Today's Challenge Word is:
STORM
The question echoed through her mind. Nathan... Where the hell was Nathan. It seemed like an easy question. One that she hoped began with DEAD. Had he done this to her sweet baby sister?
"I am trying to remember Nathan. It has been years, before my career, before my tuned in abilities to know someone by their characteristics. He was always quiet, reserved, but touchy, feel-y. He would come over to my Parents, when Char still lived there and they would eat dinner holding hands, or his hand was touching her leg, arm, hair, back. They were always together and close, canoodling, ya know."
"Sure. The thing is, he is not on our radar. Seems that some of the neighbors do not even recall seeing him, ever."
"What? What does that even mean?"
"Seems that the house might have had his name on it, but he has been missing, I will put that term lightly, since 2008. We are reaching out to some numbers we obtained from her cell phone bill. That was a fun search. Try thirty carries and a girl who could possibly have two names, plus we tried Nathan as a contact as well."
"Findings?"
"Under Charlotte Rose Greer, age 24 from Sioux City, IA."
I felt it brewing. A storm that was so loud, so violent, boiling inside of my being. I did not know how to take this. I mean, my sister, the person I had grown up with ALL my life was not even the same person anymore. It was scary, weird and a lot to digest. My face fell pale, I could literally feel the color draining. The darkness of the storm clouds were taking over. An internal fight that only I knew was going on.
"Greer, huh." it was all I could muster. It was sickening.
"Does that mean something?"
"Oh, well, only my ex-husband's last name, that is all."
I had spat it out, like it was the worst thing ever. Why would she use Danny's last name? What did that have to do with her? Why did she not use Nathan's name, her married name? Or better yet, her maiden name? Cale was not a normal name, not a name that stood out. What the hell was Charlotte up to? What the hell was she into and where did Danny fit?
"Ex-Husband? I had no idea?"
"Sorry. Young and dumb and I thought he loved me. Much to my surprise, we were to young to make it work and he was more concerned with his secretary than with his wife, who was trying to get her career launched."
He got it, I could see it in his face.
"Ties to him that Charlotte might have still had?"
"Let's go for none. We had been married for a blink of an eye and he had not even had time to bond with my family. The only time Charlotte even met him was at our wedding."
It sounded bad. I realized that. It brought me back to that day. It was white lace, expensive, classy and I had paid out of my own pocket to make it happen. Stupid, young girl. I had arranged every piece, paid for every part and acted like I was the happiest bride ever, even though moments before the walk down the isle I had been sick, as sick as I am today at the death of my sister.
"I don't even think they said two words to each other at the wedding. Charlotte had been my Maid of Honor, but she had been busy flirting with the Best Man."
"Now this one warrants more information then. We ran a check on Daniel and found that he is a Banker in Perrysburg. Did you guys live in Iowa at any time?"
"No. I can't speak for Char, but no, we were born, bred and have lived in Ohio my whole life. What did you pull for Danny, for the past eight years?"
"Still working on that. What did he do when you married?"
"We were married in 2001 and he was a Financial Assistant, straight out of college for a firm in Toledo."
The storm was coming back. I had missed something. I was thinking about our wedding. I had been mixing and mingling, alone. Danny was no where to be seen. I knew he had drank a little to much, I could tell by the way he was hugging everyone we greeted, thanking for attending. That was earlier in the night. Now I was alone, thanking our guests for sharing our day...by myself. I looked over and noticed that Charlotte had disappeared too. I know I made a note of that, because she had been like a leech on the Best Man, Robby. Robby was sitting down at the head table, alone and Charlotte was out of sight. Danny was too. I knew my head was just playing tricks on me. I knew that because of this new piece of info, my mind was putting pieces together that had no business, reason to go together.
"Kat, are you recalling something?"
"No. I was just thinking back to our wedding, Danny and my wedding and I remember greeting our guests, alone. I couldn't find Danny. For some reason I remember seeking out Charlotte and remember that she has disappeared as well, but her pursuant was still in the room. I can't remember when either of them returned."
"How was your wedding night?"
"Non-existent. He passed out before we even got to the hotel and his best man had to carry him to bed."
It was going to play in my mind. Had I missed the connection between Charlotte and Danny? Had there been something going on behind my back and that is why the distance that had already been between Charlotte and me, had grown to be so much more? What was Nathan in all this? So many questions swarming in my head.
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Well, I am SUPER excited to say that we MADE it to FRIDAY! This week has been one for the books! It has been a L O N G week and my family is going through round 3 of the sickness. Me and my youngest are on Antibiotics, but my Hubby and my ifve year old, who just got over Pneumonia, are getting the sneezes and running noses.
I am so over this!
Needless to say, we are READY for the weekend!
We are going to see how we are feeling, but going to try to head over to the Imagination Station for the girls. We always have such a great time there!
Other than that- a quiet, carefree weekend. Hopefully we can even catch up on some sleep! Oh, and some baking! (Everyone wants some cookies and monkey bread!)
~Kel
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