Page 135 of Rules of Association

I shook my head.

Something about his voice was settling my nerves. Something about the way he was talking; unbothered, unhurried, unrepentant to the reality of this situation, that made it feel far off that he’d done something shady to bring us to this point. Making it feel like I was simply visiting my father at his club to chat, instead of confronting him about a possible betrayal to our family.

In front of me, Papa continued gazing at the device like it was speaking to him. He spoke as if he was watching a memory reel.

“It was the operating system you built this time. Completely from scratch.” He huffed a small laugh as he looked from the computer to me. “Know how old you were then?”

“Fifteen.” I said, the memory clear. Me sliding into the kitchen in the early hours of the morning because I hadn’t gone to sleep. Everyone else was busy. Mom was gone to work; Clint was out of the house by then with Clay on his way out next and Tine was in those years where she either had a good day or a bad one. She was nowhere to be found, so it was already shaping up to be a bad one. The only person in the kitchen that day was my dad. He was standing at the island drinking a cup of coffee and leaning over a newspaper. When he spotted me, he flicked his eyes up and raised his head.

“Buena.”

“Buena, Papa.” I said, ducking my head and tucking the computer under my arm.

He noticed and eyed the device suspiciously. Probably wondering if I’d broken another one. “Qué paso?”

I hesitated. In that moment remembering, just how much nobody in this family cared about this “silly little hobby” I had. Every time I tried to show them something I was proud of doing, they were either too busy or too uninterested to care. Papa had never been as harsh as say Mom or Clint, but he had never asked any questions about it either. So I doubted he’d cared about it then.

Tucking the computer further away, I shook my head. “Uh, never mind Papa. It’s nothing.”

I immediately started to retreat, backing out of the kitchen so that he wouldn’t see what I was holding any more than I’d already divulged. It was too late, though.

“Basta, mijo,” Papa said, punctuating his command by a sharp cluck. Using two fingers, he waved me toward him. “A ver.”

More hesitation followed from my part but unconsciously, my feet did gravitate closer to him. “It’s just computer stuff. I forgot Mom said no computers in the kitchen, sorry.”

“Show me, mijo,” he said, patting the space beside him at the counter. “And quickly too. Your sister is in one of her moods today.”

Now, I huffed at the memory, finding it both amusing and a little sad. Even back then I had been afraid to show my family my true desires.

And yet…

I shook my head. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about that day. Papa had listened to the entire explanation on how I’d built the software. Joking about how he thought he was going to have to buy me another one and asking questions about how I managed certain aspects of the program. He was curious where I learned everything and even more curious if the computer would actually work like a normal one.

And he was impressed when it did.

That same excitement persisted now, in the set of his eyes as they glowed at me from behind his desk.

“Papa…I still don’t understand,” I said slowly. My thoughts running back to the folders and folders of compromised files that now lived within the company’s system.

“You arrived back home from school over five years ago,” he started. He eyed me for a long moment, waiting as if he wanted me to answer a question that had not yet been asked. “Yet, you’re still in the same position as before you even left.”

I shifted in my seat, feeling instantly more uncomfortable than when I’d first walked in. Flicking a glance at him, I mumbled. “Yeah, so?”

“So that’s a shame, mijo,” he said. “One that I couldn’t let go on for much longer.”

“So you…?”

“I’ve been a weak father for most of you kids’ lives. I let your mother run things because, truthfully, she runs me. But after your sister and everything that happened, it’s been hard to live with the passivity I’ve let myself dwell in all these years. And once the universe gave us a second chance—with Clementine—I decided I didn’t want the same fate for you boys either. I wanted to step up and help you, instead of letting this current trajectory play out.”

“Okay Papa, but why did you decide to jeopardize the company to do it? You could have just talked to me.”

He shrugged. “You know, I’ve known what you’ve wanted to be since you were nine. Since your mom sent me on an errand to sign you up for those ‘kiddy coding classes’you begged us to go to. You had never begged for anything in your life, mijo, but you begged for that,” he said. I chuffed. “But, ever since then, I’ve watched you place your dreams aside. Always hiding them in your back pocket for when you're alone, instead of shouting out loud like you should have…Like you should have beenableto.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, not really knowing what to say. I shook my head; squaring shoulders with him and giving him a sterner look than I should have to administer to my father (who appeared rather carefree for someone who had just fucked with his whole livelihood for shits and giggles). “You…you stole my high school computer to hack our own company and compromise official documents?”

He wrinkled his nose. “It isn’t truly yours if I bought it, no?”

I scoffed incredulously, saying, “That’s not the point, Papa. I don’t even want to get into how—butwhy? Why would you do this? Do you understand how dangerous the things you’ve been playing around with are?”

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