40. Wildflower

40

Wildflower

Notes On My Sister's Car

I stand frozen at the kitchen window, watching some man I don't recognize lift my windshield wiper and slide a folded-up piece of paper beneath it.

I don't know why I don't chase after him—that's what my younger self would've done. I don't know why I don't yell for my sister, who's sitting ten feet away from me at the dining room table.

I don't feel fear, I don't feel alarmed or even surprised, though I should. I was so sure it was Tana and the parents from school fucking with me, but I don't know who this person is. I've never seen him at a function. I've never seen him anywhere.

I should feel anxiety crawling up my throat.

I've been getting stalked by someone who I now know is a stranger for months. Yet, I can't seem to find it in myself to care. I'm too numb. There is too much of it—too much to be afraid of, too much to think about. I don't have the energy to be afraid of this anymore, to even stop it.

"Hey, honeysuckle, have you seen my—" Leo's words halt as I hear him enter the kitchen. "Dahlia? Are you—" He stops short again as he steps up beside me. "Who is that?"

"I don't know." My tone is completely void of emotion.

"What is he doing?" His voice raises, concern edging his words.

"Leaving another note on my windshield."

Quicker than I can comprehend, Leo's darting through the dining room and throwing the front door open. "Leave the lights off," he says as my sister stands from the table, moving to follow him. "Stay inside!"

Darby freezes, head whipping to look at me with fear on her face. "What is going on?"

My eyes are dragged back to the window, where I watch Leo run down the front porch steps. The stranger sees him coming and turns to get away, but he has nothing on my brother-in-law.

It's completely dark outside. I was only able to catch the guy because I'd been grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen and left the lights off, giving me an illuminated view of the driveway.

My sister stands beside me, gasping as we watch Leo snatch the man by the back of his collar and throw him against the side of my car. He's pinned between Leo and the door as Leo says something, baring his teeth in the man's face.

That snaps something in me, and suddenly, I'm running through the kitchen and out the front door too. "Stay inside, Darby," I call.

"Oh, fuck off," she mutters, following me out.

I rush down the porch steps and close in on Leo, his voice ringing through the night. "I'm not going to ask you again. Why the fuck were you leaving notes on my sister's car?"

The guy is young; he can't be older than his early twenties. Dark hair slicked back beneath a baseball cap, his eyes shut tightly as he winces while my brother-in-law yells in his face. "I…I was told to."

"By who?" Leo growls.

"Can you…you're choking me," he grits out. I realize Leo has his fingers twisted in the boy's collar, straining his neck.

"I don't give a fuck. Tell me, are you the piece of shit who has been leaving these notes behind the whole time?"

The kid clenches his teeth, nodding as he shrinks beneath Leo's towering presence.

Leo grips him tighter. "I'm going to ask one more time. Why?"

"I…I do odd jobs. I have an online posting. I'll pick up any kind of work," he stutters between heaving breaths. "Sometimes, it's landscaping or under-the-table construction. Sometimes, it's…deliverables." He gulps. "A few months ago, a man responded to my ad and asked to meet up in Pacific Shores… He–he told me he would wire me money if I messed with someone a little bit, someone who wronged him."

I hear my sister's sharp inhale of breath behind me, the sound matching the sensation of my stomach dropping to the ground beneath me.

The guy gulps. "He'd wire me money with a memo. I was to translate that memo onto a piece of paper and put it on this car." He nods behind him. "He…also made me fuck with the spark plug once so…so it wouldn't start."

I think back to the car trouble I had all those months ago, Everett's confusion as to why the spark plug on a car as new as mine was so worn down. I'd never thought much of it.

"What's his name?" Leo seethes.

The kid flinches. "Ja–Jackson. He never gave me a last name."

"What?" my sister gasps.

Leo's head whips to us, eyes wide and wild. "I'm going to fucking kill him, Darby. I'm going to fucking kill that—"

"It's not Jackson," I say. "There is no way."

My sister's ex-fiancé is no winner, that's for sure. He's definitely manipulative and conniving enough to do something like this, but I know he didn't. Not to me. I know in his head he thinks he was wronged by Leo and Darby when she skipped town on the day of their wedding, but he wouldn't fuck with me. He'd go after my sister directly, and in all reality, I don't think he cared enough about her to go to such lengths for revenge.

"It's Dad," I whisper. Looking at the stranger, I raise my chin. "What did this man look like? And when did you meet up with him?"

He chews his lip. "Last year. Late summer. August, maybe? September. Sometime around then." Leo's practically shaking with rage, but I see his grip loosen just slightly. Taking a deep breath, the kid continues, "He was older. Mid-fifties, I guess? Blond-ish. Brown eyes. Mean as fuck looking."

I let out a sarcastic snort. "That's our daddy."

My sister lets out a long, devastated, defeated sigh. Leo looks gutted at the sound of it. He lets go of his hold on the kid as it's made clear he's nothing but a pawn, another victim of our father's manipulation and mind games.

Stepping back to give him space, Leo reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. Thrusting a wad of cash at the kid, he says, "Look. You don't accept any more of those jobs from Jackson . If he reaches out to you again, you come find me, and I'll pay you double whatever he does to tell me every detail."

He nods furiously. "I will. I'm…" Looking at me, he says, "I'm so sorry."

I dip my head in acknowledgment, and the kid turns to walk away. As he reaches the end of the driveway, a thought dawns on me. "The first note!" I call out. "I found it after a soccer game. How did you know where I was?"

"I came by early but noticed you walking out the door as I pulled up across the street. So I just waited until you left and then followed your car." He slips his hands into his pockets and drops his head. "Swear I wasn't stalking you guys all the time. Only when he told me to. I…I needed the money."

I don't know how else to respond, so I turn on my heel and head back inside the house, thankful my daughter sleeps deeply enough that this incident didn't wake her.

"Dahlia," my sister calls behind me, and I know what's coming next.

I run up the staircase, sneaking into my room to obtain the item I've been hiding in my bedside table for months now before making my way back downstairs where I know Darby and Leo will be waiting for me.

I reluctantly step into the kitchen to find the two of them leaning against the counter. Leo looks angry, but I know it's not aimed at me. His eyes soften with concern when they land on me. My sister's eyes are red with rage and the tears I know she won't allow herself to shed.

I silently slide the thumb drive in my hand across the counter until it glides to a stop in front of them. Both of them raise their heads, confusion on their faces.

"That's why," I whisper. " That is the reason for all of it."

"I think it's time you stop harboring whatever bullshit you've been keeping to yourself and tell us what the hell is going on," Leo says.

I nod, because my line has been drawn, and soliciting a stranger and telling them what kind of car I drive and where I live—where my daughter sleeps—is crossing it. My father thinks the only thing I've ever wanted is his acceptance, but he's dead wrong.

I want my child safe. Happy.

That need trumps all else, and he has called it into question too many times.

"That thumb drive contains files that compromise Dad and his entire company. Fraud. Embezzlement. Forged documents. Enough to put him away for quite some time. I found the information when I was still working for Andrews Development, and when I left town, I used it for blackmail so he wouldn't come after us." I swallow, looking directly at my sister. "So he wouldn't come after you."

"Dahlia…"

I cut her off as I spill everything I've been hiding the last few months. The conversations with my father and his threats. The reason he told Jason I left. The reasons why I kept it from them and why I was trying to protect them.

As I speak, my sister's tears begin spilling down her cheeks. Leo wraps her in his arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Her trembling body instantly stills at his touch, settling whatever war is raging in her mind. Suddenly, I miss Everett.

He's on a flight back from New York right now, his sister with him. He has enough going on with bringing her home, and I can't imagine what emotions that's going to stir up in all of them, but it doesn't stop me from wishing he was here to hold me too.

"We have to do something," she says, more to Leo than to me. "He can't keep doing this to us. I don't know why he won't let us go and leave us alone."

"Do you think he'd stop if you gave him those files back?" Leo asks quietly.

"No." I shake my head with confidence. "He told me that if I gave it back, he'd leave me alone, and he'd get Jason off my tail too. He point blank told me that he'd never give up on Darby, though." I chew on my inner cheek. "He sees Darby as his property, a cherished item you stole. He saw me as something he never asked for but couldn't get rid of."

I honestly don't know which one of us has it worse.

"I hate him," my sister chokes through her tears.

I don't have it in me to cry over that man anymore, but I say, "Me too."

I hate seeing her broken, especially when she has been fighting so hard to find her happiness, when she's come so far. I can't stand seeing her spiral.

Rounding the counter, I pull her from Leo's arms. He lets her go as she turns to face me, face falling into my shoulder. "It's okay, Darby," I whisper. "We'll figure it out. But we can't have you crying like this a week before your wedding." I force a smile on my face. "We've got too much to get done, and crying all the time is gonna make you puffy."

She lets out a broken laugh, nodding against my chest.

"Let's get you down the aisle first, and we'll deal with the rest of this bullshit later."

I meet Leo's eyes over the top of her head. Looking as devastated as I feel, he sends me a silent nod.