Finding His Sun

Chapter Nineteen

The sun irritated Adam from his heavy sleeping. He rolled over and grabbed Erin into his arms and kissed her down her neck to the top of her back. He heard the softest giggle escape her mouth. They stayed there a few minutes, wanting the world to stop and let them live in this moment forever. 

Erin begrudgingly got up first and pushed Adam to as well. She knew today would be somewhat hard for her. She had remembered the day her father’s lawyer handed her the key to the safety deposit box. At the time she was only seventeen and mad at her father for taking that backroad home. She didn’t want to think about him, let alone look at what he left her. When the lawyer showed her the contents, she skimmed over them with glazed eyes and that is all she could remember. She spent the last five years trying to wipe away any memory of her father’s death and her mother’s absence. But today is the day she would get to relive it in perfect clarity. She would get to physically hold what her father wanted her to have, for whatever reason. She hoped they would find something of use in the box and she was not just reinjuring old wounds for no good reason. 

Adam watched Erin carefully get ready for the day. She picked out a particularly pretty outfit. He thought she looked beautiful every other day, but today she made sure to take the time to perfect everything, checking herself in the mirror two or three times before she moved onto the next thing. Adam wondered why she felt like she needed to do that today, of all days, and then it hit him. This was the first time, other than the jailhouse, Erin would be seen in town. He knew she was used to covering up her bruises, but today she wore them with confidence. He stared at her, admiring the person he fell in love with, immediately, morphing into the person he would love forever. 

After a little while they were both headed down the stairs to the kitchen. The familiar sound of laughter came from the room and wrapped Erin up in a peaceful energy. She loved being around the whole family and she let herself enjoy the comfort they brought her. 

An hour later Erin, Adam and Lance were pulling up in front of the town bank. Erin took in a deep breath and followed Adam and Lance into the huge brick building. Bowing was a small town, and the Graves family had a noticeable presence, so all eyes were on them as soon as they walked through the doors. Adam and Lance didn’t seem to notice the stares, or care, but Erin felt overwhelmed. She knew what it must look like to these people, with fading scars on her face, not with her well-known boyfriend, it was even hard for her to believe at times. In just a week or so her whole life was turned inside out and transformed into a future she never saw coming. 

A small rounded bald man with a black suit walked nervously up to Lance. Erin recognized this man as Gerald Stokes, the bank owner. 

“Mr. Johnson, Mr. Graves… um how may we assist you today?” the short man asked now visibly sweating. 

Lance turned to Erin and nodded. 

“I would like to see the safety deposit box for Grant Cayhill, number 572” Erin stated with confidence. 

The short man was surprised to hear this response out of Erin, and he exchanged glances with Lance for reassurance. Lance nodded in response. 

“Well um… Miss…?”

“Erin Cayhill”.

He looked at Erin with wide eyes, “well, we have to verify you are who you say you are… and there is the matter of making sure you are indeed authorized to see the box, that could take some time. So why don’t y’all come back in an hour and-”

Stokes was cut off from his rambling by Lance, “Gerald, I’m in no mood to mess around today. Go to your computer, check her validity and come back and take us to that box”. 

The profusely sweating man could not even utter a word towards Lance, he just shook his head and shuffled away. 

After a couple of minutes Stokes came swiftly back looking a bit more relaxed than before, “Do you have a key Miss Cayhill” he asked while Erin handed the key to the man. 

The group began walking through more glass doors and down corridors until they reached a room with dozens of boxes planted on all four walls. Stokes went to the box labeled 572, unlocked it and placed it in front of Erin, and he left the room to their privacy. 

Erin looked at Adam for support, and he shot a handsome smile. She took a deep breath and opened the box. Just as she remembered before there were scattered papers of spreadsheets and numbers that were way over what Erin could comprehend. As she sorted through the sheets, she handed Lance anything that looked important or work related. There were a few other documents she found, the deed to the house, her parent’s marriage license and other papers she wanted to make note of. As Lance and Adam were digesting the documents Erin got to the bottom of the box, where a note was sitting untouched, still sealed. Erin saw the lettering of her mother’s name on the front, and knew it was her father’s handwriting. She carefully opened the envelope, making sure not to rip it, and began to read. It was a short note, two pages. Tears began to fill her eyes as she read her father’s words of guilt and worry. 

Adam looked up from one of the charts Lance had handed him to see Erin silently crying. He ran over to her and put an arm around her as he wondered what she was reading. The realization hit him when he read the first couple of lines: 

My beautiful girls… I cannot begin to explain to you why I have to write this letter, and I’m filled with sorrow you have to read it. I wanted to protect you my whole life, but it looks like this fight has won me over, and in return you will lose me. I want you to know this has nothing to do with you. I love you both so much…  

Adam held Erin while she read the rest of the note. It went on to explain he was trying to help make the town better and get rid of people who were trying to destroy it, Adam figured he was talking about the Mallards. He felt an inflection of pain and guilt in Erin’s father’s words, he knew what was going to happen to him, but he still wanted to apologize to his family. Adam hated that Erin had to open and expose her heart again to the trouble’s others had caused her. He held her tightly, letting her hurt. 

When Erin was done reading, she somehow had a smile on her face. She knew she looked psychotic, but she couldn’t help but laugh. Lance and Adam were now looking at her with pure confusion on their faces as she shook her head. They had expected her tears, but laughter was something they did not anticipate. 

“I’m sorry, I’m always breaking down in front of y’all,” she said wiping her tears with her sleeve, “my dad left this note. He knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He even apologized for it”. She let out an even bigger laugh. “He apologized because someone murdered him!” Erin couldn’t stop laughing even though it wasn’t the least bit funny. “I spent years forgetting him. I was so angry at him for choosing to go down the road, and then mad at him for getting involved in the mess that got him killed, and now I’m mad because he knew it would happen the whole time and still went through with it. But here he is apologizing to me for HIM dying!” Erin let out a sigh and stopped laughing. 

Adam grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. He didn’t know what to say, he knew there were no words that would alleviate her discomfort, so he just held her hand. 

Erin looked at Adam’s worried eyes, “I’m okay, really. I think- I think this helped. I’m still angry, but I don’t think that will go away anytime soon,” she looked at Lance now, “please tell me you found something helpful in those papers”. 

“Nothing is definite, but if these are what I think they are, we have a pretty good case”. 

Lance explained what the papers meant on the car ride back to the ranch. He found multiple bank statements of transactions between Mallard Law Firm and a random shell company. He also found other charts and documents tracking the spending and savings of Benjamin’s firm over the past ten years. Lance said the documents were all somewhat circumstantial, but with more digging he thought he could take on Benjamin and his lies.

When they got back to the ranch Lance explained what they had learned to James, Alaina and Sarah. Erin was sitting back against the wall with one of Adam’s arms around her, the other holding a napping Parker. Although Erin should be on edge at the people around her scrambling for answers, she was just happy to be in Adam’s arms. She knew everyone around her was hopelessly looking for answers and a solution to their issues, but she wasn’t so sure. She knew Benjamin Mallard, he was smart, cunning, and certainly not dumb enough to make a mistake obvious enough to get him trouble. Erin didn’t have any more answers than anyone, but she did have one thing… Mason.