Chapter Four "More Revelations"

     Isabella sat in her room for nearly a day with the briefcase resting on the edge of her bed. She had her laptop out and had been examining accounts nearly nonstop since getting home using usernames and passwords given to her by her mother’s lawyer. It was not Linda this time who rescued her from a bout of over-examination and deep thoughts. It was her mother. Isabella jumped at the sound of her door being knocked on. “Yes?”

     “Can I come in?” Her voice was muffled by the door.

     “Yes.”

     Her mother came in wearing a robe over her nightgown with her ballet flat satin slippers. She was wearing something on her legs knowing this would make Isabella more amenable than bare legs. She wanted to reach out to her daughter and not for a chance to get at her money. She was feeling a pang of deep-seated guilt about how she felt about Isabella’s father. This ate at her insides, and she wanted to make amends with Isabella. “Can we talk?”

     Isabella looked at her and let her eyes roll up and down her choice of attire and smiled. She sensed the attempt, and she secretly approved. She patted her bed next to her for her mother to sit down. She did and kissed Isabella on the forehead. “You haven’t eaten anything all day. Are you upset?”

     Isabella stared out into her room. “No. I’m not upset…not anymore.” She pulled her laptop closer. “Look at these. These are portfolios of dad’s money investments. He was a genius mom. He set up accounts and investments that are still gaining. What I had yesterday has already gained almost half a million dollars with soybeans and some things I don’t even know about. He also invested in real estate and chickens.” She laughed. “I made over $400,000 in just one day!”

     Her mother smiled. “What do you plan to do?”

     Isabella thought. “I don’t want to spend it, but I do want to invest more of it. I still want to go to school so don’t think for a moment I don’t.”

     “I thought you would.”

     “I…I want to help Linda add the room to the house for Julecia.”

     Her mother laughed. “Good luck with that. My sister is stubborn with her investments and money too. She won’t let you. I promise you that.”

     “Are you sure?” Isabella looked at her. “I’ll ask.”

     “Go ahead.”

     Isabella looked at her mother’s clothes again. “I really like your choice of sleeping attire.” She smiled.

     “I thought you would.” She looked at Isabella. “I want you to come downstairs and eat something.”

     Isabella shut her laptop and stared at her. “Fine…but this is such interesting stuff.”

     “I’m sure it is.”

     Isabella got up and slid on her slippers and went downstairs with her mother and sat with her in the kitchen while eating a salad with some vegetarian chicken nuggets and a dipping bowl filled with hot wing sauce and ranch dressing. Her mother sat with her. They both heard Linda come in and set her things down.

     “Come here, sis.”

    Linda came into the kitchen and looked at them. “I’m glad to see you two talking.”

     “Has Isabella told you anything about our trip to Atlanta yet?”

     “Not a word. I figured she would when she was ready.”

     “You better sit down for this.”

     “Oh?” She pulled up a chair and waited.

     “Go ahead, Isabella. Just tell her the big thing.”

     Isabella could not hide her smile. “Linda, I’m a millionaire now.”

     “What?” She practically yelled.

     “She’s right. The Will was all for her, and she now has close to 8 million big ones to her name.” She stopped. “Apparently my husband was not a bad man like I thought. I was wrong.”

     Linda looked at her in as much shock as she looked at Isabella. “Hold it. You admit you are wrong, and Isabella is a millionaire?” She drank a deep sip of her tea. “Let me pinch myself to make sure I’m awake.”

     “Funny Linda.” Isabella laughed. “Mom is right, and I want to help you build the room for Julecia.”

     Linda looked at her. “No.”

     “I told you she wouldn’t let you.”

     “This is my house, and I pay for those things. I won’t accept any charity, and you need to invest most of that money.”

     Isabella smiled. “It already is, and I made some $400,000 just today.”

     Linda’s jaw dropped. “Is that true?” She looked at her sister.

     She just nodded.

     Amber took Philip to dinner to get to know him more and convince him to stay in Asheville for a few days. He was determined to continue hiking, so she agreed to go with him on some of his adventures when she was not teaching dance classes. He got a hotel room close to their neighborhood and used that as a base. Amber did not want him out at night with all the wild animals around. She also wanted to have some alone time with him to get to know him more. She found it a struggle to get him to talk about his family so she focused on hiking and the woods using that as a common ground between them.

     “So, where are we going today?” Amber was already in her cute hiking outfit.

     “You really like wearing that hiking?” Philip thought it looked too neat and pretty for the woods.

     “Yes, I do. Are you complaining about seeing my legs?”

     He blushed. “No…um…no.” He just tried to hide his reaction to her choice of attire.

     She was no fool having seen her brother do the same thing when he saw her or one of her friends in tights. She smiled and knew he was embarrassed, but she knew he was beginning to have feelings for her. They had spent two days together already, and he was not sick of her. He was trying to see as much of her as possible.

     “I…I need to get more clothes. I can go and…” She put her finger on his lips.

     “No, we can go together.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “First, we’re going to my favorite breakfast location, then we’re going shopping for you.”

     He looked at her closely. “Are we going hiking today?”

     “We’ll see. First breakfast, then shopping, then we’ll see.” She leaned closer to him and got him to lean his head down thinking she was going to say something. Instead, she put her lips on his cheek and kissed him.

     His reaction to this was far too difficult to hide, and she grabbed him and pulled him in so that he was pressed against her. She felt it, and she liked what she was feeling through his shorts. He reached around her and put his hands on her back. She squeezed him and soaked in his aroma. Then she took his hand and slid it down to her butt so he could feel it. He tried not to do it, but she was forcing the point. He rubbed her shorts and felt how smooth she was in them. Then he looked into her eyes and saw something he did not understand, but he liked it.

     Jessica left Winona at the shop and helped her with her bags and set them inside. She left Katie in the car with it running and made sure Winona was safe. Isabella was minding the store like usual and did not say a word about her trip. She was hoping that they had forgotten she went to Atlanta. Jessica gave both of them a hug and left.

     “Be a good dear,” Winona said. “and start that research for me on witches.”

     “Yes, ma’am.” She smiled and left.

     Isabella looked at Winona. “So, tell me. Did you learn anything?” She heard the word 'witch' and it piqued her interest.

     “Yes we did, but let me freshen up a bit first. That was a very long drive, and I’m not quite myself because of it.” She scampered off to the far end of the store which was her house.

     Isabella toyed with the idea of telling her about the inheritance by running different conversations through her head before Winona was back. She had showered and changed her clothes. Now she was in a short dress she called her native special, red with black beads and frills. She liked wearing suntan pantyhose with it to match her skin and some moccasins. She settled down in a chair and waited on Isabella to talk.

     “So, what did you find out?” Isabella sat down with her.

     Winona looked at her. “Don’t you have something to tell me?”

     Isabella stared at her with an intense glance before speaking. “How do you know?”

     “Girl,” She said with a grin. “Your aura is going off like fireworks, and that usually means that you are desperate to tell someone something since I’m the only one here.” She shrugged.

     Isabella laughed. She cleared her throat a little thinking a moment. “Yeah, I guess I’m either excited by this or just simply have to talk, and you are really the only one outside of my aunt and my mom I can talk to about this.”

     “Well, spill it.” Winona motioned with her hand.

     Isabella sat back and thought about how to say what she was about to say. “My mom and I were wrong about my dad. I think, and this is just a theory, that my dad was trying to hide who he was from us. It turns out he was working for the FBI as a very, and I mean very, undercover agent.”

     “Oh?”

     “So, while you were gone, I had to go to Atlanta with my mom to the reading of his Will, and while there, his brother, Harry, was there too. Now, this is the interesting or scary part. I don’t know what to think about this yet. Harry was arrested for murdering my father.”

     Winona just stared at her listening.

     “It turns out that my uncle Harry was involved in the human trafficking stuff going on across the southeast and around the world. He was mad too. He shot me a look that was not good, and now…” Isabella got up and pointed to the window.

     Winona followed her.

     “You see that black SUV out there?”

     “Yes.”

     “That’s the FBI, and they are tailing me everywhere I go.”

     “Really?”

     “It’s not to arrest me.”

     “I didn’t think so.”

     “They are keeping an eye on me to keep Harry’s goons from killing me or taking me. I understand now why.” She sat back down. “And that’s not all.”

     “Oh?”

     Isabella smiled. “Dad left me everything in his Will which includes no less than almost eight million dollars in investments and cash.”

     Winona swallowed hard. “What?”

     Isabella choked back some tears thinking about her dad. “Yeah, dad left me a millionaire, and mom didn’t know what to think about that either.”

     They both sat there a long time saying nothing. They just stared out into space and listened to the noises of the shop and outside.

     “What are your plans?” Winona finally asked.

     “I don’t know. I don’t want to leave you without help, but I guess, I can do it voluntarily.” She smiled with an awkward grin.

     Winona did not smile but thought. She got up and went to a shelf with a box on it and got it out. She read something on a piece of paper and brought it back to Isabella. “You need this, and this.” She handed Isabella a beautiful crystal and a mandala painted on a seashell. “This is black jade, and it is for protecting you from negative people or situations that you cannot see coming. It will also help you tune your intuition.” She handed Isabella the black jade pendulum that was meant to be hung around her neck.

     Isabella put it on and immediately felt a rush of energy flow into her through her chest near her heart. She sighed and breathed in a deep breath. “What did you do to this?”

     Winona looked at her seriously. “My brother, Danuwoa, and I charged this crystal ourselves many times and many years ago.”

     “Danuwoa?”

     Winona looked away. “Yes, it means warrior, and he was a warrior in his own way.”

     Isabella looked at her. “He’s no longer with you is he?”

     She sighed. “No, sadly my brother died a decade ago of a heart attack. He was a great man who tried very hard to keep my people from succumbing to the ravishes of selling out themselves simply for profit. He tried to keep the spiritual ways, but many did not see the value in them and abandoned them. That is why I moved here after his death.”

     “I’m sorry.”

     “It’s okay. I have grieved for him, and his spirit is alive and probably in someone else now, or he’s waiting for the right child to come into this world to experience another life.” She smiled. “He understood that each life is its own journey and valued what that life was in its own way.”

     “He sounds like he was a wonderful man.”

     “He was, and he would have really liked you and Katie. He was impeccably wise beyond his years. He often spoke about the Great Spirit and helped those who wanted to connect with the spirit within themselves. He loved the outsides and nature, and I often found him talking with old trees in the forests around here. That is another reason I moved here.”

     “That is beautiful, Winona. What does your name mean?”

     She smiled. “Firstborn, and while Danuwoa was actually my older brother, I was the first daughter my parents had, and I was the first girl in three generations.”

     “Now that’s certainly special.” Isabella thought a moment. “Do you have any other siblings?”

     “Yes, but I don’t see them very often. They live in that other town in North Carolina that I don’t like to talk about.”

     Isabella looked confused.

     “Let’s just say it’s named after my people and leave it at that.”

     “Oh.” Isabella got it.

     “I was born there, but I never liked it there growing up. Danuwoa and I moved away in our twenties and went to different places like vagabonds, but he liked the mountains here the most. He worked as a forest ranger so that he could be in the woods as much as possible. I lived with him for a while before he helped me set up a store. I had one in Brevard first, then this one came available at a very low cost, so I bought it. He and I only saw each other about once a month after that until I started doing paranormal investigations. Then he helped me with a few of them. He was hiking with a group of people in Mt. Mitchell State Park when he had his heart attack. He died where he loved to be, so I’m not upset about that. We had his ashes scattered along those trails. He visited me a couple of times after his death and knew I needed that closure and told me to do that.” Then she looked at Isabella. “Then he told me to be patient and wait for some people to come into my life that I would need.” She looked at Isabella. “And now you and your friends are with me. That is why I was so happy you and Amber walked into my store that day. I knew you were what he was talking about.”

     “Wow.” Isabella thought a moment. “So, changing subjects a bit, what about that witch?”

     Winona suddenly got very serious. She looked at her hands and back at Isabella. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. I’ve dealt with demons, but they are pretty predictable even if they are powerful, but this…this witch…she’s different. There is something about her that I don’t yet understand, and this is where I need you and Amber to do your sleuthing work. You are good at it even more than you realize. Trust your gut, Isabella.”

     “How do I start?”

     “How about just looking up witches in North Carolina and going from there, to begin with?” Winona waved her hands as she spoke.

     “Well, duh…” Isabella laughed.

     Cindy was comfortable working in The Boutique because it was like working in her own closet. While she and her mother fought a great deal, and that fighting was getting more and more common, her mother had the tendency to apologize with high-end items of clothing that Cindy happened to like a great deal. In particular, she liked the dresses and shoes her mother would come home with, and after their fight the other day, it was no exception. After spending three nights with Kelly, she came home to two new pairs of heels and a brand-new red dress hanging on her door. She wore the dress to work that day with white pantyhose and the new heels and was an immediate sensation with the customers. She sold three outfits that morning and was working on a fourth when the door chimed again. She turned her head and saw Amber and Kelly step in looking sheepish and lost. Cindy could not help but smile and shake her head at them. She had learned to put her hair in a French braid years ago, and she felt that was the best look for working in The Boutique so that it was not blowing around with the ceiling fans on. She liked to keep it pulled over her right shoulder too since it was long and would stay there until she decided to move it. She let her customer try on a dress and went to say hello.

     “Wow.” Kelly stopped and stared at Cindy giving her a long look. “That is an amazing dress, especially on you.”

     “Oh, my god!” Amber just hugged her and then jumped back remembering where she was.

     “We’re underdressed,” Kelly said looking at her skirt and Amber’s dress shorts.

     “You’re fine,” Cindy said and smiled.

     “So, how’s it going?” Kelly whispered.

     “Great. I’ve been very busy, and this dress is actually helping to sell more clothes. Can you believe that?”

     “Cindy?” It was her boss.

     “Yes, ma’am?”

     “You’re not loafing around are you?”

     “No, ma’am.” She quickly picked out some dresses to hold up to Kelly. “Pretend…” She motioned with her hands.

     Kelly figured it out and held it up and giggled. “You could have tried the right size.”

     “Oops.” Cindy turned red.

     “I thought you’d be better at sneaking around,” Amber whispered. “I mean…it’s not like you haven’t snuck out of your house a million times before.”

     “This…this is different.” Cindy held out her arms to show the store. “This is not home, and she is a lot smarter than my mom.”

     “Well, we just wanted to say ‘hi’ and see how you were doing,” Kelly whispered.

     “I’m doing great, actually. I love it here.” She held up a dress to Amber. “Go try this on.”

     “Are you serious? This is way out of my league.”

     “No, it isn’t.” Cindy pushed it toward her. “Go.”

     Amber took it to the dressing room. Cindy pushed another one into Kelly’s hands. “You too.”

     Her customer came back out and bought the dress and shoes. Cindy spoke with her and motioned to her legs. The woman nodded and smiled and grabbed a couple of packages of pantyhose and went to the register. Cindy smiled and went back to the dressing rooms. “Let me see.”

    They both stepped out, and Cindy smiled bigger than she had in a long time. “Wow, those are gorgeous on you.”

     “But I can’t afford…”

     “Nonsense.” She looked at Kelly. “I get a 10% discount, and I also get to tell you that those are on sale. They are 60% off, and with my discount…” She smiled.

     “Okay, okay…” Amber smiled. “We’ll get them.”

     “Wear them to church on Sunday.” Cindy smiled. “I insist.” Then she looked at Amber. “So, I hear you’ve been courting a gentleman?” She gave Amber a wry smile and a wink.

     Amber turned the color of a ripe plumb and tried to hide it. Kelly looked at her. “You’ve been what?”

     Cindy snapped her fingers and swung her arm as she did it. “Isabella spilled the beans girl.”

     “Damn…” Amber tried to hide her face with her hair.

     “Who is he? Have you kissed?” Kelly asked quickly. “Have you…you know…” She put her hand up to her mouth pretending to pleasure Brent.

     Amber just about fainted right there. “Ah…his name is Philip…no we haven’t kissed…yet…and.” She looked at Kelly. “I…well…”

     “Need some pointers.” Kelly finished her sentence.

     “Yeah…”

     Cindy blushed too. “That’s beyond me as well.”

     Kelly looked at both of them. “You want to keep your man? Then make him feel so good that he won’t ever want to leave you. Also, look into his eyes while you’re doing it. I love to watch Brent fall into my spell.”

     “Then what?” Amber asked.

     “Haven’t you learned anything from Katie either?”

     “No.”

     Kelly sighed. “When he finishes, don’t spit it out. At first, you have to get used to it, but then…” She smiled. “Now I crave it.”

     “What?”

     Kelly buried her face in her hands. “His…well…jism.”

     “What?” Amber asked.

     Kelly looked at her and frowned. “You have never, ever in your life seen Jacob doing the nasty with himself?”

     Amber blushed. “Okay…yeah…a couple of times.”

     “Just a couple?” Kelly crossed her arms.

     “Okay…yeah…I’ve seen him do it a lot…okay?”

     “So, you know what happens when he’s reached his climax?”

     “Yes.”

     “That is what I’m talking about. Geez…but you have to swallow it. I sorta learned that from mom.”

     “What?” Cindy almost screamed.

     Kelly blushed. “Yeah, about that…so, one-day mom and dad forgot to shut their door all the way, and I saw way…way more than I should have.” She snickered. “Yeah, mom is a crazy woman with dad, and he…well, let me just say that he was very happy when she was done. I’ve seen Mark do his thing, and so, I wondered where it went. Then I saw mom wipe her lips and smile.”

     “Gross.” Cindy turned her head.

     “You say that now, but I bet when you get a man, and you will, that you’ll do it too.”

     Cindy looked away. “There’s never been a guy interested in me ever.”

     “I wouldn’t say that.” Amber rubbed Cindy’s arm. “I’ve seen lots of guys staring at you and your legs.”

     “Who?”

     “Doesn’t matter now, they are gone, but I’ve seen them. I think most of them thought you were out of their league or too…”

     “Snobby.” Kelly finished Amber’s sentence.

     “What?” Cindy looked at them. “I’m not a snob.”

     Kelly laughed. “Yes, you are Cindy, but we still love you anyway.”

     “Fine.” She smiled. “I guess you’re right. I am a bit of a snob.” She looked at Amber. “How did this go from being about you to being about me?” She gave Amber a long look.

     “I’m good at that.”

     “So, when are you going to see Philip again?”

     “Today. We’re going for another hike somewhere. I told him to pick the trail.”

     “Just kiss him already,” Kelly said. “I bet he wants to kiss you.”

     “He does stare at me a lot.” She thought.

     “He probably just wants the right moment.” Kelly continued.

     “I guess so. He’s a bit shy. He’s built like a tank. He’s a farmer…”

     “A farmer?” Cindy asked quickly.

     “Yes, he grew up on a farm. He’s not dumb if that’s what you think. He’s actually quite a good businessman. He and I have talked, and he wants to buy a farm somewhere around here. He said he’s got enough money saved to do it.”

     “How much?” Cindy asked.

     Amber looked at her. “I haven’t even kissed him yet. Why would I ask him about his bank accounts?”

     “Priorities.” Cindy retorted.

     “Yeah, well my priority right now is getting my lips on his lips and feeling that warm body of his on mine.” She smiled. She decided not to tell them how much he sold his farm for in Georgia.

     “That’s it, girl.” Kelly smiled. “Get his body all charged up, and then take him to the cleaners and drain him until he cries for mercy.”

     “Ah…Kelly? You need to see Brent soon?” Amber smiled.

     “Sorry…” She giggled. “Yeah, I need some loving, and it wouldn’t hurt for him to make some loving on me either.” She shrugged her shoulders.

     “I have to get back to work now. You two get those dresses, and I’ll see you later.” Cindy took them to the register and waved goodbye to them as she went back to straightening out the racks of clothes in the shop.