She is dead

Journee was happy that her dad had not asked her about her work. Everyone placed the food on their plate and started eating. Both men kept drinking, but Journee chose to drink water as she had to drive back home.

All started eating their food at the same moment. Journee just tear up the bread and shoved her mouth with it. Meanwhile, the men sophisticatedly cut up their bread and chicken with a fork and knife. The moment she was about to put a chicken leg in her mouth, her father asked, "so which case are you working on?"

"Um… jus phinished da tantelion cafe," she said while her mouth was stuffed with food.

"Eat first, then reply," scolded William.

She chewed as fast as possible and washed down her chicken with water. She gulped and answered, "just finished the Dandelion case."

"The store robbery, that high-profile case?" inquired William as he cut his meat.

Journee waved the chicken leg in the air and said, "just because a politician's son was involved, does not mean the case is high profile."

William smiled at his daughter at her comment. "Did he plead guilty?"

"No, he was adamant that he is not guilty, but that moron forgot that his whole act was caught on the CCTV. He thought after destroying the camera, the footage too was lost," she shook her head in disbelief and rolled her eyes, hard. "Jury found him guilty without any doubt."

"What was his punishment?" inquired William and took a bite of his bread. Kay was silently listening in on the conversation. He was praying that William must not ask about Zion or the Hall family at any cost.

"Five years for robbing and inuring the owner of the Dandelion store," replied Journee.

"Good!" exclaimed William. "Anything else?"

Kay stopped eating. He looked at Journee and then at William. He knew slowly this conversation would steer towards the Hall family.

"No, just working for CED, now and then," said Journee hiding the fact that she surveilled Zion without his permission.

"Any news about him?" William asked indifferently but his eyes were telling a different story. Kay closed his eyes and shook his head.

Journee looked at her father with pity and answered, "no, Zachary's whereabouts are still unknown."

"And Zion?"

"He is well protected. Many of our people have tried to ask him about his father he has only one answer to give, he does not know. Rest assured we are trying to find him and soon we will find Zachary. He has to pay for his crimes." She patted her father's hand and assured him.

William smiled at her and returned back to his food. But Journee knew why he was asking about Zachary. After that, no one spoke. They ate in silence. As William prepared the food, Journee and Kay helped him clean up his kitchen. They stored the leftover food in the fridge and cleaned the plates and utensils.

Only a few utensils were left in the sink when Kay said, "go talk to him. He needs you." They both looked out of the kitchen and saw that William was standing in front of the fireplace and staring at the photographs while sipping his drink.

Journee wiped her hands dry and went and stood next to her father. He was staring at a photograph that had his younger self with a young, beautiful, blonde woman and a bundled-up baby in her hand on a hospital bed. Next to that photographs were many photographs that depicted the journey of Journee. But that journey started when she was four years old, before that there were no pictures of her.

A few of the pictures had the journey of another girl depicted but her depiction was the stark opposite. It started from her childhood and ended when she was four years old.

"I wish I knew her," interjected Journee and interlocked her arm with her father. She softly placed her head over his shoulder.

"She too would have loved you just like me," he kissed her on her head.

"I am sorry that she didn't get time to spend with her daughter," said Journee, sadly.

"Well, you know there was nothing anyone could do. She just gave birth, took her in her arms and fainted. This is the last photo that we took. She never woke up after that," His voice grew sadder. Journee didn't raise her head but could tell that her father had teary eyes.

"I am sorry, Dad," she let go of his hand and side-hugged him, tightly.

William realized that he was making the environment a sad one. His daughter came to meet with him after almost a week, they should be celebrating not crying. He pursed his lips and teased her, "I am so glad she is gone, else she would have died after running after you all day and all night. You were one naughty and very active kid."

"Hey!" she playfully pushed him but hugged him back.

"You were a handful when you were a kid," he informed.

"She is still a handful," said Kay. He finished his work and came to the living room.

"Ha ha," Journee laughed sarcastically. Both the father figure started laughing at her. She signalled Kay to come close to her. She held both their hand and pulled them closer. Her arms were wrapped in both their arms. They stood in that position for a minute looking at the photographs.

Abruptly, Journee said, "Dad, tell me about her."

"How many times, Jo?" he protested.

"I love hearing about her. You talk about her so fondly," smiled Journee.

That made William smile. He again kissed Journee on her head and narrated, "Amber was your stark opposite. She was a calm, silent type. Even when she was four, she was mature for her age and you, you were extremely naughty. You would run all over the house and never eat a bite. Kay and I had to pick you up, tie you up and then feed you. Now look at you, you eat like you never saw food in your life. But the best thing was, your presence made me forget everything that I lost."

"Dad! No crying. You know if you cry, I will cry too and I have a million reasons to cry," said Journee and wiped his tears.

"Sorry! No crying," he took her hand and wrapped it around his.

Journee wanted to say something but had no idea how to continue. She bit her lips and hesitantly said, "Dad! Why don't you open that case?"

"Jo!" He let go of her hand and took a step back to look clearly at her face.

"I mean it, Dad. You need closure. You need to find out what happened to her," she emphasized.

"She is dead, Amber is dead," shouted William. He didn't want to lose his cool, but he could not control his emotions. "Don't you know about the Hall massacre? Don't you know what happened that day? He killed his own brother, his nephew, and his niece, why would he spare a stranger's daughter?"

But Journee was ready. "But you were not a stranger," she shouted back. "You were close to nailing him. You had all the evidence. He took her away from you to stop you from investigating him. He forced you to destroy all the evidence. And I know that you still have all the evidence, the day he would resurface he will be behind bars. But you have to remember that even after hiding the evidence, he never returned Amber back. You have to find her, Dad."

"It's been fifteen-year, Jo, fifteen," sobbed William.

"Then let me try," demanded Journee.

"No," he shouted. "That case is closed. I lost one daughter that day and found another. I will not lose you too."

"Oh, Dad, you can never lose me. I am here. I will always be here. I love you, Dad," she threw herself in his arm and hugged him.

"I love you too, Jo," he pulled her even closer and embraced her. Both father and daughter spend a few minutes sobbing and holding each other. Kay too wiped his eyes.

They broke the embrace when Journee's phone chimed loudly.

"You go and get a movie running, I will be there in a jiffy," she said to William. It was a tradition that they would get together for food and a movie every week.

"Work?" asked William.

"What else?" inquired Journee.

"Don't think, I have not heard about your night activities," teased William.

"Ew… Dad," cringed Journee.

"What? It's just sex. Sex is healthy," said William stoically.

Journee contorted her face with disgust and shouted, "please leave."

William went away laughing and entered the spare room with Kay that he had transformed into a mini movie theatre.

Meanwhile, Journee picked up her phone and saw the notification that she received the first hour of the recording. There was also a message that there was nothing on the recording except weird sex noises. She knew she had to go to her home and back up every material the IT sent her.

She made her way to the movie theatre when she halted in her path. Her brain was working overtime. Instead of going to the room where she would see the movie, she took a turn and entered her father's study. She knew where everything was. Every file, every photograph, every evidence that he brought from the office.

She entered the password of his drawer and there it was, a file sitting on the top of the pile. She knew what that file was. Silently, she took it out and dump it out of the window. The file fell on the flowerbed with a soft thud.

After locking the drawer again, she went to the movie room and sat in between William and Kay.