#ally stratten

[nicolawritesnovels]

literally 11 years into this story and I’ve just figured out a major detail that honestly kind of puts everything else in context

[nicolawritesnovels]

But I did decide that Coach knew who Ally was. He’d met her a few times, but not much. 

Anthony knew her. Anthony knew her well. The same Anthony that Jo had a crush on. I think that the other daughters (they need a name for their little club) kind of laugh at Alex’s obsession with Ally Stratten when she’s not there. Aileen does it when she is there, because Aileen refuses to sympathize or even consider what happened to Ally. Which is interesting, because her dad is one of the ones with the least guilt in this. I think Fiona or Gabrielle might have known her, they were younger. Maybe they went to school together, I’m not sure. 

But I think that as this story line progresses, Jo is going to end up going back to that gym where Coach died. And none of them know it yet, but Anthony runs that place now. He was older than they were. Thirteen when Jo was ten, when Alex was nine. So he’s older now. Graduated high school. And he runs that place. He’s struggling, I think. Alex might step in and help him out, get Tim to give him some money because that place is important to a lot of people. But Alex goes there and talks to him. And convinces him to let Jo come in and do the same, despite what her father did to Coach. And so Jo talks to Anthony, and they end up talking about Ally. And Jo starts to come around to the idea that Ally was a wonderful person. Because Ally saved lives, including Anthony’s. 

I should try not to forget the other daughters though. Marisa Louis. Mary-Kate Saratoga. Richelle Rivera. I kind of forgot they existed for a few years. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

Jonathan isn’t the only one who made a choice. Alex chose not to hurt him too. She made the choice Ally would have.

[nicolawritesnovels]

I’ve decided to figure out who killed Coach. It was someone from the gang that was also involved with Ally Stratten’s death. Someone that Jonathan killed. 

Which means it could be one of seven men. Edgar Saratoga, James Mycroft, Herbert Nance, Christoph Rivera, Marco Kessler, Nate Louis, or Jahan Hyreh. Now, I already know that it was definitely not Jahan Hyreh, because he wasn’t actually involved in Ally’s death. Same with Nate Louis, except Nate was involved, but he was just the dirty cop. He didn’t do any killing. James Mycroft is the head of the gang, unlikely to be the one out dealing with a kid in debts. So it wasn’t him. My notes say that Edgar Saratoga was hired muscle, but I’m not sure why they would have hired a guy for that job, unless they already had him for other stuff. So maybe. 

Herbert was a homeless guy who lied. It wasn’t him. 

So it could be Edgar. But it could also be Herb, Christoph or Marco. And I don’t know enough about any of them to tell. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

So here’s my new thought about Ally Stratten. We know that she saw Tom Jennings out of her window, going through the trash looking for food. He couldn’t find anything, and she followed him and gave him a sandwich. She made a very big impact on his life, including saving his life once, and he later named his daughter after her. And honestly, I don’t know that much else about him. Or the other people. I do know that Ally then became friends with a lot of other homeless people, who were likely also drug addicts (Tom was). It was this that ended up leading to her death, because she heard something she wasn’t supposed to. 

I know that she went missing for awhile before she was found dead. A day or two. I’m not sure of the details. 

I know that her father reacted badly to her death, and then promptly killed 7 people who he felt contributed to her death. Tom Jennings was not one of these people (I’m inclined to think that Jonathan had met Tom a few times before and perhaps Tom gave him information on the others). 

I don’t really know the details of it from there. I had been thinking that some of the men were hired to help do this, but I’m inclined to think it was less planned and more reactionary. James Mycroft is the one who ordered it all. He’s the head honcho. Nate Louis is a corrupt cop who was in James Mycroft’s pocket in general. I’m guessing that Mycroft was a drug dealer, and that the rest of them were addicts of one time or another. 

Ally Stratten was helping these people get clean, and supporting them. Making them less vulnerable. She was doing it because her mother was an addict, before she died. She became addicted to the drugs used in her medical treatment, the details of which I haven’t entirely decided yet. Mycroft didn’t want them to get clean, because that meant there would be there would be less people reliant on him. 

I just have to figure out the exact roles of the others. The fist was Herbert Nance, and he had a daughter, Aileen. Then Edgar Saratoga, who holds a special role although I’m not sure what it was. Marco Kessler, who has a daughter, Josephine. Christoph Rivera. Then Nate Louis died. Then Mycroft. Then Jahan Hyreh. 

Nate Louis was in Mycroft’s pocket and made sure that no one ever got to see the Ally Stratten case in time to save her. Jahan Hyreh was Nate’s partner, and he was not corrupt. But he was technically assigned to the case, and so Jonathan assumed he was. He admits after the fact that it was a mistake. And I think part of him regrets killing some of them addicts. The ones that were calculating in this, like James Mycroft, and Edgar Saratoga, he doesn’t regret. But Herbert Nance was just a guy who was addicted. 

So Mycroft realized that Ally was fucking in his affairs and he wasn’t happy. So he asked around town and figured out who she was. He wanted her out of the picture. It was his call. I think Edgar was the one who physically killed her. Herbert was the one who told him who she was. That’s why he died first. Tom protected her at all possible times. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

I had some ideas about Ally Stratten, Tom Jennings and Aubrey Stratten. Which then transferred over to Jonathan and Alex and Jonathan’s victims. I’ll type them out better tomorrow cause its bedtime now.

[nicolawritesnovels]

Aha. I spent a week doing no writing on purpose and an idea has appeared. Granted it’s one about Alex, but I think I’ve figured out how Alex and Mini fix their relationship pre Ace and get to the point where they can work together when Ace comes along. The answer is Taevynne and the problem was Jonathan. Alex understood the pain of him losing Ally, and Audrey. She thought about Tina. And she saw him break down about the mistake he made in killing her father. In her mind, Jonathan redeemed himself in helping her plot to put him on jail. But Mini didn’t know the details of that because no one did. She didn’t understand the pain of losing a child, only the pain of losing her parents. And Tae is a good mediator because she loves Mini and she likes Alex, and she understands the pain of losing a child. She can imagine being in Jonathan’s shoes when he lost Ally, because she was. Jonathan killed the people who killed Ally. And Tae wishes she could kill Derek for what he did to Mae. She gets it in a way she can explain it to Mini when Alex tells her enough of what happened. Mini didn’t go to the trial. She refused. She didn’t want to hear his excuses because nothing would excuse this. She knew about Ally, that she died. But she didn’t comprehend the role she played at the time. I mean, Mini was only 12. It makes sense. But it causes a rift that doesn’t entirely get fixed until they’re nearly grow ups. And Tae helps them get there. She understands Alex and Jonathan and Mini. She’s had enough loss in her life to understand. She lost her father too. When she was very young. Don’t know how yet.

I have some scenes in my head that I’ll write out, maybe tomorrow morning. Maybe the next day. I’ll develop them in my head for now.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how interested in Ally’s case Tae would be.

[nickywritesnovels]

I have no idea how it escaped the police’s knowledge that Jonathan was targeting criminals in a specific gang. I mean, yeah, okay, Nate Louis was covering up parts of it, ‘cause he was working with them. And he covered up Ally’s case, but like... I feel like someone should have picked it up sooner. 

I mean... Jahan might have. Which is probably why he ended up dead. He was catching on. But still.