Instincts play a huge part in your decisions, especially for me. My instinct told me that there was something fishy about this whole thing. I had a gut feeling that Arjun wasn't telling me all lies at this point.

He may have lied in parts of his confession to the police, but deep down, I had a feeling that he wouldn't have lied to me about the murder case. Deep down, I knew that he probably wasn't as guilty as he seemed. And I was determined to find out the truth about everything that hadn't been brought to light.

The sweet taste of the chocolate that Arjun gave me before I left is still present on my tongue. However, as I'm walking home, I'm dreading what's going to happen when I step into the door, because the incidents are going to be nothing short of sour.

I'm still in no mood to see Mason after all the shit that has happened so far. I don't feel up to it, and I just want to be by myself, looking through all the diaries. I need answers as to what the hell is actually going on when it comes to the case itself.

I unlock the door to my house, and push open the door so that I can let myself in. I close it behind me, as I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Bracing myself for a slight lecture as to why I didn't let Mason know before, that expectation is deflated quickly when I just see that it's Sarah who's coming down the stairs. Her face brightens up a little bit when she sees me standing there, unharmed. She runs towards me and engulfs me into a hug. I smile slightly, and hug her back.

I hear her say, "Ashmita, I'm glad you're okay. I was so worried." I loosen the hug a little bit, and she looks into my eyes. "Okay, Ashmita, let's be real. I know you didn't go to Usha's house to sleep over. Where did you go? You can tell me. I'm not going to tell Mason."

I gulp a little bit. Even though I trust Sarah with my life, I don't know if I can tell her that I went to a convicted criminal's house. That's the last thing that I'd tell any of my family members. "I went to Rakesh's house," I lied, without trying to give it away so that my cover isn't blown.

Sarah raises an eyebrow, still looking suspicious, and then she just shrugs. "Fine. Let's go with that. Either ways, I'm making some Armenian food. Don't worry, Nathan's going to test it to make sure that the salt is fine so that it doesn't taste like you're eating sand. Mason will be back soon."

Great, now there's another thing that I have to dread when it comes to home.

**********

I don't even know if I can ever tell anyone about the fact that I spent the night at a convicted criminal's house. That's probably one secret that I'll take to the grave. Mason would never forgive me if he learned that I was at Arjun's house for the night.

I don't expect them to be on good terms, because Mason was kind of the person that broke my parents' marriage, so if Mason found out I was spending the night at his house, then that would be the day that I'm buried alive. But, for now, I guess it's time to start. If nobody is going to get curious about the case and uncover the potential truth, then I should do it.

I have all the advantages. I have a multitude of sources that I could use. If I have people around me, my mom's diaries, and the person who actually made me into what I am today, quite literally, then I should take advantage of that.

I don't know where to start. I don't know if I should start closer to my birth, where it could be possible that people are trying to kill me even before I was born, or closer to her murder, where she could possibly give some last minute fears on things that may be happening. There's almost always an incident that happens right before a murder that drives it.

Whether it be the fact that the life insurance is expiring the next day, the wife threatened to divorce the husband and leave, or sexual advances were refused, there's always that one incident that leads to something much more sinister. One thing that I can probably rule out is the second option, but I wonder if the other two are applicable.

Life insurance seems kind of a stretch, because Mason would be the only person who would probably get the money, but even that seems unlikely. Even though there could be a hundred different motives, I still wonder if the advances were something that ought to have driven it.

As I'm scrolling through my phone, I hear a knock come at my door. "Ashmita?" Mason's familiar voice says at the door. I set my phone down on my chest, and take in a deep breath. I'm preparing myself a little bit to face him today, because this is not going to be easy. I know that I want to talk to him, and to get an idea of how I should approach the case.

"Yeah?" I call, as I start to evaluate all the questions and emotions in my mind in an attempt to balance them.

"Can I talk to you?" he asks, in that signature fatherly-concerned voice. I let out a deep sigh. Am I ready to talk to him? Now all my emotions are starting to have a sword fight with each other. And it's not pretty, and I don't know what the outcome is going to be.

But deep in my mind, somebody is saying, "Fuck it." Letting that person dominate my thoughts, I say, "Yeah, come in." I sit up, prop my pillow against my bed, and then prepare for possibly a lot of apologies and regret. My door swings open, and Mason walks inside.

Surely enough, he's dressed like he just walked straight out of The Vampire Diaries, as he's wearing mostly dark clothes. Even that's not enough to conceal the fact that he looks awful. His usually youthful looking face looks tired and worn out, like he hadn't gotten sleep in the past couple of days. I knew that this was something that had been eating him up inside, and he just wanted to forget it and be rid of his worries.

He sits down on my bed, while I just look at him blankly. His mouth falls open to say something, but nothing comes out, as if he doesn't know what to say. But, I know what he's thinking. I know that he's thinking that no amount of apologizing is going to erase what happened. It's not going to change Arjun's mind 21 years ago, nor is it going to change my anger at this moment. But, is he going to try? "Ashmita, I know that what I did was... out of line, to say the least."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You think? Mason, you broke my parents' marriage! You're the reason why he left in the first place."

Mason's eyes widen, and he looks hurt, but at the same time, he realizes that what I'm saying isn't wrong. "I know, I know. I shouldn't have, okay? I get that. And I'm not going to use the 'I was young and dumb,' excuse. Really, I have zero excuse to do that. All I can say is that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for depriving you of... him growing up. I'm sorry that your mom had to raise you as a single mom for pretty much half of your childhood. I'm sorry that I drove your dad to do what he did to your mom. Basically, I'm sorry for fucking up your childhood. That's really all I can say."

He just sits there, with a blank look on his face, as I just stare at him. He just looks like he's about to fidget and get uncomfortable under my dagger-like gaze that is slowly piercing into his mind and heart. He hangs his head a little bit, out of pure shame, which is what I feel he should be feeling right now.

Honestly, he really should be ashamed of what he did. He caused my real dad to leave. Arjun seems like a great father, and he deprived me of that. Although he has stepped in to fill the void of the lackluster father figure, it isn't helped by the fact that he was the direct cause of the void.

But, I can't be mad at him forever. I still love him. It's not like I want to move in with Arjun and completely emancipate myself from Mason after hearing everything. Although I yearn to build a relationship with my actual father, that's not going to dissolve my current relationship with my adoptive father.

"Okay, Mason, that was a really douchey thing to do. Really, that was a shit move on your part. I'm still really angry with you about it."

"And you have every right to be."

I let out a sigh, and then say, "I'll probably be mad at you for a while, but that doesn't mean I won't forgive you now."

Mason looks at me with a hopeful look on his face. I give him a slight smile, as the light in his eyes shines through the room. "You're serious?"

I giggle a little bit, and nod. "Yeah, I'm serious."

This time, he lets out a fully audible laugh, and then rubs his nose a little bit. "Can I hug you?" he asks, still hopeful.

I shake my head, because I'm still mad at him. "No, I'm still mad at you. Hugs once I'm not mad at you."

He shrugs. "That's fair."

I get up from my bed, and then he gets up and follows me to wherever I plan to go. "Oh yeah, you know Sarah's cooking today, right?" I tell him.

Mason stops dead in his tracks, with a look on his face like someone had just told him that my mom had died all over again. "Just when this day was starting to get better."