Page 43 of Heartless Legacy

“This is your boat. You can do whatever you want.”

“This is your space, Thea, and I respect that. If you tell me to stand, I’m happy to stand.”

“You can sit.” I straighten on the couch, tucking my blanket under my feet, to give him more room. I appreciate how he isn’t pushy and doesn’t demand that I treat him a certain way. Other than the initial acknowledgment of him being my grandfather, he hasn’t even mentioned that we’re related. He insists I call him Alexz, but it’sOperations, orSirto everyone else, and treats me like I’m a guest, but also one of his crew.

“I want to show you something,” He says, placing the folder full of photographs on the table in front of me. Wolfe takes the chair on my right. The first photo Alexz hand me is of a bunch of kids. It takes me a while to realize I’m in it. I’m so little, but I remember those purple polka dot ribbons that I wanted to wear all the time, even when they clashed with my yellow sunshineshirt. I flip the picture over and see the name of the daycare center.

“I remember this picture day. I was so excited that mom said I could wear the yellow sunshine shirt, my flower glasses, and my jacket and boots with my purple hair bows.”

“Very cute outfit.” Wolfe says, not bothering to hide his laughter.

“Right? I was rocking my cowgirl bumble bee color scheme.” I study the picture a little longer. I remember taking the pictures, but I never saw them. “This was a good day. We went to see Disney on Ice, then out to dinner afterwards, and she let me order onion rings.”

Alexz hands me another picture. It’s of me in front of the Disney on Ice sign. Then he gives me a third picture taken a few weeks later at the zoo. Mom snapped a picture of me while I was watching the elephants. There’s a second picture where mom must’ve stepped back a little to get more of the elephant in the frame. She’s captured a woman in the background.

I flip back to the Disney on Ice picture. The same woman is in it, off to the side. The date on the pictures shows they were taken a month apart. At first glance, it looks like mom has accidentally caught her in the frame, but when I compare the two, I see she’s intentionally added her to the one from the zoo. “This woman was at both places at the same time we were.”

“Three.” Alexz says, handing me another photo. “We believe this photo is outside of one of the places where Hailee worked.”

Looking up at him, I ask, “How do you have these photos if you weren’t shadowing us when I was a kid?”

“The insurance company collected them for me.”

“What insurance company?”

“The one working on the claim for the water damage at your storage unit.”

Wolfe snorts, and asks, “You flooded the place?”

“Not at all. But I made sure we were the ones going through Thea’s things.” Alexz smiles at me. “I’ll show you my photo albums sometime.”

I just stare at him. What else can I do? He shows no remorse about picking through my belongings and helping himself to what he wants. “Don’t you mean my photo albums?”

His smile widens. It’s one that says he didn’t misspeak. He’s keeping my pictures for himself. “You can’t just go around taking people’s shit, Alexz.”

He laughs. A sound so unexpected, it startles me, then I find myself smiling too, because I realize how much of a hypocrite that statement makes me.

I go back to looking at the zoo picture. “We moved for the first time, right after this. Mom made sure I knew how to spell my name and my birthday. She kept saying it was important that I remember my birthday. We bounced around a lot after that. She spooked easily and was always worried about people talking to me. We finally ended up in Nevada. Things would be good for a while. She’d be dating and then, out of the blue, she’d get real nervous and suspicious, thinking everyone was lying to her and spying on us. Her drinking made her paranoid. Or at least I thought it did.”

Alexz says, “I’m going to say something and I want you to keep an open mind, okay?”

I don’t agree or disagree to his request. He’s not really expecting me to, because Alexz is gonna say what he wants either way. “I don’t think your mother was an alcoholic.”

“Oh, she was.” I say, quickly disagreeing.

His stare is unwavering, eyes unyielding, when he responds, “I think it was all an act.”

“Excuse me?”

“I think your mother pretended to be drunk for attention.”

“Sure.” I shrug. “They diagnosed her with a personality disorder when I was thirteen. I just never asked her which one. The medicine was helping, so-”

He interrupts and says, “Let me clarify. I don’t think your mother was ever an alcoholic, nor do I think she was on any medication. I think it was all an act so that people wouldn’t look too closely into who she was or what she was doing.”

I pluck at the cuff of my sleeve, and Wolfe asks, “What do you think Hailee was really doing?”

Alexz admits, “I haven’t worked that part out yet.”

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