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How did she know that? It was not as if it was a public thing.
“How…how do you know that?” I asked.
“I got x-ray vision and parabolic microphone,” she deadpanned. When I cocked my brow, she added, “You were in the park one Sunday afternoon. I don’t know if you were working things out or psyching yourself up about it, but a leaf from your folder flew away. It had bullet points; the first point said, business plan overhaul, second point said, new marketing plan, the third one said—”
“Integrate records into digital,” I added for her because I remembered everything on that sheet. “You stole my plan sheet? I looked around for days to find it and thought it must have fallen into the pond or something.”
“I didn’t steal it. I picked it up…,” she replied. “I just...couldn’t find a way to give it back.”
“How about,hello Ethan, you dropped something?” I teased her. “And give it back with a basket of muffins, of course.”
“Of course,” she replied. “Anyway, I hung around town for a while, and it was not until I saw the hydro-fitters van come in, by process of elimination, that I knew your dad had to be forced to meet with them. So—” she shrugged. “—And knowing how stubborn my dad is, I can only assume yours is, or was the same.”
“Dad was a stubborn ox,” I replied. “But eventually, he came around. I hope your dad will do the same.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said, and something in her tone stopped me from pressing the issue. It sounded troubling, but I hoped she would see it fit to let me know what was going on and if I could help.
My phone rang, and I picked it up, a bit grateful for the distraction. “Benji?”
“Hey, bossman, sorry to bother you on your day off, but I can’t seem to find the invoice for the Muller brothers. Do you have a copy you can send over?”
“Sure,” I said, “let me go to my office real quickly.”
I stood and headed out, realizing that Mia was following me. It didn’t matter much as I tapped the laptop awake and searched the invoice file. “We’ve fulfilled the supply then?” I asked Benji.
“To the last ounce,” Benji replied. “I just need to make sure we got everything in order.”
I found the document, sent it over to him, and waited for him to confirm receipt before hanging up. Mia was slowly circling my office, coffee cup in hand, until she came to a painting, and the cup slipped from her hand, crashing on the floor.
“Mia!” I circled the table, not caring about the coffee staining the carpet. “What is it.”
She looked at me, then back to the painting, and jabbed her hand to a chest that sat at the foot of my great-grand uncle Victor. He was there in the painting, a tall, strapping young man of twenty, but this time was seated. “That—is that his?”
I was confused. “That was my uncle’s chest,” I replied. “This painting was faded, but I got it redone years ago. Why—what’s so scary about a bloody box?”
ChapterFifteen
Mia
If only Ethan could understand the emotion running through my head right now, the mix of confusion and indecision.
“Because the pest guys dug up that bloody box on my property a day ago,” I replied before leaning and peering at the chest, “V.L.V., it's right there. What does it stand for?”
“Victor Luther Vega,” Ethan replied. “He was my great-grandfather’s oldest brother, the heir to the family’s business. From what I knew, it’s said he died two years after that was painted or that he ran away. No one knows which is true.”
I shook my head. “Why would your great uncle’s chest be buried in my family’s land?”
“Maybe they mistook the boundary?” Ethan supposed.
“No,” I rejected that idea. “Back then, they had strong ideals about which was theirs and which was ours. I literally saw a map years ago with those tags on them. No one would have mistaken it. And on top of that, I just found the diary from a great-aunt I never knew about. She seems to have gone missing too because if it were not for her diary and the old family tree at the museum, I would have never known she existed.”
“That’s…odd,” Ethan murmured. “But I wouldn’t think too much about it. Diseases were—”
“I know, I just think it's… not strange, but more… distressing or possibly, I don’t know, a strange coincidence?” I replied, unsure of what I was saying. “I know it’s not strange for people to disappear or die in those times, but…two of our family’s members just gone at the same time is concerning? Don’t you think so?”
“No,” Ethan shrugged.
He left, and I felt a bit distressed about how nonchalant Ethan was about this. Was I overthinking things—like I’d been told half my life—and seeing things that were not there? This discovery of his relative’s stuff turned my head upside down.
