I drove the two of us to a park on the other side of town, figuring that in the summer-like heat, we would have enough privacy that we could talk uninterrupted, but still have enough people around that he couldn't kidnap me or anything like that.
On the drive over, Kaname-san sat quietly in the passenger seat, waiting for us to arrive. Even though I didn't want to, I wondered what he was thinking about.
Once we arrived, we sat at the table silently for several minutes. Until Kaname-san reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of newspaper. When he showed it to me, I recognized it as Mom's obituary.
"We found this in the newspaper yesterday. You may not believe me, but we were all genuinely shocked, including Rintarou-san."
"Yeah, because coming over three days after her death with a proposition that I would only accept if she were dead is a total coincidence." Surprisingly, my sarcasm didn't seem to faze him. If anything, it amused him, based on the small smile that appeared on his face. Sadly, seeing that smile made me appreciate once again how handsome he was.
"When Rintarou-san told us that he had a daughter, my entire family wanted to meet you and offer you a place among us. The only one who was uncertain about this was your father. He said that after all this time had passed, you and your mother must hate him.
"However, after a few days, he gave into that desire. Masa-nii and I came with him because we wanted you to know that we accepted you, and to see what you were like.
"When we arrived at your house, we had just gotten off of our plane. We stopped at a hotel to leave our luggage in case things didn't go well, or your mother was anxious at having strange men in the same house as her teenage daughter.
"After that, we googled her name to get the exact address and took a rental car to your home.
"Once we got there, we noticed that something seemed strange, especially when your friend opened the door and you appeared to have been crying. However, we didn't know the reason for this until you began to shout at us."
To that, I replied, "You expect me to believe that?"
"You don't understand imouto-chan, I work as a monk. I am very good at reading people, and I could tell when I met you that you didn't hate Rintarou-san. Even now, you still don't even though you're angry with him. That's why I'm asking you to think back. When you told us that your mother was dead, did we really look like we didn't know? Did we act so callous that you would think that of us?"
"What am I supposed to think? It was the first time meeting any of you in years, or ever. I don't know you."
After that, I was quiet for a moment, and then said in a small, quiet voice, "But you did look shocked when I told you."
"We were. After we left, the three of us went back to our hotel confused, but we didn't want to leave without trying to understand you. Then, yesterday, we received a local newspaper with your mother's obituary in it.
"As I said, we were all surprised, but it explained a lot about your reaction. Masa-nii and I were actually planning to visit you later to explain, but when I saw you I thought that it might be a good idea to talk sooner."
After this, he took my hand and said, "Imouto-chan, I understand that you don't really know any of us, but we are family, and we want to help you. Please, give us one last chance to get to know each other before you completely disregard us."
Looking at his earnest face, I thought that there was a chance that I could trust him, and agreed, on the condition that we met at their hotel, since I didn't want them in the house just yet.
He agreed and we made plans to meet for dinner that night.