"Emma? What's wrong?" she asked, crossing the room.
It was the first time since Ariana had known her that she had actually showed concern for another human being.
"Nothing. I'm fine," Ariana said, sniffling.
Briana Leigh grabbed some tissues from the porcelain-covered box near the bed and handed them over.
"Please. You look like you've been crying for hours," Briana Leigh said. She stepped back and crossed her tanned arms over her stomach as she looked down at Ariana. "What's the matter?"
Ariana pressed the tissue to her nose. "It's just... I'm such an idiot." She hazarded a glance at Briana Leigh, who looked simply confused. Confused, but also concerned. Ariana took a deep breath and decided to take the plunge. "I've... Briana Leigh... I've been lying to you."
Suddenly a dark cloud passed over Briana Leigh's face. She took a step back from the bed, her shoulders curling forward. Like maybe she was a girl who had been lied to before.
"Lying about what?" she asked flatly.
"About... well, everything," Ariana said. She squeezed her eyes shut and decided to just blurt it out. "I'm not who I said I was."
The words hung in the room for a moment, enveloping them both in a heavy uncertainty. Ariana hazarded a glance at Briana Leigh's face. The girl was as still as a statue.
"What does that mean?" Briana Leigh said finally.
Ariana sighed. "I'm not the same person Dana knew. I'm... I'm... well, let's just say I'm broke. The other day at the store? It wasn't that I forgot my wallet. I don't have any money. Not anymore."
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Her words were true. And it pained Ariana to say them out loud.
Briana Leigh blinked. Her body language relaxed slightly. "You're kidding."
Who would kid about such a thing? Ariana thought. But all she said was, "No, I'm not."
"What happened?" Briana Leigh asked.
Wide-eyed, Briana Leigh lowered herself onto the bed, picking up the tissue box and placing it between the two of them. Ariana got the sense that Briana Leigh was no longer concerned. That instead she was hungry for a good fall-from-grace story. Well, fine. Ariana would give her one.
Ariana pulled her leg up onto the bed and turned to fully face Briana Leigh. She toyed with the one clean tissue in her hand, folding it in half and creasing it, then folding it in half again. She couldn't tell her own story of woe for obvious reasons, but she had about a half-dozen to choose from that she had witnessed over the years. It was amazing how often wealthy families managed to fall into ruin.
"It was my dad. He kind of embezzled all this money from his company for, like, twenty years." Ariana tore her tissue in two and plucked another from the box.
"No!"
"I know," Ariana said, realizing that this was the first time she had Briana Leigh's complete attention. "My mom and I... we had no idea. We thought he was this perfect guy, you know? Always bringing home presents and whisking us away on these amazing vacations. Then one day a couple of years ago, he tells my mom he has a last-minute business
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trip and leaves first thing in the morning. Ten minutes later there are all these FBI guys practically ramming down the door. They searched our entire house, tore it apart, basically, and took all our computers and files and everything." A tear slid down Ariana's cheek. "It was horrifying."
Briana Leigh was visibly moved. "So your dad fled and left you guys to deal."
"Basically. Great guy, huh?" Ariana said with a sniffle.
"You must hate him," Briana Leigh said, twirling a piece of long auburn hair around her finger.
"I did. Maybe I still do. I don't know. It's complicated with parents, you know?"
Briana Leigh swallowed and glanced away. "Yeah. Definitely."
"Anyway, he didn't get very far. They tracked him down in California. He was about to hop a plane to Thailand, but they arrested him. Now he's in jail and the government seized everything. Our houses, our cars, our bank accounts..."