180 Degrees-Tae & Vicky's Forever 02

One of the problems she continually faced with the increasing violence against her 'girls.' Five more had been physically and sexually assaulted since the one I witnessed in the office. She was pretty sure Marcos was behind it, but he was being smart and she didn't have the evidence she needed to convince Don Carlos or to go after him herself. I didn't really have any suggestions to help with this problem, but I thought it was cool she felt comfortable venting to me about her frustration.

Meanwhile, Benjamin had finally called. After he admitted Marcos has sent him in to try to befriend me, we became buddies anyway. What I liked about the odd friendship with the 'enemy camp' was that Ben had tons of great ideas about some of the problems I faced. And since he knew everything about the Centers, unlike Carol, it was great to have someone to talk to besides Tae. My wife didn't like the connection I'd made with Marcos' man...but she let it go. At least she didn't talk to me about it, although I was Certain Jari had been instructed to keep an eye on things.

And then there was Jari, who I put in charge, really this time, of security at the Centers. Most of her time was spent shadowing me of course, but the other part of her job, which I paid her for, was to hire, fire and oversee the training of Security personnel at each of the Centers. There was no cash on hand at the Centers, or at least not a significant amount of cash on hand, so we weren't worried about robberies or burglaries. Honestly, the biggest security issue was parents, usually in the middle of divorces, trying to snatch their own children. Jari had also stumbled upon a ring of drug dealers using their jobs as Security officers to sell to the staff and others. It was rather amusing watching her break up the ring and have them arrested given what her own boss did for a living.

And that was the biggest problem for me. No matter how much we accomplished, how many kids we helped, how many jobs we provided...there was a part of me that always felt dirty. That felt I was a fraud. And I resented it. I resented that all of the struggles Tae and I had faced resulted in us living as criminals. It was eating away at me. And no matter how much crap I bought, how many spontaneous trips we took on Don Carlos' plane, or how much money I accumulated in my own bank accounts...I could not get clean.