Capítulo 14: Final Days Pt. 2

Lin was attractive and petite, with a small build that only amounted to 5'4" (168 cm) and 90 pounds (40.82 kg). He completely dwarfed her, seeming nearly double her size, though he wasn't. At 19, she was the youngest in the family. M's sons were all in their twenties.

She brought out a few files from the desk before asking him for a particular one labeled the Asc equivalent of F-E-FE-143. "Here, take a look at this. You ever wonder what the meat heads have been doing in other countries? Pull out the ones labeled F-E-FE. He organizes all his files by code, though he's probably the only one how knows what they all mean."

"How do you know what they mean, then?"

"Because I know everything, idiot," she sarcastically mocked him. "F-E-FE stands for Finance-External-Family Expenditures. Basically, it's all the spending we do in person elsewhere. And, if you want to know where someone is and what they're doing, follow the money, and to do that, you just have to look at these files."

"Huh. That's clever." She beamed, a massive grin on her face, clearly glad at his praise. "But why are you telling me this?"

"You want to know, right? Why not?"

"M won't get mad? He won't mind?"

"Not if he doesn't know," she giggled.

"Are you sure?"

"Hey, you want to know, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but your dad's kind of... you know... terrifying."

"Nah, you'll be ok. Even if he finds out, I'll cover for you. Don't worry about it. You'll be ok. I got you." Jean smiled, a little... grateful? No, charmed. His chest felt much tighter than normal. "Take a look at this," she said, pointing to a line in F-E-FE-143. "They spent money in Bellavista in Vespucc recently for supplies."

She pulled out another folder from one of the drawers, this one labeled F-IA-R-632. "Now, although the entries aren't strictly ordered by date, they are loosely connected, and because they are both only a few expenditures back from the most recent, we can infer that they occurred around the same time. So, when we look for anything regarding Bellavista, we can find out more."

"That makes sense. It does seem a little speculative, though."

"Maybe, but that's good enough. Not like Dad's gonna tell us if we ask. He might, actually. I guess it depends on what it is. But anyway, this folder stands for Finance-Internal Authorization-Research. It's basically everything that was authorized from here for the sake of research. And here, look at the entry at Bellavista. The note just says that it's for a book on augmenting audial awareness, so that means that Gao, the one who was gone most recently, probably went to Bellavista to get that book."

"Huh. You know, you're right, that is good enough. It seems like a much better way to find out what they're up to than I thought at first. Does he know you do this?"

"I don't know. Probably. He knows I look through a lot of this because I jointly manage the finances with Li, but I don't know if he knows I cross-reference the expenditures with one another and look at the notes. He knows a lot of things, so he probably does, but I don't know for sure."

"That doesn't really bode well for me."

"Why?"

"Well, although he might know you do it and is fine with it, that might be because you're involved with the finances, not to mention that you're his daughter."

"What are you talking about? I already said I'd cover for you. You'll be fine. Stop worrying so much."

He sighed, "Fine. I'll trust you. Thank you."

"Of course. Ooh, here, look at this," she cooed as she got up before crossing the room and kneeling to empty the bottom drawer of a cabinet to their left. Inside was a small wooden box the size of a large jewelry chest with a simple latch on the front.

Lin sat back down against Jean and set the box on the desk in front of them before opening it to reveal neatly stacked rows of letters going from front to back. Jean asked, "What are these?"

"Love letters," she grinned. "Guess whose."

"Uhhh... Your parents'?"

"Bingo! These are great. I love reading these. Honestly, sometimes I read them and wish that someone were writing these to me. Dad's a wonderful poet. Absolutely magnificent. Shame he's pursuing magic. I've never understood it."

"Really? Maybe I can teach you, if you'd like."

She considered a moment before honestly saying, "Yeah, I'd like that." But that didn't mean she was interested in the magic. "You should read these, though. Listen to this."

She opened one of the ones near the front and read, "You asked me 5 years ago not to forget you when I had to leave for Amalfora on business. I told you that I couldn't even if I wanted to, and I was right. There hasn't been a day I haven't thought of you in all these years. At my deathbed, you will be sole subject of my thoughts regardless of what path we take in life. Even if I married the goddess of love herself, you alone would be in my mind."

She kept reading, loving every word, "Every woman I've ever met since you has seemed dull and lifeless. When they speak, their words bore me such that I wish I could cry; their faces seem like mediocrity itself; their shrill voices are sandpaper to my ears; their minds seem barren of thought. But you, you are beauty; you are grace; you are the cool moon; you are the impassioned sun; you are the ideal of feminine perfection. No number of years could ever dull the fire in my heart for you. I still love you as I did then and always will. I will be returning to see you again in three weeks. Please, wait for me there."

She stopped at the end of the letter before looking up at Jean, silently asking him what he thought before he exclaimed, "Wow. You were right. He is a great poet. He's also a romantic, which I didn't expect. Must be nice to see your parents love each other so much."

"What do you mean? Of course they do."

"Mine didn't. No, they hated each other."

"What?! That's horrible," she said, shocked. "Why did they ever marry if they hated each other?"

"Well, my mom needed something from my dad, but she divorced him as soon as she got it."

"That really is horrible. I'm so sorry." She hugged him to console him, and his chest tightened more.

"That's ok. I turned out ok, didn't I? What am I saying, of course I did. I'm perfect," he joked with a sly grin.

"Yeah, you turned out well." She hugged him for a moment more and sighed before letting him go and saying, "Dad wasn't always this direct, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he was actually extremely shy at first. He was super skinny when they first met and had no confidence. They fell for each other very soon after meeting each other, but he never took any of her hints because he was too scared, so they just became friends."

"But how did they ever get together, then?"

"Well, hold on, I'm getting there. Anyway, after over a month or two of his wishy-washy behavior, she gave up. She tried everything she could but eventually gave up because she thought he would never be interested. He was, but he never showed that because he was too nervous to. At that point, she found someone else and became close with him romantically."

"However, he was the opposite of my father. He's always been good-natured regardless of if he expressed it. But this other man was not. He was an alcoholic and abusive. He threw her down the stairs in a fit of rage one time and hit her over immature stuff, like jokingly taking a piece of his food."

Softly, she whispered, "He even raped her." All these words felt like a pit in both their stomachs. "I only found out about this after reading some of her letters to him from later on. In the later letters, he describes his inaction as the worst mistake of his life. He doesn't use hyperboles unless he's being poetic or making fun of someone, so he meant that. In all his life, he'd never made a bigger mistake than not saving her from him and being her first. He hates very few people, but he hates him."

"Oh, my god. It really sounds like he means it."

"He also has a journal, and in that, he's extremely clear on how he feels about it. If it meant reversing his mistake, he might just be willing to kill someone, or at least do something drastic. That's how much he loves her."

She sighed, then said, "But after he got back, they went back to being friends because she managed to get away from the other guy and they still had crushes on each other, though he still wouldn't admit it."