Thanksgiving

Chapter 9

I gasp. "Your father? But I thought..." and then it hits me that I had never thought about Christian's birth father. I knew about the pimp who beat his mom and put cigarettes out on young Christian, but the thought of his actual father never crossed my mind.
"You thought I was dead?" the man says, years of smoking made evident in his rasping tone.
"I apologize," I say sadly. I look from the man to Christian and back again and pick up on some family resemblance.
"It's fine – most people probably think I am," says Marcus.
"Do you want to come in? Take a load off?" I ask.
"Ana, this is not my father. My father is Carrick Grey. I don't intend to welcome this man into my life, and most definitely not into my home now," he says harshly looking at Marcus.
"Ok, but he's obviously come a long way. Maybe he'd like to have a seat?" I ask.
"Oh no, ma'am. I don't mean to cause any trouble here. I knew this would probably happen. I just wanted to introduce myself."
"Where are you staying?" I ask.
"I'm living with my son and my daughter in town. I was here yesterday but couldn't bring myself to knock. Then today when I came on the property a gentleman came to me and lead me up here. He said he saw me on the cameras," he smiles. "This place is like Fort Knox," he says looking around as if he were in a large ornate palace instead of outside. He looks at Christian and his eyes light up. "I've been keeping track of you young man, ever since I learned where you ended up. I even made the family move here as soon as I could afford it. Just to be closer to you. It's taken 20 years to get up the nerve to come to you." He says. "You're a big time zillionaire. I'm very proud of you, son."
"I'm not your son," says Christian as his hand grasps my waist harder.
"I see," says Marcus sadly as the sparkle of hope in his eyes fades. "I'll be on my way then. Thank you for taking the time to see me. I parked near your gate – is there a way I can get through that way or should I climb through the bushes again?"
I look at Christian disbelieving that he's going to let this man walk out of his life. "Yes, I'll drive you down," I say as I start to turn to get my keys.
"Like hell," says Christian. "I'll take him," he says angrily and walks in the house to get the keys himself.
"My apologies," I say to Marcus. "This may take some time for him to adjust to. What is the address to where you're living?" I ask as I pull out my phone to take down the information.
"251 Main Avenue," says Marcus who then gives me his phone number.
Christian walks out of the house with my keys and without a word steps off the porch and goes toward my Saab. I watch Marcus limp to the top of the steps and notice for the first time that he is carrying a cane. I offer my arm to help him down the two steps and then he walks to the car where Christian is waiting.

Instead of going back in the house I sit on one of the wooden rocking chairs that flank the front door and wait for Christian to return. After 15 minutes or so, I go into the house and look at the monitor near the door to see if he is still there. There are a few cameras that are pointed to the front gate ensuring all angles are covered. Flipping through the camera views I can see an old El Camino parked on the street near the driveway but there is no sign of my Saab, Christian, or Marcus.
Just as I'm about to turn away from the monitor, a familiar Audi SUV pulls up and I watch Sawyer enter the code for the gate. Right behind him, is a 2nd SUV which I'm sure will contain Bryan. They live next door to each other and I assume they left at the same time. I decide to wait for them to pull up and continue to watch the monitor for signs of Christian. Before entering his code at the gate, Bryan gets out of his vehicle and walks to the El Camino and looks inside. He walks out of view of the camera, but I can tell he's walking around the car. When he comes back into view of the camera he pulls out his phone and takes a picture of the license plate. He's so on the ball. When he goes back to his SUV, I press the intercom button and tell him I've got the gate and open it for him.
In the meantime, Sawyer has pulled into his spot in the driveway, next to Miss Evelyn's rickety 1979 imitation wood paneled Ford Fairmont. Christian offered her a new Audi Allroad Station Wagon to replace it but she refused claiming her car worked just fine and when it was time to replace it, she wanted something American made.
Sawyer steps out of the car and looks behind him waiting for Bryan. "He was taking pictures of the car at the end of the drive," I say, stepping out onto the porch.
"I was going to ask if anyone knew whose that was." He says.
"Can you track my car from your SUV?" I ask.
"No ma'am," he says as he steps up to the porch. "Is there something wrong?"
I look at my phone for the time and note that it's nearly 3:30 and that the Taylors would be leaving soon. "Wait for Bryan to get in here and we'll have a meeting in Taylor's office," I say. I'd never called a meeting before. I felt important.
Bryan arrives and starts to ask about the car but I interrupt him. "I know, we need to meet in the CCTV room." I say, and walk into the house with the men behind me.
The living room, kitchen, and dining room are silent. There is no noise coming from my children that I can hear. This always makes me nervous even when I know they're in capable hands.

We walk to the CCTV room down the back hallway and can hear Jason and Gail speaking animatedly through the cracked door about the fact that I was forcing him to take a vacation. When I knock on the door I startle both of them. I eye Jason and hope that my feelings of anger are legible in my furrowed brow. I've never had a problem with him but he was really pissing me off lately. "Are you two packed?" I ask trying to play innocent.
"Yes ma'am," says Gail. "We'll be leaving in about 20 minutes. Evelyn is up to date on what is needed around the house while I'm gone."
"Thank you," I say. I turn to Jason. "Is Sawyer up to date on everything?"
"Everything except for the man who was at the door." He says.
"I will fill them in on that. You are not to worry about it. You are officially free from your duties here until you come back next Monday morning. You too, Gail."
"But, I need to tell..."starts Jason.
"You need to do absolutely nothing but take your luggage to your car and go pick up your daughter. We will be fine. Now go," I say.
"Where is Mr. Grey? I need to debrief him before I leave."
I was hoping I could get them out of the house before he learned that I had lost my husband. I had a pretty good idea of where he had gone but wanted to get my hands on the monitors that Jason seemed to guard with his life.
"Christian stepped out for a bit. He'll be back later. You can text him your debriefing when you get to the airport," I say trying not to sound worried. "Now go, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, give Sophie a kiss from all of us, and I'll see you in a week," I say with a little more anger than authoritativeness. I need to work on that.
Jason and Gail both freeze, stunned that I would be so aggressive with them. "Go!" I say startling them out of their momentary paralysis and they both head out of the room. "Gail," I say before she leaves the room.
"Yes ma'am?" she turns to me.
"Have fun. I love you guys." I say as I give her my second one-sided hug of the day. What's gotten into me? I can't tell if I'm going hard or soft.
"Thank you," she says touching my elbow. "Really." That tone in her voice with that one word told me I was doing the right thing.
Once they had left the room, I quickly fill Bryan and Sawyer in on Christian and his father. "He took my car and drove Marcus to the gate and when I looked at the monitor to see where he was, they were gone, and Marcus' car was still there."
Both men started to stir nervously. Their training starting to kick in. Sawyer immediately sits down at the bank of monitors, taps briefly into the keyboard and pulls up a map with several dots. He studies it briefly and points to a pink dot. "This is your car," he says.
I look carefully at the screen. "What is that address?" I ask seeing Main Street labeling the green line indicating the road.
Sawyer taps a few more buttons on the keyboard and an address pulls up. "251 Main Street."