The Elites

Flares

"Did you break but never mend?
Did it hurt so much you thought it was the
End?
Lose your heart but don't know when
And no one cares, there's no one there"

"Flares" – The Script

"Okay, so what's the plan now?" I ask Hope as we stand in her dad's office. It wasn't hard getting past security, considering Hope is the daughter of the CEO. Does Hope have any idea of what we're looking for? Do we even know what we're doing?

Even if we find someone who could have kidnapped Hope, proving it is a whole other challenge. The kidnapper was smart enough to not leave anything that tied them to the crime, the police don't seem to have any idea who they are. Even if my dad worked with criminals and they carried out the kidnapping after his death, Melissa still has no idea who these people are.

"Look for anything that looks suspicious or that you think could help us figure this out" Hope informs me and she heads over to her dad's laptop. "What do you think his password is?"

"How on earth would I know that? You should try your birthday" I reply as I open a drawer and start looking through piles of paper. Hope groans as she guesses the wrong password, it's hard to say if his password will be something personal, or if it'll be something hard to guess.

"Well, it's not Salvatore's birthday" Hope comments, rolling her eyes. "What's the point of having a favorite child if you don't use their birthday as your password?"

"I thought Eleanor was the favorite child" I say as I look through documents, they're all to do with clients so far, nothing that can give us any clues to the identity of Hope's kidnapper. Hope's parents do seem to take Salvatore with them when they have to travel, but I assumed it was because he was only eleven, not because he was the favorite.

"She was mom's favorite" Hope says, sounding distracted as she keeps guessing passwords. "I used to always joke with the twins about how we needed each other because we weren't anyone's favorites." Hope does seem quite close to Mason and Logan, maybe that's why. I think it's also because she was nicer than Eleanor, so they would have gone to Hope when they needed something. I never had to compete with a sibling for my parents love or affection, I've always wondered if I'd be different if I had a sibling.

"Try Eleanor's birthday" I suggest, as I grab out a folder, I sit down as I start opening it. This would be easier if Andrew labelled his folders, it's like he is prepared for people breaking in and snooping through his belongings.

I pull out Hope's birth certificate and frown. Melissa and Andrew are listed as Hope's birth parents, despite the fact that she was adopted. Did they make a fake birth certificate to show relatives? I shove it up and pull it into my pocket, not wanting Hope to see it.

"I'm in" Hope announces, turning to face me. "Is there anything interesting in the folder?" What happens if I tell Hope about her birth certificate and she confronts her parents? It seems really weird that there is a birth certificate where Hope's adopted parents are listed as the parents on her birth certificate.

"I haven't found anything" I say, deciding to keep it from Hope. This is raising a lot of red flags for me, so I need to investigate it, just to make sure that nothing fishy or illegal has happened. "What will you say if one of your coworkers mentions that we were in here?" The last thing I need is for him to realize Hope's birth certificate is missing.

"I'll say I needed to get a document for school, I come here a lot so it should be fine" Hope assures me, still distracted by looking through files on her father's laptop. "Uh, Juliet, I think you'll want to see this." I head over to Hope and look at the laptop screen.

"Dad" I say, stating the obvious. Why does Andrew Flynn have photos of my dad when he was alive? "He got someone to follow my father." Hope scrolls through all the photos and mom is in a few, too. I'm not in any of them, which isn't surprising.

"There's pictures of your parents out at dinner, why would he want photos of that? They're alone" Hope says, sounding just as confused as I am. Tears blur my vision, my parents look so alive and happy in these photos.

"Do you think he knew that my dad was planning to kidnap you and El?" I ask, my heart sinking. Hope's dad couldn't have been involved in my parents death, he just couldn't be. He wouldn't risk going to jail, he'd just hire people to watch his children.

"Dad isn't a murderer, Juliet, I have no idea why he has these pictures but he wouldn't cause a car accident" Hope tells me, sounding sure. Hope is right, I can't imagine that he would risk everything just to kill my father.

"Wait, go back" I order, something catching my eye. Hope does and she returns to a photo of my parents sitting in a restaurant, I feel a pang in my chest as I realize that was my favorite restaurant. I wish I could go back in time and stop my parents from going out. "Look at the background."

"Eleanor and Scarlet are sitting at the table right behind your parents" Hope says, why was Eleanor in Seattle? "I remember this, Eleanor and Scarlet went away for a long weekend. Dad was furious when he found out they booked plane tickets to Seattle, he said Seattle was a dangerous place and Eleanor had no right to be there."

"Okay, we need to talk to Scarlet, Eleanor didn't randomly pick Seattle for a road trip, she must have known what my dad was planning" I demand, if I find out that Hope's dad was responsible for my dad's death, he's going down. I don't want to hurt Hope, but he can't get away with taking my parents lives. He needs to live with the consequences of what he did.

"Your dad was dead long before the death of Eleanor, how is this going to help us at all?" Hope asks me, it might not help us but we are stumbling around blind. We need something to hold on to and this might be it.

"We have no clue what is going on, Hope, this could lead us to the answer. If Eleanor knew something about my dad's illegal actions, maybe someone who could have been implicated decided to murder her, kidnapping you could have been a warning because your dad had my dad followed" I say firmly, we can't let this go, Hope deserves to know who killed Eleanor and I deserve to know what the hell my dad was doing.

I go through the rest of the photos, wishing I could go back to any of these moments. Sometimes I would refuse to go out for dinner, I said I had too much homework. I thought I was going to my parents around for a long time, I didn't realize the time I had with them was limited.

"Do you want me to email any of these to you?" Hope asks softly, glancing up at me from where she's seated. I shake my head, I don't want these pictures, it will just remind me that my parents weren't who they thought I was.

"We should leave" I say, logging out of the laptop. Hope doesn't argue and follows me out of the room. I cannot wait to see if Scarlet can shed some light on this situation, I really want to know how my parents were involved with the Flynns, and why Andrew had them followed.

"I can talk to Scarlet alone if you want time alone, I can drop you at my place if you want to be alone, nobody's home" Hope offers as we climb into her car. It won't make any of this easier, I still have no idea how I feel about the entire situation.

"I'm good" I say, smiling at Hope. Will I ever be ok again? I don't know if I can get over this, too many secrets are being exposed, I don't know if I can ever accept that my dad was a criminal. "Can I talk to her alone? It might be easier."

"Alright, I need to study for biology anyway" Hope says in agreement. It'll be easier for Scarlet to tell me what Eleanor was doing without Hope, Hope isn't rational when it comes to Eleanor, she's protective and doesn't like seeing Eleanor in a negative light.

*Author's Note* What do you think?