Page 67 of No More Hiding

“I figured as much. My door is shut; no one can hear me. I’m going to assume you found out about the documentary that is going to be coming out soon.”

“So it’s happening?” she asked. “I stopped looking into him until recently.” There was no reason to tell him what prompted it.

“It is. I’m on top of things. There are no loose ends to tie you to him. It may come out he has a daughter. He is going to give his side of the story. He has been granted some time to be interviewed at the end. No one knows what happened to his daughter and they can’t trace you. Your documents are sealed.”

“But someone might dig enough to find out,” she said.

“They’d have to have high level government clearance for it. Your father’s case was very public. You were a child. You were being protected.”

“But I’m not a child anymore.”

“You aren’t, but you are still safe. If I thought otherwise, I’d let you know right away.”

“I’m sorry. My mind is getting away from me.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Nothing more than I had a client today. She has ties to wineries back in California.”

“And you assumed, but you shouldn’t. There were bigger losses than wineries.”

“Which doesn’t make me feel any better,” she said.

“I understand. Continue to live your life like you are. I know it’s easy for me to say that, but it’s the best I can do. If you need anything, please call me, or I’ll reach out to you. If anyone digs enough—it’s going to lead them to my father and trust me when I tell you, they have to be damn good to get that far. We’d be alerted if that was the case. It’s not going to happen.”

“I know I shouldn’t be this way. No one can hurt me. Or I’d hope not. They can’t come after me for money. They can hate me. They can call me names. They can make my life miserable. So yeah, I guess they can hurt me.”

“You’ve been through enough. More than any child should have to. You were innocent of your father’s crimes. I understand that many will hate you due to association, but time dims memories. If it came out who you were, you’d get press. There might be some trying to find Christian Carmichael’s daughter now during the documentary. But your father has no idea where you are. We left enough fake evidence that you live out of the country. If anyone gets close enough to my father, that’s what they will find.”

“Okay,” she said, knowing she’d have to trust him. She had no one else she could anyway. “Thanks again for everything.”

“No problem,” Ted said. “Anytime. We are always here. If I’m not, talk to my son Bryan. He doesn’t have the full details, but he can ease your mind until I’m available. You won’t have to talk to anyone else at the firm, ever.”

She hung up after and knew her grandfather would have never done her wrong. He’d watched out for her and would make sure she was taken care of even after his death.

Now she had to do what Ted said and ride this out. Time dimmed things and once this documentary was out, it’d be a thing of the past shortly after.

She’d rather focus on the life of Vivian Getman, not the one of the lost teen, Alexa Violet Carmichael, whose father was a crook and mother was selfish.

Vivian was stronger than Alexa ever was.

Vivian was going to continue to be that way.

Starting with going to see the man that made her wish for a normal life that she’d thought she’d never get.

22

A Need For More

Brent heard knocking at his door but let it go. He had no deliveries due that he was aware of and if he had something coming from work, they’d let him know.

Sammie ran out of his office and was barking. The one thing he hated was that to get to the door, he’d have to go through the dining room, the kitchen, then the living room to the front door. Yet the front door was adjacent on the wall right behind where he was sitting. He should do something about that but was too damn lazy and didn’t want to be bothered with people anyway.

That also meant not being bothered to get up and see who it was when he didn’t care all that much.

The knocking finally stopped along with Sammie’s barking, but he continued to work.

When he caught a movement in the window of his office, he looked up and saw a person in his yard and all but fell out of his chair to the ground until he realized it was Vivian.