Chapter 57: A Fathers Last Rites 2

Jennifer

I woke to a loud growl coming from my stomach. It was already late but the sound reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since sometime yesterday. I had slept fitfully for a few hours and despite it being a disturbed sleep, I was too anxious to let myself rest longer.

The burns on my skin were too raw still so I threw on fresh shorts and a warm jumper before making my way over to the cottage where I knew the others would still be working.

“Jennifer, you’re up! Are you feeling better?” Cieran asked as I walked in. “Much better thanks, might need a little more of Pheonix’s ointment though?” I said whilst looking around for her.

“She is out with Val, picking up our van.” Kevin said as he cleared some papers off the couch so I could sit. “So, we are going ahead with the special delivery plan, good. Did you have any issues? Is the package prepared?”

I deliberately phrased it like this to set the standard so there would be as little awkwardness around talking about my dead sperm doner as possible. Cieran and Connor both looked a little unsure of how to take this cold, unfeeling version of me but the others seemed to easily roll with it, taking my lead.

“Package is secure and ready for transport. The only issue we have had was in getting a plane, I could talk to some of my connections in the military and see if we could move it with a cargo shipment as that should bypass any checks but it may take some time as we are not exactly making regular trips out that way.” Travis explained with a slightly concerned look.

“It’s too far to take it by helicopter but as long as we can get the van onto a runway, I can get my private jet to take it. A cargo plane would have been ideal as we could have just taken it all the way in the same van, less chances for anything to go wrong but the private jet will be less conspicuous I think.” I replied, nonchalantly.

I was glad I purchaced that jet on a whim a few years ago. I had originally thought that I could use it if I wanted to travel anywhere since it would avoid having to interact with people too much, but I had only ended up using it once or twice over the years as I hardly ever travel. This felt like a good use for it now.

“Why didn’t you mention Jennifer had a private jet?” Cieran asked Connor. “We were looking for a cargo plane of some kind, Jen doesn’t have one of those yet.” He answered simply.

Cieran shook his head with a look that seemed to marvel how his once-in-a-lifetime- prodigy of a brother could be so single minded at times. I laughed to myself at the brothers who I was well used to by now.

“I’ll message Pheonix and Val to pick up dinner for everyone on their way back.” I said, thankful we could use the van for food before we have to use it to transport a dead body.

By the time we had eaten, everyting was set in motion. Kevin and Valkyrie would travel with the body to the compound where I grew up. They are well trained operatives and would be able to assess the situation when they got there but initially, the plan will be for them to drop it on my mother's doorstep.

We discussed leaving a note, but I have nothing to say to those people, the body alone would say enough for me; they can continue to try and hunt me down, but they should prepare to face the consequences, even my own sperm donor couldn’t escape my wrath.

I wanted to feel some sense of vindication that I might be able to affect them in some way after all they subjected me to as a child, but I knew, they wouldn’t see it that way. It wouldn’t make them question anything or stop and think about what they were doing, what they had done.

That kind of thinking took logic and reason, and they had none of that. If anything, it might provoke them to come after me harder, but I didn’t tell the others that. They would never agree if they knew that part of my plan was to draw them out, away from their safe hold. To draw them to me.

In the end I settled for a bow, after all, returning him to the people and life he valued far above his own daughter was my gift to them. I went to visit him one last time before he would be shipped off in the morning.

“There is one thing you forgot about me ‘father’’’ I gave a bitter laugh at the word that now only referred to his position in the church. “Despite all that you put me through. I survived. So be dammed anyone who thinks they can break me now.”

The words were spoken quietly and evenly but with strength and determination. They were an oath, they would not break me and, if they wanted to keep coming after me, I would damn them to the seventh circle of hell where they belong.

I placed the bow on the makeshift wooden casket and walked out of there without a second glance.

The rest of my night was spent with Maya. I was still exhausted and wheezy from the smoke but sleep still eluded me. I researched and checked on my charities. The charities I had set up in the city were deliberately placed.

I had some after school programs, they would remain untouched, however, my projects involving the police department and certain other local businesses were just a thread away from being pulled.

I had not only bought and invested in businesses, but I had also found ways to invest in projects and by wings in buildings to reinvest in the local economy at the time. Now, I essentially owned a small part of almost every part of the city and those who sat on their thrones where about to find out how a true businessperson operates.

I would wait until just the right moment to start pulling my strings and watch their little economy collapse. I had to do it just right though, or everyone in the city would suffer and if I let the innocent take the fall then I would be no better than them.