Policeman and the cat

82 - Oakley's streams

"Dunno, mom," Trinity said, "this party was awesome--"

Now looking ten or more years younger each, all lovingly snuggled, they couldn't comment. Only Harmony and Trinity looked-- well, shinier than usual and with glossy skin and hair - but they didn't lose any years. Trinity was-- shamelessly clinging on her bodyguard bun and having him feed her, while Harmony was exactly as 'the hell did I do?' as the rest of the Rones family. The only other person except for Trinity who was eating with a chill expression was Dad, he'd been through this two times already.

The most 'what the hell did I do' were Grandpa and Grandma, they certainly had no blood relation whatsoever, but-- and just like Bro they wrote it off as Ian being a dustbun ar soul, so this was probably 'normal.'

"We can do this again when our Arachne kids from August's wedding event appear," Ian said with a happy smile.

Layla made a smug smile. "I found out they will all materialize in seventeen days."

"Can we do it then?" Ian asked, his eyes sparkling up. That was at a good time! Three days after the last Siren babies appear, there ought to be enough time till then to make plenty of delicious things!

Chala put up a hand, "Can we also get Mom's sister, parents, and grandparents?"

"I'll trick them into it!" Mom replied after which all dustbuns cheered and many put on their sunglasses to type in mid-air. Mom added - "Right, Kenneth, they all want to meet and talk, felt like they wanted to talk you out of it, though."

"Soft approach, I presume," Kenneth checked and after Mom gave her an 'Of course,' Kenneth smiled. "Letty, mind introducing their bodyguards to them, before then?"

"You can call me mom, if you'd like," Mom said with a smile. "And sure."

"What is a soft approach?" Ian asked.

"They talk to me," Kenneth replied, "My brother would be ringing my phone three times a day if it was the other one, though," Ian asked and Kenneth added that the other one would be pressuring him in other ways, for example, putting Woodpecker family into a tough position or messing with his business partners and if they are really set on it - pulling some moves on the companies he had a lot of shares in to push him into bankruptcy.

"They wouldn't do that," Mom said, "No one in my family is that dumb."

"The fact that they failed to recognize you made me wish to check," Kenneth said.

"Ah, that--" Mom explained they had a misunderstanding among themselves - her father and grandfather, that is, and they also both had different ideas of what was happening.

Grandfather had a more accurate hunch of her going into hiding to raise a kid after barely surviving a murder attempt, while Father was under the impression she might have put on an act herself because she was done with her life as Nicolette and wanted to start from zero in a different country.

They had both been tracking them in parallel without telling anything to her sister because they had already gotten the feeling that she looked happier with her gone. Grandfather distanced himself from her sister after the funeral getting a bad feeling from her then and had suspicions about her targeting Mom and Father was under the impression Mom had left it all to her sister in the kindest way possible - knowing about the inferiority complex her sister harbored.

She said they all had a talk about it a day after there was a buzz on the net about Michael's copy popping up among a newly emerging group of kids of influential people. 

Her sister came clean about it - she said she was the one who arranged the kidnapping aiming to kill Mom, because she hated her life of always being in Mom's shadow. Everyone always talked only about Mom and no matter how hard she tried nothing she did got any recognition. For five years after Mom 'died' it was still iffy and Mom was still brought up a lot but after that, she could do her best, work hard, grow their business and finally felt like her existence had meaning.