Chapter One
Cal drove Piper home. Mostly he talked in the car and she listened. He told her all the gross details she didn't want to know about morning sickness. He was so ecstatically happy that despite the gut wrenching emotion in her stomach, Piper smiled while she listened.
He switched topics again, quickly, "So no parole, you just got released?" Piper nodded to him and then realized he wanted more information.
"Yeah, a bunch of us were released really. I think something was up though because all the latino women were sent in a different line to the other side of the building," she said in a worried voice. Piper actually looked back behind her to see if there were any other cars leaving the campus, but all she could see was hillside.
Cal nodded and said, "I saw ICE busses going around the building. I got here way early because mom was on my case to make sure I was here so you would see me when you came out." Piper felt her heart contract some. Her conversations with her mother had been sweeter and emotional since the riot. Piper had only spoken to her a few times after she got out of AdSeg. Her last conversation with her father was when he hung up on her. She focused on the other information.
'Oh those mother fuckers….they released them just to be deported," Piper slammed her hand down on her thigh and clenched her fist. She now understood why and knew that soon other prisoners would arrive to fill those bunks.
Cal, "That is terrible. I saw families waiting outside...you mean they didn't tell them?"
"They would have resisted and the families could have rallied...hired lawyers, tried to stop the deportation.." Piper's voice trailed off. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her anger. She thought about Alex, still helpless in a place where her future is decided by a corporation that only cares about the bottom line.
"You asked me what I am going to do now," Piper said looking over at her brother again. He darted his eyes away from the road then back. He just nodded his head, unusually quiet for her baby brother.
"I'm going to write a memoir and do my very best to become a prison rights advocate," she declared with finality. "Oh and I'll also get any job I can to earn whatever money I can so our father doesn't blow a head gasket." Cal laughed. Their father always pushed them to be making money and if they weren't making some sort of money would point out they were living at home again for free.
"You don't have to worry about money Pipes. Dad probably wanted me to wait so he could tell you with the family lawyer, but we've been fighting about it for awhile. Grandmother left you a good chunk of money...most of her wealth really and the brownstone on Charles Street. She left instructions that you didn't get anything until you were completely clear of your charges. Dad interpreted that to mean that you didn't know about it either. We've been...discussing it for some time. Sorry though, I caved. Gran left me a bit of money as well but Dad is to oversee it to make investments and what not for at least five years." Cal's jaw tensed.
Piper was in shock. It was all too much, too fast. She felt like the landscape whirling by, she couldn't feel like she was sitting still because nothing was solid and true. He merged onto the highway and Piper just shook her head. "Thank you for telling me and I understand why you didn't. I even understand why Dad didn't...he didn't want me to give the money to Alex."
"Oh yeah...since you mentioned her. I heard you're engaged. I thought Dad was going to have a stroke when he told us that. Mom didn't seemed surprised," he said the last bit with a tone of disbelief that made Piper give a small smile.
She nodded her head and told him, "She and I talked during the riot. It was brief...I saw her in the crowd outside and got to a phone. She helped me see something clearly. We got prison married...which I know isn't legal but she is my wife in here….my heart's wife," Piper put her hand on her chest and then reached up to twist the small key ring on her wedding ring finger. "Everything I do from now on will be about making it better for her in there….it will be about getting her home to my arms safely." Cal reached out and took his sister's hand and squeezed it tightly. He changed the subject and started to tell her about how he is renovating an apartment in their hometown for his new little family. She listened as he filled her in on the details of their soon to be new home. He never let go of her hand.