My Father Gave Me a New Big Brother, and the Only Man I Could Run To Was the One Who Put Him There novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Deed

Aitor was sitting on the bottom stair when I came in at five in the morning.

He had a cup of coffee in his hand, and he was fully dressed.

"You're late," he said. "Gorka said you like the Owyhee road."

I stood in the hall with my keys in my fist.

"Gorka told you where I was."

"He worries about you. We both do." Aitor stood up and took my keys from my hand, gently, and slid them into his own pocket. "These stay with me now. You'll work the dining room, and I'll handle the money."

"You can't take my keys."

"I can. I'm your father's son, and your father signed it."

He went up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and I heard his door close.

I stood at the bottom of those stairs and understood that my father had been right about one thing.

I was tired.

At noon I called Gorka from the alley behind the Ostatua.

"You told him," I said when he picked up.

"Told who what, mija?"

"Aitor. You told him the Owyhee road. You gave him my plates."

There was a short pause.

"I told him you were safe," Gorka said. "He was out of his mind with worry at three in the morning, and he was going to go driving. I would rather he knew where you were than go looking."

"You said I could always come to you."

"And you always can. I'm the first call, Rali. I'm always the first call. That's why I told him, so he wouldn't call anyone worse."

His voice was kind.

I stood there with the phone against my ear and could not find the flaw in it.

That frightened me more than the keys.

On Tuesday my father called a family meeting in the kitchen after the lunch rush.

He had made coffee himself and set out his wife's good cups.

Aitor sat at his right hand with his fingers laced.

"I have been to the notary," Aita said. "The Ostatua goes to Aitor. The building, the license, the sign. I signed on Monday."

"As the son," Aitor added quietly. "Who will carry it."

The kitchen stood very still.

I looked at my father.

"And me?"

"You'll keep your salary and your room, neska. You're a daughter. You'll marry, and have your own house."

My throat closed.

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