Connected 2 You

Good Plan?

3 days. That was what we had agreed upon. Or rather, that was what we had compromised down to. From the Captain's insistence for ten days, to my arguing that we needed to move as quickly as possible, which meant the next day. Everyone had agreed that 3 days would allow time for me to get more rest and to continue healing, and that they would be able to run down the last few leads that they had on my parents' accident.

It had gone incredibly slow, too. All I was allowed to do was walk around the apartment doing nothing, waiting for what seemed like years to pass by. Thinking that every call or phone vibration was something important moving the timeline up by days, hours, or minutes.

But, they weren't.

Now, exactly three days later, I stared up at the house in front of me. Fitting that the beginning would also be the end. I was certain that what Rena wanted sat here in the Lee Estate, safely nestled away and out of sight for the past 7 years. I walked up to the front door and slowly opened it up.

Rena sat on the stairs watching the door and held up her wine glass in greeting. She then took a sip as I closed the door behind me.

"I knew you would be back." She smiled. "You're so much smarter and stronger than anyone ever gave you credit."

Static crackled in my ear. They were almost in range.

I took a few steps closer to her. "You're responsible for my parents death, aren't you?"

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before her smile grew wider and she slowly tilted her head to one side. "I see you have the pieces of the puzzle almost completely together now."

She took another sip from her wine glass and leaned back against the steps.

I thought that I would feel better after hearing her confess to everything, but I almost felt sadder. I thought that finally solving the puzzle would be like a triumphant defeat. Instead it was a heavy feeling that settled into my chest.

"They never loved you like I would have." She set the glass on the step. "Like I do. We were meant to be a family, but you slipped away from me."

"Why?" I didn't really care to know, but the word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

She sat forward. "I saw the potential that you had. One of the brightest coding minds that Korea had ever seen. One that no doubt would have shocked the world. Each time I saw you, I marveled at how lucky your parents must have been for having you. And yet, every time I expected to see pride in their faces all I saw was disgust. Their faces dimmed at each competition, and I watched as they slowly stopped caring about your interests and passions."

What was the saying? The truth is the hardest pill to swallow?

"I talked with your mother once. All she could talk about was how your brothers were going to take the world by storm. How smart that they were, and how they would eventually have wonderful families. As they got older, your parents no longer saw you."

She was good, but nothing she was saying had been new news to me. I had watched the same things that she had. Only, I was the one who had lived through everything. I had watched as each ribbon or trophy no longer excited them like it had in the past. I had lived through the complaints of 'another tech thing'. I listened to every excuse about not being able to make it to an event.

"When I asked your mother about you, about how proud of you that she was, she just scoffed. She said that you had no future in coding. You would never be able to thrive in that environment. You would never be able to become a wife or a mother if you stayed in competitions. She told me all of that and then told me that you would no longer be competing."

I blinked a couple times. "But, you saw me. Didn't you Rena?"

Her eyes softened. "I silently cheered for you in every competition, even if I was a judge. I felt a sense of pride every time you presented your work. You were incredible and so confident in your own abilities. You were supposed to come with me. You would have flourished if things had worked out the way that they should have."

She looked down sadly.

"It was you who sent me the party invitation."

She looked back up and nodded. "I called the police after you arrived as well."

"You wanted them gone." I said softly.

She stood up. "You didn't deserve to be held back by anyone. I wanted you to reach your full potential. I wanted you to be loved for being yourself and for doing what it was that you loved doing. I wanted the two of us to be together. If that meant that they were out of the picture then so be it."

Static crackled in my ear again and a voice filled my head. "What...doing...not....plan." They were getting closer.

"I know what it is that you want."

Rena came down the last two steps to stand in front of me. "Really?"

I nodded. "You have only been looking out for me this entire time. They want to control me and you want me to realize my full potential. I know what the lock is now."

The corner of her mouth twitched up into a smile. "You're ready to become a lioness instead of a collared lapdog?"

I nodded. "I'm nothing but a tool to them. You were right. You have always been right. They don't trust me."

She put a hand on my arm and squeezed it. "They swooped you up from the hospital and put you right into an interrogation room."

I nodded again. "I did so much more with you, during that week, than I had done in years. And, I can do so much more for you. They want to chain me to a computer monitor and to press two buttons for the rest of my life. They want me to be a good little girl, to be safe, and to be uncomplicated. But-" I looked down. "That's not what I want."

Rena lifted my face up to hers. Her eyes searched mine, looking for cracks in my own confession. "I want to have freedom with you. I want to see the world." I continued.

I felt a hot tear roll down my cheek. Everything that I was saying was the truth. I wanted to do so much more. I had always looked after the people I loved and had never given myself any second thought. I had goals and I had dreams too. Didn't I deserve to have my own life? Didn't I deserve the chance to make the choices in my life? Didn't I deserve the chance to do so much more?

"I want to prove to you that I want to stay with you."

Confusion crossed over Rena's face. "What do you mean?"

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the battery pack that had been sitting there. "They think that I am on their side. They think love ties me unconditionally to them. They think I am playing a lost girl who was all mixed up with the wrong people."

I unclipped the microphone wire. "When in reality, you have been the most honest person I have ever met."

I set the battery pack in her hand. "I am with you."

A voice whispered in my ear. "Don't you dare."

I reached up and took out the in-ear. I dropped it into Rena's hand. "They are on their way back here."

Rena nodded. "I figured that they would be."

"I can still get you what you want. You can still get out of here, but we need to move quickly."

She looked down at the electronic devices in her hand, then she looked back up at me. "And what about you?"

"I am going to leave everything behind and I will join you anywhere in the world." My own eyes searched her face. "I am with you."