“Good idea,” Charles nodded, “when did you last speak to your sister?”
“We email most weeks; it’s been a while since I spoke to her though.”
“Us too,” Charles agreed, regretting how infrequently he and his wife talked to their only daughter. Her moving to Hawaii had been hard – particularly on Addison – their relationship with Jessie had been damaged as a result and that was hard to repair when conversations were only held over the phone.
“I’ll video call her now,” Samuel smiled, excited to speak to his sister again. He couldn’t help but worry about her. No matter how much he admired her bravery in moving away, she was still his baby sister and like with many other people, he felt a duty of care toward her. “Mom, can you move over a bit, please? Then I can position the camera to get us all in.”
Addison did as she was told, straightening the blouse she was wearing as the camera displayed the image of the three of them and the dial tone began. “Oh, perhaps you should change first, Samuel,” she fretted over her son’s appearance. “We’ve got some of your shirts in the guest closet upstairs.”
“It’s fine mom, Jessie isn’t going to care what I look like,” Samuel said just as the call connected.
“Aren’t I? Jeez what’s happened to you Sammy? It looks like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards!”
Samuel laughed, something that he realized he hadn’t done in several hours. It was revitalizing to see his sister’s face smiling up at him from the laptop, showing her sitting in her kitchen in Hawaii, the ocean just visible through the window behind her.
“Hey Jessie,” Samuel replied, “how are you? How’s it going?”
“Not bad,” Jessie replied, “well, aside from discovering all my money has vanished into thin air. What’s going on, Sam? Do you know what’s happened?”
“Hello Jessica,” Addison addressed her daughter, cutting into the easy conversation the two siblings were sharing. “You’re looking well.”
“Hey mom,” Jessie mumbled, her gaze lowered. Then she smiled and looked back at the screen. “Hi dad. Miss you guys.”
“We miss you too,” Charles replied, taking his wife’s hand and squeezing it just out of camera. “How is everything over there? I take it you’ve heard the news?”
“Yeah,” Jessie nodded. “I don’t really get what’s going on to be honest. Is the money gone forever or have they just, like, lost it?”
Addison and Charles both turned to Samuel, knowing the question was directed at him. Telling people the truth didn’t get any easier and Samuel was really hoping Jessie was the last person he would need to explain it to. He owed it to her though. She was his sister and what he said to her could quite seriously change her life over the next few weeks.
“We don’t know for sure yet,” he said. “But if I had to put my money on it, I’d say it’s gone. I don’t see us getting anything back from Trident. They’ve taken the site down. Sure, the initial statement blames ransomware, but it doesn’t make much sense to hold money as the ransom for more money. I think Trident is broke, which means roughly a third of the States are broke as well. This is bad, Jessie. What is local news over there saying about it?”
Jessie swallowed. If her brother thought this was bad, then it was probably worse. Samuel always tried to find a positive spin on things, he might not seem like it from the proper gentleman persona he carried, but inside he was a real softie. He wanted the best for everyone, and he wanted people to be happy, if there was a way of sugar-coating bad news or avoiding it completely, Samuel would do it. To see him completely ignore all of those traits and just get straight to the point was sobering. It made Jessie realize just how much trouble they were all in.
“No one really understands it to be honest, Sam. It’s one thing saying all the money is gone, but another putting that into perspective. Like, how many things are going to change? Some people are trying to get off of the island, but mostly people are just confused and scared. We obviously fall into the latter category.”
“Oh Jessica,” Charles couldn’t help the concern and compassion he felt for his daughter, worrying about what was going to happen to her. “I hope you’re okay.”
“I wish you’d never gone to that stupid island,” Addison muttered under her breath with a shake of her head.
“Thanks mom,” Jessie replied sarcastically. “Art and the boys are fine by the way, thanks for asking.”
Addison tutted at the remark.
“It’d be nice if you could come and visit your grandchildren sometime,” Jessie continued. “I want my kids to have a relationship with you.”
“If you wanted us to have a relationship with your children, you wouldn’t have moved them nearly five thousand miles away.”
“When are you going to understand that I didn’t move out here to spite you? I love you and all but funnily enough you’re not always my number one priority.”
“I’m not saying that, Jessica. I’m just saying that it’d be nice if –”
“Well just don’t, mom,” Jessie cut off her mother. “Just give it a rest, will you?”
The tension in the drawing room of the Freeport house was palpable, Samuel pursing his lips to keep quiet and Charles squeezed his wife’s hand tighter and tighter in an attempt to calm the unrest between her and Jessie. Almost every conversation between them seemed to dissolve into this nowadays, the two of them unable to put aside their differences and just focus on being a mother and daughter again.
“So, what’s the deal, Sam?” Jessie turned her attention away
