Chapter 61

Ashley could not stop staring at Janet. She looked like Juliette; the eyes, nose, ears and fingers were just like Juliette's. She wondered if Janet had other kids by Juliette's father and how she was able to run away from him. Ashley wondered if Janet would have a chance to talk to Juliette who did not even care about her. She hoped Juliette would eventually hear Janet out. She was not taking sides with Janet for abandoning Juliette, but for her safety, her mum is the only one that can help her out.

"So, just give me a call or text me when you think it's okay to come see and talk to her. I will not stop trying to reach out to her but I think now is not a good time" Janet told Ashley, who still had a lot of questions for Janet and she could tell that Ashley wanted to ask more questions but she wished it were Juliette asking all of these questions instead of her friend.

"I have some questions for you, Janet. Do you mind if I asked them now?" Ashley asked as she put the card into her jacket pocket because her bag was inside her car.

"I'm happy to answer but you should be on your way to New York. I don't want you girls getting back very late." Janet replied, still soft spoken.

That was not the response Ashley was expecting but she figured that Janet was right, they had to be on their way so that they would get to New York before 10pm. She began to stand up to be on her way

"Besides, I don't her to spend another second in this town, it's not exactly safe for her." Janet added.

Ashley stopped when Janet said that. She looked at sister Cordelia and saw that she was nodding, agreeing to what Janet had said. Just as Ashley was about to ask her what she meant by that, the Clarkson's came in and said, "Ma'am, we saw Juliette running out, is everything okay? Does she know yet?—" but Brian stopped immediately he saw Ashley and that sparked suspicion in Ashley. She knew that they were hiding something from Juliette and the Clarkson's were in on it too.

Ashley stood up and faced all of them and then she said, "Wait a minute, you guys are in on this too?" Then she turned to Janet and said, "I thought this was a secret thing, how come they know about it? Unless—" she gasped and said, "Everyone is in on this. This is planned. What the fuck?!" She stood up from where she was sitting, hands on her waist and authoritatively said, "Start talking or else I'm going out there to spill the tea to Juliette." Then she turned to Sister Cordelia and said, "Juliette trusted you! How could you lie to her? You and Janet and these guys are in on this? This was an arranged meeting? For what?" She turned back to Janet and said, "So, you know the Clarkson's?"

Janet calmly tried to handle the situation and she said, "Ashley, you don't know the entire story. I will tell you in due time but we did not gang up on Juliette, I would never gang up on my daughter. I just wanted to make her feel comfortable and if she knows or knew that I know the Clarkson's, she will hate me more than she does"

Ashley shook her head and said, "You just ended up saying absolutely nothing. You have not explained shit to me. Do you guys all think I'm bluffing when I say I will tell Juliette what is going on here, what I think is going on?"

"Fine, what do you want to know, let me try to explain, but don't forget that you are wasting precious time asking all these questions when you should be on your way back." Janet replied.

Ashley looked at her watch and knew she had some time so she said, "Let me worry about the time I have left, start talking. How do you know the Clarkson's?'

"Well, they are the family that Cordelia recommended to me when I asked her to help me get my daughter adopted by a family that will not raise too much suspicion—okay, I'll be honest with you, they are distant relatives of Cordelia. When I first got to them, I told them about my problem and how I wanted Juliette to be raised in a place that I know her father would never look. They were supposed to get her immediately she turned eight and then somehow she got close to that kid, the one she came for today and of course, I paid them double to get her and the kid. I was still trying to get my life together and it was hard but I did it. The Clarkson's used to send me reports every week about her and her growth, just basic information about anything I could have missed—" Janet stopped herself when she saw Juliette's necklace on the floor. She just picked it up and wiped it with her napkin and then she continued her story, "So, they brought me up to date and when she was getting older, I told them to do everything within their power to make her leave—just to set the mood. I figured that if they made her life unbearable, she will leave. Before you judge me, I did it because I got Intel that my ex husband found out that he had a kid and he started looking for this kid. I didn't want him to find her. When they told me she ran away, I felt relieved. My plan was for our meeting to look as natural as possible because the Clarkson's told me how she handles change or someone she hated, and her hatred for me is not something that will change in a day."

Ashley could not believe what she was hearing, Janet just admitted to paying Juliette's foster parents to make her life a living hell. Ashley could not imagine the pain that Juliette must have gone through thinking she was the problem not knowing that her weird mother wanted people to treat her that way.

Ashley's just shook her head and said, "You know, I'm trying to see the positive light out of this situation but I cannot wrap my head around the fact that you paid these people to traumatize your kid because you wanted her to keep her away from her father that she does not know exists but who also wants to kill her and nobody knows why he's a blood thirsty lunatic—"

"Well, he's involved in a lot of dirty work and businesses and he does not want any of those bad guys out there to get to him through his kids. He would surrender for his kid and that's a sign of weakness for him." Janet explained

Ashley frowned. Why was she defending this man that almost killed her and her baby immediately she gave birth to her.

"How can you defend him?" Ashley asked, she was very disgusted by this behaviour.

Janet smiled and said, "Well, believe it or not but there was a time that I used to love him and he used to love me, at least before I got pregnant and told him I wanted to keep the baby." Janet explained but Ashley was not having that, she said, "If he used to love you, why did he try to hurt you? That is a bad man, stop trying to make excuses for him, he's not okay, he is sick!"

"My point is, he is not as bad as he sounds and I would rather explain all of these to Juliette myself so, you cannot tell her or else, you will be risking her life. Remember, I told you that I have been following her life up since she was a kid, I know things about her that you would never dream of knowing. I know how she handles things. Promise you will not bring it up, this is supposed to be a secret and you must not say anything." Janet said.

Ashley looked at everyone in the room and they all looked like they wanted her to promise not to talk about it. She knew that she could not lie to Juliette and she knew that Juliette will ask her what was going on and why she stayed long in the house so she said, "I've been here for more than thirty minutes, Juliette will ask me why I took this long, what do I tell her?"

"You could say that I was going on and on how much I have missed you and how I wanted Tobe United with her again if she will give me a chance and that Cordelia was trying to console me and it was weird asking her for the signed documents till I had calmed down, just add details. A good lie comes with details, it has to be something you will remember though." Janet suggested.

Ashley just stared blankly at her, unimpressed by this lie and then she said, "For someone with Juliette's face, you're such a great liar and you say it so well. I hope you can resolve this shit with her very soon."

Janet nodded and then said, "Go on, you are late." And to Sister Cordelia, she said, "Cordelia, can you give them the documents?"

"Of course, it's in the living room" Sister Cordelia replied, she was about to get up and go get the file but Brian volunteered to go and get it. When he brought it, Sister Cordelia took what she was supposed to take and then she handed the file to Ashley and said, "Everything is in there. Safe trip."

Ashley took the file and said, "Aren't you coming out to see her again before we leave?"

Sister Cordelia smiled, shook her head and then said, "She's not going to want to see, she's upset with me now. Just take care of her and Skye"

Ashley nodded and then went to join Juliette, Matt and Skye in the car. Immediately she got into the car, Juliette asked her why she took that long and then she told her, "The situation was still going on and I just didn't want to be rude or anything. We gotta leave so that we will get into New York early enough."

"What's the hurry? I think there's a motel around here that we could lodge in, I think it's comfortable with the way things are different—" Juliette started

Ashley remembered what Janet just told her and so she said, "I can't. I mean, we can't. I am supposed to go somewhere with Winston tomorrow and I just remembered that I promised I would meet with some  member of his family"

Matt immediately looked at Ashley, he knew she was lying, he knew almost everything about his brother and none of his "family member" was in New York. He also knew that his brother would never take Ashley to go see his mother at the psychiatric hospital, he did not trust anyone with that information. He wondered why Ashley was lying, he also wondered if this was because of anything that must have happened in the Clarkson's house. She did stay in there for more than thirty minutes and suddenly she wanted to be out of here.

"Member of his family? I thought you said that he was being sneaky about things?" Juliette queried.

"Yeah and I confronted him about it so he said we could meet one of his family member tomorrow. Look, this is really important and I have to be there, so we cannot stay here today, okay?"

Juliette was wondering why Ashley was behaving the way she did but she knew better than to question her about it so she just nodded and held up her hands in defeat and said, "Fine, let's get going."

She turned on the car and started driving.

Juliette knew that something was wrong with Ashley but she did not understand what was wrong with her and she noticed that she just plugged in her airpods and was driving faster than she drove earlier. After they had driven out of the town, Ashley stopped the car to get more supplies and for others to use the bathroom at the gas station and also to refill the gas in the car.

"Skye, why don't you and Matt go get more snacks from the supermarket" Juliette said and then signalled Matt to go with her so that she could talk to Ashley who was trying to get the gas for the car.

When Matt and Skye were out of earshot, Juliette turned to Ashley and said, "You wanna tell me what this is truly about?"

Ashley looked at her like she did not understand what Juliette was talking about. "What are you taking about?"

"What am I talking about? You suddenly became cold and distant immediately you went to meet Sister Cordelia and the other lady—"

"You mean your mum?" Ashley interupted.

Juliette frowned and said, "Don't call her that! She's not my mum! I don't even know who she is—"

"She's your mother, Juliette and you know this, that's why you ran away from her"

"Well, what would you rather I did? Stay there and welcome her with open arms? The woman has not been in my life since I was born. She threw me by the dumpster when I was born, she did not want me, and now she suddenly decided she does and I'm supposed to welcome her back with open arms?"

Ashley put the gas dispenser back in place and said, "No, you don't have to welcome her back with open arms but it would have been nicer if you did not just yelled and walk out on everybody"

Juliette looked surprised at what Ashley was saying, "Are you telling me that my reaction was not good for someone who threw me away? Ashley, who are you? What did she tell you? Did she brainwash you and tell you that she was young and confused and all that bullshit mothers tell their kids after abandoning them?"

"Juliette, you don't get it"

"No Ashley, I don't get it and I don't fucking want to get it. The fact that you're picking sides with a woman that you just met over me your best friend, says alot about you! I thought you of all people will understand what I'm going through! I guess I was wrong. You know what, I shouldn't have brought you on this trip. I did it because I wanted my own people when I will face those people that made my childhood a living hell but here you are, supporting the person who is literally the genesis of all my problems!"

Ashley ran her fingers into her hair, she was getting frustrated trying to keep the secret. She wanted to tell Juliette what she had heard but instead she said, "What if she had a reason for it. Juliette, you don't even know why she did what she did—"