Page 83 of The Cinderella Secret
“What?” he asked.
She pulled him back down again and this time he didn’t resist. Wrapping his arms around her, holding her close.
“But you’re OK?” he asked again.
This time she didn’t respond right away.
“No,” she said quietly. “Not really.”
30
Ella – In the Room
“What did she do?” asked Aiden. She could hear his heartbeat in her ear, and she could tell it was faster than it had been a few minutes ago. She’d ruined their post-sex cuddle. “Actually, she was… Well, she was herself, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Which is kind of nice to know, I guess? I thought I’d be more upset, but mostly it was tiresome. And then she sounded sad.”
“Good?” Aiden sounded like he wasn’t sure what his response was supposed to be.
“Yes, I guess. But that’s not what I’m…” she hesitated and went for a less fraught word thandevastated, “freaking out about.”
He was quiet, but she could feel the tension in the arm that she was laying on. She shifted, trying to figure out how to bring it up, knowing that he had to already know. “It’s my dad,” she blurted out. “I know we talked about the idea that someone at DevEntier was covering up whatever it was my dad did for them. But until I talked to her, I just kept thinking there would be another explanation. But there isn’t. I’m pretty sure my dad was collaborating with someone at DevEntier to sell information from his work on the DOD projects with Randall.”
Aiden sighed, and in the dark, she could hear him running his hand through his hair. “Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell you, but yeah. This morning I had Evan and Jackson pull Randall and Owen’s files from storage. I found some emails between the two of them. Randall thought that someone was leaking information on his project to the Chinese. He suspected it was your dad specifically, but maybe it wasn’t him…”
“We left the country with a gym bag full of money and Mom took us straight to Brazil and took money out of a bank account. Knowing what I know now about tax shelters and off-shore banking, it seems obvious why. She says she didn’t know who he was working with, but after he died, she received some threatening phone calls and that’s why she moved us.”
She pushed herself away from Aiden and got up. She took a bottle of water from the mini-bar and cracked it open. She thought she probably ought to turn on the light, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to see Aiden’s expression.
“I’m so used to thinking of Dad as the good parent. Only it turns out that he was just the better parent. I mean, way, way better in the parenting department, but just as fucked up of a human being. I mean… treason. What the actual fuck?”
She moved the curtain so a little light came in from outside, outlining Aiden as he sat up in the bed and draped his arms over his knees.
“I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any better, one of my uncles was physically abusive, and I kind of think the other one was a rapist.”
“That doesn’t actually make me feel better.”
“Oh.” He looked disappointed.
“That just makes me want to hug your poor cousins. And what about your grandmother? What the hell did she go through with those two sociopaths in the house?”
“A lot,” said Aiden. “Grandpa was probably worse than either of my uncles so… yeah. I don’t know, my point is that we’re OK people and our relatives were pretty shitty. Who they are doesn’t define us.”
“But it does, doesn’t it? I mean, aren’t there ways you do your best to not be like them? Don’t you define yourself in some way by being the opposite of them? And even if you don’t, doesn’t the rest of this city judge you by who they were?”
Aiden rubbed his head again.
“I’m not saying you’re a shitty human being. I’m saying that our families indelibly stamp us in one way or another. And all this time I’ve been thinking my stamp said one thing and now maybe it says something else.”
“But no,” he said. “This is my point. You thought your stamp said your dad was a good guy who was unfairly murdered by a mugger. Are you telling me that isn’t what started your interest in law? That you’re not just a little bit turned on by the idea of justice, and solving mysteries, and making a difference and all that big idea stuff we went into law school with?”
Ella found herself smiling at him. His hair was sticking up and he was only half covered in a sheet, his skin strangely glowing in the light from the window. He was so handsome when he was passionate about his argument.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“The circumstances of his death don’t change who you are,” he said. “I’m sorry for you if it turns out that he was selling secrets to the Chinese because I know you care about it. But it doesn’t change…” He trailed off, looking sort of wide-eyed, “how I feel.” He finished with a rush.
Ella tried to figure out how to respond to that. Just giggling happily was not really an answer. She went over to the bed and kissed him. He pulled her onto the bed and kissed her back until her toes tingled.
“Of course,” she said, pulling away from him, “the other problem is that this means I’m going to lose my case.”
