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He nods and when I enter he follows me in. I flip the overhead light on because this room has no windows. I always found that strange, but Uncle Jax said it helped him to stay focused. There is an oversized desk. It’s neither an antique nor is it pretty, just functional. Along the shelves on the walls are some books about business, but mostly it’s boxes. One of them sits open on top of Jax’s desk. I realize there’s nowhere to sit except the big chair behind the behemoth.
Santos is busy looking at a photograph. I take the chair and sit down. His computer had been state of the art six years ago, but now it looks obsolete. On top of the desk are a few file folders, and I peer inside them to find they’re work documents.
Santos looks into the box on the desk and flips through a few of the folders. I watch as he reads one, his forehead furrowing. He flips to another page.
“What is it?”
“Financials from eight years ago.” He puts it away and glances at another one but loses interest quickly. “I guess he didn’t have company in here.”
“No, never. We weren’t even allowed in. I’m pretty sure he kept its existence a secret.”
He walks around the desk and notices the locks on the drawers. “Any idea what’s in there?”
“We’ll find out.” I unlock one of the two drawers. They’re deep and contain hanging folders.
Santos comes closer, leans over to have a look at the tabs. He shifts his gaze to me, and I know why. The folders are marked with names. Some I recognize, most I don’t.
But there’s one that catches my eye. That has me feeling that nausea again. I glance up at Santos, then back to it. This folder has my father’s name on the tab.
“You sure you want to look at these files, Madelena?” Santos asks.
My eyes are locked on that folder. I don’t answer Santos. Instead, I reach to pull it out. But before I can, he sets his hand over mine.
“Your uncle is dead and gone. He won’t be able to explain what you find in there, and it may be upsetting.”
“I need to do this.”
“Do you want me to look through it first?”
“I’m not sure you should be looking through anything at all,” Odin says to Santos from the doorway. “Our uncle was a very private man.”
“I mean no harm. Madelena knows that.”
Odin ignores him. “What is it?” he asks me.
I put the folder on the desk, so Odin sees the tab too. Santos’s phone rings and he excuses himself, leaving Odin and I alone.
“We don’t know what’s in here, Maddy,” he says, glancing at the door where we can hear Santos answer the call. “You and I should look at it first before anyone else sees.”
“You can trust him. I do.” I realize as I say it that it’s true.
Odin studies me but doesn’t say anything. Instead, he flips the folder open, and we read. I see Odin’s face pale in my peripheral vision and feel the blood drain from my own. I think about what Santos just said. Even as I turn the page over, my hand trembling, the temperature in the room seems to drop. Because I understand what the folders contain. What Santos once told me about Uncle Jax, about what he’d done, is all right here, in more detail than Santos had shared, than I’d wanted him to share, with full-color photos to back it up.
“Odin,” I mutter.
I finish reading before Odin does and put my hand to my forehead to feel the sheen of sweat there.
Odin’s eyes are wide as he closes the folder. “Jesus,” he says, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. “Jesus Christ.” He looks at me.
“This is it. The thing that connects everything. It’s why it all happened.”
“Revenge. It’s all because of what our father did.”
I get to my feet, holding on to the edge of the desk to steady myself.
“Are you okay, Maddy?”
“I’m going to be sick,” I say and run from the room into the small, attached bathroom, just making it to the toilet before I throw up.
