My Life as Liz Jonas

Chapter 33: Answers

NORMAL POV

"Dad!" Joe says as he and his two younger siblings enter the house.

"In the kitchen!" They hear their dad say as they run to the kitchen and see their parents preparing lunch.

"Joe, hey I didn't know you were coming over for lunch." Denise says as Joe shakes his head.

"I didn't know I was coming over either but enough of that, dad take a look at this." Joe says as he hands the folder to his dad.

"Why do you have documents with Adriana's name on them?" Paul says as Joe looks over at Frankie.

"We hired a private investigator to find out more about Adriana but that's not important because we found something that's...it's...just take a look." Frankie says as he shows his dad the list of Adriana's past job.

"She worked at Liz's preschool the same time Liz was attending the school and we definitely don't think this is a coincidence." Joe says as his parents exchange looks.

"Liz do you remember her at all?" Paul asks his daughter as she shakes her head.

"I don't." Liz says as her mom's eyes widen.

"I have pictures. I'll be back." Denise says as she runs out of the kitchen.

"Look it's her high school transcripts. She went to Arlington Heights High School. At least we know she graduated." Frankie says as Liz shakes her head.

"Frankie I don't want to..." Liz begins to say as Frankie nods and buts everything back.

"Liz are you sure? You've had so many questions about her and in here are all the answers or at least half." Paul says as Liz walks over and looks at all the documents.

"Look it says here that she was on the honor roll in high school, choir, theatre, and dance. Now we know where your talents come from." Frankie says as Liz smiles.

"Her life seemed normal what do you think happened?" Liz says as her brothers and dad continue to look through the documents.

"Months after she dropped out of college she started having a criminal record and then it stops in 1996." Paul says as Liz stops.

"You think that has to do with me?" Liz asks as her dad nods.

"I think so." Paul says as Liz sighs.

"Alright I found the pictures. You guys always complained about me taking alot pictures but now they come in handy." Denise says setting the photo album down.

They look through every single picture until they could find some evidence of Adriana. They then land on a picture of Liz playing on a playground with other kids. In the distance they see a couple of adults supervising them.

"It's her." Liz says pointing at one of the adults in the picture.

"There's got to be more pictures." Denise says as she begins flipping through pictures.

"Mom." Joe says stopping her as they see a picture of Adriana with Liz. Liz was sitting down working on something and Adriana was kneeled down next to her.

"How do you not remember this?" Paul says as Liz shrugs her shoulders.

"I was young. Of course I wouldn't remember this." Liz says as Paul nods.

"We need to find Adriana." Paul says as everyone looks up at him confused. "She obviously knew who you were and we need to find out how she knew." He says everyone stays quiet.

"And how are we going to find her?" Joe asks as Paul looks over at Liz.

"Write back to her." Paul says to Liz as she nods.

LIZ'S POV

Sitting in the booth alone I kept rewinding the moment of the time I was here last; Adriana leaving me only after she got the money. Thank god today wasn't going to play out like that.

"Alright so remember the plan, you casually make small talk and then once it feels like a good time ask about her job at the Carlisle School." My dad says to me as I nod.

"Here you go Liz." Frankie says handing me my drink.

"Are you okay?" Joe asks me as I nod.

"I will be fine. You guys should go it's almost 3:30 and Adriana will be here any minute now." I say to them as they nod.

"We'll be over there if you need anything or if anything happens." Joe says as I nod.

"Got it." I say as my dad and Joe walk away and Frankie stays behind.

"Good luck." He says as I give him a smile. I sit down alone in the booth as I prepare to see Adriana again. This can only go one of two ways.

"You're already here." I hear someone say as I look up and see Adriana. Half of her hair was pulled back and it was much longer than the last time I had seen her. She had a gray t-shirt and at the bottom of her shirt you could see holes.

"Please sit." I say to her as she takes a seat across from me and she begins to fidget with her fingers. The skin around her fingernails looked pretty chewed up and the nail polish was coming off.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Adriana asks as I shrug my shoulders.

"I just want to get to know you. I mean we've written each other multiple letters but we've never made an effort to get to know one another." I say as she nods.

"Alright then. Um...well...I live in Houston now with some friends. My family doesn't talk to me because they don't want me to get near the younger kids." She says as I look at her and sigh. She's trying to act like the victim but I know the reason why they're doing that and it's a reasonable one.

"I actually met all of them. They seem like nice people." I say as she nods. "I want to know about your...earlier life with Kassandra. Did you take her to preschool, any other fun places?" I say hoping she gives me the answer I hoped for.

"When I still had her we lived just outside of Dallas. She didn't go to preschool. My mom thought it was best if she went straight to kindergarten." She says as I begin to get nervous.

"Funny how we lived in Dallas around the same time and we never crossed paths." I say as she nods.

"Texas is full of people I doubt we would ever cross paths. Unless we did, we just never noticed or remember." She says as I try to remain calm. She's practically saying that we met! I had to get this over with.

"I know you worked at the Carlisle School the same time I was a student there." I say as her face becomes blank. "Did you know all this time who I was?" I say as she shakes her head and stands up. I then see my brothers and my dad walking towards us.

"We want answers." I say to her as she stands there in defeat seeing that there was no where to go.