chapter 9

The room erupted into cheers as the twins and Lucy started talking over each other about what they'd pack and where they would be going. Then as though realizing something, they quieted down.

"Dad, what do you mean five of us? Is someone siting out of the trip?" Leo asked puzzled.

"Not at all son. Only the people who deserve to go; that's me, you mom, your brother and your younger sister." Lionel replied smiling as he once again turned to Michelle gauging her reaction, "Michelle isn't coming along with us."

"What? Why not daddy?" Lucy asked feigning shock and concern. "if she did something wrong please forgive her daddy, for my sake."

Ugh, Lucy, ever the savior, Michelle thought watching as Lucy big eyes started forming tears.

"Not this time Lucy love, your sister has been moving about the house as though we don't exist. Since she is acting like she is not a part of this family, then there is no reason for her to come along with us."

Michelle chuckled internally at that, of course her ignoring their presence would be a blow to their ego.

"It was a difficult decision for your father and I to make." Abigail began holding Lionel's hand as though showing they were a united front, "But Michelle did not make things any easier. She ignored all attempts of your father and I to talk to her and figure out together, as a family, why she suddenly changed her attitude." 

Michelle rolled her eyes at that, their 'attempts' were having all the staff in the house not do anything for her whenever she asked, though she was unaffected by it as she knew she'd be leaving soon.

"See!" Lionel suddenly yelled pointing at her, "even now she rolls her eyes at us. Such blatant disrespect."

"Big sis!" Lucy cried out leaving her seat to stand before Michelle, she grabbed her hands holding it to her chest and in a pitiful, pleading tone begged, "Please sis, I'm sure no matter what the issue is all will be forgiven if you just apologize. Show mum and dad how sorry you are. Please sis apologize."

From behind them, the twins chimed in:

"Yeah, sis. Just get on your knees and beg for mom and dad's forgiveness." Said Logan.

"You do it all the time. Why can't you do it now?" Leo said.

She did it all the time that was true. At the slightest issue, she would beg them going as far as to kneel. She had zero self-respect back then. She slowly removed her hands from Lucy's hold, Lucy then proceeded to exclaim and fall to the floor.

"Sis!" she cried as she landed on the floor, her voice pathetic and then she burst into tears, "I only wanted you to apologize, why did you push me?"

Michelle's eyes widened in shock. Lucy's new tactic stunned her; she never once accused her of physical harm before. It would seem what they were doing now was going off track from how they were back then, the only reason she could think of was that it was because her own actions had changed as well, so the rest of them were adapting. Time travel was very interesting.

"Michelle?" Abigail cried out as well as she reached for Lucy who was still crying on the floor, "Why would you do that? Lucy only wanted to make things right between us. Why are being such a terrible big sister?"

At this point, everyone was on their feet and had surrounded Lucy to protect her from Michelle. Lionel was at the forefront, the twins were at his sides and Abigail held Lucy behind them. They all stared at her with contempt. Their whole act was very amusing to her.

"How do you know she didn't just trip?" Michelle asked arms crossed.

"What?" Lucy asked incredulously, voice still tinged with tears, "Why would I trip?'

"I mean our floor is all marble tiles and that's quite slippery." She responded.

"Enough of this nonsense." Lionel said.

""Right of course." Michelle said nodding with fake sincerity, "So why was I called down here?"

The family looked at her with puzzled gazes, her question surprising them.

"What do you mean why were you called here? We called you down here because we had a family announcement to make." Lionel responded already turning red from barely concealed anger.

"Yes, the family trip you planned for the five of you, yes I heard all that. My question is why did you call me down? You'd already decided I wasn't going. Why make me hear about a trip I won't be going on?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Well-" Abigail began.

"I'll tell you why. You decided I should hear about it as some sort of power play. Honestly, mom and dad, this was a really petty move on your part. Also, it's just a vacation, if I want to go on a vacation, I could just tell grandpa and he'd make it happen. We all know how much he loves me. So really, you've accomplished nothing." Then she faced Lucy, "Lucy, this isn't some drama you watch online. So stop pretending that you're hurt."

"How on earth did you turn out like this?" Abigail asked looking at her with eyes full of sorrow, "Your father and I tried our hardest to-."

Hand raised, Michelle interrupted her, "I really need to go back now. Next time just send one of the plenty people who work for this house to relay whatever announcement you have to make." Then with a slight mocking bow, "Good night everyone."

Once again, she left them stunned, and they all slumped back down to the sofas.

"She was like this earlier too," Lucy said, "When my friends came by, she ignored my greeting and didn't even acknowledge them."

"What could be making her act like this? Just the other day, I wanted to show her a new design I did and wanted her to help me clean it up and she acted like I was some sort of ghost." Leo said his tone bitter. Now that Michelle was no longer the same meek and obedient girl that they were used to, the family was at a loss on what to do.

Michelle, upstairs in her room, had begun packing her things. From the announcement, she deduced that she had less than a week before their trip and she didn't want anything keeping her here longer than needed. Bringing out her work bag she checked on the cameras again, she has been lugging the cameras to and from work around with her, she couldn't risk leaving it at home and having one of the cleaners find it- they always report whatever strange thing they find in her room to Lionel. Like when they found her diary back in high school and Lionel decided to start the morning news during breakfast where he would an entry in her diary every breakfast. She never wrote in a diary or ever put her thoughts to paper again, she had no idea why he did such a thing.

She packed up everything into her bag and placed her box in her closet locking it, then she took the flash drive and put it in a secret compartment in her workbag, she was taking no chances.

Laying back in bed, she started to think about how she would go about exposing Freddy's work, something told her Lionel was involved in this as well but he had probably hidden his tracks so well that it would impossible to trace it back to him.

Before she fell asleep, she remembered she had promised to keep Meg updated. Grabbing her phone, she shot her a quick text. She did not want Meg to see her as someone unreliable, especially if she were to join her.

Hello, good evening this is Michelle. This was the first time she was messaging, well, anyone. A few minutes later, her phone dinged in response.

Heyyy, Elle. Why are you texting so formally? It's just me.

Right. Habit. Sorry.

So, to what do I owe this honor?

You asked me to update you if I found anything on the flash remember.

Oh yeah, I did. So did you?

Yes, I did. And I think it's something that could really turn things around.

Oh my gosh. What is it what did you find?

I don't want to tell you over text, in case our conversations are being monitored. I'll tell you Monday, like you also asked me.

Oh? Would someone really be monitoring what we're saying? That seems implausible.

With what I found, I would not put it past them. Good night Meg, see you Monday.

All right. Till Monday then Elle. Night

She placed her phone back on the nightstand and fell asleep knowing she'd fulfilled her promise.

Somewhere in some dimly lit room was a hooded figure staring at a computer screen, reading the texts as they appeared.

"Of course, someone is monitoring your phone. Don't be so naïve Meg, someone is always watching." Leaning back into his chair, he spit out a chewing gum. "Now I'm curious as to what she found on that flash drive she mentioned. She never texts Meg, and the one time she does, she drops a bomb and leaves me in suspense." Then he scratched his belly absentmindedly.

"It's not like you had a way to monitor her own phone, her friend was the next best thing." A voice said from behind him. The person remained in the darkness.

"Yeah, yeah as you've told me a million times. I mean it should not be that hard to get her phone or any of her other electronics though should it?"

"You try it then if you think it's so easy. She doesn't let her phone out of her sight and entering her home is a no go. The friend however has zero sense of cyber safety. She left it laying around in a coffee shop. I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"Sounds like you're just lazy to me." His head got smacked in return for his statement. 

"We'll just have to wait till Monday, hopefully little miss Meg's phone will be able to listen in on whatever they say.

"Till Monday then." Then he turned off the computer screen.

Monday came. Michelle left home taking note of how everyone had started to pack up, she asked one of the maids when the family planned on travelling in case things had changed from the last time- it hadn't, they were leaving Thursday and were going to spend a week away. 

She arrived at work to find Meg who was eagerly awaiting her arrival.

"Good morning Elle." She said cheerfully.

"Morning Meg. You're in a good mood this morning."

"Yep. My weekend was amazing. Went on a date with this amazing guy. It was, in summary, magical."

"That's good to hear." 

"How did your weekend go? Did you go or do anything exciting?"

"Like a date? God no. I have far more satisfying thing to do than go on dates."

"Well if you say so. Anyways what were you going to tell me on Friday?"

"Right, that. Well, telling you would not be enough. I'd have to show you."

"Show me what?"

"Ok, listen." She began as she brought out her personal laptop and the flash drive from her bag, "Thanks to Caleb I was able to find the files that had been deleted from the server."

"That's interesting. Also, Caleb? That's that IT guy with the red hair right?"

"Yes. Anyways, I looked over both files and discovered the cost reported of what was spent was far more than the budget this department said would be needed."

"What? So someone inflated the amount? Who and why?"

She had turned on the laptop, inserted the drive, turning the screen to Meg, she showed her all the files and the discoveries she had made watching as her eyes widened more and more after each file.