The Callahan Dynasty

The Friends

I shouldered my duffel and looked at myself in the full body mirror. I let out a sigh as I examined my clothes. They were all the same things I had come here with.

I had my hair up in a ponytail and decided not to wear too much makeup. Just a little mascara, some concealer to hide my still puffy eyes and a little lip gloss.

I nodded at my reflection. I had made my decision and I would be leaving. It was the more logical and the best thing to do.

I was still hurting. In fact it hurt so bad, I wondered how I was still standing here and not breaking down in some corner. I guess I had been telling myself all this time that I would wait till I got home to have a complete meltdown. But that only made it worse. I mean, where was home? I could never go back to Florence and I don't think I'd want to anyway, there were too many memories. The apartment I had in Seattle was probably inhabited by someone else by now. And my family home... how in the world was I going to go back there and face the ghosts of my family. They weren't there; sure. But how could I go back to the place that they paid for knowing that I was rolling around in bed with their murderer the whole time.

I figured going to my brother's Lake house on the outskirts of the city would be best. It was isolated and he never went there anyway. He had bought it, hoping he could escape to it once in a while when he wanted to get away from work. But that's the thing. He never wanted to escape work. He loved his job way too much.

I bit the inside of my mouth. Did he and my dad really know who they were working for? Who Uncle Gavin really was? The way he always called me 'The Princess Chef' because when I was seven years old, I was already so obsessed with cooking and had a special tiara that I wore when I helped my mum out in the kitchen. I remember how he told me that if I ended up marrying his son, Dixon. He'd build me a castle with the largest kitchen ever known to man. I remember him chuckling as I ran up to Dixon at that moment and proposed to him.
How could that man be dealing in illegal business? The man who used to call me all the time to check up on me after my family passed on.

Did he do it because he considered me as his niece? Or because he felt guilty about giving my father and brother that case in the first place.

I snatched my phone, the real one. The one Isabella had given me was sitting on the dresser. I didn't plan on taking it with me. I didn't plan on taking anything here that I hadn't come with. Well except the soaps and shampoos. I just couldn't leave those behind, I figured I'd need them while I was settling in.

I turned around and exited through the door. I had made sure everything was in it's place. I had made my bed and left the room tidy so that I wouldn't trouble Zoila too much. She already had a lot to do with having to make sure that this huge house was clean all by herself.

I walked out of the room and down the hallway that led to the staircase. As I started descending down the staircase I picked up the voices of a bunch of guys laughing and yelling and the sound of some rap song blasting through the speakers.

Did Jason have company? The last thing I wanted to do right now was interact with people.

Unfortunately, I wasn't given much of a choice. A blonde guy suddenly emerged from the kitchen, stuffing his mouth with some of the left over lasagne I had cooked for Jason and I last night for dinner.

Jason had cleaned up his plate and gone for seconds but he didn't once compliment me, which really irritated me. All chefs like to be complimented on their cooking.

The blonde guy's green eyes widened at me and a devious smile crossed his face.

"Guys! Jason had a girl over!" He yelled.