Page 32 of In Every Lifetime
"The PI gathered more than basic contact information?" Will asked. “It must have cost a pretty penny if this Gabriel wanted more.”
“Why would he want more if he was just trying to track us down?” I asked, still reading over the documents.
He took a deep breath, loud enough that I could hear it through the receiver, as he pondered. “With Fai’s more complicated family history, maybe it took the PI time to confirm the connection, and he kept gathering information while he waited for said confirmation?"
On the bottom of the stack was a leather-bound notebook. It was pocket-sized, able to fit in my palm, and well loved. In the bottom corner was an embossing. I ran my finger over the smooth letters.
L.S.
I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t stop myself. I opened thenotebook, flipping through the pages in a blur. Then, as if guided by something unseen, I stopped on one. It was a simple journal entry scrawled in neat handwriting. It seemed inconspicuous until I read over the details.
Jan 21st
Confirmed Faizal’s last known address is in Eugene, Oregon. It lines up with where his business is based. It’s been over a year of research, searching, and praying, but I think it’s really him. From what I’ve found so far, he is Rohan Acharya’s son, though he doesn’t know it. I don’t think so. At least not yet. I’ve been drafting a letter to send him, but I’m nervous… scared even. I’ve been looking forward to meeting him for years. It feels like the first step… to my new life. The life I should have been living. It’s terrifying but exhilarating. Faizal Acharya, my brother. I could get used to that. I will get used to it. I need to.
“Can I read something to you?” I asked Will, glancing over the entry again.
“Of course.”
I recited the words slowly and clearly. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but the entry felt… off. There was something I was missing, and I couldn’t figure out what. Will was quiet for a moment when I finished.
“Are you sure he hired a PI and didn’t find Fai himself?” Will asked.
“From what he’s said to us here and in the letter, it wasn’t him,” I explained.
“But are you positive?” Will asked again, his tone more fervent.
“I-I…” I looked around, not sure what I was looking for. Proof Gabriel had been telling the truth? “I’m not positive.”
Will sighed. “Let me look into him, just to make sure he checks all the boxes.”
It wasn’t a question, more of a demand. But it was going to be my next question. One thing most people didn’t know about Fai; he had a good amount of money. The journal had been doing well for over a decade, and he lived well below his means. I couldn’t help but wonder if this Gabriel had the right intentions in getting to know his brother.
“Please do,” I said, turning the page in the notebook, ready to learn more, when I heard gravel crunching in the driveway. I leaned back in the chair, glancing out the office windows just as Fai pulled his truck into the makeshift driveway.
“Shit,” I whispered, putting the notebook back on the desk and doing my best to put the documents where I had found them.
“What?” Will asked, sounding alarmed.
"They're back," I whispered, already moving, stopping only to pull the office door shut behind me. It would look as though I had never been in there. That was the hope, anyway. The sound of the car doors opening and closing had my heart rate climbing.
Will chuckled. “Didn’t you say you weren’t snooping?”
“I hate you so much right now,” I whispered again through clenched teeth this time as I ran the distance between the office and the living room where the phone’s receiver sat. The cord was a mess around me and I untangled myself as fast as I could, nearly toppling over in the process. “I’m hanging up now. I’ll call you tomorrow, and you better have news for me on Gabriel.”
I slammed the phone on the receiver as Will laughed on the other end. Steps sounded just outside the front door, and I grabbed a book off the shelf and all but launched myself onto the couch.
Fai and Gabriel wandered in, chatting with one another. Both of their cheeks were flushed from exertion and they definitely smelled like they had just hiked for hours.
“You’re back early,” I did my best to sound casual, but based on the look Fai was giving me, I was failing miserably.
“The second half of the hike was all downhill,” Fai explained, pulling off his dusty hiking shoes and dropping them by the front door. “Anything exciting happen here while we were gone?”
I shook my head and held up my book. “Just some light reading of—” I glanced at the cover and wanted to swear when I saw what damned book I had picked. “The Book of Mormon. You know… wanted to see what those Mormons were so jazzed about.”
Fai was staring at me as if I had lost my mind… and I honestly wasn’t ruling it out.
Gabriel, however, was looking between me and his office, his expression unreadable. He couldn’t have noticed anything off, could he? I put everything back where it was.
The curtains.
Shit, shit,shit!
“I hope it’s okay,” I said, not even sure where I was going with it, but needed to cover my tracks. “I wanted to let some light in, so I thought the glass doors and open curtains would do just the trick.” I did my best to give him my most reassuring, honest smile, but I had always been a bad liar.
And Fai’s expression was agreeing with that sentiment. He knew I was full of shit.
Gabriel, fortunately, did not. The tension left his face and he exhaled slowly. "Of course. I'll leave them open so you don't have to bother next time."
I smiled at him again, and as he turned to set down his shoes, I shot Fai that look. The one every married couple knows: the silent signal that said,we need to talk, now.
