A Beautiful Fate by Unknown Page B

just nodded in agreement.
    “Yeah, that sounds like Lauren.”
    We got back inside just in time for everyone to gather in the eat-in kitchen for dinner. Most of the family’s friends had gone, leaving just Ari and Rory’s immediate family, Julia, and myself. Julia and I smiled at each other.
    Ari came up next to me, causing my stomach to flip.
    “What was that all about?” he whispered almost intimately into my ear, causing lovely shivers to dance up and down my back.
    “Nothing really – we were just getting a few things straightened out.”
    Ari pulled out a chair for me at the table. Normally, I would have felt really out of place sitting at a dinner table with a huge family I had just met. Oddly, I felt right at home. I sat between Lauren and Ari and across from Rory. I laughed at conversations and answered most of the questions people threw at me. I did get uncomfortable when I caught Ari’s father, Andrew, staring at me on a few different occasions. I had gotten the same feeling from him the night before. He was just looking at me, not in a creepy way but more in a curious way.
    “Ava,” he finally spoke, “do I know you from somewhere?”
    “No, I don’t think so. Well… actually, yeah.” I looked down and played with the hem on my napkin. “I kind of ran you over a few months ago at Perry Baio’s memorial service causing you to spill your coffee.” I could feel my cheeks turning pinker by the second.
    Andrew laughed aloud and shook his finger playfully at me. “I remember that, and I thought I recognized you then, but you walked off before I could actually talk to you. Are you sure we have never met before that? You look so familiar to me...are you from the area?”
    Ari spoke up before I could answer. “Dad, you don’t know her. She’s from Canada”
    “Well actually,” I said correcting him. “I was born here in California; my mother and I moved to Montréal when I was still a baby. We lived there until I was thirteen, then moved to Chicago. I had to move back here after, uh,” I paused, “after she died.”
    “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, Ava,” Andrew responded solemnly. “What was your mother’s name, may I know?”
    “Lucy Baio. She was Perry and Margaux’s daughter.”
    “Oh, so you were related to Perry? Once again, I am sorry for your loss.” Andrew’s eyes scrunched up at the corners in thought. “I know Margaux quite well actually. We are good friends and we run a foundation together, but to be perfectly honest with you I did not know she had a child, let alone a grandchild.”
    Boy, did this not surprise me. “My mom was adopted. They weren’t close.”
    “That’s not how I know you,” he continued. “What about your father, what’s his name?”
    “Well,” I paused again, “I never met him. He died when I was born, but his name was Adrian Moirai.”
    As soon as the words left my mouth the room went completely silent, aside from a few gasps and the clanging of silverware falling on to plates.
    Oh, crap. I should have just said I didn’t know the name of my father. Why did I have to go and open my foolish mouth?
    Rory was the first to break the silence. He stood up fast, causing his chair to rub against the floor loudly.
    “I knew it!” he said in his booming voice. “I knew she was one of us! I knew it from the minute I first saw her.”
    Ari stood up, looking extremely angry. “We all knew she was one of us, you idiot. Weren’t you just listening? She’s Baby!”
    Rory retorted by getting louder. “She’s not Baby!” He rolled his eyes.
    “Rory, yes she is. She just said so.” Ari had an exhausted tone.
    Rory thought about it for a second and his triumphant smile faltered. “I just figured she had some small part of us in her… I didn’t think she was Baby. I asked her who she was and she didn’t know what I was talking about.”
    “Of course she didn’t know, Rory. She’s been missing for seventeen years.”
    Rory got even louder.
    “I