Chapter 4
During the rest of the meal, Mallory sipped her decaf coffee and listlessly picked at her cinnamon cake, musing over the way her parents had reacted.
After she’d revealed why she avoided relationships, Dot started to cry, and Becca rushed into the dining room to ask her mother about dessert—leaving no room for discussion about her parents’ strange response.
Although everyone else had already moved on and the room buzzed with excited conversation, Mallory stayed quiet, her mind racing with worry.
It wasn’t until she was sitting on the back porch later that night with her siblings that Ariel brought her back to reality.
“Hello?” Her sister waved a hand in front of Mallory’s face. “Are you listening?”
“What?” Mallory blinked and shook her head. “What were you saying?”
“That answers your question. She wasn’t listening,” Taylor confirmed and smirked. “She’s been in a weird mood since dinner.”
“Sorry,” Mallory said, “I’m a little distracted…”
“I know my story about having to pull over before Micah puked all over the backseat isn’t exactly riveting, but I thought it’d at least hold your attention a little.” Ariel laughed. “Guess it doesn’t compare to whatever’s on your mind tonight.”
“I’m just thinking about dinner.” She glanced down at her hands and sighed.
“What about it?” Taylor asked.
“Well—Did you guys notice the way mom and dad looked at each other after I said all that stuff about finding the right person?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention to them,” he said. “You were delivering such a passionate speech, I thought it was best to give you all my attention.”
“Yeah, same here,” Ariel chimed in. “I was mostly just looking at you. Why?”
Mallory shrugged. “They just seemed… uncomfortable? Or at least, that’s the first word that comes to mind. Nervous… that’s another word that fits. They were so pale suddenly too...”
“Huh.” Taylor placed a hand under his chin and leaned forward. “I didn’t notice that at all.”
“Maybe I’m reading too much into it…”
“They were probably just stunned by how upfront you were about something that you usually keep private,” Ariel said. “I know I was. Where’d all of that come from anyway?”
“Are you kidding me?” Mallory scoffed. “It came from you guys! You were giving me such a hard time for not having a lot of serious relationships and I was sick of just sitting there and taking all your criticism. But I don’t want to talk about me right now, I want to talk about mom and dad!
Mom, as you both know, has been acting weird ever since she decided to sponsor Sasha, but now dad seems to be jumping on the weird train as well.
I get this feeling like there’s something they’re not telling us. ”
“Like what?” Ariel furrowed her brow.
“Like anything!” Mallory looked to Taylor for some back-up. “Mom didn’t tell us about taking in Sasha and the baby, so who knows what other secrets she’s keeping? I know for a fact she lied about what happened this morning when I found her in the master bedroom.”
Taylor rubbed his hands together, considering her words.
“It’s not that I disagree with you. I’m just not sure how much of what we’re feeling is based in reality, and how much is us just being paranoid because we already feel like they lied to us.
Or at least weren’t fully honest with us.
But instead of throwing around accusations, I say we do a little bit of our own research. ”
“Yes!” Mallory nearly leapt out of her chair, she was so happy to hear this. “That’s what I think too. We need to do more digging! We have a right to know who this person is that’s living with our aging, naive parents.”
Ariel rolled her eyes. “They’re not naive. Why are the two of you so dead set on twisting this good deed into something bad?”
“We’re just trying to figure out if there’s a reason to be worried.” Mallory gave her sister a look. “And I know you might not believe this, but I hope we don’t find anything. I hope Sasha is exactly who she says she is and that nobody’s lying or scamming. That would be a win for everyone.”
Taylor sucked air through his teeth and cringed.
“I don’t know about that. In my, albeit limited experience, when people leave out pertinent details, it’s because they have something to hide.
I can’t tell you how many times a client of mine has sworn there was nothing else I needed to know, and then bam, the day before we go into trial, they have a list of things they suddenly need to tell me.
It’s always information that changes our entire case and makes me question why I got into this field in the first place. ”
“See,” Mallory said, her voice cracking a little from excitement. She didn’t mean to sound so eager, it just felt so good to have someone finally on her side. “Taylor gets it. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I think we need to start treating this whole situation as something worth investigating.”
“You mean, we should think of Sasha as a criminal?” Ariel shot her an unamused look.
“No,” she said pointedly to her sister. “That’s not what I meant.”
Ariel side-glanced at Mallory. “Yeah, yeah. If you say so.” She put her hands in the air.
“I’m just sick of arguing about this. If you two want to research her, I won’t stop you.
Just make sure you don’t get caught. I’d hate for Sasha to find out you guys are doing this, especially if she never did anything wrong in the first place. ”
“We’ll be careful,” Mallory said. “In fact, I can do all of the research and the two of you can relax and enjoy your vacation… but only if someone lets me borrow their laptop.”
“After you broke dad’s?” Taylor balked. “No way!”
“It was an accident! I didn’t realize that the mug was so hot. I’ll definitely be a lot more careful with yours, I promise.”
“Still.” Taylor tilted his head back and forth, weighing the decision. “My computer’s going to be my lifeline for work this week, so I can’t risk it.”
Mallory smiled sweetly at her sister next. “Ariel?”
Ariel groaned and crossed her arms. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t want to be a part of this at all. Not even tangentially.”
“You’re not going to be a part of it,” Mallory said. “I’ll even delete the browsing history when I’m done, so nobody can connect you with any of this. Please…?”
Ariel waited few seconds before answering while Mallory stared at her with puppy eyes. “Fine,” she said with a huff. “You can use my laptop... But if anyone asks, I’ll say you stole it without my permission.”
“Rude.” Mallory cocked her head to the side. “But fair.”
“Then it’s settled.” Taylor folded his hands together. “Mallory’s going to do some research on her own and I’m waiting on a few people to get back to me in the public records department.”
“You what?” Ariel’s eyes widened. “When did you contact people at the public records department? Which public records department?”
“The state public records department,” he said as if it should’ve been obvious. “That’s why it’s taking so long for them to get back to me I think, because they have to go through the entire state of California’s records.”
Mallory straightened up in her seat. “Why didn’t you say anything about this?”
“Because I’m not sure anything’s going to come from it.
Erica had a friend of a friend at the department who we thought could help us, but it’s a longshot.
Really, all I wanted them to find out is if this charity even exists.
If we can get a list of all the known women’s shelters in a thirty-mile radius of Ferndale, then we can call them and ask if they even do sponsorship programs.”
“Now you’re doubting that charities even do sponsorships?” Ariel rolled her eyes. “You guys really are paranoid.”
“Well, it’s not something I’ve ever heard of,” Talyor said, and then turned to Mallory. “Have you?”
Mallory shook her head. “Nope.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of things charities do that we’re not aware of!” Ariel argued. “None of us have ever even worked for a nonprofit before. But to me, a sponsorship for someone trying to get out of a shelter sounds like a perfectly logical thing for a charity to do.”
Taylor sighed in the defeated way he often did when he’d concede to whatever Ariel said, but Mallory wasn’t going to let that happen this time, not with something this important.
“Ariel,” she said, before Taylor could get another word in, “I get that you don’t feel the same way as Taylor and me.
You’re not as worried, and that’s great.
But can’t you understand why we’re concerned?
We need to do this partially for mom and dad, sure, but also so that we can feel better about the situation.
And as long as Sasha doesn’t find out we’re looking into her, then nobody’s going to get hurt, right? ”
Ariel sat quietly for a moment. “I suppose.”
“Just give us a day or two,” Mallory added. “If we don’t find anything else that suspicious before Thanksgiving, then I promise I’ll give up the search. I’ll take Sasha at face value and stop digging.”
“Same here,” Taylor agreed.
Ariel stared at them with an apprehensive gaze.
Even though she was the middle child, she always had a way of acting like the eldest in moments like this.
“Okay, fine. If this is something the two of you really feel that strongly about, then go ahead. I won’t get in your way—under one condition.
” She held a finger up in the air dramatically.
“What’s that?” Taylor asked, though Ariel was now looking directly at her sister.
“That you tell me the truth about James Harris,” Ariel said, her face igniting with a wicked smile. “And how you absolutely, without a doubt, have a huge crush on him.”