LPOV
I finished up with the last customer when I handed her many bags of clothing. She was a pain in the ass but one of our best customers in more than one way. I bid her goodnight as I locked the door and set the alarm. As I turned around on my heels I heard the phone ring.
"Volturi Clothing this is Lauren how can I help you today?" I heard a soft voice on the other end stammer.
"I am not sure I got the right number. I was told to ask for V.D.A." There was nothing on the other end. I could hear no breathing and I thought she hung up on me.
"I need to follow protocol but were you given a password?" I heard someone walked around on a hard floor. Her high heels clacking were echoing off the walls of wherever she was. I heard drawers closing and papers be shuffled about.
"I found it. The world I was told to say to you was family." She went back to her silence.
"Yes, please hold while I transfer you. You may be put on hold but please stay on line as someone will get to you as quickly as they can." I quickly punched in the extension for Bella's line and hung up.
I was very fortunate to get this job. How could I not as I was family as much as the rest of them. Years ago Bella's father was the chief of police for some asshat of a town in Washington. Bella's mom ran off years before that so they were very close. They had the kind of father/daughter relationship that was like in the movies. He let her make her own mistakes yet was firm when it came to punishment. Bella, Rosa, Alice and I gravitated towards each other the day we met in school. Hell the first day of kindergarten was hard on everyone but Bella was a champ. She marched in to the class room asked where her desk was and proceeded to unpack her little book bag. I remember her coming over to us and pulling us into her little circle of desks saying we were all going to be friends. That very day we were never apart.
As time went on we basically were at their house all the time. Charlie never had a problem with the endless slumber parties of popcorn, pizza, girly movies and make-over's. As we got older the slumber parties led to boy talk and sex. We were in middle school when Charlie found out about the families we came from. We were all sitting in a circle on Bella's bedroom floor and it all came out. It normally did but this time Charlie listened in behind the door. Alice went from one foster family to another never to find a family of her own. Rose came from a broken home and her parents could give a shit what she did or where she did it. I was being raised by an elderly aunt that was older than fucking dirt. All three of us were broken but were made wanted when we were with Bella and Charlie. The very next day Charlie went down to the courthouse and started paper work to gain guardianship of each one of us. The social worker in charge of Alice's file was happy to see that someone wanted her as much as Charlie did. Normally the agency did not allow someone in Charlie's position to adopt but options were scare and the adoption went through fast. Rose's situation was harder to deal with. Her mom didn't want to lose the child support to support her own habit and her father was in and out of jail. They both gave up the good fight when it came out that Rose was really not their daughter but a niece they took in from some distant sibling. My aunt finally gave up when Charlie told her I deserved to have sisters around and that I would be taken care of. She signed the papers that day and a few days later dropped dead from a massive coronary. Charlie in one fell swoop gained three daughters and Bella gained three sisters. He took us out for pizza that night to celebrate his new family.
Money was hard to come by on a sheriff's salary but he always made do somehow. If there was a party, activity or new boots to be bought he made sure we had them. He was a lone man in a sea of women but he loved every minute of it. Charlie retired a few years before we graduated high school. Some how he was making money to keep us supported. Bella would ask him about the work he did but he never gave a straight answer. All we knew is that he would go on small business trips leaving us alone for a few days or a weekend. He always made sure that we would be ok and taught us how to defend ourselves to some horrific attacker. As always he came back but tired and a little beaten but a few days later Charlie was back to making sure we were fed and taken places.
We were all in high school finishing our senior year. Charlie was never more proud of seeing us at the homecoming rally, taking pictures of us of our prom dates and watching us walk up to receive our diplomas. He always made sure we were safe, wanted and more than anything loved. He was happy and proud how his girls were now women ready to take on the world but sad that he was now going to have an empty nest.
I remembered back to the day that we all were sitting around the kitchen table shaking with the envelopes in our hands. Charlie said that any college would be proud to have us and he would make sure it was paid for and not to worry about it. We all were gob smacked when he told us that but didn't question it. We all screamed for joy when we were all accepted into an Ivy League school on the east coast. Charlie was so proud of us that he put those letters in frames and put them on the wall that night.
It was that night that Charlie said it was time for him to move on. We would have our own lives but he always would be there for us just as he was. He told us he needed a change from the rain and dreary weather. He chose California and decided to open a small detective office. An old college of his said he could get him more work and it would be worth it. We helped him pack up the house and make sure it was ready to put on the market. The day it sold was the day he went to his new life and we went to ours. We called him at least once a day so we could tell him of the classes we were taking and he told us his life of taking down cheating spouses, embezzlement and insurance fraud cases.
He was so happy that Rose had entered law school and Alice had found her niche in fashion design. Bella decided to go for a degree in elementary education but minored in science. I decided to go into physical education and we all excelled in what we did. We were 22, graduating college and Charlie was there all the way for us. He was standing there flashing his camera just like he did on our high school graduation. He surprised us all with a cruise trip. He said that we need to blow off some steam and have a good time before entering the real world.
Charlie knew how to spoil us. All through college he made sure we had the best apartment and that it was in a safe neighborhood. He bought us each our dream car and supplied us with a credit card with no limit. Bella would protest but he always said business was booming and as long as husbands were fucking whores that we would be taken care of. We all laughed at his crude mouth but that was Charlie. His mouth spilled sewer but he was gentle as a lamb.
We spent the trip enjoying fruity drinks, getting tans and getting to know each other all over again. We knew that we didn't want to go off on our own and we decided to find a home and settled down. Alice was over the fucking moon that her family wanted her just as much as she wanted us. Our wonderful trip ended with news that would rock our world in more ways that we could imagine.
We were walking down the gang plank when Alice noticed Robert standing on the dock waiting for us. He was the one that brought Charlie to California the few years ago. He looked like shit and we knew it was bad news. Charlie was gone…….our father, our protector, our best friend and our confident was snuffed out like a candle. We didn't know what the hell happened but what was to come would put Charlie in a whole new light we never knew.