Mrs.Funk had everyone in her house helping in one way or an other with getting dinner prepared, Annie was setting the table, Justin was helping his mother with some of the side dishes in the kitchen while Mr.Funk was teaching thier youngest how to mash some potatoes. Everyone is so caught up and what they were doing. They almost missed when the doorbell rang.
*Bing* Don*
" I'll get it, and Hank's coming too" Stated Annie has she took her little brother from her father than continued on to answer the door
" Grandma?!"
"Well, Let her in" Mrs.Funk says walking pass back into the dining room laughing
"Dad?!"
" Yeah?"
" Grandma's here"
Well, I would think so since your mother told us we'd be expecting her" replied Mr. Funk, laughing at his daughter statement
" no I mean- um Come in"
"Marie !" Shouted Miss Funk while coming out from the kitchen
" Mom?!" Questioned Mr. Funk in shock heading to the front door. " What are- How are-Are you-Where have you been been" He asked finally finding words
" i've been with a dear friend of mine, a friend who heard from a family member who heard from an old friend of your fathers who said you've been looking into your father's past he said that you found the boxes"
" we tried to talk to you about them and you said you didn't know what we were talking about" stated Justin
" because I didn't want to talk about them so I thought that if I said that you two would just drop it and not care so much"
" So you knew" mr. Funk replied in an upset tone
" Not at first, in fact, I didn't know about your father's secret life until I accidentally stumbled upon the boxes myself while I was searching for a holiday bowl your great grandmother passed down to us for Thanksgiving last year. After I found them, I went through most of the piles. I had just reached the one with the newspaper about the fire when your dad came down to see what was taking me so long and found me inside the hidden room. He freaked as I tried asking him about everything. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out then closed the room back up and shouted at me to forget what I saw."
" why didn't you report him to the cops" asked Mrs Funk
" I couldn't even if I wanted to James had things on most of the people in our lives, especially the police things he was blackmailing them on"
" What about when grandpa died couldn't you go then?" Asked Annie while letting her little brother down, who ran off to play
" that would meet, exposing all those others some of which come to our yearly Christmas parties meaning they know who all of you are I couldn't risk you all getting harmed"
" too late for that" Justin replied while gesturing to his arm
" Yes, I am so sorry about that. I truly wasn't aiming for you."
" Then who were you aiming for?" Mrs Funk asked.
" There was a man I thought might have been someone else from James's past. Apparently your grandfather made a deal with someone that as soon as he heard of his passing, he was supposed to come and collect those boxes and continue to blackmail all their friends. I thought he might also hurt me, so I panicked grabbed the gun from my purse and started shooting I didn't know I had hit you Justin until my friend told me about it"
