods.
Em continues to read the paper, “the prior police chief was Carl Halbert… wait.”
“Shit! How did I forget that?” Travis slaps his hand to his head. “Coach Halbert’s father was chief of police.”
“Explains why things were covered up and swept under the rug when it came to the rapes.” I growl.
“I don’t know how much he’ll remember,” Travis says. “But he’s alive in a nursing home.”
“We’ll pay him a visit.” Em grins.
“You’re not going to scare the shit out of an old man, are you?” Emmett questions Em.
“I’m not above making him shit his geriatric diapers if that’s what needs to happen.” She cackles and Adri joins in.
“Coach used to make the team do charity games to donate to the nursing home.” Travis tells us.
“Em, you stay here and relax. It’s been a long day and you need to rest.” I smile at her. “I think Travis and I can deal with this one tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Travis nods.
“Okay.” Em says around a mouthful of mac and cheese.
“Adri and I will check in on Marlana tomorrow.” Emmett adds in. “Make sure she showers and eats something.”
“I’ll even smack her around a bit if I have to.” Adri grins.
It’s scary how much Em is rubbing off on her.
"Anything interesting in the storage unit?" I ask Travis and Emmett.
"Nah," Emmett shakes his head. "I did bring back some books though, these are classics and worth a lot. It would look good in our library."
"Cool." Em nods.
"Okay little one," I stand up from the table and bend down to scoop Em into my arms. "Bedtime."
"You still smell like burning McKay." She chuckles as she breathes in my neck.
"That's just gross." Emmett screws up his face.
We both chuckle as I carry her up the stairs and into her room-soon to be our room-and lay her on the bed.
"I'm sorry for what my family has done to yours." She whispers, her voice pained.
"Don't apologize for things out of your control and we really don't know what happened." I try to soothe her pain.
I can see her mind is tortured and when something bothers my girl, she doesn't let it go until she's rectified it to her liking. I wish I could convince her more, make sure she knows this isn't her burden to bear, and that no matter what, I can see her soul's worth.
I crawl up her body and settle between her legs, pulling her face to mine.
"I love you Emberlise Craven." I kiss her nose.
"You called me Emberlise." She breathes.
"Because I’m being serious, Baby.
