FANG POV
My mind is reeling. I don't understand. How can she be telling the truth? Where is Max? Now that I look closer, the girl does look younger than she should, after all Max would be thirty five now.
"How old are you?" I ask.
"Nineteen," she tells me.
I do the math. She's too young. If what she's saying is true, which it can't be, she would have been born a whole year after I left, which means, even if Max does have a daughter, this girl is too young to be my daughter as well.
"I'm nineteen and a half," she says, seeming to read my mind.
I again do the math, in my head. I've been gone twenty years, and twenty minus nineteen and a half equals six months. Nine months minus six months equals three months, which is how far along Max would have had to have been when I left. What was going on three months before I left Max?
It suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks. I remember. Max and I had been in Las Vegas, all alone, after Angel had kicked us out of the Flock. That's when "it" happened. And "its" result is the girl standing in front of me.
I must have an odd look on my face, because she gives me an amused expression. I can tell she knows exactly what I'm thinking about. I feel the blood rush to my cheeks and I look away from her. She is definitely Max's daughter. Yet she is different too.
She smirks and lets out a small laugh. If I still had any doubt doubts about her being Max's daughter, the doubt was now gone. She goes and sits down at the end of the cave and lets her legs fall over the edge. She stares out at the expansive scenery below us.
When I finally feel less embarrassed, I go and sit down beside her. I look over at her. She is the exact photocopy of Max. As I stare at her, it occurs to me that I dont know what her name is.
"What is your name?" I ask.
"Ash," she says, turning to look at me.
"That's pretty," I say. Leave it to Max to make sure she didn't name her daughter something extremely girly.
"She didn't talk about you much, you know. Just bits and pieces over the years, here and there. But I didn't need her talking about you to know that she really loved you," Ash tells me.
"She didn't talk much about you either," I muse.
"You're the one who left and said don't look for me. Remember?" She says, truthfully.
"I guess you're right about that."
"I know," she tells me.
Out of our extremely awkward exchange, I notice one thing is missing; Max. Where is she. Wouldn't she want to come with her daughter.
"Uh," I cough, "Where is Max? Shouldn't she be here too?"
She lowers her eyes back towards , and then to the cliffs below us. There's something she isn't telling me.
"Where is she?" I ask, again.
"I don't know," Ash tells me.
"What do you mean you don't know?" I say, " Isn't she your mother?"
"That's the thing," she whispers, " I really don't know. I haven't seen her in over eight years."
"Ash, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?" I ask.
"When I was eleven, we were out one day and we were attacked by erasers. I wanted to help, but Mom told me to run, because she knew that if they ever found out about me that I would be captured. So I ran. But I saw them take her. And you probably think that I could have done something, but I ," she explains.
Oh god. All this time I thought that when I left Max I was protecting her. Instead I had put her in harms way.
"Where was the Flock, when all this happened?" I ask her.
"You don't know? When my mom found out she was pregnant she left. The Flock never knew about me," Ash says..
"She raised you all alone? I'm so sorry," I tell her.
"It's okay."
We sit in complete silence after that. I can't think of anything to say to the daughter I just found out I have.
"We should probably go," Ash says, after a few minutes, standing up.
"Yeah," I agree.
She unfolds her wings, showing me the same ivory, brown and white wings that Max had. Every feather is just as beautiful and perfect as I remember. When she sees me staring at them she turns to face me. Ash gives me a soft smile and launches herself into the air.
A few moments later I follow her and fly up to where she is waiting for me. We fly without talking.
"Are you okay?" I ask, when I notice that she looks bored.
"Yeah," She tells me, "I'm just not used to flying this slow."
I nod in understanding. Why wouldn't she be bored? She probably has Max's super speed.
We continue flying, until she begins to slowly descend. I say nothing, I only follow her. When we approach an area that is slightly wooded, by a lake, she lands. We walk a little ways, along a road, passing many large houses. After a few minutes she stops in front of a house and goes to the door.
She pulls a key out of her pocket and unlocks the door. I follow her inside. The first thing I notice about the house is how high the ceilings are and the large chandelier. Nudge definitely lives here.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"Seattle," she tells me.
I remember being in Seattle the year before, for a business trip. Of course I hadn't gone to the suburbs, though. As I follow her through the house I can see Nudge everywhere. In the paint. In the paintings on the walls. And even in the wood floors.
She stops when we get to the living room and tells me to make myself at home. So I sot on the couch, then she awkwardly sits down next to me. We sit on the couch, for a few minutes and then she turns on the tv. She flips through the channels, until she comes across the news and then she sets the remote down.
A few minutes later she mutes the tv as if she hears a sound. Then I hear it too. A noise is coming from the other room.
"Excuse me," she says, getting up and and walking toward the other room.
I hear Ash talking to someone in the other room and I feel relieved. I wait a few minutes before I quietly stand up a walk to the doorway. I stick part of my head into the room the see what is going on.
I see a tall boy, that has his back facing me, holding Ash around her waist and kissing her. Feeling guilty, because I walked in on a private moment, I walk back into the living room and sit on the arm of the sofa.
A couple of minutes go by, before Ash pops her head into the doorway and looks at me to make sure I'm still on the couch. She smiles and then pulls the boy along with her, into the room.
I stare at her for a moment and then let my eyes drift over to the boy. I freeze in shock when I see who it is. When I see him holding her hand a switch flips of inside me.
He smiles politely and lets go of her hand. He then takes a few steps towards me and reaches his hand out to shake mine. For some reason this pushes me over the edge and the next thing I know my fist is colliding with his face. He crumples to the floor.
"What was that for?!" Ash cries, sinking to where Dylan lies unconscious on the ground.
"That," I tell her, "Was for your mother."
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! PLEASE REVIEW! Also, Please LIKE the page Ash Ride on Facebook, for hints and pictures of the characters.
~Lillie :)