Page 64 of Spark
“My mother was nineteen when she met my father, Martin.She was living in Dahlonega, Missouri, where she was born and raised.It’s as small as it sounds,” he confirmed, “about four thousand people in the whole town.Martin was older.Twenty-six.Charming and worldly and smart.He was from St.Louis, passing through Dahlonega on his way home from a trip to Chicago.”
The irony of the word—home—tasted rotten on Tyler’s tongue, but he bit it back.“He’d been acting as a talent scout back then, and my mother snuck out of her job at the local diner to respond to a casting call he was holding in the next county.”
Chloe was brimming with questions—he could practically feel them buzzing under her skin—but she settled on, “I didn’t know your mom wanted to be an actress.”
He nodded.His mother had told him the story much later, of course, once he’d been old enough to understand.She’d meant the answers to be some sort of closure, Tyler was sure.But they’d only made him hate Martin more.
“Martin picked her right out of the crowd.He told her she had true talent, and that if she came with him to St.Louis, he could get her a big break.She’d be a star.But her father was a preacher, and her parents were beyond strict.Of course, they forbid the whole thing.They told her that if she ran off with an older man to chase some crazy Hollywood pipe dream, she’d be dead to them, and if she left, to never come back.”
“Whoa.That’s a hell of an ultimatum,” Chloe said, and Tyler huffed out a joyless laugh in agreement.
“Apparently, it was on brand.”He couldn’t say for sure, since he’d never met his grandparents, but from what his mother had told him and the fact that they’d never answered any of her calls, not even when everything hit the fan, her recounting of the story tracked.“Acting, leaving their small town, and with Martin, no less.The impropriety of it all was totally scandalous to them.But my mother’s mind was made up.To be honest, she was so captivated by it all that I don’t think she even thought twice.”
Chloe paused, then went for the obvious.“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your mother ran off with him for more than just an acting career?”she asked, and Tyler didn’t even bother trying to cage his disdain.
“Yep.She was completely gone for him.She said they were soulmates, and that nothing, not even her parents, could keep them apart.He took her to St.Louis, and they were married within six months.I was born just shy of a year after that.”
“Okay, wow,” Chloe murmured.“That is kind of a whirlwind.She was, what?Twenty-one when you were born?”
Tyler’s heart let out a dull ache beneath Chloe’s fingers.“Three months shy of twenty-two.Of course, she didn’t have time for an acting career with a new baby, especially since Martin traveled so much for work, but he promised she still had plenty of time.She’d get her break just like he’d promised because she was a star.Hisstar.She never questioned it, and for six years, she loved him with her whole heart and soul, truly believing he loved her right back and everything was perfect.”
“Except it wasn’t,” Chloe whispered, no trace of a question.
Tyler answered with equal certainty.“Hewasn’t.”
His mother had only told him the long version of this story once, when he’d been sixteen and looking for answers, but Christ, he would never forget the heart-crushing details.How, in hindsight, there had been things that had never sat quite right with her.Niggling sensations she couldn’t explain.Signs she’d dismissed, too infatuated with Martin to believe he’d be anything but faithful.Honest.Good.And then, he’d reappear from wherever he’d been, flush with charisma and cash, sweeping her right back off her feet, and her doubts would disappear like a puff of smoke, the cycle restarted.
“One night, there was a knock on our door,” Tyler said, his heart beginning to stutter in his chest.The memory was decades old and should be faded with time, but instead, it was seared into his brain as if it had happened an hour ago.“Two investigators from the St.Louis FBI’s fraud division were looking for my mother.And for me.”
Chloe pulled back in obvious confusion.“For you?Why?Weren’t you just a little boy?”
“I was five.Almost six.”The words lodged in Tyler’s throat, as old and painful as rusty razor blades.“But they were looking for me because Martin had used my identity to run three separate investment scams in the state of Missouri.”
“Oh, my God.”Chloe’s gasp heated his neck, her lashes fluttering against his skin as her eyes flew wide.But her hand was a strong, solid weight on his sternum, and it anchored him, even as his words sliced him to the bone.
“Martin was a con man, with six different aliases across four states, not to mention dozens of online personas.When the Feds came knocking on our door, he’d racked up a hundred and twelve thousand dollars in debt between my mother’s and my names and linked our identities to more than ten different fraudulent schemes and scams.Of course, he’d made it look like she’d been involved in the whole thing.She was nearly arrested that night.”
Chloe stiffened, her indignation palpable even in the darkened room.“What?That’s crazy!Your mother would never scam anyone out of so much as a stick of gum.She’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”
“That still didn’t stop the FBI from believing she was a grifter, too,” he said.“The investigation took months, with federal agents and attorneys and local law enforcement putting our lives through a shredder.”
“Tyler,” Chloe said, her voice knotted with emotion.“I don’t even know what to say.I can’t imagine how frightening and confusing that must have been.”
He managed as deep a breath as his lungs would allow.“She cooperated fully, which was their first clue she was telling the truth.But everything Martin had ever told her was a lie.”
There was no keeping the anger from his voice now, and Tyler didn’t try.“His ‘job’ as a talent scout was a front, one of several impersonation scams he rotated through as he went from town to town to avoid being caught.He’d pretend to be a government official collecting hidden back taxes, or an attorney needing fees to facilitate an inheritance, or a talent scout offering expensive coaching, and take as many people for as much money as possible, then disappear.Most of his victims had very little financial security, either from small communities or the elderly.He’d been at it for over ten years by the time the Feds finally tracked him to my mother and me.”
“That’s…” Chloe broke off, seeming unable to land on a word harsh enough before hitting a bullseye with, “beyond fucking despicable.”
“Yeah,” he scratched out.“Everything he’d ever told her was a lie.The vintage engagement ring Martin had proposed with, that had belonged to his ‘grandmother’?Stolen.The house where we’d lived since I’d been born?Mortgaged under an alias and four months behind in payments.My mother and I had a week to get out before the bank took it back.”
“Oh, my God,” Chloe said, so softly it was barely a whisper, and yet the words were heavy with emotion.“And Martin was just, what?Gone?”
Tyler made a sound, too coarse and joyless to be a laugh.“Martindidn’t even technically exist.It was one of his aliases.But, yes.His cell phone had been disconnected, all of his accounts cleaned out.Despite my mother’s desperate attempts to reach him, he was a ghost.We stayed in a shelter for a few weeks, then found a tiny one-bedroom apartment.We couldn’t leave St.Louis while the investigation played out.The FBI eventually figured out that my mother had been swindled, just like everyone else but, by then, Martin was in the wind, and the damage was done.My mother was destroyed, both financially and emotionally.”
Tyler broke off, and fuck,fuck,he couldn’t let all these feelings, so dark and desperate, out of the hidey-hole where he’d jammed them, deep in his chest.They were too big.Too dangerous.Toomuch.
But then, Chloe’s fingers splayed wide, the whisper of her words—I’m right here with you…I’m right here with you—echoing in his head, and Tyler scraped in a breath.Held it.Then trusted her with the rest.
