Page 65 of The Charade

25

Carter

"So,I guess I should probably tell you a little about what life was like for me in Guatemala." I set my fork and steak knife down on my plate and leaned back into the patio couch, trying to figure out where to start. I didn't talk about my life before Eden Falls very often. Only a few people knew my story—my family, Mack, Hunter, and then also Sofia after we'd been dating for a few months.

Talking about it made me emotional. And since I didn't like getting emotional in front of others, I just chose to not really talk about it.

Which meant, I also didn't tell people why I didn't like celebrating my birthday. I usually just said I was a private person and parties centered on me made me feel awkward—which was also true—but what I didn't tell them was that my last day with my mom had been the highlight of my childhood that turned into a nightmare.

But there was something about Ava that told me I could tell her about my past and let her see more of what made me into who I was today. In fact, I kind ofwantedto tell her about this story.

So I cleared my throat, adjusted the knees of my jeans to get more comfortable, and said, "Growing up in Guatemala was a lot different than growing up in this mansion." I gestured at the house behind us and the grounds in front of us. "I guess after my dad’s fling with my mom, he gave her some money before he left. He’d gone there under a different name since he was volunteering at his own orphanage and didn't want the people to know who he was. He went by the name Carter Jones, and he just kind of spent his days painting the walls of the orphanage and getting it ready to open its doors."

"So your mom didn't know that she'd been dating a billionaire?" Ava asked.

I shook my head. "No. She thought he was just a regular Joe who'd come to do some missionary work during his vacation time."

"And she named you Carter because she thought she was naming you after him?"

"Yes." I sighed and continued. "She and my dad had their little thing going for those two weeks, and during that time, my mom became pregnant with me without either of them realizing it." I rubbed my arm, feeling awkward talking about this with the girl I was interested in. I cleared my throat again. "Anyway, when he left, he didn't think there was any possibility that he'd fathered any children while in Guatemala since he'd always used protection, and so he came back to Eden Falls without giving it a second thought. He and Dawn worked things out later on that year and before long, Nash was on his way."

"When was he born?" Ava asked.

"His birthday is May twentieth."

"So I'm older than him." Ava smiled.

"Yeah? When’s your birthday?" I asked, curious if I was much older than her.

"Elyse and I were born on April seventeenth."

"You were born on the seventeenth, too?" I asked, somewhat surprised by the number. "That's cool. That means we were born six months apart."

"That is cool." She smiled. Then seeming to remember that she'd interrupted my story, she asked, "So what happened to your mom? Did she find out she was pregnant with you right away?"

"I'm not sure," I said with a shrug. "When I was five, I wasn't exactly interested in asking her about that. And since my dad didn't know about me until I was eight, he didn't know either."

"And you probably didn't have any other relatives in Guatemala who would know about it," Ava assumed.

"Yeah, I ended up in the orphanage because there was no one else to take care of me."

"Of course," Ava said, looking down and acting sorry for bringing the subject up.

But since I didn't want her to feel awkward about asking any questions, I gave her a smile that hopefully told her she hadn't offended me. "It was just my mom and me during the first years. My dad said he gave her some money when he left, and either my mom spent it all quickly or lost it somehow, but I don't remember her having more than a few cents to rub together at a time.

"I vaguely remember how she took me with her to clean the homes of some wealthy people. I played with a little girl who lived there while my mom worked. But she lost that job somehow, and we really struggled after that."

"Did you have a home? Food?" Ava asked, her eyes looking worried over the wellbeing of my childhood self.

But I shook my head and said, "So, you know how Mack said his house looks like a shack compared to this one?"

"Which means it’s actually probably bigger than the house I grew up in," Ava guessed.

I nodded. "I haven't seen your house, but since the Aarden's house is bigger than most of the houses in Eden Falls, I'd guess that it was bigger." I cleared my throat. "Anyway, I brought up the whole shack thing because I actually did live in a shack for a little while, and so I can legitimately roll my eyes every time Mack talks about his shack."

"Did you go hungry, too?"

I nodded, remembering even all these years later how my stomach had always felt hungry. How while we managed to get a small amount of food most days, I didn't know what it felt like to truly satisfy my hunger until I was in my dad's orphanage and they fed me three meals a day.

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