After a couple of minutes of just lying down there and crying, I heard someone start coming down the steps leading to the basement.

I managed to pull myself up into a kneeling position and I hastily wiped at my face but the tears just wouldn't dry up.

"Ellie?" it was my mom's voice and she sounded worried. "Ellie are you down here?"

I didn't reply but she kept on coming down anyway. "Trent said he saw you coming down. You shouldn't ... you shouldn't have come here alone"

By the sound of her footfalls halting, I could tell that she had gotten to the level ground and could now see me kneeling over the boxes.

"Why?" I gritted out, my voice angrier and more hurt than I had ever heard it.

"Ellie..." my mom wasn't stupid. She had probably put two and two together by now.

I stood up and walked up to her, anger radiating off every pore on my body. "So I wouldn't discover all your secrets in a box?! Well too late, mom. Too fucking late!" I flung the letters and her diary at her.

The devastated look on my mother's face made me feel like my heart was shattering in pieces. Tears welled up in her eyes and she began to cry which only made the dam in my eyes burst and I began to sob again.

So it was true, it wasn't all some sick joke I had hoped it was.

"Oh, Ellie I'm so sorry. I..." she hiccupped "I never meant for you to find out this way"

"Did you ever mean to tell me, mom? Oh my God, I can't believe this. I can't believe this!" I ran my hands over my face and through my hair

"I was going to tell you... I swear I was going to tell you when you turned eighteen. But then, look at how great you turned out. You didn't need him. You didn't need all the disappointment he would have eventually caused you", my mom tried to reach for me but I stepped away from her.

"That was not your decision to make. Here I was thinking my own father was the most awful person on the face of this planet because he had never one day come back to check on his kid. But he's not, you are!"

My mother burst into raucous sobs then. She was such a strong woman; I had never seen her cry this hard before. "Honey, please I was only doing what I thought was best for you"

She reached out and grabbed at my arm but I pushed her away.

"You have been lying to me all my life, mom. I don't think I will ever forgive you for this", I spat at her. I turned and walked away from her, jogged quickly up the stairs just so I could get away from her.

This had to be the worst betrayal I had ever experienced in my life.

"Ellie, where are you going? Ellie!" my mom screamed trying to run up the stairs to catch up with me.

I got to the top of the stairs and grabbed my keys from the table in the foyer. Walden and Trent just stood by watching in shock.

Walden had a guilty kind of look on his face.

"Did you know about this too?" I yelled at him, tears still streaming down my face uncontrollably.

He only nodded once with remorse in his eyes but that was more than enough for me, I stormed out of the house and slammed the door behind me. I needed desperately to get away from that house of lies and secrets.

I got into my car and stepped on the gas, peeling out of the driveway before my mom could catch up to me.

Still crying and breathing hard, I pulled out my phone out of my back pocket and dialled Maya with one hand.

"Hello?" I cried over the phone immediately Maya picked up

"Oh my gosh, Ellie are you crying? What's wrong?" Maya asked her voice sounding alarmed.

"Maya, something terrible has happened", I cried, not caring about the tears and snot running down my face as I whizzed by incoming traffic

"What? What happened?" Maya inquired

"I can't talk about it now. I'm coming over, I'll tell you then", I said to her

"Okay I'll be waiting. Drive safe Ells, okay?"

I hung up and tossed my phone onto the passenger seat of the car. The drive to Maya's apartment passed by in a blur, with me just in my head, thinking about how stupid I was for never even questioning my mom more about my dad.

I had thought she was perfect, I had thought she would never lie to me. I didn't even want to know the man who had abandoned his kid and never looked back, when truth was he never even knew about me.

I parked in front of Maya's apartment building and walked inside. Security buzzed me up and I got into the elevators and rode it up to Maya's floor. I walked up to her door and knocked on it a couple of times. By now, I had managed to stop crying but I still felt extremely dark and weary.

"Come on in. It's open", Maya called out from inside

I pulled open the door and went in to find Maya sitting on her couch in sweat pants with her phone pressed to her ear. She looked me over and said into the phone. "She's here" and then hung up.

I frowned visibly at her.

"Who was that?" I asked her, trying not to distrust my best friend but at this point, I just couldn't help it.

"Your mom", Maya said looking up at me with a sympathetic expression on her face

"So you've talked to her?"

"Yeah", she said and stood up "She called and told me everything just after you hung up"

"Oh so it was so easy for her to call you up and tell you the truth in a couple of minutes when she had been lying to me my entire life", my voice sounded angry again

"Ellie calm down, I'm so sorry about all of this but you have to give your mom a break, she's hurting so much too"

"Are you listening to yourself, Maya? How do you expect me to calm down?"

"Look, you're not in the right frame of mind right now so I promised your mom I would drive you back home so she could sit you down and explain everything..."

"Oh, trust me I've seen and heard enough explanations for one night", I began to pace her floor wearily "I just can't believe she would lie to me like this"

"Ellie, I've known you and your mom for a very long time, and that woman loves you more than anything. She has struggled and supported you through everything, Ellie. I'm sure she was just doing what she thought was best for you. There is no way in the world she would want to deliberately hurt you", Maya said to me

"What is all this bullshit you are saying to me? Whose side are you even on?" I gave her a disbelieving look.

"There are no sides to this. I just want what's best for you Ellie and right now, that's to hear your mother out"

"Do you even understand the gravity of she's done?" I all but screamed

"Of course I do..."

"No, you don't!" I cut her off, getting enraged again "Because your whole life is so fucking perfect! How would you understand how it felt like to grow up without a father?"

Maya looked hurt and shocked by my words.

"Ellie..."she started which hinted that I was crossing a line but I was too far gone to care.

"Yes, Maya. You have it all, you have the family money, you have the looks, your parents are still together. You have everything! And everyone gives you everything you want because you're Maya and your life is just so perfect"

Maya eyes began to well up now. "Ellie, how could you even stand there and say that to me? You're my best friend; you know that my mom is a raging alcoholic. You know that my dad only wants me around so he could keep up appearances and gives me money just so he doesn't feel bad about the fact that he doesn't really give a damn about me!"

She turned away from me and began to cry quietly. Oh my, I was just a cyclone tearing through and destroying everything in my path. I felt really bad for hurting Maya but in the state I was, my presence here was only going to make it worse.

"I'm sorry, Maya", I shook my head "I... I need to go"

I turned and walked away and she didn't try to stop me which showed how badly my stupid words must have hurt her.

I got back to my car and sat in it for a couple of minutes just taking in deep, long breaths and trying to clear my head. First, my mom. Now, Maya. Who knew which other relationships of mine were going to get ruined tonight?

I turned my key in the ignition and drove away. I didn't know where I was going but I just knew I needed to go somewhere. I just drove around for about thirty minutes; sometimes I would pick up my phone and scroll through my contacts list wondering who else I could call. My finger would eventually hover over Rob's name but then I would just scroll past knowing deep down that I couldn't bear to be with him right now.

After an additional ten minutes of driving around, I pulled up in front of a house that I knew I had no business being in front of. I don't even know how I remembered the directions here. Well, I was here now, so I might as well get out of my car.

I got out and walked up to the front door of the impressive apartment. Before I had time to psych myself out, I pushed the doorbell.

After a couple of seconds of waiting, I could start to feel the apprehension rise up and my fingers started to tremble. Why did I just show up here without calling first? Maybe he wasn't at home. He was rich, he probably had all those security cams placed everywhere outside and could see me at the door but didn't want to let me in.

Oh my gosh, why did I even come here? Tears began to well up in my eyes again. I was so stupid.

I turned around and was starting to walk away when I heard the door swing open.

"Ellenore..." came his wonderful voice.

I turned around and came face to face with Noah in all his shirtless glory. Or rather, face to delicious abs. I gulped. "Um hi, Noah", I said weakly, a stray tear slid down my cheek and I wiped it off with my finger.

He padded out of his house to meet me; the concern on his features was heart warming. "What's wrong, Ellie?"

I didn't know where to start from. "I uh... I just umm... Oh my God" I shook my head and willed myself not to cry anymore "I know I suck but can I come in, Noah?"

A/N: This chapter is a continuation of the previous one and both of them were tough for me to write because they were very emotional. So I hope you guys enjoyed it :). Do hit me up and let me know what you think. Will Ellie ever forgive her mom? How will this revelation affect the rest of her life? And Maya :(. Okay don't forget to vote, comment and share! Xoxoxo