30. Iris Territorial
Iris Territorial
The best thing about the phone beside my bed in the mommune was that I could use it to call any room in the house. The little girls thought it was the most fun thing ever when I called their bunk room. I was procrastinating on writing a paper and had a few minutes before Merit was going to take me to see my dad, so I decided to make their day a little brighter.
I picked up the receiver, waiting for the dial tone. It took me a second to register that I wasn’t hearing the beep. Instead, I heard Alice. I wouldn’t have purposely listened because I liked Alice, but, come on. What did a middle-aged woman have to talk about that could be interesting anyway? But then I heard, “I can’t believe we’ve already found two houses we like online.”
“I know,” a voice I recognized as Elliott’s said back. “And it’s such a crazy market. I have to think that means this is meant to be.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though,” Alice said. “Remember, it’s not like I’m just going to tell them all to leave.”
My stomach gripped. Oh my gosh. Were Mom and I part of “them all”? If we were, where would we go?
Elliott said, “We haven’t considered that I could just move in with you and three other families.” They both laughed.
Alice sighed. “No. I want to move in with you. I really do. It’s just that thinking of leaving them hurts.”
My eyes widened. Alice was going to move in with her boyfriend? But she was, like, our leader. Plus, it wasn’t like we could all stay at Alice’s without her. I panicked. I didn’t want to leave this house. I didn’t want to leave Grace and Julie and Emma and Brenna and Jamie and Audrey and, maybe most of all, Merit. I loved this weird, crazy life we’d made together.
Although I had to hold on to the hope that Dad would be home and we’d be out of here soon anyway, right? Sure, there was no doubt that, in our current situation, Mom and I felt stronger as a part of the mommune. But this was a small stopover for us no matter what happened. And what about Alice? Didn’t I owe it to her to want her to be happy?
“I want to make a life together, Elliott. I swear I do. And I do want to live with you. I’m just trying to figure out how to make it all work.”
Merit’s voice calling “Iris!” made me hang up the phone quickly, which was dumb. For all he knew, I was making a call, not listening to one.
He looked at me suspiciously. “Whatcha doing?”
“Oh, um, I was going to call the girls. They like it.”
“And they didn’t answer so you furiously slammed the phone down?”
I smiled in a way that I hoped was so cute he forgot I was being sketchy. “Thanks for driving me,” I said, hopping off the bed and slipping my shoes on.
“Uh-huh,” he said. “Smooth transition there.” He paused. “Look, Iris, are you sure you should be going to see your dad alone?”
I peered at him. “Asks the boy who got us burner phones?”
“I know, but that’s different. This is jail. It’s not safe. A burner phone isn’t going to, like, shank you in the prison yard.”
“I don’t know what any of that means,” I said as he followed me down the steps.
“Well, I don’t either, but I also don’t want to find out.”
“But see, I’m not going alone. I’m going with you.”
“Going where?” Alice asked from the bottom of the steps. Whoa. How did she beat me downstairs? She was fast. Like sneaky fast. She must have gotten off that phone call really quickly.
“Chloe’s house,” Merit and I said simultaneously, as we’d discussed earlier.
“ You are going to Chloe’s house?” Alice asked him.
She had mad mom skills.
“Sophie’s going to be there,” I whispered to Alice.
I wasn’t sure if she bought our lie, but she stopped her questioning. Plus, she was the one lying. Would she really leave? And if so, then what?
“We’ll be home in time for dinner!” I said in a singsong voice as we headed out.
Merit shot me a smooth look. Okay, maybe I had oversold it.
We got in Merit’s car, and he was quiet for a minute. “I’m going in with you,” he said with finality.
“You can’t come in with me. You have to be on the list, and you aren’t on the list.”
“So, I’ll get on the list,” he said, flipping the dial on the radio and turning it up.
“It takes, like, a while.”
He looked over at me, exasperated. “There are a lot of rules in jail.”
“Yeah. I think that’s kind of the point.”
He did his laugh where the breath came out of his nose, the one that made me fall in love with him just a little bit every time.
“So, uh, how’s Sophie?” I asked. I was going for casual, but it came out high-pitched and borderline desperate. I was pathetic.
“Oh, you mean my GIRLFRIEND?” He yelled the last word.
“The very one.”
“She’s, uh, maybe somewhat threatened by you.”
“Who wouldn’t be?” I asked coyly, flipping my hair.
We both laughed.
“I like Sophie, but it’s kind of a lot,” he said. “She’s very territorial.”
“You don’t say.”
“Juniper Shores Socialite isn’t helping matters much,” Merit said. “In fact, I kind of think she’s the root of all our problems—which I keep telling Sophie. I mean, if you trust an anonymous Instagram account more than your own boyfriend, we’ve got bigger issues, right?”
I nodded. That was a good point. The amount we all trusted said Instagram account was concerning. “Who do you think it is?” I asked.
“Who do you think it is?”
“I really thought it was someone in our house, but now I’m not so sure,” I said.
Merit laughed. “Like my mom?”
“No. Your mom’s too classy. Maybe Julie? Not Alice, because Juniper Shores Socialite is obsessed with talking crap about Alice.”
“But you don’t think it’s someone in our house now?”
I thought for a minute. “No. I think it’s someone kind of obsessed with our house. Maybe Laura Lucas. Or Chloe’s mom.”
Merit nodded. “Chloe’s mom seems like she has a lot of time on her hands.” He paused, then perked up. “Oh! And she is so up in Chloe’s business. She knows everything going on at the high school too.”
I nodded. “I think that’s what stumps me.”
Merit gasped. “Wait! She always says ‘we.’ What if it’s, like, a mother-daughter duo!”
My jaw dropped. “Yes! I think you’re totally right.” I thought for a long moment. “But I really don’t think Chloe would have let her mom talk junk about my dad like that.”
“Maybe not,” Merit agreed. “But people will do crazy things when they’re getting attention for it.”
We pulled up in front of the white concrete building that I knew a little too well now, and my stomach turned. I’d been so distracted, I’d forgotten that I was coming to jail.
“I’ll be right here,” Merit said.
“I’ll be quick.” He looked kind of, I don’t know, stricken or something, so I said, “I promise I’ll be fine. My dad will be there to take care of me.”
“Yeah, that makes me feel a lot better,” he said under his breath.
The way he said it made me feel wistful. Because I wanted Merit to want to take care of me. I wanted him to be the one keeping me safe and guarding my heart. I took a moment to appreciate the way his hair brushed across his forehead. That Sophie was so lucky, and she didn’t even know it.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“It’s fine, it’s all fine, everything’s fine,” Merit said back, smiling. When I didn’t move, he added, “Hurry up! I’m not hanging around prison for fun.”
I had called ahead, so Dad was waiting in his normal spot, on the couch by the window in the visiting room. “Hey, kiddo,” he said. “I’m surprised Mom let you come by yourself.”
“Uh-huh.”
He gave me his sideways dad-look. “Iris. Does your mother know you’re here?”
It wasn’t like I could flat-out lie. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t tell her. “Well, I probably mentioned it to her. But she might have been busy when I did.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, like, maybe don’t bring it up.”
“Iris…”
“Dad! Mom couldn’t come today, and I wanted to see you! Don’t you want to see me?”
He took my hand. “Of course I want to see you, sweetie. But I want you to be safe.”
“Merit came with me,” I said. “He’ll keep me safe.” Everything inside of me melted like hot liquid when I said that.
Dad sighed. “Well, you’re here. So, tell me what’s going on.”
I filled him in on all the details of Belle Epoque on the Beach that I hadn’t told him yet in our quick phone calls—except for the judge part, which would needlessly hurt his feelings.
“Man, I hated to miss that,” he said. “Your mother is always the most beautiful woman there.”
In my normal life, I would have rolled my eyes. Now they filled with tears. There’s nothing like a huge crisis to put things in perspective. “Dad, the best part of all of it is that a lot of people really believe you’re innocent now.” I paused. “How is Oliver coming on proving that?”
“Well, it’s interesting, kiddo. Since the evidence hasn’t come in yet, we don’t have much to go on. But we have reason to believe the feds think other parties are involved. When we know who they are, that will help.”
“So, like, who would you think it was?” I asked casually. “If you had to guess.” This was a question that would have tipped my mom off instantly. Dad just said, “You know, honey, I don’t know.” He paused. “The only thing I can think of that was weird recently is that we had some statements with some errors in them from the Capstone Fund. But they were very small, and the money was all there so…”
“The Capstone Fund,” I repeated, trying to remember it.
“Yeah. And they mentioned my being a flight risk, so we have to think someone overseas is being investigated. If I had to guess, maybe the Artemis Fund? Maybe the Mallick? But this is all based on my sitting here thinking. Nothing factual.”
None of that meant anything to me, of course. I mean, I recognized the names from my limited internship experience. But that was about it.
Dad smiled. “Are you thinking of following in Dad’s footsteps?”
He looked so proud that I couldn’t bear to say what I was thinking: After this? Um, hell no . So I just shrugged. “Maybe. You know I always loved my internships.”
“You know, honey, this business is all about relationships. I know the guys at all these funds. Hell, I’ve worked with the Capstone Fund for easily ten or twelve years. Sometimes I just email or call Dan—that’s the guy who started it—and we chat and cut up, and a small mistake here or there isn’t unheard of. It happens.”
“Or maybe he stole the money?” I asked.
He shrugged and said, “I can’t imagine that Dan…” He stopped and a look crossed his face, and I could tell he was finally starting to get suspicious. Dad leaned over and patted my leg. “Sweetheart, this isn’t your problem. Oliver will figure this all out. Because I’m not guilty. Okay?”
It wasn’t okay. I wanted to do something. I was about to say more, but Oliver walked in, looking like he was on a mission. “Oh, hi, Iris.”
“Hi, Oliver.”
“I hate to cut your visit short, but…”
I shook my head. “It’s okay. Merit is waiting for me, and there’s nothing to cut short because I was never here.”
He smirked at me. “Uh-huh.”
“Are you picking up what I’m putting down, Oliver?”
“Oh, I’m picking it up,” he said.
I thought back to that man in our house, to the paper he’d dropped. It hadn’t occurred to me until right now that it could be important. What if those statements were a clue? And who’s to say that man hadn’t gone back to the house later to get the one he dropped or look for more of them? It wasn’t any more secure than the night I sneaked in with Dabney and Chloe. Maybe I would tell Oliver. Later. Not in front of Dad. He would just worry. Or, well… Chloe, Dabney, and I had made pretty good detectives so far. Maybe we could handle this.
I kissed Dad goodbye. “I love you,” I said.
“I love you too, honey.”
I pointed to Oliver. “Work faster.”
He smiled at me. “I hope we have some really good news soon.”
At that happy thought, I bounded back out to the parking lot. “What are you so excited about?” Merit asked when I got in the car.
“It’s just always good to see my dad,” I said. “I miss him, you know?”
Merit gave me a withering look.
“Of course you know,” I said. “Your dad is in Tokyo.”
“He wants Emma and me to come for spring break, but I don’t know that I really want to fly with my twelve-year-old sister to Tokyo. It seems like a lot of responsibility.”
“Your mom wouldn’t fly with you?”
Merit pulled out of the parking spot and then looked out the windshield, taking a long time to answer. “Mom can’t be around Dad,” he said. “I can’t go back to that.”
“Back to what?”
“Never mind,” he said. “Well, as promised, you were very fast. Did anyone threaten you while you were in there?”
“Ha-ha,” I said. “I didn’t even see anyone else.”
“Maybe you should consider wearing a longer skirt next time you visit.” He gave me a scolding look, and excitement that he had noticed my skirt length zipped through me.
“Maybe you should mind your own business,” I said.
“I will start minding my own business when you quit needing my Uber services.” Merit squeezed my shoulder, his hand lingering.
I thought back to Sophie, to her friend implying that she and Merit basically just talked. And I had the fabulous thought that that was because he didn’t love her. He loved me. Now all that was left to do was figure out a way to make him confess.