“Don’t blame yourself for that. Your grandparents called them about a runaway minor! They would have talked to the guardians of that minor either way. We’re lucky she showed up at your place first, so we have some time to prepare.” she assured me. “I’ll call them as soon as we hang up and take care of it tomorrow. Who knows how soon she’ll show up. But, on another note of people showing up, ... one of Bill’s boys came by the houses today to install surveillance systems. We thought you would be the one doing that.”
“Yeah, that was the plan. But I just ... I don’t know ... I just didn’t want to go back.”
“What do you mean?” I could hear she was trying hard to sound casual now.
“You know how much I’ve enjoyed the renovation?” I asked, and heard her confirm it with a chuckle. “When I was done with everything ... well, done for now at least ... I just walked around the apartment for a good hour, enjoying how it all looked. I feel good here! This is all mine! If I didn’t build it myself, I paid for it with the money I earned. And just thinking about leaving that for a house I have no connection to anymore, and the people I have so many bad memories with ... makes me feel like I have a lump in my throat.”
“Still that bad, huh?” she asked in a sad tone.
“I’ve been out of there for a week, Danny. And in that week I felt better than I have since ... since I lived with Tess, actually. Give me some time.”
“Sorry.”
“You know, I met Ava today.”
“What? In school? Aren’t you still sick?”
“No, not in school. The guy who came to your house was supposed to meet a new client today, but since we switched, I was the one meeting that client. Turned out that the client was the mother of one of Ava’s friends. She visited that friend this afternoon, while we were there.”
“Oh?”.
“Remember how she claimed to want me in her life the day I left, but I just asked how long it would last?”
“Yeah. She was actually quite upset that you didn’t believe her.”
“Really? Well, guess who’s back to being ‘Tiny Tim’, just a week after her declaration.”
“No! You’re shitting me!” she sounded genuinely upset now.
“I told you this would happen. I’m not going to get them presents every few days to rent their affection.” There was a moment of silence while I waited for her to respond. When she didn’t, I spoke again. “I just can’t imagine that it’s going to be any different with the rest of them. When I left, they kept saying how concerned they were for me ... and then you’re the only one that tried to at least call me?”
“Well, that is actually a lot more complicated than you think, Tim.”
“How?”
“The way you left, they all understood that you simply can’t trust them anymore. That your image of them is so bad by now, you just can’t blindly believe what they say. They just don’t know how to prove it to you.” Danielle explained. “For now, they decided to at least respect your wishes and somehow slowly regain your trust. Well, at least most of them did. Your grandparents think it’s best to try and resolve it as soon as possible, and by whatever means necessary, because they still see you as just a kid who doesn’t know how the world works. Trust me, it’s pretty hard on Claire and John. They believe what I told them, but Susy and Mike keep pestering them to take action. And Claire really misses you, so she has to make quite the effort to not just show up at your apartment and spy through your windows.”
That was interesting. I actually never thought about what would have to happen for me to trust them again. I kind of just accepted that this would take a long time to fix, if it was possible to fix it at all.
“The social services Lady said I should try getting emancipated.” I finally announced, causing her to sigh. “And, I don’t know ... I’m gonna talk to a lawyer tomorrow, but if it’s really true, and they’re really just looking for ways to fix our relationship ... Maybe it would help either way, though? I wouldn’t feel pressured if I knew I had an Out if it went bad again.”
I didn’t tell her how I also wanted emancipation as a security net. In case the family was caught in their incestrous escapates, I would be independent and wouldn’t have to worry about social services shipping me off somewhere.
“Are you ... can you at least think about coming back for Christmas?” she finally asked, and I had to think about that for a while. I could imagine spending Christmas with her, and maybe even John and Maggie, but the rest of them?
“I don’t know. There are a few guys at work in similar situations that can’t or won’t celebrate with their families, so they’ll celebrate together. I thought I’ll join them this year.”
It was a lie, of course. I hadn’t talked with anyone about Christmas yet, since I had barely talked to anyone from the office in the past month. My actual plans for Christmas Eve were to do what I did last year as well, when Tess was with her Family: Watch ‘Home Alone’, ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’, and ‘Die Hard’ - In that order - before I’d simply go to bed. I think I sounded convincing, though.
“Think about it, Okay? We’d love to have you over. I know you have no reason to believe me, but they really want to prove themselves to you.” she said in a hopeful voice.
“I will. But now I gotta prepare something for work and make myself some dinner. Talk tomorrow and tell me how it went?”
“Sure. Bye, Tim.”
After we hung up, I went back outside and finally retrieved my sports bag and the stuff for tomorrow from the car. I simply didn’t want to carry all the stolen cash around while that woman was sniffing around my apartment. With some dinner, I got to work while eating.
I reconfigured the discarded router to create the public WiFi and set its transmission power to twenty percent for now. Then I plugged an LTE stick in, so it would have internet access to send the push notifications about new connections, but set it so the connected devices wouldn’t have actual access to the internet. I thought about using this opportunity to gain access to the guy’s phone the same way I had with the people in the sports bar, but ultimately decided against it. This time, we needed evidence that was admissible in court, so I shouldn’t mess around or get carried away...
After everything was set up, I fixed and glued the loose components to the 3D printed box. Since I used transparent filament for the print, the independent parts and circuit-boards were all partly visible, and it really looked like something I completely made myself. I could just place it near their patio door in the morning, plug the power cord in, and connect with my phone to adjust the transmission power. I went to bed, knowing the next day would start early and be long.
Chapter 13
I knocked on the door of the Miller’s house at Six the next morning, and was quickly greeted by Michael, one of our men who got the first assignment to watch their house.
“Morning, Tim!” he greeted me, as he stepped to the side to let me pass.
“Morning, Michael! Living the life, I see?” I greeted him back after noting the dark circles under his eyes.
“Your sister’s evil, man.”
“I might have a court hearing sometime soon you could attest in.” I said. “What happened?”
“The Cheerleaders had a sleepover. And they had a lot of fun teasing me.” he explained carefully, eyeing my reaction.
“If that’s your way of feeling me out, to know if you’re allowed to tap that ... I really don’t care. She’s old enough to make her own bad decisions.” I answered dryly, noting that she probably didn’t know about Danielle’s coaching session, yet, if she spent the night here. When we reached the living room, I could see Mia, Ava and Joan sitting at the dining table, having their breakfast while watching us. “When’s your replacement due?”