Leave What Was Found

18: Hidden Truths

"And you are sure it was your mom?"

"I mean I never really knew the woman, how would I be sure of that?" Avery replied to Emmet.

She and Emmet were sitting together at Archer's basketball game. He had invited her to watch him play tonight, and now that she had a car, she had happily agreed. Emmet had come along at her request as well, she had a lot to tell him.

"But I mean what are the chances of that though?" he asked. "I mean you really expect me to believe that your mom abandoned you as a baby, only to work as a waitress in the same area your dad once raised you in?"

Avery sighed. It didn't sound too plausible now. "Well, it could be true, I mean maybe she came into town after we left, or maybe she wanted to keep an eye on me and that was why she never went farther away after she left."

Emmet looked skeptical. "Then why would she leave your dad at all?"

"I don't know, but I mean is it really that unlikely it could be her?" she asked.

"Did she recognize you?" Emmet questioned.

Avery frowned. "No, but to be fair, the last time she saw me, I was a brown haired baby and now I'm a teenager with almost silver hair," Avery pointed out.

"Well, did she look like your mom?"

"Kind of, well I don't know, it's been a while," she admitted.

"Did you ask your uncle?"

Avery sighed. She had not really talked to her uncle since that day the social worker told her about the school. Since then, conversations between them were short and awkward.

"I can't," she mumbled.

Emmet thought for a moment. "Do you want to go to your old house? You said you have the key now, maybe there are some answers there."

"We can't just leave Archer's game," Avery pointed out.

"Oh please, they are ahead by thirty points, what are you going to miss?"

Avery chewed her lip nervously. On one hand, she wanted to support her boyfriend, but on the other hand, she really wanted answers. "Okay, fine, let me text him."

She sent a quick text and then she and Emmet took off to her childhood home.

"Funny how the last time you went there, you got arrested for breaking and entering, now you actually have the key, interesting juxtaposition don't you think, B and E?" Emmet asked, nudging her.

Avery rolled her eyes. "Of all the nicknames you could call me, you chose a nickname based on a crime that got dropped from my record."

"Would you prefer, Officer-this-is-my-house-my-dad-died-I-need-my-things?" he asked sarcastically.

Avery rolled her eyes as she thought about that day her father died. She had run away from the social worker to her childhood home. She wanted to go to the one place that had always been her safe haven, but unfortunately the cop got to her before she could even enter the house. Avery touched her stingray pendant that she had been wearing ever since she put it on the day of the party.

"My dad's nickname for me was Stingray," she whispered.

"Yeah, I remember," Emmet said softly. "He used to keep National Geographic on at the hospital just in case they would play something having to do with stingrays."

Avery smiled at the memory as they drove in silence the rest of the way to her home. When they approached, other memories began to fill her mind. Days where she used to run home and play basketball with her dad, nights going out to get ice-cream just because they felt like it. Moments where she and her dad were happy.