32. Chapter 32 Sabrina
Chapter 32: Sabrina
S abrina settled into her chair at the Taylor family dinner table, feeling a sense of belonging she hadn’t experienced in years. The warm glow of the chandelier cast a soft light over the gathering, illuminating the faces of her newfound family. As plates and glasses clinked, she found herself drawn into the lively conversation.
“So, Sabrina, how’s your mother doing?” Katrina asked, her eyes twinkling with genuine concern.
She smiled, touched by Katrina’s interest. “She’s actually doing really well. Ma finally agreed to move into that condo I’ve been pestering her about.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Katrina exclaimed, reaching across the table to squeeze Sabrina’s hand. “I’m sure she’ll be much more comfortable there.”
Freddy beamed at her from across the table, pride evident in his expression. Sabrina felt a warmth spread through her chest, grateful for the support surrounding her.
“Has she settled in yet?” Greg inquired, pausing between bites of roasted chicken.
“Not quite,” Sabrina replied. “But she’s excited about the move. It’s a big change from the trailer, but I think it’ll be good for her.”
“Oh,” Veronica spoke up, “Did anybody talk to Wils about the new subjective commands? He sent me an email asking about where we wanted to go with them.”
“I’ve got that on Patrick’s schedule for the coming week,” Holly answered.
“Hey, Dad?” Freddy bobbed his head toward his dad. “What was the whole story with Josh and Ellie? I never got a chance to ask you why they were so angry.”
It was a topic the family hadn’t dared to broach, yet, but considering Freddy was the one who’d been beaten, he certainly had a right to know. Sabrina hoped Nathan agreed and would fill them in.
At the head of the table, the older man finished chewing and swallowed before clearing his through nervously and taking a big gulp of water.
“Well,” Nathan began, his voice tinged with nostalgia, “Josh and I met back in the nineties. We were both interested in the new internet and what it could do. That quickly led us down the road to SQL databases and writing code to parsing the data, which eventually evolved into artificial intelligence. “
Sabrina felt Freddy’s hand squeeze hers under the table, a gesture of support as they delved into his family’s history.
Nathan continued, “We founded N&J Technology, now Taylor Industries, with a focus on that early AI development. Joshua handled the business side, while I led development. We were just starting to gain traction when...”
His voice faltered, and Sabrina noticed a flicker of pain cross his features. Katrina reached out, placing a comforting hand on her husband’s arm.
“In 2002, we finally secured serious funding from a venture capitalist. But that night, on his way home, Joshua...” Nathan paused, swallowing hard. “He died in a car accident. It was on I-66 as he was driving back toward Arlington, where he and Ellie lived with Josh Jr.”
A hush fell over the table. Sabrina glanced around, noting the somber expressions on everyone’s faces. She felt a pang of empathy, recognizing the weight of loss that still lingered after all these years.
“At Joshua’s funeral,” Nathan went on, his voice growing stronger, “I met Greg. He was Joshua’s college roommate, looking for new opportunities. It felt like fate. I hired him as CFO after buying out Joshua’s family.”
Greg nodded, a mix of gratitude and sadness in his eyes. “It was a difficult time for everyone,” he added softly.
Sabrina found herself captivated by the story, feeling the threads of connection weaving her more tightly into the Taylor family tapestry. She listened intently as Nathan delved into some of the details around the buyout.
“Wait,” Veronica broke into the story. She looked at Zach for reassurance before she continued, “If you paid them that much, what happened to the money?”
Patrick looked up, surprised. “That file your friend got, Zach. Was that about Josh Jr. and Ellie?”
“What file?” Nathan demanded.
Patrick froze, but Freddy spoke up from beside Sabrina. “Zach has an old buddy from the Navy who pulled some financial records and a hospital bill that he discovered while looking into Veronica’s stalker.”
“This was before we knew it was Kurt,” Patrick interrupted before Freddy could mention the pictures.
Sabrina watched as Zachary’s jaw clenched, but he remained silent. As another outsider sitting at the Taylor family table, she respected his struggle.
Veronica said, “The accounting ledger showed the amount you paid her with small withdrawals over the next decade or so, but about eight years ago, they jumped to huge amounts and quickly drained the account.”
Then she turned to Zach, who rubbed her shoulder and added, “Patrick, didn’t you find out Josh Jr. had gambling problem?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “It was the hospital bill. Holly tracked down a nurse who said he’d been beaten over debts to a loan shark.”
“Holy shit.” Nathan had gone pale as everyone else spoke. “I never knew.”
Patrick tried to reassure him, “It’s not like we would have been able to offer much help. We do well, but it’s not like we’re sitting on piles of cash.”
He was right, though something about that still bothered Sabrina. Based on the look Holly exchanged with Patrick, she wasn’t the only one.
Wanting to lighten the mood but still learn more about their history, Sabrina asked, “When you all were younger, what was Joshua like?” She shifted her gaze between the three members of the generation that came before her. Katrina and Nathan shared a loving look and smiled, while Greg grinned sheepishly.
Soon Nathan launched into tales from his younger years.
“You know,” Nathan said, his eyes taking on a distant look, “Josh had this habit of writing everything down. I mean everything. He kept these journals—leather-bound books filled with his cramped handwriting. He recorded all our original notes along with our plans and ideas, but he also made observations about the seasons and people he met. I remember when we were getting ready to meet with the venture capitalist, right before he died. He pulled out a stack of those damn journals and showed me conversations he’d had with other businessmen about their proposals. His notes about what they did and didn’t say and how it worked out for them were the foundation of our presentation that started all of this.”
The table fell silent. Sabrina imagined most of them were considering the loss of what sounded like a good man, but she noticed Freddy glaring at Patrick, who squirmed uncomfortably.
“Do we know any details about Joshua’s car accident?” Sabrina felt like an intruder in the conversation, but she had to know. That image of the man sprawled across the front seat of the jeep with a bloom of red decorating his chest kept pecking at the back of her mind.
Greg spoke up, “It was northern Virginia. Car accidents happen all the time.”
Nathan was shaking his head. “Not like that usually. Sure, during rush hour or if a bunch of idiots are being stupid, but I don’t remember ever hearing about a single car accident like his.”
Katrina scowled at her husband. “You can’t go back down that road.”
With a mournful look, Nathan focus on his wife. “I never want to go back to how I was when I tried looking into it myself, but if it’s related to what’s happening now, we need to know.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Greg offered. “I noticed how closed off Ellie was at the funeral and spoke with her a lot over the next few years.”
Nathan’s gaze snapped to his CFO. “You never said anything about that.”
Greg shrugged, “I could see how much you were struggling with all of it and didn’t want to risk making it worse.”
When Katrina patted Nathan’s hand, his shoulders relaxed, and he agreed, “That was probably for the best.”
Picking up where he left off, everyone gave Greg their full attention. “Ellie hounded the cops about the accident. She went to the station and called them regularly. Hell, on the first anniversary of his death, I found her at the site of the accident, there on I-66, looking for clues. The police showed her everything they had to prove that it was just an accident. Maybe he hydroplaned or someone clipped his front bumper just enough for him to lose control. With the damage to the vehicle, they couldn’t be sure if there was a small collision like that, and we all know hit and runs aren’t uncommon.”
After a moment of awkward silence, Greg looked directly at Nathan and spoke again, “It really was just a terrible accident. It’s awful, but there’s nothing we can do to change the past. And as much as our path to get here sucks, we wouldn’t all be sitting around this table if not for that past.”
Sabrina looked back and forth between Freddy and Patrick as the two men glared at each other in silent argument.
Nathan sipped his water before saying, “It still bothers me.”
Beside him, Katrina went rigid, but Nathan continued, “It felt wrong to lose him at such a pivotal moment in our lives, and I justified my worry with traffic patterns. Really, I think his death forced me to face my own mortality.” He made eye contact with each of his kids at the table and reached over to grip his wife’s hand.
“It was rough for a few years there while I struggled with that.” Nathan turned to Greg, “You kept the business moving forward during that time, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.” Turning to Katrina he said, “You held our family together, and I love you for it. I never want to go back to second-guessing things the way I did with his death. It’s not worth what I almost lost because of it. While we need to look into how it’s affecting us today, I don’t want to rehash the past more than necessary.”
Sabrina kept her focus on the silent conversation between Freddy and Patrick. With Nathan’s final words, Patrick grinned in silent victory, and she knew neither of them would ever tell Nathan Josua had been shot that night. While she understood she couldn’t help wondering about his murder and how it related to the threats they now faced.
Josh was dead, and Ellie was in custody, but the situation didn’t feel resolved. If Ellie was behind Kurt’s attack on Veronica, was she the source of the leak? How had she gotten Veronica’s thumb drive? She’d never been to HQ, so she had to be working with someone else, still. Sabrina didn’t say any of it aloud, but she couldn’t let go of her worry.