BENEATH ALL THE LIES

The Twist Of The Past

Along with Jonah on my side, holding my hand, we walked towards the precinct. We had to pass the long aisle with counters on the left side to accept parking ticket payment and seating place on the right where people waited for their turn. At the end of the aisle was a staircase. Andrew's office was in the second floor so we had to climb up to get to his office. But I was surprised to see Andrew standing at the bottom of the stairs, leaning on the handrail, crossing his legs and hands in his pockets. As we were nearing him, my heart beat faster. I had turned my phone off to avoid him. I knew he would call me about the DNA result and being a coward that I was, I chose to run off. And now he was in front of me, probably ready to scold me over my cowardice.

"Hi, I'm Andrew Stevens, the detective in the missing Thatchers case," Andrew said  while shaking Jonah's hand.

"I'm Jonah Adamson. We talked on the phone." Wait, what?

"You talked to him?" I asked, looking at Jonah, feeling confused.

"Well, you told me that you switched off your phone because you weren't ready to face the truth yet. But I know, if I let you, you would hide at my place forever and just ignored the truth. So I picked up your phone and switched it on. I saw the name 'Andrew' made 12 calls from morning and I thought that it must be urgent since he really gave a try for many times and I decided to call back and hear from him. I'm not even sorry. You need to do this. " Jonah's explanation just ignited my anger.

"I confided in you and you betrayed me. Awesome, Jonah. I made a mistake coming to your place. I thought you were my friend," I raised my voice at Jonah and yanked my hand from his hold.

"I AM your friend and that's why I want the best for you. You lived your life all this while thinking Zasha was your mother. Well now you have to know that she isn't, she kidnapped you from your real family. You can't just keep ignoring the truth and live in your past. You need to accept the truth and that is Zasha isn't your mother. Sooner or later, the truth will catch up with you. So why wait? "

"Is this about you not wanting me to crush at your place and cockblock you? Because of it is, you should have just told me. I would happily leave and won't bother you." I was so angry at Jonah, I couldn't see straight. He betrayed me.

"Are you kidding me? You know it's not true, you're just mad at me and uttered some shit. This isn't even about me, it's about you. How when things get tough, you just run away."

What Jonah said was right and deep inside my heart, I knew it too. I just didn't wanna believe it because it would hurt me so deeply if I did. It was easy for them to tell me to accept the truth and face it, but I was the only one who knew how difficult it was to come to term with the reality when what I thought was my reality throughout my life was just a big fat lie. I was still glaring at Jonah when Andrew finally spoke to me.

"I may not know how difficult or how scary it was for you right now to come here and talk to the police or hear anything from us. But there's someone who knows exactly what you're going through."

Andrew looked straight at me, there was understanding in his voice and listening to him soothed me a little bit.

"Who are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Deena Deevan. She had been waiting for this call for 23 years. And for that long, she had been in the dark about the wellbeing of her only daughter. So you're not in this alone, if you can just bring yourself to meet Deena and hear what really happened, you'd never regret it. So now, it's up to you. What's your decision?"

" So, the DNA result has come out positive, huh? " I asked Andrew in which he replied with a nod.

This time, I didn't let my mind to convince me otherwise. I listened to Andrew because I knew what he said was right and started climbing that stairs leading to Andrew's office with the two men following me. As soon as I was in front of his office, I stopped and turned to Andrew.