Salient Secret

Chapter 27

Kai's pov

Avery has been out of the hospital since last night, I want to do something nice for her, like take her on a real first date. I'll do it tomorrow, I figured she'd want some time to settle back in. I do still need to call her to make sure she's aware of tomorrow so I pull out my phone and call her, she answers on the 3rd ring,

"I was just about to call you," she says sounding happy.

"I'll pretend to believe that."

"I swear, I've been home for less than a day and just breathing the same air as Jason is making me angry."

"Good thing I've got a solution."

"Is that so?"

"Yes it is, you don't need to know the details, just be ready by 4 pm sharp tomorrow, dress code is smart-casual."

"As long as you're taking me away from here I'll do whatever you say."

"Easy there Shaw, I might just take advantage of that," I say making it sound like I'm implying sexual innuendo.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh I'd have you dressing up like a minion from Despicable Me just to go eat at a restaurant without hesitation."

"Now that's just cruel," she says laughing.

"That's the point."

"I gotta go, dinner calls. See you tomorrow."

"Bye."

I have an idea for tomorrow but not a plan, I need to get started, but first, I need to find someone to take care of Sammy for tomorrow night.

Avery's pov

Dinner is a bit quieter than usual, Jason told my dad about him and Maya, and my mom told Chloe because she just wants to be included. Everyone can feel the tension between Jason and I, and it's just awkward. Fortunately the doorbell rings.

"I'll get it." I get up quickly and walk to the door.

If I had known who it was I would never have opened it.

"Avery," she says clearly shocked that I'm the one who answered the door.

"Maya," I say flatly with a straight face.

"It's good to see you," she says with a warm smile.

"I can't say the same, what do you want?" The smile on her face quickly fades away.

"Jason...he ummm, invited me for dinner." Oh Jason.

"Well, this is me uninviting you." I fake smile and shut the door in her face and storm back to the dinner table.

"Really Jason?" I say slamming the table right by him.

"I invited my girlfriend over for dinner, crucify me." This egotistical bitch. Not wanting to fight with him in front of Chloe, I just pick up his drink and pour it over his head, then take my plate and walk up to my room. What? I'm hungry.

I switch my laptop on, and I realize that I have a Facebook notification, I even forgot about that, well 'Daniel Taylor' has a notification. Julia took the bait! She accepted my friend request. After everything my mom told me about Julia, her Facebook page makes her seem so... normal. She looks happy, she doesn't post of her husband, that's if she even has one, but she does post her child, Timothy, a lot. He is very fair, he has brown eyes, blonde hair and looks nothing like me. Not that he should, but he comes from my moms brother which makes him my cousin, sort of, I'd expect us to have similarities or something.

My mom knocks on my door and I tell her to come in, I close my lap top fast but she notices and gives me a "really?" look.

"Okay fine but don't get mad." She walks to my bed and looks at the screen, she has a blank expression on her face and doesn't say anything. So I do,

"Her child looks so different than I expected, I thought he'd look more like a Shaw you know..."

"Oh that's because he isn't a real Shaw."

"But he is, he is your brothers child."

"Yeah well, my brother was adopted."

"Why did I not know this???"

"You've never needed to, he was adopted when he was just a baby, he was raised as a Shaw, but biologically, he isn't. My parents adopted him because they were friends with his parents who died in a car crash."

"Woah."

"Yeah, no one ever really talks about it," my mom says like it's not obvious. I then decide to point out something else to her.

"She doesn't seem to have a husband or boyfriend of any kind, and her son looks happy," I say implying that he doesn't look abused. She moves closer to the screen.

"Zoom into that," she says pointing to a chalkboard sign in the background of a selfie of Julia and Timothy.

"That's the coffee house around the corner from work! I go there every single morning," she says clearly shocked. "When was this posted?" she asks so I scan for the date.

"Last week Friday."

"Oh my gosh," she says in shock. 

"She's here."