---

Harry and I are standing in front of a small building. We go inside to find two people behind the long, grey marble desk.

“Hello dears, how can I help you?” an older lady with grey hair asks
“Oh um well I’m looking for my birth parents and was given this address and told we could find them here.” I tell her

“Alright honey can I have their names?”

I told her their names and she typed it into her computer. She wrote some things down on a piece of paper then handed it to Harry.

“Ok so you kids are going to want to go left out here and follow the road down to marker S, turn left and follow the markers until you reach number 125. From there you will go down six rows and the Smith’s will be eight stones to the right” the lady tells us

Harry drives the car and we follow the directions, walking down the rows looking for Smith. There it is, a large pink granite stone with the name Smith scrawled across the top. Harry and I go around to the other side and see two names engraved on each side. On the right side it says

Kara Renae Smith
12/24/1978- 4/10/2004
Beloved mother, wife and daughter

On the other side of the stone it reads..

Roland Gustavo Smith
12/29/1978-
Beloved son, father, and husband

There was no death date on Roland’s side of the stone, so that must mean he is still alive right?

“Harry we have to go to my mamaw’s house” I tell him

“Ok love but why?” he asks

“Look Roland, my dad doesn’t have a death date so he is probably still alive somewhere. I have to talk to my mamaw about it.” I tell him

“Ok how far is she from here?”

“Umm Suburban Atlanta is about three hours, four at the most” I tell him

Harry and I say a prayer and lay the flowers we got on my mother’s grave before we set out for mamaw’s house.

---

SIX HOURS LATER:

Mamaw said that my dad Roland is in fact still alive but no one has seen him in years. He still calls to check on mamaw and asks about me all of the time.

“Harry we have to make a plan to have Romanov put away forever. He’ll never stop looking for my dad or me” I say

“I may have an idea” mamaw speaks up

Mamaw tells us we need to arrange a time to meet up with Romanov. She said some place big with a lot of people around. So she choose the Fifa World Cup in London which is in about ten days.

“We are going to alert the authorities here and in London. So they will all have a heads up. We are also going to use the list as bait.” Mamaw tells us

So we are going to tell Roamnov that we will trade him the list both paper and digital if he agrees to leave Harry, Roland, our families and friends and myself alone forever. We’ll see how that goes.

Notes

sorry for such the long wait, my hubby has the rest of this week off for vacation. i'm working on Payne of the Past now too, it's just hard juggling writing after days on the beach and being so tired... hope you like it XOXO