MAXIM
"What... what the hell do you mean by that?" Maxim asked in a low, confused voice.
"Exactly what you think it means," Tiffany said quickly. "Your girlfriend, who you're currently so worked up over, embezzled money from her firm and was arrested for it. Two million dollars, to be exact."
Maxim just shook his head dumbly at her words.
Hearing the words explained to him again didn't make them any clearer. If anything, they only made him more confused because none of it was making any sense.
The Ava he knew would never steal anything.
And wouldn't he have known if she had ever been arrested?
"I-I don't understand," Maxim said, finding himself more surprised by his mother's words than by the return of his memories.
"I, for one, think it's all pretty clear," Jonathan said, looking triumphant from where he stood beside Clara. "All your girlfriend ever cared about was money. Not you or anything else."
"That is impossible," Maxim said, finally sobering. "I had Levi find out everything that's occurred in Ava's life over the last few years, and there was nothing about an arrest."
"That's because news about it was quickly buried by Ava's lawyer, who is Ava's mother's best friend. It's pretty hard to find anything about the case if you don't know where to look," Clara said. "But it's all true, Maxim. Ava did get arrested."
Maxim continued shaking his head in disbelief.
"You're lying, Clara," he said vehemently. "You're all just trying to keep me from going to Ava, so you're making up these false stories that, frankly, just make you sound really ridiculous."
As he said this, Maxim ended up smiling in disbelief, thinking how pathetic it was that his own family was doubling down on their lies even after he had caught them red-handed.
Clara looked offended and hurt by Maxim's words. When she spoke again, her eyes were hard.
"We're not lying this time, Max. Ava really did get arrested for embezzling funds from the firm she worked for. I can tell you this confidently because I even followed her trial closely after it happened," Clara said. "But if you don't believe me, just have Levi look into it again. Now that he knows where to look, the information should be fairly easy to find."
As she spoke, Maxim wanted to call her a liar again, but there didn't seem to be any indication of this on her face. His gaze shifted to his mother now who looked grim, and then at his stepfather, who still had that I told you so look in his eyes.
Maxim swallowed, realizing they probably weren't lying and trying to think of a reasonable explanation for it all.
"When did all of this happen?" he asked Clara slowly.
"Does it matter?" she asked him.
"Yes, it does. Now tell me," Maxim ordered impatiently.
"Around the time of your accident," Clara admitted after a sigh.
Maxim's lips parted in surprise, feeling like someone just slapped him on the face.
So while he was recovering in the hospital, Ava was sitting alone in some jail cell? he asked himself.
Just thinking about this made Maxim feel a little nauseous.
He forced himself to speak despite this.
"Did Ava know that I'd gotten into a car accident?"
At this, Clara looked at her parents, sharing a worried glance with them.
"What?" Maxim asked Clara, noticing this interaction with their parents.
It was Jonathan who answered him in the end.
"No, we didn't tell her that you were in a car accident. But I may have had it broadcast that you'd left the country for an indefinite vacation to Hawaii."
Maxim's eyes widened when he heard this.
This was even worse than he had imagined, he thought.
Ava had probably heard that false information about him and thought that, when she'd needed him the most, he'd abandoned her to go on some stupid vacation like an asshole.
Maxim held his breath to keep the vomit threatening to rise at bay. He then placed a hand on his warm forehead.
Shit, Ava must hate him now, he thought. I mean it was no wonder she never approached him in all of these last five years.
As he thought that, Maxim's anger shifted toward Ava herself, wondering why she'd believed his father and all the lies they had said about him. Didn't she know better than to even think that he'd leave her like that? Didn't she know that he loved her too much?
Maxim's jaw clechned, wishing she had come to him just once. That she placed a little bit of trust in him.
It would have cleared up any misunderstandings.
Maxim turned his gaze back to his father, deciding to channel all of his rage in his direction instead. After all, he had just admitted to causing this huge disaster infront of him.
"You bastard," he said. "This is all your fault."
"It was for your own good, Maxim," Tiffany interjected before he could say anything else. "We didn't want that witch trying to contact you so that she could sink her long nails into you and trick you again."
At her words, Maxim couldn't help thinking how ironic it was that Tiffany claimed she didn't want Ava to trick him when she had done the very same thing alongside his stepfather and sister.
But instead of saying that, he said something else.
"According to Levi's files, Ava has been living as a free woman all these years," Maxim began carefully. "I'm guessing the courts found her innocent of the charges against her because she didn't, in fact, commit any crimes."
Jonathan pursed his lips at this, confirming things for Maxim. Clara merely shrugged dismissively.
"Yes, they did find her innocent, but trust me when I say she wasn't. Her lawyer got her off on a technicality. Apparently, a crucial piece of documented evidence mysteriously went missing," his stepsister said in a tone that suggested she didn't really believe it herself.
But Maxim found that he didn't believe her.
After all, she and the rest of his family were the ones who had betrayed him, not Ava.
He looked at Clara, then at the other two members of his family.
"I know Ava. And I know how good she is. Unlike you, she can be trusted. She'd never steal from anyone."
"Come on, Maxim. You have to admit, all of this is a little shady," Clara said.
"Until now I thought everyone in this family was shady except you," Maxim said. "But you've proved me wrong today."
Without another word, he then turned away from his sister and his parents, who were looking at him with livid. expressions. He then started walking toward the front door of his mansion.
"Wait! where are you going, Maxim?" his mother called after him.
"To get Ava back," Maxim answered, not looking back. "And to find out from her exactly what happened five years ago because I know it isn't what the three of you are telling me."
"You're making a mistake, son," Jonathan warned him in a tight voice.
Maxim stopped and turned back to him.
"I already told you. I am not your son," he said. "And you had all better not be in my home when I come back."
Before any of them could say anything, Maxim turned away again and walked out of his mansion.
After all, he had a former girlfriend to track down.