Braver Than I Used to Be

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ray and I decided we would take our significant others out to dinner for our birthday. Matthew had surprised me earlier in the day with a ring. One I had been eyeing the last few times we went to the mall. He said it wasn't an engagement ring, it was just a gift...that he had been fitted for my ring finger. Either way I didn't mind since I liked the ring.

Victor had gotten Ray the smartwatch he had been talking about getting for about a month. I think he just wanted one of us to get it for him for his birthday, so he was holding off on getting it for himself.

From conversations with both Ray and Victor I could tell the two of them were falling pretty hard for each other. Neither of them really wanted to admit it, but I could see it, the two of them completed each other in a way I couldn't. I knew it would be a while before they could admit it to each other, but I knew it wouldn't be long and that they would be together for a long time. Looking at them always made me just a tiny bit happier.

That night in bed I wanted to make sure I double checked with Matthew on a few things.

"You still like me, right?" I whispered to him.

"Oh God, not this again." He mumbled.

"Hey, it is senior year, I want to make sure."

"Yes, Rita I still love you. Yes, I still want to be with you. No, I don't think I will leave you or that you will leave me. Yes, we can name our first son after your brother."

I nodded confirmation. "Okay, perfect."

He laughed at me and fell asleep within minutes. Every few weeks I liked to confirm Matthew's feeling for me. Not that he acted different towards me or treated me and particular way, I just felt he was too good to be true. Every night we went to bed I wondered how I had gotten so lucky to land someone as kind, sweet and caring as Matthew.

And hour after he fell asleep, I was still having trouble sleeping, because I had decided that I would ask my Dad about what I saw when he got home, which was supposed to be tonight. I didn't want to do it, but it was getting to me really bad now and I knew I had no other choice but to ask if I wanted to bring myself back to the way I should be.

Around midnight, I heard him come home. I snuck out of bed and down to his room where I saw him putting his clothes away.

I knocked to get his attention and he turned to look at me. "Hey Ritakins, what are you doing up?"

"Waiting for you." I said innocently.

"What's on your mind?" he said sweetly.

I walked into his room and closed the door behind me. "There is something we need to talk about."

I took a seat on the couch he had in the room and his look changed to concerned as he took a seat on his bed.

"Go on." he said.

I took a deep breath because this is the most courage I have had to build up in my entire life. I was going to accuse my father of something that I was one hundred percent certain about now. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Now, I just wanted him to know that I knew, which was the scariest part.

"A few days ago, I came across something. I didn't mean to find it, but I did. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what it meant and had I not found this one name, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out. I tried to tell myself, there was no way my Dad could do this, but then I thought some more about it, and I realized that I didn't really know my Dad. He could be capable of anything in the world. I wouldn't have known what these names meant, had you not been so proud about your hit on Uncle Brian." His face had lost all color and he was completely silent and still. "As I was thinking about these numbers that I saw, I wondered what these larger numbers could possibly mean. Ten thousand was a big number, but it was subtracted from Uncle Brian's name, which I took to mean that you paid someone ten thousand dollars to kill him." My Dad started to look uncomfortable as I stared at him. "Considering you seem to usually pay five thousand for hits, if I am correct, that is a pretty steep. But I know why you paid such a high price. So, if the minus was you paying someone, then the plus sign was someone paying you. My next thought was, what could they be paying you for? Obviously, the same thing you paid them for. That was when our lives started to click together. The long trips out of town all the time, you telling us we needed to prepare for if something were to happen to you. Something is happening and you are preparing to leave." I stared over at him blankly. I said a lot and I sat there for the seconds it took him to start crying, hoping I was wrong.