Page 61 of Shattered Secrets
CHAPTER25
Ethan
Ifeel like a gorilla in a cage being thrown bananas over the bars. Ayala’s parents stare at me during the entire meal, and these are not admiring looks.
I try all my tricks, but nothing seems to work. The game is rigged. I don’t see what I did wrong. I’m usually quite successful with parents. They usually love me. I behave politely. I’m rich and good-looking. What more could a parent want for their daughter? But they approved of Michael, so maybe the problem isn’t with me.
I smile widely at Ayala’s mother as she serves the potatoes.
“So, how did you and Ayala meet?” Ayala’s father asks, trying to get information out of me. I’m not entirely sure what he’s trying to catch me at and why they’re not happy with me for showing up in California, especially considering that I did everything possible to save their daughter when they didn’t.
“I went to the bar where she worked with a good friend of mine, and she fascinated me.”
Her parents’ surprised faces tell me I messed up somewhere. Fuck, I should have gone over topics for conversation with Ayala before I got here. It’s like I’m walking on eggshells and making a terrible omelet out of them.
Michelle turns to Ayala. “You didn’t tell us you worked in a bar.”
Okay, I guess I shouldn’t have said that.
“I had to earn money, Mom.” Ayala shoots back. “I had to run away when no one believed me and no one else would give me a job.”
“Ayala, you know that I... That your father and I are deeply sorry for what happened that day you came to us. But he had documents. It sounded real.”
“I know, Mom. But you knewme. You should have believed your daughter over him.” Ayala stabs the food on her plate with her fork.
“They thought they were helping you,” I say, jumping in. “The documents looked real,” I add, hoping to get the point across. After all, I also initially fell for Michael’s scam.
Her parents glance at me in surprise, obviously not understanding why I came to their aid.
“Mom, I’d been gone for months, and you didn’t even search for me.”
“But weweresearching for you! At first, we didn’t understand what was happening. Michael said you were in treatment and getting better. After two weeks, when we insisted on seeing you, he suddenly told us you had run away, and he didn’t know where you were. We wanted to contact the police, and he said we shouldn’t. He said he was using all of his resources and that he would find you. That we shouldn’t go to the police because it would just scare you off.”
“And you believed him?”
“Yes,” Tom replies. “We fell into the trap he laid for us. Only when two months passed, and I realized nothing was progressing, did I tell him I was contacting the police no matter what he said. At that point, he addressed the public on television himself.”
“He wanted to be the worried husband...” Ayala mumbles.
I find it strange that more than a year has passed, and they never talked about this. Looks like they have been walking on eggshells, too. And seeing the love and concern in her parents' eyes, I think it’s time to open it all up.
“So you initiated the search?”
Ayala looks surprised at my eagerness to lead the discussion.
“Not exactly,” Tom explains. “I wanted to contact the police and said I would. But Michael suggested doing it himself and asking for the public’s help. It sounded like a great idea, so I agreed. I thought it would be better if it came from him. He also had a lot more resources than we did. At no point did I think he wasn’t sincere.”
Ayala and I exchange looks, and I squeeze her hand under the table.
“It had to happen. Without it, you could never have lived as yourself.”
“What do you mean?” Tom asks me.
I bite my lip, glancing at Ayala, wondering how much she’s willing to let me tell them because she seems to have left her parents in the dark.
When she doesn’t say anything, I answer. “When I met your daughter, she called herself Hope. I realized it wasn’t her real name, but I couldn’t find out anything about her.” I take another peek at Ayala, her blue eyes studying me with interest. I never told her about the background checks I did. “After I saw Michael on TV, everything became clear. I tried to protect her and failed. You know what happened next.”
“So you didn’t know she was married?” Michelle asks me.
