by Dale Mayer
Connor walked back to the kitchen where Genesis was trying to sort through another stack of documents. She looked up at the two of them. “And?”
“My staff isn’t thrilled, but they are coming with equipment.” Matt twisted his lips in a wry grin. “Expect Fenwick to try and change your mind.”
She nodded but had already returned her gaze to the material in front of her. She paused and lifted up a yellowed sheet of paper.
“Oh my God.”
Chapter 22
Genesis stared at the aged agreement in her hand. It was a legal adoption by her granny of Genesis and her sisters. But it was the names on the agreement that blew her away. The names on the document weren’t her parents, or the people she’d thought had been her parents. They were her parents’ best friends. This was a formal agreement with a cash amount listed for the transaction.
She’d been sold.
Back to her own blood. She only had dim memories, but she knew Granny was hers. Her mother had been Granny’s only child. And she’d been old enough when she’d given birth.
She could understand them not wanting to take care of her, but to be paid to let her go back to Granny? Now that was just wrong.
The amount of money was also no small peanuts. Granny hadn’t had any money. At least, not after she’d bought her granddaughters back. She couldn’t imagine where Granny had gotten that money from in the first place. Genesis shook her head. What the hell was wrong with people?
Silently, she handed the paper over to Connor and reached for the next in the stack. DNA results. Times three. Proving Granny and the triplets were related. In a way, although she’d have said instinctively that she was Granny’s relative, this bit of proof made her feel better. Then again, Granny might have done it to make sure she was the same blood before she handed over the cash. She might have been considered odd by the community, but she was very sharp in understanding humanity.
Silently, she handed that paper over, too. She might need it to prove her inheritance. At the very least, it removed the doubts.
She went back to the next stack until the silence in the room grew to the point of being unnatural. She studied the darkening of Connor’s features and asked gently, “What’s the matter?”
“They sold you?” Connor asked incredulously. “Back to your own grandmother?”
She looked at Matt, eyebrows raised in question. Matt shrugged and rifled through the papers in his hand. She grimaced. “Yeah. You do recognize the names, right?”
He looked back down. “Grandfather’s sister.”
“Figured they had to be blood, given the money-grabbing tendency.”
Connor stood and stormed around the small room. “This is wrong on so many levels. These people are respected members of the community.”
“Just like Grandfather is, right?”
He glared at her. “How can you be so calm? These people used you. Probably put a second in-ground pool into their house with this sale. If they had sold children once, maybe they’d done it again?”
“Maybe they did; that’s something you can take up with the law.” She nodded at the papers in Matt’s hands. “The proof is there.”
She looked around the room thoughtfully and added, “I owe them thanks for their greediness, though. If they hadn’t sold me, if Granny hadn’t bought me, I might not have the rights to what I have now. If these people,” she tapped the sales agreement, “had any idea what I stood in line to gain…do you really think they’d let me have it?”
He stared at her in shock and then sat on his chair as the truth sank in. “Jesus.”
“We will launch a full investigation,” Matt said quietly. “This is not acceptable behavior.”
“Exactly. So nail them on child trafficking and move on.” She tried for a flippant tone, but at the softening of Connor’s features, she figured she hadn’t quite pulled it off. He reached out, snagged her chin, and lifted her face for a warmth-drenching kiss. The fireworks spread, heating up all the chilled spots inside that had started forming when she’d learned the terrible news.
“Uh, do you think you can hold off on that please?” Matt said, his voice teasing. “My old heart can’t take it.”
She laughed.
Connor smiled down at her. “People who think like that will never be rich,” he said, not caring that Matt was still there, listening. “This, what we have together, that’s wealth.”
Unbidden, tears came to her eyes.
She leaned into him. Needing his tenderness. His understanding.
And felt him stiffen.
A moment later, she heard the sound of the hovercraft.
Matt said, “Company.” He walked out to meet them.
Genesis sighed, looked at the heaps of material they still had to go through, and said, “Give me a hand to lay this out on the bed, will you? I need to sort it and don’t want strangers seeing these.”
He grabbed a stack of star charts and carried them to the head of the bed, then came back for another load. Within minutes she had the bulk of the paperwork out of the kitchen. She left the satchel and the two most recent documents. The hovercraft crossed overhead again, and she realized she’d have to open the energetic alarm system. She crossed to her door and changed the energy so that the cottage would become visible.
Matt watched.
“Did you cloak the entire cottage?” he asked in shock.
Her shoulders sank. She turned to face him. “Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t want anyone to find us.”
“Yeah, well, that will do it.” He turned back to staring up at the blue sky on his way to the front door.
Just then, a hovercraft came in low and loud and landed beside theirs. She couldn’t imagine a whole fleet of these cars appearing.
Matt and Connor walked out to meet the men. Genesis went back inside and worked on clearing away more mess.
*
Fenwick, the research head, was the first to hop out, his white hair slicked back against his skull. “Damn, this place is hard to find.”
Matt shook his head. “You have no idea. Genesis made it even harder.”
Fenwick’s gaze sharpened, and he looked like he wanted to ask about Matt’s statement but he stayed quiet. Several other men climbed out of the hovercraft and one of them opened up the rear hatch. Within minutes, the researchers had unloaded several large pieces of equipment.
Connor didn’t know how this was going to work. He led the way back to the house to find Genesis standing in the doorway. She smiled at Fenwick as he studied her small cottage. “Thanks for coming.”
“We had a little trouble finding the place or else we’d have been here sooner.”
She smiled brightly, disarmingly. “Sorry about that. It is hard to find.”
Matt rolled his eyes at her good-naturedly, muttering as he walked past her, “Yeah, sounds like we need to talk about that.”
“I’ll think about it.” She stepped back to let the other men inside. Connor remained in the doorway.
Genesis turned but didn’t know where to go. Three additional men and her kitchen was full. “Excuse me.” She wove her way to the table. Under watchful eyes, she carefully opened the satchel and brought out the stacks of documents.
Soft gasps echoed behind her. She took the top document, carefully opened it, spread it out on the table, and then stepped back.
“Good Lord,” said Fenwick. “Are those for real?”
She looked at him. “Isn’t that the reason you gentlemen are here?”
Chapter 23
It was impossible to wait patiently while the men put on their protective gloves and commenced their in-depth analysis and study of the documents. She paced the living area and when that didn’t help, she returned to the bedroom to keep working on that mess she’d dumped in there. She’d only started when she found something so old and so much Granny, she couldn’t stop a sob from breaking free.
“Genesis?”
She shook her head and wiped her cheeks. “I’m fine.�
�
Connor waited in eloquent silence. When she could, she turned to smile at him. “I’m okay. Just bringing up memories.” His smile warmed her heart.
“Then rejoice in the memories.” He nodded at the document in her hand. “Is that something you need the experts to look at?”
She shook her head quickly and refolded the odd material just as fast. “No. It’s not.” She turned away and busied herself with rearranging her stack of documents. “How are they coming along?”
“Besides lots of exclamations – including lots of colorful language – I’m not sure.”
That startled a laugh out of her. “I can imagine.”
She kept working quietly, sorting the stargazer charts by year into stacks, and Genesis suddenly remembered that there were boxes of similar charts in the attic. She slipped into the pool room and crossed to the far side. The towels were stacked below the built-in ladder. She cleared the lower rungs and climbed up, struggling to open the door.
“Here, let me help.” Connor’s voice came from behind her.
“I’m fine. Been up here many times before. Although I was usually hauling boxes at the time.”
“You mean there are more documents up there?”
She groaned as the attic board shifted to the side and coughed several times as dust came down on her head. When it cleared, she put her head up through the hole and looked around.
“Oh yeah, it’s all full.”
Connor grabbed her by the waist and lowered her to the ground. “Let me.”
“You aren’t going to know what boxes to bring down.”
“What’s in them all?” He stood on the ladder, half in and half out of the attic. He bent down to look at her, a stunned look on his face. “There have to be hundreds of boxes here.”
She nodded. “Most are star charts.”
The look in his eyes made her realize what a gift her granny had left behind. “Do you want to keep them here or have them taken to the vault where they can be studied? The knowledge preserved. Used for everyone…?”
It was his last words that made her realize how much truth there was in that. Her granny’s life work needed to be preserved. Needed to be utilized as it was always meant to be. For the people. Otherwise, what was the point?
“Maybe the vault.” She knew the doubt showed in her voice. “But I can’t hand them over blindly. I want those catalogued and the boxes checked to see what else could be inside. Granny hadn’t been the most organized.”
Matt spoke from behind her, his voice gentle and caring. “So how do you feel about living at the center while you do the sorting and cataloguing?”
She turned to stare at him, hope blossoming inside at the idea of a compromise. “I might like that.”
Connor ducked down again. “And you might need a bigger vault.”
“It was her life’s work,” Genesis whispered, feeling the emotions clog her voice.
“And she was the last stargazer,” Matt said. “The last of her line.” He broke off and looked at her intently, one eyebrow rising. “Or was she?”
Connor was silent.
She looked from one to the other, and then shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I was learning slowly, but hadn’t finished my training.”
“It’s not in the blood?”
“Yes,” she nodded her head and added, “Yes, but it needs instinct and…maturity.”
That brought a surprised laugh from Matt. “That makes a lot of sense. So we have a new generation stargazer; you have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“I wouldn’t get too excited. I’m terrible at it, really; my sisters are much better,” she muttered. She turned back to Connor. “Can you start bringing a few of the newer boxes down? I dated them before they went up.”
Connor nodded and disappeared into the attic.
Matt reached over and squeezed Genesis’s shoulder. “You have given the world a huge gift.”
“Maybe, and maybe not.” She nodded as the first box came down. “There’s a lot of material to go through.” She glanced up at him. “I want to number and write down the boxes as they come down. They can’t all go in one trip. I also don’t want the boxes to just go straight to the vault. I need to sort through them first.”
“I understand. We’ll take it slow.”
She sighed in relief. Thank God.
After a few minutes of traveling back and forth to her bedroom, Connor stopped and looked at her. “These ten boxes are all from the last couple of years before your grandmother passed away.”
“That’s where I’ll start.” She walked to the bed, realizing that the mess there needed to be cleaned up first. “Matt, how are the experts coming along?”
“They’re in awe. And they want more time to study the documents. They want to take them back to the center.”
She spun around. “No. Those ones aren’t leaving.”
“I thought you were past that.” He frowned at her. “You did say the star charts could go into the vault to be studied.”
“Yes. But those are not star charts.” She reached across the bed and picked up a stack to show him. “These are the star charts.”
“And the documents that the experts are assessing,” he asked as he accepted the stack. “What are they then?”
“They are stargazer registry documents.”
“They appear to be many things,” one of the men from the center said, stepping into the doorway. “But we have no time to sort it out. They must go back to the vault. They must.” He stared at Genesis. “It is not right that they should be here.” He didn’t say with you, but the words hung in the air nevertheless.
Genesis stared at him and could feel her anger building. If she didn’t know better, she’d say her granny’s wrath was inside her. “It appears you misunderstood me. Those documents will not be leaving my home. You, however, can leave – now.”
“Uh, Genesis –” Connor began.
She held up her hand and cut him off. She glared at Matt. “Let me be perfectly clear about this. It is purely on my goodwill that you are even seeing these documents right now. After you leave, they will be hidden where none of you will ever find them again. Do you understand me?” she said, her voice rising with determination. “They are mine, not yours, and they do not belong to you.” She glared at the offending scientist.
“Easy, Genesis.” Matt stepped forward, his hands held up in a peaceful, placating manner.
Didn’t matter. She wasn’t fooled. Granny had been dealing with men like these supposed experts for a long time.
“I appreciate what you are doing,” Matt said. “We do need the documentation for your landowner rights.”
“No.” She stopped him. “You need to see and verify. Possibly have a copy in some form or other, but you do not get the original deeds.”
He took a deep breath. “Correct. But we can’t verify that these are the deeds if we can’t have time to study…” He stopped talking at her emphatic head shake.
“These are the deeds to the caves and healing pools.” She walked to the bed and picked up the large piece of paper she’d been crying over earlier. She held it up for Matt to read. When the same man rushed over to also take a look, she glared at him until he backed up.
“You may look. Not touch,” she snapped at Matt. “And only you.”
Connor’s hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed. “Easy, Genesis. He may have gotten a little zealous in his eagerness to have a chance to study these rare documents, but they aren’t going to try and steal them from you.”
She turned to look at the man who’d pissed her off. “He looks like he’s thinking of doing that right now.”
All three men turned to stare at the scientist, and he flushed bright red.
“Damn,” Matt muttered.
The scientist wrung his hands before throwing them in the air and shouting, “They are valuable. They must be preserved.”
“And just what do you think I’ve been doing with them all these years
if it wasn’t keeping them safe? And my granny before me?”
“Everyone knows she was a mental case at the end. She might have destroyed these.”
That did it.
She pointed to the doorway behind him. “Get out.” He glared at her, anger a bright glint in his eye, but he turned and walked away.
Genesis turned a cold eye to Matt. “Did you read this document?”
He nodded. “I do need to take several images back with me, and it needs to be verified. But I’m satisfied you and your sisters hold the deed. However, until the tests come back to prove that this is as old as it appears to be, I can’t confirm your ownership. We might need to see it again.”
She smiled thinly. “You won’t need to. You’ll never see it again. Or my cottage. Now get your small men and their little minds out of my house.”
Matt backed up slowly. “I’ll get the imaging equipment and take what I need for verification. You might need to bring that document into the lab for testing.”
“This document goes where I go. It will not be released into any of these men’s hands.”
A second man stood in the doorway now. “I can understand how you feel. You are surrounded by artifacts of great value,” he tried to explain. “We only wish to preserve it.”
She turned her cold eyes on him. “And your colleague?”
He winced.
“Exactly.” She turned back to Matt. “You have one hour.”
*
Connor left Genesis alone in her room, giving her some time to calm down. He walked into the kitchen to the sound of men muttering angrily.
Matt said, “Enough. We have one hour. Now let’s not waste it.”
The men fell silent, but their short, jerky actions spoke of barely leashed frustration.
Connor could understand. Empathize, even, but the property belonged to Genesis. The legacy of her family lines was her responsibility. She had to feel secure with what was happening, and it was painfully obvious she wasn’t.
Matt walked over. “I’m sorry we upset her.”
Connor nodded. “Especially now that she doesn’t trust you.”