The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

36

OUT OF THE TWO OF them, I'd say Mason was more educated even though Cameron had been born into a wealthy family. But I guess it is also a matter of wanting to learn, and Mason had always had an interest for learning new things.

He was pretending to be my lawyer, and only two nights ago had he started researching all that lawsuit stuff. Now, he wore a lawyer-like suit, his hair neatly combed and parted instead of his usual boyish hair he had. He even carried a briefcase as we rang on Adele and Joseph's doorbell.

I tilted my sunglasses down to let him see my eyes, a smile forming on my face even with the dreadful thing we were about to do. "Is this really necessary? All this outfit?"

He crossed his arms and had a strict face on like those always seeming to be angry lawyers in the movies. "What do you say, Maeve Sun Lively? I think it is a boomer for those film casters that I didn't choose the profession of acting." A cheeky grin was tugging at the corner of his mouth, and oh, he would definitely not have enough food to eat if he decided to become an actor.

I wasn't able to answer because then the door slammed open and a Joseph Lively in a t-shirt and underwear was revealed. His blonde hair was whiter now, and the whites of his blue eyes were filled with red lines. And suddenly I couldn't understand how I was ever intimidated by him.

He just stared at us, his face looked more dazed than surprised.

"Who the hell is it in this early morning!" That voice I recognized at once.

Adele Sun Lively appeared in front of the doorway next to Joseph and she looked...older. Wrinkles had started to make their way all over her face, and the black of her hair you could tell had been dyed with cheap black hair dyes, forcefully to cover the constant growing white hair.

Instead of gazing at us dumbfoundedly like Joseph had, she had the usual sharp eyes I've known her for.

"What are you doing here?" Her eyes went from me and then to Mason, her frown setting in immediately. "What do you want, Sun Xue Li?"

I took my sunglasses off and smiled a little too happily. Maybe it was because of when Adele flinched, and knowing that she had never been more jealous of me than now. "Of course to negotiate a deal," I gestured at Mason. "This is my lawyer, and we're going to have a talk."

It's so fascinating how the memory of the human mind worked. I had once found their place so grand, so luxurious, when I was twelve they had been so intimidating. But now, as I walked into their place with my back straight and my thousand dollar purse, they looked so small and their apartment felt more like a cage that had kept me before. Now it kept them.

I sat down on their sofa that had once been a place Adele forbade me from sitting on. Mason threw at them (he actually set it down on the table) packets of lawsuit papers he had typed out himself to trick them. And as I had predicted, Adele only skimmed through it without really reading any of it.

There was this smell to Joseph, and it was sort of obvious he was either drunk or high. He looked like he wasn't even aware of the packet.

"What is this?"

I crossed my right leg over my left leg and smiled at her. I think I might've even intimidated her. "A good deal, similar to a deal that Mr. Wang had once negotiated with you guys. But now that little girl is all grown up, and she has a better negotiation."

She looked around us, and there was this sort of expression on her face that looked like shame as she looked at her own place. Everything in the apartment was a mess.

"And what is this negotiation?"

So then Mason and I both started to tell them about our supposed "plan". Starting with them continuing to pretend to be my parents, but this time not telling the press anything in a way that will affect my career. They'll be in interviews with me if needed and anything else further ado that will be as impersonating as my somehow unrealistic yet realistic parents. And all of that in exchange for a new place to live for them and money.

"I don't get it," for the first time she wasn't exactly frowning in an irritated way. More like a tired and scared way. "We kicked you out, and now you want to help us?"

I crossed my arms in front of my bare legs, and I think I actually meant what I was about to say. "I guess it is more than a deal, so how about we call it sympathy? You two did in fact take care of me for a few years, paid for my tuition, and even if you didn't finish that job, it is more than anything a couple would do for a stranger."

At this, Joseph who had been half awake and asleep opened his eyes. He looked at me and then whispered something a little like, "good girl," and then dozed off again.

Adele took the packet of paper and flipped to the last page where the signatures would be. She took Joseph's limp hand, signed his name on his spot, and then took the pen for herself and signed her name on it. The deal was done.

This wasn't part of the deal, at least not yet, but I scrambled through my purse and got out a check, wrote them ten thousand RMB, and handed it to Adele. Her hands shook as she held the check and then she gaped back up at me.

Behind me, Mason looked a little surprised but instead of commenting he went out of the apartment first. I lingered a little longer, looking around the place I had once lived in. And just when I was about to leave, Adele stopped me and looked at me with what might've been affection.

"Thank you."

In those few instances, I felt like she was really my mother, that figure that has never really been a part of my life, something I had always wanted. There it was given to me, but only for a few seconds and then it was gone again.

"Your welcome, Sun Guan Tong." I closed the door behind me and for some odd reason, I realized they hadn't been so bad after all. They weren't perfect, and they might've never really cared about me, it may have always been about money, but I think I am glad that they were the ones who were my pretending parents. Without them, would I have even gotten an education in the first place? Would I have even learned English—fluently too—for it wasn't Adele wanting to show me off to her friends with it? So I think it's rather safe to say that without Joseph and Adele Sun Lively, I might have never become the person I had aspired to be.

Mason was waiting for me outside, and I couldn't tell what he was feeling about what I had done.

"What you did...it was unexpected."

We walked outside to the lobby, and then I finally answered him when I felt like I wasn't holding my breath anymore.

"Yeah, it was unexpected for me too."