“So, explain,” Riley said as he pulled up to the curb by my house.
A dark gray sedan was parked by our garage door.
My dad was here.
The ride home had been long and silent and I had stared out the window the whole time, avoiding his curious gaze.
“My parents didn’t die in a car accident,” I said after a while, still staring out through the window.
“That much I figured,” Riley replied pragmatically.
“My dad…” I started then stopped. I sighed and tried to begin again. “My dad’s a con man.”
Riley just looked at me inquisitively as he digested this information.
“He cheated people out of their money,” I continued. “One week he would be a fake real estate agent, the next, he would be a wealthy businessman, looking to sell stocks.”
I stared out at my dad’s old car, remembering all those days when I sat at the passenger seat, watching him shake hands with rich looking men in fancy suits. Other times, he would take me with him and introduce me as his daughter, to pull on the old heartstrings.
“So…is your mom alive too?” Riley asked tentatively.
“No,” I looked down at my hands. “That part wasn’t a lie.” I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. “But the part about her dying in a car accident was.”
Riley reached over and took my hand. “Look, Jane, if this is too difficult for you to talk about, it’s okay. You don’t have to do this now.”
“No, I want to get this out of the way,” I said with a shaky smile. “It’s just been a long time since I last told this story. Around six years ago, actually.”
“To Ryan?”
“Yup. To Ryan.”
“Now I get why you’re so close,” Riley commented with a small smile.
I looked out at my house and saw my dad and Auntie’s silhouettes moving by the kitchen window.
“My mom never approved of what he did,” I explained, getting reminiscent. “She always asked him to stop and one day, he told her he would.”
“Did he?”
“He didn’t,” I replied, shaking my head. “He told me to keep it a secret from her and so I did. He would take me with him sometimes, when he would make his secret deals. When it was over, we’d drop by the ice cream parlor on the way home and split a large bowl of vanilla ice cream smothered with caramel syrup.” I smiled at the memory.
“But then, he got into some bad business and…” I stopped, blinking back tears. “Ew, sorry, for this.”
Riley reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue plaid handkerchief and handed it to me. “Hey, it’s okay. At least now I know for sure you’re human.”
I laughed. “I didn’t realize you had your doubts.”
“I thought you were too perfect to be like the rest of us,” he reasoned.
I shoved his shoulder hard. “Look who’s talking, Mr. Successful Music Career at Seventeen.”
“Anyway,” I continued with a sniffle. “My dad messed with the wrong people and…my mom had to pay the price for it.”
Riley’s eyes went wide. “You mean they…”
“They killed her,” I finished, a tear rolling down my cheek. “They demanded that my dad return the money he took and when he only gave back half, they got mad. So, they started threatening my dad about what could happen if he didn't cooperate. He thought they were talking about turning him in to the cops but it was more than that. Somehow, they found out where we lived and one night, my dad was out and I was sleeping over at a friend’s and…” I stopped and buried my face in the handkerchief. My eyes were like faucets now, streaming with tears that haven’t been shed in six years. Tears that I’ve held back during every parent-teacher conference, every mother’s and father’s day, every father-daughter dance our school hosted, when I stayed at home, going on movie marathons with Ryan.
