The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 96

The bell to Spatchy's dinged as unusual as she pushed the door open, and she looked around to see every seat empty and every table bussed, an unusual sight in Spatchy's.

"Mom?" she called hesitantly, and Martha shot to the front from the kitchen.

"Kat?" she called back. "Lock the door behind you."

"What?" Kat asked. It's only like 6 something, why,"

"Lock the door," her mother said again. "And come here."

Kat did as she was told, feeling a discordant fear rise within her like an incorrectly played note.

"Mom? What's going on?"

"There's something I never told you," her mother said, pulling her back into the empty, clean kitchen.

"What's going on?" Kat asked. "Why are you closed, what-,"

"Kat, just listen," said her mother, shushing her with a gesture. "Listen. There's something I never told you. And I was never sure if I should tell you, and then you took it up all on your own, and things just, things just got away from me."

Martha shook her head, anticipating Kat's interruption and stopping it before it started.

"I only knew your father for months, not even a full year. I fell in love with him right away when I saw him, never spent a day apart from him after meeting him. And we met at... We met at a rally. An environmentalism rally, against big oil. Like the kind I know you go to."

Kat's eyes widened, finally stunned into silence.

"Your father was an amazing man, an amazing person. He cared about the planet so much, it was all that mattered to him for a long time. Then he met me, then we got pregnant with you. He would've done anything for you, anything for us, so when he got caught up."

Martha blinked hard.

"He had pretty serious charges. Stuff from before he found out about you. He wouldn't so much as jaywalk after finding out about you, but it was," she paused. "It was already too late. He didn't want me to go down with him, so he went on the run, used the activist network to do it. He promised me he'd be back as soon as he could. And if it was just for me, sure, maybe I'd say he got distracted, maybe it was just less convenient for him to return. But for you? Kitty, when he found out about you he wanted to repair the hole in the ozone layer with his bare hands, would've climbed a ladder with a needle and thread if he thought it would help. He would've done anything for you, and I know he would've done anything to meet you if he could, if he was still... I always believed that he passed. I couldn't feel him in the same way and I just."

She sighed.

"That's not what I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you this. You've always known that your father named you, I've always told you that. He loved you more than anything. But I tweaked the story a little bit. I told you that when he found out I was pregnant he talked to you, he said hi Kat. But he didn't."

Kat's mother smiled, a tired, layered smile.

"He didn't say hi Kat. He used your real name, the one I was too young and too scared to put on your birth certificate in the fears it would help connect us to him. Your father didn't name you Kat. He named you Kategis. It's a Greek word. I was already working at Spatchy's at the time. He liked the food and he loved the Protgolios, they loved him too. Kategis means storm. But it's more than that. A Powerful storm, a passionate one, one that nature sends to protect itself. It's a retributive storm, like a hurricane destroying an oil rig, and yet a renewing one, one for the good of all nature. He wanted this for you, Kat."

Kat rubbed her temples as she attempted to take in the additional new information, her mind overstuffed and overworked.

"And I know what you've been doing," her mother continued. "Partially because you can't lie, but partially because I always knew it would happen, I knew as soon as I took you to the lake for the very first time. Outsideness," she said, giving her daughter a lopsided grin at the reference to her childhood word. "It's your birthright. You come by it honest. And I knew I couldn't keep you away from it, so I didn't try. But now..."

Martha reached in her apron pocket, revealing a folded piece of paper.

"Someone slid this under the door before open this morning. I'm worried about you Kitty."

She extended the paper to Kat who snatched it with the hairs raising on her arms, already terrified.

She recognized Andy's handwriting immediately, the scratchy scrawl making it clear the note was written in a hurry.

I can't find you, but I did find your mom! I bet she doesn't know what her daughter gets into. Keep hiding out with your boyfriend, and she dies. I won't kill her, I've got to go, but if I can't get to you, I've arranged for a very unfortunate accident. The kind that happens when you least expect it. You know what I'm willing to do. 7543 Appilier road. Come alone, red brick building. We have the scanner and we have cameras, make any calls and I'll make one next. One your mom wont like. Bring anyone else and you both die, then I make the call. Seems easiest just to swing by, no? I only wanna talk to you. Remind you why we were doing all this in the first place. Remind you why you joined FES.

Kat felt her stomach twist as she read the last line.

Love, Conner, Andy had scrawled wildly, underlining his name three times. 

Kat fought back the bile she felt rising in her throat.

"I didn't know where to find you but I had to tell you somehow," said Martha when Kat looked back up at her, shaken. "I'm so glad you called."

"Mom, I'm so sorry," said Kat, threatening tears again.

"Please," Martha replied. "If I was worried about death threats I wouldn't work in a cafe for old Greek women. Someone once told me she and I would both die painfully because her coffee wasnt hot enough." She shrugged. "Comes with the territory. I didn't want to call the police, I learned about that the hard way with your father. I wasn't sure if you," she searched Kat's eyes. "I wasn't sure. And I didn't want to get you in trouble."

"I'm ok," said Kat, one of her truer statements.

She wasn't in any legal trouble at all surprisingly, let off entirely scot free by Jove despite the obvious suspicion from his security team.

"I'm gonna handle this, ok?" she promised.

"But, are you being safe?" her mother asked. "You're not actually going to go there, are you?"

Kat shook her head.

"No," she said. "No. I'll figure it out. And my friend is protecting me, he's,"

Kat's mother lifted her eyebrow at the pronoun.

"Nope," said Kat, reading her mind. "Nope, can't talk about that right now, I gotta go."

Martha pulled her in for a hug, pulling away then reaching up to touch Kat's face with the back of her hand.

"Please be careful," she said. "We're closed till further notice, ok? And I'm not sure if the number you called me on is your 'friends'," she said, throwing up air quotes around the word. "But I'm saving it in my cell as Kat, and when I call it I wanna hear back from you, understood?

Kat nodded.

"I'm proud of you honey," her mother said. "I always have been. And I know your father would be too. I know you'll do what he always thought you would."

Kat smiled.

"I'm gonna go out the back," she told her mom, her mind already working.

"Call me," her mother called as Kat slipped into the cooling night air. "Soon!"