Chapter 52 - Explanations are Made
AN: I still have no power so I've had nothing better to do then write stories. Lucky for you guys. I decided to post this now, rather then in a weeks time. Enjoy. Review and maybe you'll get another chapter in another few days. :)
"I just don't know Dad. The whole story sounds a bit far fetched. Who would fake your death? Who would have anything to gain from it, especially if they knew you were just gone for awhile and could come back?" Torrie was having a very hard time believing that her dad didn't fake his own death then run away.
"I don't know who did it. But I promise you that someone did. I always knew I'd be home in a year. I had to go for a year, then everything was going to be taken care of." Harry was hurt that his daughter really thought he could run off on her just to leave her to clean up his mess. But it was slightly reassuring that Dominic knew her so well.
"What do you mean everything was going to be taken care of?" Torrie's eyes narrowed into slits. It sounded fishy to her. It sounded like a reason for her dad to take off. She didn't know how she was going to forgive him if she ever found out that he had run away.
"I think I'd better tell you the whole story." Harry could see that Torrie didn't believe him. He had always been able to read her face like a book. And while she had grown, she hadn't changed that much.
"I think so too." Torrie told him, still with the sceptical look on her face.
"It's not a flattering story Princess, but it doesn't make me look as bad as what you've been lead to believe about me up to this point, but it doesn't make me look good either." Harry hung his head, ran his hands through his thick hair. He'd give anything not to have to tell his own baby girl what he'd done. But he figured she might be able to forgive him his indiscretions if she just knew he hadn't abandoned her in the US to fix his mistakes on her own, while he went gallivanting off to another country. If she just knew he'd been trying to fix his mistakes on his own, had been trying to protect her, then everything might be ok.
Torrie hardened her heart. She wanted to just tell her dad it didn't matter what he'd been doing, that she was just glad to have him back. Her father had always been her whole world. They'd always been so close. He'd indulged her to no end, spoiled her rotten, loved her, and most importantly, unlike her mother, never got mad at her unless she'd deserved it. But it did matter to her. She couldn't pretend it didn't. She'd felt like she'd had nowhere to go and no one to turn to because of what her dad had done. She'd ended up taking someone's charity because of what had happened. And ok, she allowed that it had certainly turned out well for her in the end, she'd gotten Dom, the one boy she'd ever wanted in her whole life, but it had been a hellish few months at first. "I guess it can't be worse then thinking you faked your own death and abandoned me with a mountain of debts and no way to pay them."
Harry looked up, pain evident on his weathered features. "Ok. Well. There was a time when the store was doing well, but not great. When you were in your teens, I guess you were around 16. I mean, we could still have lived on what we were making, but not the way we were used to. And I knew it would have killed your mother to admit we didn't have lots of money, to have to move to a more reasonable neighbourhood, and not be members of 'the club'. So I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to do something to keep us living the same lifestyle we were all use to."
"I wouldn't have cared." Torrie felt the need to add.
"You say that now Princess, but you were 16. I think at 16 if we had to move to the same neighbourhood your cousin lives in, live in a tiny three bedroom house, sell all our cars, and I had to take you out of your school and put you in public school you might have looked at it differently. Those girls you ran with then wouldn't have spoken to you anymore. It would have been embarrassing for every one of us Torrie."
"I guess, but it would have been better then living through the last year has been."
"I know that now, but I didn't then, but let me finish the story. The last year you lived through wasn't supposed to happen."
"Ok, finish the story." Torrie was getting tired. She was still sick, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to listen to the whole story. She figured maybe if she just got more comfortable she'd be ok, so she propped herself up on the pillows, making sure Dom's was right under her head so she could smell him. She knew his smell would keep her calm, just like at night when she got scared or when she was upset and he pulled her to him. When she was comfortable she waved for her dad to continue.
"So when an old business acquaintance came to see me and offered me a deal to make some large amounts of money I wanted to say no right away, because it was clearly very illegal, but because of the money troubles we were having I told him I'd think about it. It was a chance to make a lot of money. They had it all planned out. They said even if I got caught all that would ever stick was receiving stolen property. We really needed the money, and they assured me that I wouldn't get caught, but if I did, I'd be able to get away with probation. So ultimately I got involved."
"Oh dad." Torrie sighed. Her dad had been a criminal. And all over status in the community. She didn't want to have to think of her dad as a criminal. How did one take someone out of the role of hero, someone to look up to no matter what, in one's life, and then put them into the role of criminal? Torrie didn't know the answer to that. It was the same for everyone at some point in their life. The day comes for everyone when they have to acknowledge the fact that their parents are very much human and that they make mistakes and bad judgement calls just like everyone else. Torrie had never had to see that in her dad, till now. And thinking him dead, then finding out he was alive, then finding out what he'd been into was hard to take.
"I know." Harry looked very ashamed of himself. "But it would have killed your mother Torrie. You were young, you might have adapted, but your mother wouldn't of. She had enough problems already. If I'd had to tell her that we were going to lose everything but the store it would have killed her. She wouldn't have been able to handle it Torrie." Torrie knew that was true. Her poor mother had been a good woman, and Torrie missed her dearly, but she'd had a lot of issues too. Torrie nodded. Harry continued. "What he was going to do was move some stolen car parts through the store, but we were laundering money for people through the store too. I was making more money then I ever thought. I wanted out, but I was addicted to the new lifestyle too. I mean, we'd always lived well, but never as well as we could on the profits I was making under the new plan."
"But it was illegal." Torrie was still very torn about what to think about the whole thing. Her dad, her hero, had been selling stolen merchandise and plus laundering money. "What was the money you were laundering from?"
"I don't know. I didn't want to know. It was for very bad people and I should have known better then to get involved. But I did. And I got more help in the store; I got to spend more time at home with my favourite girls, we built your Nissan. But their demands kept growing. I couldn't get out if it because I was in too deep. But the money got better every time they asked more of me. It was then I realized your mother was in trouble. I mean I was in far too deep by then. It was years that I'd been working for these men. I couldn't get out. Plus we needed the money even worse for your mother by then."
"Why did you have to mortgage the store if you had all this money?" Torrie's mind wouldn't let there be any holes in the story, or she wouldn't be able to believe him. And she wanted to believe him more then anything.
"Because of your mother, and because it was then that the men I'd been working for found out that the feds were on to them. And they told me that they had to cut me out for at least a while, that the cops and the feds were to close for it to be safe for them to use me for awhile. And I was happy. I wanted out after all and this seemed fine by me. Far as I knew I'd never been caught as part of their ring so I thought I was home free. I had to come up with the money for your mom, so I mortgaged the store. I didn't really even mind. It was honest money for once, and business was good, I figured I'd have it all paid off in no time honestly."
"Well, what happened then?" She was very glad her dad hadn't wanted to be a criminal.
"Well, the feds and cops were on to me, I wasn't home free. But they figured they had a use for me, so instead of busting me they came to me. And sure enough all they could stick was receiving stolen merchandise. And they told me if I helped them out, took one of their undercover guys into my store, pretended he worked for me and helped him out with his case however I could, however he asked, the charges wouldn't ever be laid and they'd disappear."
"So you took Brian in to try and catch Dominic and his team at something illegal. He was your best customer, and he wasn't doing anything worse then you were but you still tried to get him arrested." Torrie was almost more mad about that then she'd been when she thought he'd faked his death. She did realize that if she could forgive Dominic for having done something stupid and criminal, and the whole team for that matter, then it would be very hypocritical of her not to forgive her own dad for the same thing. Both had only done what they thought they had to, to keep their families safe and provided for. But for her dad to try and bust Dom to keep himself out of jail was also hypocritical in her book.
"I didn't really help Brian. I told him that I didn't think Dominic had it in him to do the heists, maybe Vince, but I didn't think Vince could pull it off without Dom. At first he believed me. Hell, he always believed me. It was his cop friends that tried to convince him to look at Dom again, after I had him convinced it couldn't be Dom. Not me. But Brian's a smart kid. He was working the front line; he met everyone who came in. He knew that if it wasn't Dominic, that Dom knew who it was. He started to try to find out exactly what was going on. And it almost killed him as he started to realize it must be Dom after all. He was in love with Mia, and liked Dom. I never had to point anything out to Brian. You liked Brian, remember. Even then. You were always following him around the store. Making fun of him for his valley accent, asking him why if he was from Arizona he talked like a surfer. You thought he was a down on his luck street racer. You begged him to take you to races, thinking he wouldn't tell me." Harry smiled at the memory of the look on Torrie's face when she'd realized he knew, back at, what had she been? 18? And in love with Dominic Toretto even then. She thought if she could just get Brian to take her down, Dom would see her there and fall for her, just like that. She'd figured that it was meant to be and Dom wouldn't have a choice. Harry'd been able to tell. But that look had been comical. Half worry that he was going to be mad at her for trying to go to races when he'd forbidden her to have anything to do with them, and half anger that she wasn't going to get to go. Torrie laughed.
"I'd forgotten about that. I'm going to have to yell at Bri for telling you about that."
"He didn't. He was going to take you. But I figured it out, and told him that you weren't allowed to go anywhere near street racing. I could tell by the look on his face that you'd asked him and I told him I'd take care of it."
"He was going to take me?" Torrie looked up.
"Yeah, he thought it would help his cover, plus he thought you were a good kid."
"A kid eh? I'm only a bit less then a year younger then Mia."
"That may be so, but I'm your father, I encouraged him to see you as my child. I wish I'd been around to do the same thing between you and Dom."
"I don't want to start there yet Dad, but the whole reason I wanted Brian to take me was to get to see Dom, not to be with Brian. Well, I liked Brian, but never like that. But anyway, let's finish the story of why you left first." Torrie didn't want to go into her relationship with Dom till her dad told her his whole story first.
"Ok, where was I?"
"The cops caught you for the stolen property but gave you a way out of charges, so I still don't know how you ended up running out of the country." Some of her anger was back. It was so nice to have her dad back that she'd lost some of it. But she still didn't know how he was going to explain away his disappearance.
"Ok. Well. You know how the thing with Brian and the Toretto's ended, obviously, since it seems you live here and so does Brian." Torrie nodded. "And that would have been the end of it, had the cops not found out that the guys who'd been giving me the stuff to sell had been into a lot of other stuff. And they started to dig. And they never found enough to pin me to the laundering. But they told me they could likely find enough if they looked harder."
"Oh dad." She shook her head at his foolishness.
"They told me if I went along and testified, if I told them that I'd been forced into working for those men, that I'd be given immunity. But I had to detail everything I'd seen, everything they talked about, and everything I'd done. Brian helped me out there, told the feds that I was trying to get my life in order. So I really did want to go legit anyway. I told them I'd co-operate if they could promise me that you'd be safe. They promised to keep you safe, and they told me that all the other troubles I was having would disappear if I went along. So I did. Part of keeping you safe was for me to leave the country while the fever surrounding the case died off. I gave my testimony and left. I wasn't even allowed to call you, but I left you a note. I couldn't tell you where I was going or contact you once I was there for both our safeties. While I was out of the country they caught all the men I was involved with and they're all in jail. Or they all were. Some of them were killed by other inmates for things they'd done to those inmate's families. So I'm safe now and that's why I was allowed to come home. I guess the bureau fell short on their promise to take care of you while I was gone. I don't understand why they didn't take care of you. I understand why after someone staged my death they couldn't come forward, it had to look like I disappeared; they couldn't very well start telling people I was fine, but they were supposed to take care of you. You never should have had to worry like you did, shouldn't have had to move in with Toretto."
"Who would want it to look like you were dead? Who had anything to gain from that?"
"I've been trying to figure that out since I found out what went on while I was gone. Do you believe me Torrie?" She had to believe him. It was the god honest truth.
"Yeah, I believe you daddy. But I'm so tired now; could you go send Dom here for a second?" Torrie yawned and started to fall asleep.
"We need to talk about you and Dom."
"Not now Daddy. I'm gonna fall asleep. I have the flu and Mia says I'll feel like this for at least the rest of this week. I hate it. I'm always falling asleep."
"Ok." Harry sighed and left the room. He hated the fact that his daughter and Dom were a couple. He'd always known Torrie had a crush on the older man, her and all the other girls who'd been into racing around her school. But Harry had always done his best to make sure that Torrie wasn't ever around Dom. Maybe he'd always known that Dom wouldn't be able to resist his daughter, he didn't really know, but he'd always known that if they got to know each other, they'd really get to know each other. He didn't have to like it. He'd never really figured on Dom and Letty breaking up though. He'd always sort of figured that if Dom and Torrie got together it would be just another time that Dom cheated on Letty and he knew that would have killed Torrie. But Letty had left Dom. That was something at least. But if he ever caught one hint that Torrie was with Dom because she'd felt obligated, or because she hadn't felt like she had anywhere else to go he'd take her out of Dom's so fast.
He went and sat in the living room. "Are things ok?" Dom asked. Harry looked very tired.
"Yeah. We talked. She wants to see you. But she was falling asleep."
"Ok." And with that Dom climbed the stairs.
AN: I still have no power so I've had nothing better to do then write stories. Lucky for you guys. I decided to post this now, rather then in a weeks time. Enjoy. Review and maybe you'll get another chapter in another few days. :)
"I just don't know Dad. The whole story sounds a bit far fetched. Who would fake your death? Who would have anything to gain from it, especially if they knew you were just gone for awhile and could come back?" Torrie was having a very hard time believing that her dad didn't fake his own death then run away.
"I don't know who did it. But I promise you that someone did. I always knew I'd be home in a year. I had to go for a year, then everything was going to be taken care of." Harry was hurt that his daughter really thought he could run off on her just to leave her to clean up his mess. But it was slightly reassuring that Dominic knew her so well.
"What do you mean everything was going to be taken care of?" Torrie's eyes narrowed into slits. It sounded fishy to her. It sounded like a reason for her dad to take off. She didn't know how she was going to forgive him if she ever found out that he had run away.
"I think I'd better tell you the whole story." Harry could see that Torrie didn't believe him. He had always been able to read her face like a book. And while she had grown, she hadn't changed that much.
"I think so too." Torrie told him, still with the sceptical look on her face.
"It's not a flattering story Princess, but it doesn't make me look as bad as what you've been lead to believe about me up to this point, but it doesn't make me look good either." Harry hung his head, ran his hands through his thick hair. He'd give anything not to have to tell his own baby girl what he'd done. But he figured she might be able to forgive him his indiscretions if she just knew he hadn't abandoned her in the US to fix his mistakes on her own, while he went gallivanting off to another country. If she just knew he'd been trying to fix his mistakes on his own, had been trying to protect her, then everything might be ok.
Torrie hardened her heart. She wanted to just tell her dad it didn't matter what he'd been doing, that she was just glad to have him back. Her father had always been her whole world. They'd always been so close. He'd indulged her to no end, spoiled her rotten, loved her, and most importantly, unlike her mother, never got mad at her unless she'd deserved it. But it did matter to her. She couldn't pretend it didn't. She'd felt like she'd had nowhere to go and no one to turn to because of what her dad had done. She'd ended up taking someone's charity because of what had happened. And ok, she allowed that it had certainly turned out well for her in the end, she'd gotten Dom, the one boy she'd ever wanted in her whole life, but it had been a hellish few months at first. "I guess it can't be worse then thinking you faked your own death and abandoned me with a mountain of debts and no way to pay them."
Harry looked up, pain evident on his weathered features. "Ok. Well. There was a time when the store was doing well, but not great. When you were in your teens, I guess you were around 16. I mean, we could still have lived on what we were making, but not the way we were used to. And I knew it would have killed your mother to admit we didn't have lots of money, to have to move to a more reasonable neighbourhood, and not be members of 'the club'. So I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to do something to keep us living the same lifestyle we were all use to."
"I wouldn't have cared." Torrie felt the need to add.
"You say that now Princess, but you were 16. I think at 16 if we had to move to the same neighbourhood your cousin lives in, live in a tiny three bedroom house, sell all our cars, and I had to take you out of your school and put you in public school you might have looked at it differently. Those girls you ran with then wouldn't have spoken to you anymore. It would have been embarrassing for every one of us Torrie."
"I guess, but it would have been better then living through the last year has been."
"I know that now, but I didn't then, but let me finish the story. The last year you lived through wasn't supposed to happen."
"Ok, finish the story." Torrie was getting tired. She was still sick, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to listen to the whole story. She figured maybe if she just got more comfortable she'd be ok, so she propped herself up on the pillows, making sure Dom's was right under her head so she could smell him. She knew his smell would keep her calm, just like at night when she got scared or when she was upset and he pulled her to him. When she was comfortable she waved for her dad to continue.
"So when an old business acquaintance came to see me and offered me a deal to make some large amounts of money I wanted to say no right away, because it was clearly very illegal, but because of the money troubles we were having I told him I'd think about it. It was a chance to make a lot of money. They had it all planned out. They said even if I got caught all that would ever stick was receiving stolen property. We really needed the money, and they assured me that I wouldn't get caught, but if I did, I'd be able to get away with probation. So ultimately I got involved."
"Oh dad." Torrie sighed. Her dad had been a criminal. And all over status in the community. She didn't want to have to think of her dad as a criminal. How did one take someone out of the role of hero, someone to look up to no matter what, in one's life, and then put them into the role of criminal? Torrie didn't know the answer to that. It was the same for everyone at some point in their life. The day comes for everyone when they have to acknowledge the fact that their parents are very much human and that they make mistakes and bad judgement calls just like everyone else. Torrie had never had to see that in her dad, till now. And thinking him dead, then finding out he was alive, then finding out what he'd been into was hard to take.
"I know." Harry looked very ashamed of himself. "But it would have killed your mother Torrie. You were young, you might have adapted, but your mother wouldn't of. She had enough problems already. If I'd had to tell her that we were going to lose everything but the store it would have killed her. She wouldn't have been able to handle it Torrie." Torrie knew that was true. Her poor mother had been a good woman, and Torrie missed her dearly, but she'd had a lot of issues too. Torrie nodded. Harry continued. "What he was going to do was move some stolen car parts through the store, but we were laundering money for people through the store too. I was making more money then I ever thought. I wanted out, but I was addicted to the new lifestyle too. I mean, we'd always lived well, but never as well as we could on the profits I was making under the new plan."
"But it was illegal." Torrie was still very torn about what to think about the whole thing. Her dad, her hero, had been selling stolen merchandise and plus laundering money. "What was the money you were laundering from?"
"I don't know. I didn't want to know. It was for very bad people and I should have known better then to get involved. But I did. And I got more help in the store; I got to spend more time at home with my favourite girls, we built your Nissan. But their demands kept growing. I couldn't get out if it because I was in too deep. But the money got better every time they asked more of me. It was then I realized your mother was in trouble. I mean I was in far too deep by then. It was years that I'd been working for these men. I couldn't get out. Plus we needed the money even worse for your mother by then."
"Why did you have to mortgage the store if you had all this money?" Torrie's mind wouldn't let there be any holes in the story, or she wouldn't be able to believe him. And she wanted to believe him more then anything.
"Because of your mother, and because it was then that the men I'd been working for found out that the feds were on to them. And they told me that they had to cut me out for at least a while, that the cops and the feds were to close for it to be safe for them to use me for awhile. And I was happy. I wanted out after all and this seemed fine by me. Far as I knew I'd never been caught as part of their ring so I thought I was home free. I had to come up with the money for your mom, so I mortgaged the store. I didn't really even mind. It was honest money for once, and business was good, I figured I'd have it all paid off in no time honestly."
"Well, what happened then?" She was very glad her dad hadn't wanted to be a criminal.
"Well, the feds and cops were on to me, I wasn't home free. But they figured they had a use for me, so instead of busting me they came to me. And sure enough all they could stick was receiving stolen merchandise. And they told me if I helped them out, took one of their undercover guys into my store, pretended he worked for me and helped him out with his case however I could, however he asked, the charges wouldn't ever be laid and they'd disappear."
"So you took Brian in to try and catch Dominic and his team at something illegal. He was your best customer, and he wasn't doing anything worse then you were but you still tried to get him arrested." Torrie was almost more mad about that then she'd been when she thought he'd faked his death. She did realize that if she could forgive Dominic for having done something stupid and criminal, and the whole team for that matter, then it would be very hypocritical of her not to forgive her own dad for the same thing. Both had only done what they thought they had to, to keep their families safe and provided for. But for her dad to try and bust Dom to keep himself out of jail was also hypocritical in her book.
"I didn't really help Brian. I told him that I didn't think Dominic had it in him to do the heists, maybe Vince, but I didn't think Vince could pull it off without Dom. At first he believed me. Hell, he always believed me. It was his cop friends that tried to convince him to look at Dom again, after I had him convinced it couldn't be Dom. Not me. But Brian's a smart kid. He was working the front line; he met everyone who came in. He knew that if it wasn't Dominic, that Dom knew who it was. He started to try to find out exactly what was going on. And it almost killed him as he started to realize it must be Dom after all. He was in love with Mia, and liked Dom. I never had to point anything out to Brian. You liked Brian, remember. Even then. You were always following him around the store. Making fun of him for his valley accent, asking him why if he was from Arizona he talked like a surfer. You thought he was a down on his luck street racer. You begged him to take you to races, thinking he wouldn't tell me." Harry smiled at the memory of the look on Torrie's face when she'd realized he knew, back at, what had she been? 18? And in love with Dominic Toretto even then. She thought if she could just get Brian to take her down, Dom would see her there and fall for her, just like that. She'd figured that it was meant to be and Dom wouldn't have a choice. Harry'd been able to tell. But that look had been comical. Half worry that he was going to be mad at her for trying to go to races when he'd forbidden her to have anything to do with them, and half anger that she wasn't going to get to go. Torrie laughed.
"I'd forgotten about that. I'm going to have to yell at Bri for telling you about that."
"He didn't. He was going to take you. But I figured it out, and told him that you weren't allowed to go anywhere near street racing. I could tell by the look on his face that you'd asked him and I told him I'd take care of it."
"He was going to take me?" Torrie looked up.
"Yeah, he thought it would help his cover, plus he thought you were a good kid."
"A kid eh? I'm only a bit less then a year younger then Mia."
"That may be so, but I'm your father, I encouraged him to see you as my child. I wish I'd been around to do the same thing between you and Dom."
"I don't want to start there yet Dad, but the whole reason I wanted Brian to take me was to get to see Dom, not to be with Brian. Well, I liked Brian, but never like that. But anyway, let's finish the story of why you left first." Torrie didn't want to go into her relationship with Dom till her dad told her his whole story first.
"Ok, where was I?"
"The cops caught you for the stolen property but gave you a way out of charges, so I still don't know how you ended up running out of the country." Some of her anger was back. It was so nice to have her dad back that she'd lost some of it. But she still didn't know how he was going to explain away his disappearance.
"Ok. Well. You know how the thing with Brian and the Toretto's ended, obviously, since it seems you live here and so does Brian." Torrie nodded. "And that would have been the end of it, had the cops not found out that the guys who'd been giving me the stuff to sell had been into a lot of other stuff. And they started to dig. And they never found enough to pin me to the laundering. But they told me they could likely find enough if they looked harder."
"Oh dad." She shook her head at his foolishness.
"They told me if I went along and testified, if I told them that I'd been forced into working for those men, that I'd be given immunity. But I had to detail everything I'd seen, everything they talked about, and everything I'd done. Brian helped me out there, told the feds that I was trying to get my life in order. So I really did want to go legit anyway. I told them I'd co-operate if they could promise me that you'd be safe. They promised to keep you safe, and they told me that all the other troubles I was having would disappear if I went along. So I did. Part of keeping you safe was for me to leave the country while the fever surrounding the case died off. I gave my testimony and left. I wasn't even allowed to call you, but I left you a note. I couldn't tell you where I was going or contact you once I was there for both our safeties. While I was out of the country they caught all the men I was involved with and they're all in jail. Or they all were. Some of them were killed by other inmates for things they'd done to those inmate's families. So I'm safe now and that's why I was allowed to come home. I guess the bureau fell short on their promise to take care of you while I was gone. I don't understand why they didn't take care of you. I understand why after someone staged my death they couldn't come forward, it had to look like I disappeared; they couldn't very well start telling people I was fine, but they were supposed to take care of you. You never should have had to worry like you did, shouldn't have had to move in with Toretto."
"Who would want it to look like you were dead? Who had anything to gain from that?"
"I've been trying to figure that out since I found out what went on while I was gone. Do you believe me Torrie?" She had to believe him. It was the god honest truth.
"Yeah, I believe you daddy. But I'm so tired now; could you go send Dom here for a second?" Torrie yawned and started to fall asleep.
"We need to talk about you and Dom."
"Not now Daddy. I'm gonna fall asleep. I have the flu and Mia says I'll feel like this for at least the rest of this week. I hate it. I'm always falling asleep."
"Ok." Harry sighed and left the room. He hated the fact that his daughter and Dom were a couple. He'd always known Torrie had a crush on the older man, her and all the other girls who'd been into racing around her school. But Harry had always done his best to make sure that Torrie wasn't ever around Dom. Maybe he'd always known that Dom wouldn't be able to resist his daughter, he didn't really know, but he'd always known that if they got to know each other, they'd really get to know each other. He didn't have to like it. He'd never really figured on Dom and Letty breaking up though. He'd always sort of figured that if Dom and Torrie got together it would be just another time that Dom cheated on Letty and he knew that would have killed Torrie. But Letty had left Dom. That was something at least. But if he ever caught one hint that Torrie was with Dom because she'd felt obligated, or because she hadn't felt like she had anywhere else to go he'd take her out of Dom's so fast.
He went and sat in the living room. "Are things ok?" Dom asked. Harry looked very tired.
"Yeah. We talked. She wants to see you. But she was falling asleep."
"Ok." And with that Dom climbed the stairs.