Page 10 of Coming Home for Fall 4
“See,” Mallory said, her voice cracking a little from excitement. She didn’t mean to sound so eager, it just felt so good to have someone finally on her side. “Taylor gets it. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I think we need to start treating this whole situation as something worth investigating.”
“You mean, we should think of Sasha as a criminal?” Ariel shot her an unamused look.
“No,” she said pointedly to her sister. “That’s not what I meant.”
Ariel side-glanced at Mallory. “Yeah, yeah. If you say so.” She put her hands in the air. “I’m just sick of arguing about this. If you two want to research her, I won’t stop you. Just make sure you don’t get caught. I’d hate for Sasha to find out you guys are doing this, especially if she never did anything wrong in the first place.”
“We’ll be careful,” Mallory said. “In fact, I can do all of the research and the two of you can relax and enjoy your vacation… but only if someone lets me borrow their laptop.”
“After you broke dad’s?” Taylor balked. “No way!”
“It was an accident! I didn’t realize that the mug was so hot. I’ll definitely be a lot more careful with yours, I promise.”
“Still.” Taylor tilted his head back and forth, weighing the decision. “My computer’s going to be my lifeline for work this week, so I can’t risk it.”
Mallory smiled sweetly at her sister next. “Ariel?”
Ariel groaned and crossed her arms. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t want to be a part of this at all. Not even tangentially.”
“You’re not going to be a part of it,” Mallory said. “I’ll even delete the browsing history when I’m done, so nobody can connect you with any of this. Please…?”
Ariel waited few seconds before answering while Mallory stared at her with puppy eyes. “Fine,” she said with a huff. “You can use my laptop... But if anyone asks, I’ll say you stole it without my permission.”
“Rude.” Mallory cocked her head to the side. “But fair.”
“Then it’s settled.” Taylor folded his hands together. “Mallory’s going to do some research on her own and I’mwaiting on a few people to get back to me in the public records department.”
“You what?” Ariel’s eyes widened. “When did you contact people at the public records department?Whichpublic records department?”
“The state public records department,” he said as if it should’ve been obvious. “That’s why it’s taking so long for them to get back to me I think, because they have to go through the entire state of California’s records.”
Mallory straightened up in her seat. “Why didn’t you say anything about this?”
“Because I’m not sure anything’s going to come from it. Erica had a friend of a friend at the department who we thought could help us, but it’s a longshot. Really, all I wanted them to find out is if this charity even exists. If we can get a list of all the known women’s shelters in a thirty-mile radius of Ferndale, then we can call them and ask if they even do sponsorship programs.”
“Now you’re doubting that charities even do sponsorships?” Ariel rolled her eyes. “You guys really are paranoid.”
“Well, it’s not something I’ve ever heard of,” Talyor said, and then turned to Mallory. “Have you?”
Mallory shook her head. “Nope.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of things charities do that we’re not aware of!” Ariel argued. “None of us have ever even worked for a nonprofit before. But to me, a sponsorship for someone trying to get out of a shelter sounds like a perfectly logical thing for a charity to do.”
Taylor sighed in the defeated way he often did when he’d concede to whatever Ariel said, but Mallory wasn’t going to let that happen this time, not with something this important.
“Ariel,” she said, before Taylor could get another word in, “I get that you don’t feel the same way as Taylor and me. You’renot as worried, and that’s great. But can’t you understand why we’re concerned? We need to do this partially for mom and dad, sure, but also so that we can feel better about the situation. And as long as Sasha doesn’t find out we’re looking into her, then nobody’s going to get hurt, right?”
Ariel sat quietly for a moment. “I suppose.”
“Just give us a day or two,” Mallory added. “If we don’t find anything else that suspicious before Thanksgiving, then I promise I’ll give up the search. I’ll take Sasha at face value and stop digging.”
“Same here,” Taylor agreed.
Ariel stared at them with an apprehensive gaze. Even though she was the middle child, she always had a way of acting like the eldest in moments like this. “Okay, fine. If this is something the two of you really feel that strongly about, then go ahead. I won’t get in your way—underone condition.” She held a finger up in the air dramatically.
“What’s that?” Taylor asked, though Ariel was now looking directly at her sister.
“That you tell me the truth about James Harris,” Ariel said, her face igniting with a wicked smile. “And how you absolutely, without a doubt, have a huge crush on him.”
