Forever and Always

Chapter 66 - The Real Stephanie

Levi stood close to me while we ascended the stairs, the strong smell of brownies wafting up with us. He was furiously typing on his phone, texting somebody with some sort of furious vigor. We reached Poppy's bedroom and I opened the door to reveal her mildly cluttered bedroom. "Just a second," Levi said. "You guys start without me, I have to make a phonecall." He jutted his chin towards the bedroom while he put his phone to his ear.

I nodded and closed the door, immediately curious of who he had to talk to instead of spending time with his daughter. I had to know what was going on. I looked at Poppy and held a finger to my lips while I pressed my ear to the door. Levi's muffled voice was what came through the thin door.

"I don't care how you are, Kenny. I'm not here to chit chat. I need info on this guy. Right now," Levi snapped quietly in the hallway. "Just type, asshole. I don't care about your early fucking snow storm." I knew it from the beginning. He was only that suspicious when he called Kenny. I wondered what they spent all that time talking about. Zeke Green seemed to be their topic of conversation that day.

"Daddy?" Poppy whispered. "Can we play barbies?"

"Just a second, baby. We can play in a second," I responded, holding my finger to my lips again. She smiled and nodded, tiptoeing to the other side of the room to retrieve her barbie dolls.

"It got where it needed to go, Kenny, for the last fucking time. Can we not talk about this right now? Yes, I'm sure it's the last one. I'm done with this. Eren doesn't deserve to have me lying to him about this anymore. I'm finished. Done. Over. Terminated. Stop making me take these shipments, Kenny. I don't work for you. Now who is Green? What'd he do? Why do I know him? Did he spend any time in New York? How the fuck do I know his face?" he said in a low, warning tone, but the only thing I could think about was that he lied to me. What had he done that he couldn't tell me about? I wondered, pushing my hand through my hair, immediately wishing I hadn't tried to eavesdrop.

Five minutes ago, I could trust everything that came out of Levi's mouth. Now, I wasn't sure if I could. I knew that Levi could never keep something dangerous from me, I told myself, though as far as I could remember, he seemed to only keep dangerous things from me. "Fucking Christ, Kenny. No. I was done in August, and I'm done, now-" He was cut off by something before continuing. "I don't care if it's ten racks, Kenny. I. Am. Finished. With. That. God, how many times do I have to fucking tell you?! I'm finished lying to Eren! Don't you understand that he is worth more to me than anything? I would stay alive for him."

Another pause. I couldn't believe he had lied to me. "Fuck you! Absolutely not. You will not bring him into this! Poppy either. This is a you and me conversation. They need no fucking part in it. Have you found anything on this guy?"

That time, the silence drew out. "Everybody's got fucking secrets, Kenny. You know that as well as I do. There's gotta be something. There's no way he's fucking clean if I know who he is," he snapped.

"Everything! Check everything! All your papers. Leave no fucking stone unturned. Because he's Eren's fucking brother. That's why. I need you to tell me if he's a fucking danger to this family, and what I need to do if he is." I was hurting my brain trying to piece it all together. "Because the only person I can trust to come to with this is you? Is that what you wanted to hear? Fine! Because you're my fucking uncle and I trust you with this kinda thing, and I know that you'll know what to do."

"Daddy, please," Poppy begged, tugging on my hands, trying to take me to her dollhouse.

"Just a sec, baby, I'm sorry." Poppy let out a loud sigh and sat down at my feet, wrapping her tiny little body around my calf, sitting down on my foot.