Chapter 17: Money
The destination actually took a few minutes to arrive at. It was so close that I could have walked to it if I wanted to. The house was small and old looking, but it was private property. The grass in the front was high, which meant no one has been around for a while, and if someone has then they didn't bother to cut it.
"Are you sure we should do this? What if someone's in there?" I question Tanner as he parks that car in the driveway.
"No one will be there because you have the key," Tanner sighs. "Now let's go," he tells me sternly as he gets out. I get out of the car and hurry to his side. I take the back of his shirt into my hand as we head up to the door. "Where's the key?" He questioned me and I handed it over.
I squeeze his shirt as he twists the key on the doorknob and turned the knob. We entered cautiously and curiously. I let Tanner go as I begin to explore the house. All the furniture was covered in white sheets.
"Paisley! Come check this out!" Tanner shouts out making the house echo. I look around for him and found him in the kitchen. My eyes widened with what I saw. The table was covered with packs of money. "What should we do with it?"
"Leave it," I tell him as I take his hand to get him away from it.
"This is all yours! Why should you leave it here?" He shakes his head at me.
"We don't know that," I remind him. "I'm not a stealer. Just leave it alone, and we'll come back to it after we're done looking around," I suggested.
"Fine," he sighs.
Tanner and I leave the kitchen and began heading up the stairs. There were pictures hanging as we walked up but they were covered in dust. I swipe the glass on one of the pictures and saw my mom.
"What the hell," I say softly. I take the sleeve of my sweater and wiped the rest of the picture to reveal my dad and me.
"See," Tanner says happily. I was young in this picture, I was around five years old. "Do you not remember this place?"
"No", I say shaking my head. I began wiping the rest of the photos to find other couples with their children. Are they supposed to be my family?
"Thompson family tree," Tanner whispered out. "Your dad's family."
"How do you know?" I questioned him as I looked over at him? He had the picture in his hands. He flipped over the back and revealed a hidden family tree. It stopped with me. My dad was the only child. "Let's keep looking around," I tell him as a hint for him to put it back. I begin walking up and looked in the rooms. The rooms were all covered in white sheets as well. They had everything, a bed, drawers, and television.
"You have a room," Tanner says out from across the hall. I come to him and find a door with my name signed on it with other names. "Maybe this room belonged to all the children at one point," he tells me.
We walked in and found toys everywhere. On the wall, there were photos of children and I was the last one. It was a photo of me playing on the floor with a bear. I can't believe this. I smiled out widely, I have a second home.
"The money belongs to you," Tanner whispered in my ear. I look over at him and quickly looked away. He's probably right, but I don't feel comfortable with it. "Come on," Tanner says as he takes my hand and leads me back down to the kitchen. He begins opening the kitchen drawers until he found a bag and handed it to me.
"This doesn't feel right," I tell him. I begin to walk around the table hoping to find something, but nothing. "I'm not taking the money," I admitted.
"Paisley! Come on! Think about your future!" He shouted at me. "Save it for college! You are the last of your family tree, it's yours!"
"We don't know if its mine though! We don't know who's alive and who isn't!" I shouted back. "Stop pressuring me!"
"Fine! I'll put the money in for you!" He tells me as he takes the bag away from me and begins stuffing the money in. My heart fell and I pulled a chair out to take a seat, only to find a note. I opened it and read it silently to myself.
Paisley, it's me sweetheart, your father Nathan. I know that I left out of nowhere without a clear explanation of why I left you and your mother, but here's why. I left because I was being chased by bad people, I hope that they won't come after you and your mother, but if they do I hope your mom brought you here. This is my childhood home, this is where your grandpa was born and his dad before that. This is my traditional home. Sadly, everyone has passed away so it's just us. I have trusted your mother with the key to this house and the directions, so by you being here with her means that she has trusted you with this house. I hope you will keep the tradition going. You won't have to live here, but at least come once in a while and spend your time here. If I don't ever see you again, please remember me as the dad who loved you and left because I needed to protect you. Paisley, my bunny, the money on the table is yours. This is all the money from my personal bank account. Do whatever you like with it, I know you'll use it for the right thing. I love you so much, bunny. You and your mother. Take good care of one another and don't share this place with anyone who isn't to be trusted. Don't get deceived by the people you know, everyone has a second personality that they're hiding, just be aware of that. Again, I love you. Xoxo –Nathan Thompson.
I look up and find Tanner still stuffing the money into the bag. I fold the paper and put it in my pocket. Is Tanner a trustful person? Is this Tanner supposed to be his second personality? He was being harsh on me.
"Tanner," I say coming to him and he stopped to look at me. "Where's the key?" Tanner sighs and drops the bag onto the floor making me jump.
He reached out for his back pocket and revealed the key.
"Here," he says handing it to me. I thanked him and put in my pocket. I picked up the bag and put the rest of the money in. "So you're keeping it?" Tanner questioned me.
"Yeah, I uh, thought about it and decided to keep it and put it in the bank for safe keeping," I tell him.
"Smart girl," Tanner tells me with a smile. I just nodded my head.
"Let's go," I tell him, as I close the bag up and held it in my arms.
I don't know why, but deep inside of me I know that Tanner isn't supposed to be here. This place is meaningful and by him acting this way about the money shows that he doesn't respect it. I'm going to remember what my dad wrote. I have to be careful with people I can trust, and I'm not so sure about Tanner just yet.
"Okay," he shrugged. We headed out and I made sure to close the house before getting into the car. We were in complete silence, Tanner knew his way back home without the GPS, which worried me a little because he knows where the house is. I hope he won't think about going back there without me.
*
When we got home, I hurried upstairs to find a spot to hide the money. I made sure the room was locked before I began my search. I put a small amount of money in the box my mom hid that was on my drawer, while the rest I set it in the closet at the top shelf. I know it's not the safest spot, but it'll have to do for now until I have time to put it in my account. I placed some of my other items in front of the money so it wouldn't be so obvious, let's hope it'll work. As I closed the closet door, my bedroom doorknob begins to shake.
"Paisley?" Mike questioned out. I open up and smiled at him. "Are you okay?" I nod my head with a smile. "Tanner told me," he stated out and my smile fell. "He told me about the house and the money."
"Oh," I say looking away from him.
"Do you want to put the money in my safe and–"
"No,'' I answered too quickly. Mike raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "I'm good," I assured him.
Mike closed the door behind him and I began to worry. "Do you not trust me?" He questioned me as he took a step forward making me take a step back.
"Of course I trust you, I just think I'll take it to the bank tomorrow," I informed him.
"You can't take all that money at once, they'll question you," he says taking another step. What's his deal?
"Then I'll go multiple times to the bank," I responded as I took another step back.
"Are you afraid I'm going to steal it from you?" He questioned me. "I'm a trustful person Paisley, haven't you noticed? I was willing to risk my life to protect you...I was willing to pay them to leave you alone! Am I not trustful enough!" He shouted and I jumped.
"I trust you," I answered. "But I'm okay with keeping this to myself! You're scaring me!" I let out.
"I'll leave you alone then," he tells me as he opened my bedroom door and closed it roughly making it slam. I froze in place trying to process everything. Why is he being so strange about this? Why did Tanner have to tell him? Did he want part of the money? He was for sure trying to make me feel guilty, but it won't work. I touch the back of my pocket and felt the key and the note.
"I will not let anyone deceive me, dad," I whispered out.
I removed the note, the directions, and the key out and jumped on the bed. I reached out for the picture of my parents and me and opened the back. I placed the papers in and the key before closing it up and putting it back on my nightstand. Hopefully, no one will find it there.
For the rest of the day, I didn't want to leave my room. I didn't feel comfortable leaving it. I feel like now that the both of them know about the house then I don't feel secure here any longer. Am I going over my head with this? I don't think I am, but I do feel like I'm pushing the both of them away because of the note. Both Tanner and Mike were both acting strange when they found out about the money, but how come? My mind began playing with me, putting ideas in my head of Tanner taking some of my money when I wasn't looking. He did find the money first, and he was the one stashing it in the bag when I was reading the note. Would he dare do such a thing?
"No," I sigh out. "Don't think of that, he wouldn't do something like that," I tell myself just as my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it read Sasha. It's been so long!