Bad Intentions

21. Parents

Ty

She opens her bag and hands Ava two pieces of papers. "These are our birth certificates.
I was born twelve minutes before you."

Ava looks at both birth certificates before handing them to me. They don't look fake. The more Ana smiles the more you notice the cut on her lip.

"This is a picture of our parents." She takes out a photo and hands it to Ava. Avas eyes widen at the picture of her dad and a women. "Is that your mom?" I ask Ava and she nods.

"I don't understand, you have an accent." Shawn says. "When we were born my mom knew how abusive your father was so she left and moved to England."

"Why only take one baby?" I'd try and save both my kids from any type of trouble. "The letter I found explains it better." She says handing Ava a brown envelope with "Ava" written in cursive.

She takes the letter out the envelope and reads over. By the end of the letter she has tears in her eyes. I want to comfort her but I'm not sure what was wrong. "What's wrong?" I ask her placing my hand on Avas shoulder. She hands me the letter and I read over.

Dear Ava,

I'm not sure if this will ever get to you but I want you know how truly sorry I am. There's not a day that goes  by that I don't think about you. I know your father will never have the nerve to tell you the truth, but you deserve to know how big of a hero you are. Because of you, your sister and I were able to escape.
I will always regret leaving you and not finding a way to take both you and Ana with me to England. After I had you and your sister your fathers abuse got a lot worse. Out of fear I tried many times to leave but there was no use. He always found us. One day I threatened to call the cops and he held me at gun point. He agreed to let me leave but only if I left one of you guys. At the time it felt like the only way out. I thought it'd be better to save one of you than to have the both of you live through his hell. I want you to know that I didn't decide who stayed, he did. He choose you and there was nothing I could do to change his mind. He thought Ana cried too much so he wanted you. Know I wish more than anything I would've been there to protect you from him. I can only imagine what he put you through. Even though I never saw you take your first steps, heard your first words, and I never got to see you off at prom, I loved you. My sweet baby, I love you and  no amount of time apart would ever stop me from loving you, my daughter, as if you were here with me.
                  -Mom

"Wow!" Is all I can say. I never asked Ava anything about her mom, I always thought she was dead. "Do you see now?" Ana asks Ava.

"My dad told me my mom left but she died when I was three." Ana frowns a little. "Actually, mom just passed away last month. That's how I found out, I was going through her things." "I'm sorry for your loss." Ava tells her and she smiles.

"I'm really sorry you've been going through this your whole life. I just talked to our dad before I came here." "How?" "I gave him my number when I found his company, he didn't want anything to do with me. But today he called from prison and I went there. He thinks you're dead, but I'd already found out what hospital you were at so I knew you weren't."

"Did you tell him Ava was alive?" She shakes her head no. "I know there has to be a reason why he thinks that." I nod she's just as smart as Ava.

"How'd you find the hospital?" "It's actually a bit of a story." "The night I saw you guys at that club is the night I first went to see my dad. He said really awful things, so I just went out and got drunk." "He doesn't think about how his words would make others feel." Ava tells her and she laughs.

"I see that, anyway I met Milo and we had a few drinks and he kept telling me I looked like his friend. I told him about you and he said he knew you. I was so stupid."

"You met Milo?" Ava asks and she nods her head. "He said he was going to take me to you but he took me to his house instead. I tried fighting him and well he obviously fought back." She says gesturing to her busted lip.

"I was at his house trapped in a room for 5 days until Cedric came." This was the most shocking part. Both sisters had fallen victim to Milo.

"He let me out and told me that Milo was in jail for killing you in Italy. So I went to my hotel and called every hospital in Italy until I found the one you were at, they told me they transported you here."

Everything makes sense. You can't even accuse her of lying when she looks almost identical to Ava. "So why did mom choose England?" Ava asks her and she shrugs.

"I'm not sure, she doesn't have any family there and she never married again." "What's your daughters name?" Ana asks smiling at Bella.

"Her name is Isabella but she likes to be called Bella." "So who are you guys?" "I'm Jaxson, Avas' husband." I introduce myself. "I'm just Shawn." Shawn says and she laughs. 

"What'd you and dad talk about?" Ava asks her.  "It was actually quite sad. He was apologizing for everything and he was crying."

She tells Ava and Ava frowns. "I think he has a mental illness. That's one of the reasons I didn't leave when I was younger." Ana nods her head. "He kept saying he was going to get help."

I never knew Mr. Hudson would be the type of person to feel guilty. Regardless of how he feels now, he still did all those terrible things to Ava and I won't ever forgive him for the shit he put her through.

"He gave me his account information." Ana randomly says. "Why?" Shawn asks her. "He said he wants me to have a good life and all the money was mine. He told me he doesn't expect to get out at all, he's going to make sure Milo gets what he deserves for killing you." Maybe I should've told him Ava was alive still.

"He also asked to make sure everything in the companies account went to his granddaughter." Ana says looking at Bella. "It's like he's a whole different person." Shawn says and I agree with him. "I should probably tell him I'm not dead." "You should get better first." Ana tells her. "Yeah she's right." I tell Ava.

"He told me about all the terrible things they did to you. I know it probably won't count much, but he really didn't know. He said they told him you were going to leave his company and he needed you. They were only supposed to trap you somewhere, not that it makes it any better."