Page 53 of Hacking His Code

“You’re mother’s getting ready for brunch right now, thinking that girl you got up there is someone special.”

“First, her name is Arinessa. Second, she is indeed special.”

“If she’s so special, why have you been at work all night?”

Be calm. You can do this.

“Father, I need to talk to you about something.”

You’re such an asshole.

“Which account has you worried?” Father says sarcastically.

I pull out a chair he has reserved for guests and take a seat.

“How did you know mother was the one for you?”

Father blinks back at me, mouth slightly ajar.

You fucker.

“How’d I know your mother was the one?” he repeats back as though in a daze. “I guess it was her looks that caught my attention. Then I found out she was the smartest person in every room.”

I chuckle. “Bold statement coming from a man who owns one of the world’s largest tech corporations.”

“And one-hundred-percent true.”

I swallow hard, unsure of how to lead into the question I so desperately need answered. The subject is so difficult to navigate. My mother didn’t just lose her sister when Lucy went missing; my father lost a friend, and a big part of my mother.

Bingo!

“I’m sorry for what you’ve lost.”

He looks up uneasily at me. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, just that Mother was young and vibrant, and that was taken from you the moment Aunt Lucy went missing. I often imagine what Ma would have been like had that not happened. The movies she would have made. The adventures we would have had.”

Father exhales a long breath. “Don’t be sorry for me. If anything, I love her even more now than I did then. When you go through something traumatic with someone, it binds you.”

“But you also lost a friend,” I reply back. “You and Aunt Lucy were close.”

A long moment passes before Father responds with, “Yeah, I lost a friend.”

“What was your friendship like? I know how she hurt you and Mom, but I can’t help but feel thankful to her for introducing you both.”

“Lucy came on as a junior intern at eighteen through a program for people that test high, but I didn’t really meet her until she was assigned to my department. She was so fucking smart, and boy did it annoy the others on the team. I wouldn’t let them give her hell, though. I simply promoted her above them.”

“Funny how Mother looked exactly like Aunt Lucy, but Mother was the one who took your breath away.”

Father’s brow raises in surprise, as though startled. “Oh, it wasn’t her looks as much as it was her vibe. Seeing her onscreen was…breathtaking.”

“Watching her in her old films is like watching a different person from Mom,” I say. “She was always plucky and full of energy. Now, she’s soft-spoken and slow to emote. A completely different woman.”

“Ernestine loved acting. I never wanted to take her away from it. She was signed on for two other movies, but when your aunt disappeared…”

“It must have been hard.”

He nods stoically.