Epilogue: Part 2: Uncovering The Truth

Hope flew down the three flights of stairs that led to the front door of the three-story mansion she shared with her father, a well-known producer in the music industry. They had long since moved out of downtown San Francisco to the suburbs to get away from urban life. With her backpack slung over her shoulder, she attempted to opened the door without making too much of a sound, but was soon caught in the act as her father walked into the foyer.

"This is the THIRD time you've tried to sneak out of the house without me noticing. It makes me worry how many times you've actually succeed," Darren said from behind her.

"God, Dad, can't you leave me along for just ONE day!" Hope yelled as she turned to face him. Their tempers had been flaring since Sunday, and now it was Wednesday. Hope knew if she kept this up she'd never be able to get out that weekend to party with her friends in downtown San Francisco.

"No," Darren retorted.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere special today," she said.

"You'd better not cut your first day of your senior year of high school," he replied with a very stern tone. "I know you've been cutting every first day of school since high school started. If I hear from the Dean's office again, I'll make sure you're grounded this time."

"Whatever," Hope mumbled as she walked down the drive and hopped into her waiting midnight blue Acura RSX. As she started to drive down the road, the temptation to skip school that day was all too much for her to handle, but she knew when her father grounded her, he really grounded her. The last time she got caught doing something stupid, which wasn't too long ago, he wouldn't let her leave the house for a whole week. There was a guard posted at the door of her room and one beneath her window just in case she even tried a midnight escape. It was just that weekend she had been released from her cage, and boy, did it feel good to finally be out of prison.

Hope parked in her spot at the front of the school parking lot and got out of her car. As she walked into the main hallway, everyone took notice. Her long brown hair flowed as she strode to her locker at the end of senior hall. She was one of the prettiest girls in school and had been voted homecoming queen for the last three years straight. She didn't doubt that her title would be snatched away this year by some newcomer.

Almost everyone was friend. Hope didn't seem to care about the usual barriers that separated people in the school society. Her ability to socialize came naturally, as did her wit and unpredictable temper. She knew most of those traits came from her mother, and reminded herself that someday she'd find her and ask her why she left. Her other traits, such as her incredible voice and ability to write music, came from her father. She knew that he was one of the best producers on the west coast and could turn a nobody into an overnight sensation. Yet there was one trait that seemed illusive, Hope's ability to use a video camera to make incredible movies. She didn't know where she got that from since her father seemed camera illiterate and wouldn't tell her if her mother even liked cameras.

Hope continued to walk down the hall saying hello to everyone she knew, and even to those she didn't know. She reached her first period class, anatomy, just as the bell rang. Finding a seat at the front of the class, she put down her bag and pulled out a notebook with a pen attached to its spirals. Just as she was about to start writing a note to a friend of hers down the row, the teacher walked in. She was a petite woman, about 5'1" with brown eyes and short red hair, wearing a gray pant suit.

"Good morning, class," she said in her high-pitched voice. "I'm Mrs. Babbitt, and welcome to anatomy. I'd like to take the first few minutes of class to see who's here, who's not here, and who's not supposed to be here." She took out her class roster and began reading off names. "Andrea Blake, Scott Cohen . . ."

The rest of the names were lost to Hope as she started to write her note to Andrea. She was already halfway down the page when she heard Mrs. Babbitt say, "Is there a Hope Hayes around here anywhere?" Hope raised her hand and quickly put it down to continue her note.

"Hope Hayes? That name sounds so familiar," Mrs. Babbitt said as she looked at her roster. "Are you by any chance related to Darren Hayes?"

"No shit," Hope retorted. "He's my dad."

"Oh, my God! You've got to be kidding me! You are the daughter of THE Darren Hayes of Savage Garden?" Babbitt asked, her voice almost giddy with excitement.

"Lady, I don't know who you're talking about. My dad was never in a band called Savage Garden. He's just a producer," Hope tried to clear up.

"He's a producer now, but back in my teenage years, he was the lead singer of Savage Garden. Did he ever tell you that?"

"No."

"So you don't know anything about the breakup or about his solo album or his North American tour where he met your mother?"

"No."

"Oh, my God! You poor deprived child! How could he keep all that from you? How could you not know? He was, like, the biggest thing to ever hit the world. He was like the Michael Jackson of 2002. I just can't believe he only released one single after your mother died. It seemed like he dropped off the face of the earth after that."

"My mom's not dead," Hope corrected. "She left us when I was a baby."

"Oh. That's not what the papers said. They said that she died of a brain tumor back in 2003, a month after she married Darren. The whole world mourned with him, it seemed. Then he released 'I Miss You' as a tribute to her, which I thought was so sweet. After that, he totally disappeared from the music scene."

"Lady, I don't know where you heard all this stuff, but I can tell you it's not true. My mother left my dad and me when I was a baby, and that's a fact. So stop trying to prove me wrong."

Mrs. Babbitt started to rummage through her suitcase until she found an old folder and pulled out an old book with torn and tattered edges. "Here," she said, handing the book over to Hope. "Hopefully this'll make it look like I'm not crazy."

Hope opened the book to the first page where she saw an old black and white picture of her much younger father standing beside her Uncle Daniel waving to a crowd of thousands. Beneath the picture it said, "2000 Summer Olympics. Savage Garden plays to a crowd of over 50 million." Hope turned the page, dumbfounded by what she was seeing. There were more newspaper clippings and printed pictures on the following pages about Savage Garden. She stopped flipping when she reached a caption that read, "Savage Garden Calls it Quits After Two Albums." There was another article across from it that read, "Darren Hayes - Out of Savage Garden and Finding Eden of his Own."

Towards the end of the thick book of articles, Hope finally found one that grabbed her attention for more than just a few seconds. "Pop Prince Weds New Princess in Beachfront Ceremony." It was about the day her father and mother got married. She read the article and almost began to cry when she realized how in love they had been. Flipping to the next page, the article heading read, "Darren Hayes Loses His Faith." This article was about the death of her mother and how devastated her father had been when he found out.

Hope's world had been completely ripped from its foundation that moment. She had to read the article again before she could believe it. Her heart was ready to give when she realized she had been lied to her entire life. She began to wonder why and how her father could keep this kind of secret from her.

Closing the book, she handed it back to Mrs. Babbitt and muttered, "Sorry."

"You can keep it, if you want," Babbitt said as she gave it back to Hope. She looked up at her with wide, teary eyes.

"Really?" Hope asked.

"Yeah, you deserve to know the truth," Babbitt replied.

"Thank you."

The rest of the day seemed to go by in a blur for Hope as she aimlessly walked the hall of her school trying to figure out why her father never told her that her mother died. Was he really that hurt when she died? What that why he wouldn't dare date another woman? Hope prayed that she'd have her questions answered that afternoon when she went home.

* * *

Hope reached the house around three that afternoon, a full hour after school had finished. She walked in the door with a blank expression on her face and immediately ran up the stairs to her room to read the rest of the articles in the book that Mrs. Babbitt had given her.

Darren heard Hope come in, but didn't leave the studio to ask her how school was that day. He was just glad that she actually went. Ever since she had begun high school, she seemed to rebel against him more and more. He began to wonder if Faith had been this way. 'Faith,' he thought desperately. Pushing the thought out of his mind, Darren returned to his work on the boards trying to finish the new song he had written for the band Blue Streak.

Still up in her room, Hope turned on her CD player and slipped in something she knew would calm her nerves. "Some day, when I'm awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you . . . And the way you look tonight."

"Ah . . . Good old Blue Eyes," Faith said as she sat back on her bed and buried her nose in the old book.

It had been nearly three hours since Hope had returned from school. 'Time to go up and see her,' Darren thought as he stood up from his seat and walked up the stairs to her room. From the top of the steps he could hear Frank Sinatra's "Midnight Serenade" blaring from Hope's room. He paused and listened, his heart almost stopping when he remembered the wedding reception and how he had sung the song to Faith. He could feel the tears well up in his eyes as he continued to walk down the hall towards his daughter's room. Knocking on the door, he heard her yell, "What do you want?"

Darren opened the door and replied, "I just want to know how school went."

"It sucked, as usual," Hope answered in a very nasty tone.

"Hey, that was uncalled for," he retorted.

"Oh, and lying to me wasn't?" she spat back with a fierce intensity.

"What do you mean lying to you? Why would I lie to you?" Darren asked.

"I know Mom's dead! I know how she died! I know about your past!" Hope yelled. She threw the book at him and ran through the door, down the stairs, and into the living room.

Darren looked down at the mangled book and started to flip through the pages. He saw the articles about him and Savage Garden and Faith. How Hope had obtained it remained the big mystery to him. He started to follow her footsteps back into the living room and stood there, watching her as she aimlessly flipped through the channels on the TV. Her arms were wrapped across her chest in that defensive mode she always went into during their frequent fights.

"Hope," Darren said.

"Fuck off," she yelled back.

"I know I deserved that, but how many times have I told you NOT to use fowl language?" he asked.

"Does it look like I give a shit?" Hope intentionally answered in her harshest tone.

Darren was ready to give up when he made a split second decision about what to do next. "Hope, come on, we're going on a little trip," he said as he grabbed his keys and started for the door.

Hope looked up at him thinking it was a joke, but Darren was dead serious. He already had his jacket on and was out the door when she realized it was time to get off the couch and follow. Even though she had been pretty bitchy towards him, she always seemed to retreat when he was being absolutely serious.

"Where are we going?" Hope yelled out the door when she saw him get into her car.

"I'll let you know when we get there," Darren yelled back. Hope grabbed her jacket from the closet and closed the door behind her. "Lock it, we'll be gone quite a long time."

Hope looked at him with confusion. Usually when he took her for one of these so-called trips, they would only be gone for a couple of hours. This really made her wonder where they were going.

* * *

It had been nearly eight hours since the two had left the house. They were already in Utah by that time still heading west. Hope had fallen asleep for most of the time, but had awoken to the suns glare in her eyes. Looking out at her surroundings she, all she saw was desert.

"Where the hell are we?" she immediately asked, looking over at Darren as he continued to drive.

"Utah," he simply replied.

"Utah! What the fuck are we doing in Utah?" Hope nearly yelled as she sat up in her seat.

"We've still got a long way to go," Darren said. "You wanna take over? I'm beginning to fall asleep at the wheel." He pulled over to the side of the road before Hope had a chance to reply.

"I guess that means I have to," she replied, dragging herself to the driver's side as her father took her place. "By the way, how am I supposed to know where I'm going?"

"I've programmed everything into the GPS. Just follow the directions whenever they tell you to turn left or right," Darren answered as he sank down in the seat and immediately fell asleep.

'This sucks,' Hope thought as she turned on her CD player to a low setting and listened to one of her favorite rock CD's. As she started back on the road, her stomach began to growl. She pulled over again at a McDonald's for breakfast and began the long journey once again.

Hope took this quite time to reflect on all the things that had happened to her in the last day or so. It seemed as if her life had been completely turned upside down. Everything she had been told was a lie. She began to wonder how her father could have done this to her. Did he have a really good reason not to tell her that her mother was dead, or was there something else to it? Was she even his child? Hope began to shiver at the thought that she might be somebody else's child. Dismissing the thought from her mind, she focused her attention on the road and drove.

As the hours passed, Hope began to feel worn out and bored. Even her music couldn't help her through this much driving. It was her first time taking such a long trip away from home, and the only other fear that went through her mind was getting lost. Just as she was about to pull over for gas, Darren woke up to the sounds of Aerosmith in the background.

"Where are we?" he asked as Hope pulled into the gas station.

"On the border of Colorado and Nebraska," she answered, getting out of the car.

Darren rubbed his eyes open and looked at his watch, nearly 3:30 in the afternoon. "Have you had lunch?" he questioned, sticking his head out of the window.

"No, but I am hungry," Hope answered as she started pumping the tank.

"Let's eat now," Darren suggested. "There's a diner right over there. We can make a quick pit stop, get some well deserved rest, and head out again."

About half an hour later, the two were back on the road, this time, both awake and alert. Darren was driving again as Hope stared out at the wooded hills. Her eyes wandered from the sky to the trees as she thought. Her mind was ablaze with questions she wanted to ask but was afraid that she'd have to wait to get them answered.

Darren looked at Hope with an intense gaze. She wasn't as pissed off at him as she had been the day before. At least she wasn't acting as hostile as she usually would after a fight. She looked at him and after realizing that he was also staring at her, turned away again.

"We've got a long way to go," Darren said as he looked at the road again. "Do you want to stop at a motel and rest or do you wanna keep going?"

"I wanna keep going," Hope answered as her gaze returned to the road also. They sat in silence as Hope reached under her seat and pulled out her backpack. Taking her CD player out, she stuck the headphones in her ears and began to blare the music to the point where even Darren could hear it. She was playing Frank Sinatra again, except this time the song was "The Way You Look Tonight." Darren could feel his eyes begin to tear up as he tried to shut it out of his mind.

Hope was staring out the window when she decided to steal a peek at her father. She was beginning to wonder about his reaction to her musical taste. As she looked at him, she realized his eyes had glazed over with tears. Hope put the headphones down and said, "Dad, are you okay?"

Darren gazed at her and replied in a shaky voice, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Hope shrugged and put her headphones back on.

* * *

Hope had fallen asleep again, except this time when she woke up, it was morning again and her father had stopped at another gas station to fill up the car. Looking around the little place, she realized that they were in Illinois by looking at the license plates. She began to wonder how long she had been asleep.

Darren returned to the car to find his daughter finally awake. "Look who decided to finally grace us with her presence," he said jokingly.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't help it. I was tired," Hope replied as she stretched out. "Where are we? I know in Illinois, but where?"

"We are about an hour away from our destination," Darren answered. "We're near the little town of Lombard, where your mother grew up."

"What?" she asked, almost without thinking. "That's the first time you've mentioned Mom since I could remember."

"Well, it's about time that I started talking about her more," he replied, getting back into the driver's seat. They started the drive again, more slowly than before to look at the different places where Hope's mother used to hang out, from the high school to her house, even to the house that her best friend Morgan lived.

For Darren, this was an emotional trip down memory lane. For Hope, this just raised more and more questions about her mother's past. Just before seven in the morning, they reached the place that Darren had programmed into the GPS. It was a cemetery on the outskirts of Chicago. Just before going inside, Darren bought a bouquet of red roses. As he and Hope made their way through the rows of graves, he stopped in front of one very large one towards a more wooded part of the cemetery.

Darren got out, his face stone cold as he walked towards the gravestone. He stopped there and stared at it for a long time before Hope left the car to join him. It brought back so many memories, some good, most bad. The tears began to flow as he dropped to his knees and laid the flowers down on the ground. Hope ran to his side to make sure he was okay.

"Dad?" she asked. He looked over at her with the most painful expression on his face. "Daddy, what's wrong?" Hope questioned again, this time with a little more fear in her voice. Darren pointed to the gravestone.

Hope turned to see the name "Faith Somers Hayes" written on the black marble. "December 12, 1983 - May 18, 2003. Here lies my princess, my wife, and the mother of my daughter. Let her soul rest in eternal peace until one day we all join her. Let her watch over us until our dying day. Let her protect us from any wrongdoing or ill will that people may wish upon us. And let her memory stay alive in our minds for all time," Hope read aloud. She could feel her own tears well up until the overflowed and dripped to the dewy ground. Turning to her father, she wrapped his arms around him and they cried together.

It was about half an hour before they their tears finally stopped and they composed themselves once again. They returned to the car, just sitting there in silence until Hope finally found the courage to speak.

"Tell me about Mom," she said with a smile on her face.

Darren returned the smile and reached over to the back seat to pull something out. He handed it to Hope. It was a portable DVD player with a CD already in it. She pushed play and it immediately began with Faith singing "Alive."

"Mom," Hope whispered aloud when she realized what this was. Her eyes remained glued to the TV for the three hours that it took for the DVD to finish. Hope was finally beginning to realize why her father had kept this secret from her. He didn't want her to turn into her mother, even though at the end of her mother's story, everything worked out well. She knew that might not have been the case for her if she had engaged in the behavior her mother had been involved in.

Hope knew she was a party girl and a clubber, but this was beyond her wildest imagination. She'd never do the crazy things her mother did. Her father had taught her well, and she knew the consequences of her decisions. This affirmation made Hope see her father in a totally new light. All along, he had been trying to protect her, and he had succeeded.

"Hope, I'm so sorry . . ." Darren began to say.

"No, I'm sorry," she interrupted. "I know why you lied to me, and I'm not pissed off at you about it. I can see you did exactly what mom asked you to do. You took really good care of me, and I'm so thankful for that. I love you, Daddy."

"You haven't called me that in ages," he whispered.

"I know," Hope replied.

"I love you, too," Darren said, returning her affection. The lie he had been living was finally over, and with everything out in the open, he knew his life was going to change for the better.

The End!

Epilogue: Part 1: Trying To Move On

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