·no one knows never will mostly me but mostly you·

[❀ Melíssa]

      “That was weird,” Nate hung up the phone in the kitchen and shrugged to himself.
     ”What’s weird?” Madalynne asked as she came into the room.
     ”Nothing,” not wanting to concern his young cousin, Nate refrained from saying what was racing through his head. “Where are your parents?”
      “Momma’s upstairs, and I think Daddy’s in the office,” she informed him before remembering what she can into the kitchen for in the first place. “Can I have a snack?”
      “Sure,” he grabbed a package of animal crackers out of the cupboard, Madalynne’s favorite evening snack. She thanked him then skipped off to watch a movie with her sisters.
      Pondering which parent to go to first, Nate looked back and forth between the hallway that would lead to the office, and the hallway that would lead to the stairs. He opted to speak with his uncle and headed to the office. The door was partway open when he knocked, and as he entered the room, found Oliver there as well.
      “Hey Nate, what’s up?” Richard asked.
      “I think… I think Chelsea might be in trouble.”
      “I’ll leave you two alone,” Oliver started to get to his feet, but Nate gestured for him to stay.
      “What is it? What’s wrong?” Richard shifted into protective father mode.
      “Well, for a few days now, someone keeps calling, looking for Chelsea. He calls maybe three times a day, and it’s always either me or TJ who answer since we’re home most of the time. At first, we thought it was something for the band, but then we were like, well, why would he call the house phone for business? So today I just tried to get more out of him –”
      “What do you mean by get more out of him?” Oliver asked.
      “Usually he just asks for Chelsea, we say she’s not available, and he just says he’ll back. I’ve asked if I can take a message, and he says no, that he’ll just try later. Just now I was like, look, if I have a message to give her, she might be more likely to wait for your call.”
      “Have you told Chelsea about these calls?”
      “Yeah. I just told her some guy was looking for her, and she thought it was this guy from school. Anyway, today I pressed him, said dude what do you want, and all he said was it’s about what happened last year in New Jersey. I was like, what, and he hung up. So yeah, I don’t think it’s him, but I don’t remember his voice so I can’t be sure, but, obviously someone knows something.”
      “Damnit!” Richard exploded, slamming the pen he’d been holding down on the desk, and it bounced across the room.
      “Dad, chill. You can freak out later. First we have to prioritize,” Oliver bit the inside of his cheek. “I can cook up another paternity scandal. The new girl and I –”
      “No!” Richard’s voice boomed “We’re not doing this again.” His oldest son had taken one for the team when Chelsea and her boyfriend eloped in Atlantic City a little over a year ago, by sending a story to the gossip rags about a woman who claimed he was her son’s father. He even worked with the Angels of Hellfire publicist to make sure the story came across as “Richard and Sénia Urban’s son”, knowing that it would keep the spotlight on them, using their fame to overshadow Chelsea’s and keep her story from becoming public. News of the elopement never spread, and the ensuing annulment remained quiet as well. There were only sixteen people they could count who knew about the brief marriage, and eight of them were named Larcombe or Urban.
      “Could it be the guy who performed the wedding?” Nate offered.
      Richard scoffed, “That was no wedding. And I highly doubt it. He gave no indication that he even knew who any of us were. Our lawyer handled pretty much everything, so there were very few outside people involved. I can’t think of anyone else who knows… and who would bother to track down this number.”
      “Maybe there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this,” Oliver suggested. “Maybe it’s someone in the county clerk’s office, and something in the paperwork needs to be corrected.”
      “That would be just swell, son,” was Richard’s sarcastic reply. “Except you and I both know our lawyer would not be our lawyer if she ever filed anything that needed correcting.”
      “I don’t think they’d say anything that threatening though. ‘It’s about what happened in New Jersey’. I mean, that sounds like he’s trying to be all mysterious on purpose,” Nate said.
      “Look, I’m just trying to come up with a best case scenario here,” Oliver was defensive. “He didn’t ask to speak to anyone else?” he asked, and when Nate shook his head, he continued. “So whoever it is, they’re not looking to harass the whole family. He’s specifically trying to contact Chelsea. Anything at all as far as Caller ID?”
      “It just says New York, and then unknown number.”
      “Okay,” Richard said suddenly. “First order of business: Jessénia does not hear about this, got it?” Both boys nodded. “Second, Oliver, please call the girls’ team, tell them someone seems to be targeting Chelsea, but we don’t know what his game is. Ask them to put a guard on Chelsea, but he is to lay low. She shouldn’t know he’s there. Also, let them know that if they are contacted for a statement about Chelsea, they are to answer honestly. None of them know about New Jersey, so that’s perfect. It ensures they play the half-confirm game, yes Chelsea had a serious boyfriend, no they were never married, blah blah blah. Third…” Richard looked around the room, frazzled, having no idea how to protect his daughter from this type of unknown.
      “Dad! Dad, I’ve got it. Go upstairs and make out with Mom or something,” Oliver turned to Nate, “Can you do me a favor and go through the caller ID history, and make a list of the time and date of each call?” Nate nodded and left the room. Richard was still there, looking a little pale until Oliver gave him a push, closing the door behind him.
      Alone in the office, Oliver pulled out his cell phone, first sending a text to his half-brother, whom he rarely saw, due to his frequent trouble with the law: ‘May need a repeat of last year. Details later.’ Afterwards, he scrolled through his contact list until he found the one he was looking for, and pressed ‘call’, his eyes narrowing to slits.
      When the voice on the other end gave a wary hello, Oliver’s own voice turned as sinister as it had a year ago. “I better not find out that it’s you, or you’re going to learn just how serious I was the last time we spoke.” He hung up without letting the other person speak, took a deep breath, and sat down at the desk to contact the members of the Hellfire & Damnation team.