038. I googled my mom and discovered her biggest secret

Hi everyone. Like everyone else, I love my mom. But, after what I've learned about her, I started seeing her in a different light. My mom should've been honest with us. I'll tell you the whole story from the beginning. Let's see if you think I'm right. We'd always been a happy family. For many years my mom owned and managed a beauty salon. She loved her job so much. My dad is a wedding photographer. His job is to capture newlyweds during their most romantic moments. I love taking pictures, too. The photos I used to post on my Instagram would get tons of likes. But I had to delete my account because of my mom. I hadn't met my mom's parents until I was 17 years old. When I'd ask her about them, she'd tell me that she didn't want to see them because she had serious issues with her family. I was really curious about them. But my mom absolutely refused to talk about them. 

One day, after I kept pushing, she got angry. "I don't even know if they're alive or dead and I don't really care. Stop asking me about them," she yelled. One morning, a few months after this talk, our doorbell rang. It was an elderly couple. The man looked like a college professor in his suit and bow tie. The woman looked very elegant too. She was carrying a bouquet of flowers. They looked really cute. They said they were looking for my mom and asked, "Does she live here?" When I said "Yes," they said, "Are you her daughter?" I nodded. "Would you like to see my mother? I can call her if you like. Who should I say is here?" I asked. The old lady told me their names. Then she asked me what my name was. And then she said, "I'm your grandmother. And this is your grandfather. We are so happy to meet you." I was so surprised, I screamed. But I still couldn't invite them in. I thought I should call my mom. My mom was getting ready to leave for the beauty salon. I told her, "There's an older couple at the door. They're saying they are my grandparents." My mom's face turned pale. "Ella, what did you just say?" she said. My mom wasn't happy to see our guests at all. I thought she wasn't even going to invite them in but, thankfully, she did. I was trying to figure out what was happening. But my mom told me, "Ella, do you mind going to your room? We need to speak in private." I left even though I didn't want to. 

An hour passed. I was dying to know what's happening. Finally, I came out of my room. Nobody was around. Both my mom and our unannounced guests were gone. I called my mom right away. She said she was at the salon. "So were they your parents? I asked. "I'm going to tell you the truth. Yes, it was them. But they shouldn't have come. And they won't be coming again," she said. Obviously, something terrible had happened a long time ago. Even though so much time had passed, she still couldn't forgive them. Finally, I decided to talk to my dad. I went to his photo studio. I told him what happened. He said my mom had never talked to him about this issue, either. "I'm sure she has her reasons. I'd say let's leave her alone," he said. If everything stayed the same after that day, I would've done as my dad said. But many strange things started happening. Soon after this incident, my mom sold her salon. Before, she would tell everyone how good the business was every chance she got. The salon had a loyal clientele. But she put an ad up in a local paper and sold it to the first person who answered. 

After that, we moved to a different house. It was in a different neighborhood, far from where we used to live. I couldn't make sense of any of this. Everything had changed after that old couple showed up at our door. One morning, something happened that was the last straw. My mom wanted me to delete my TikTok and Instagram accounts. I didn't care about TikTok. But taking photos was my favorite hobby and I didn't want to delete my Instagram where I putting all my images. I asked my mom what was happening. "Please just do as I say and don't ask questions. I'll tell you everything when the time comes." I was bored of my mom acting all weird. But there was nothing I could do. I had to delete my accounts. Around this time, I realized my mom never used social media. She wasn't on Facebook or Instagram. Even her beauty salon didn't have a website. Something else occurred to me. When she wanted to sell the salon, my mom had advertised in the local paper and not online. She's actually pretty tech-savvy. But from what I could tell, she didn't want to put any information about herself online. There had to be a reason for that. Because I was going crazy at this point, I decided to investigate. The first thing that came to mind as I started looking into my mom's past was to Google her. But when I did, I only got the people who had the same name as her. 

I spent hours clicking on them one by one. They were all different people. Not being able to find anything online about mom made me even more curious. She had obviously been very careful for years. I now knew that my mom was definitely hiding something. I didn't know this back then but I would do anything to find out. I decided to work like a detective. Whatever my mom was hiding, I knew that it was connected to my grandparents. If I could somehow reach them, they could talk to me. What did I know about them? Their first names. But what was their last names? Unfortunately, I didn't know that. I started Googling their names. Naturally, there were thousands of results. I clicked through the pages. After a while, I figured there was no way I'd find them this way. Just then, I thought of searching for both of their names together. Again, I got a ton of results. I started clicking on the links. One of the pages was a news article accompanied by a group photo. Just as I was about to close the page, I noticed my grandfather standing on the very left. Next to him was my grandmother. 

The news story was talking about a charity helping children with leukemia. It mentioned that the co-founders of the charity were my grandparents. For years, they had been raising money for treatment of children with leukemia. I had finally found what I was looking for. I could find out what my mom's secret was by reaching out to them. I now knew my grandparents' full names, and I even knew the name of their charity. I could tell they were both good people just by their faces. And the story I read proved my instinct was correct. Actually, there was something else that I could do. Now I knew what my mother's maiden name was. I could try running her name through Google one more time. I typed my mom's maiden name into Google and hit the Search button. The first result said, "Most Wanted Fugitives." I got excited and clicked on it. It was a Police website. There were photos of many people. "If you know or have seen any of these people, don't say anything to them or to anyone else for your own safety. Call the police right away," it said. Could my mom be a criminal wanted by the police? I didn't think so. But still, I started scrolling down the page and looking around. 

As I was looking through the photos, I stopped. The woman in one photo looked so much like my mom. But she was very young. She had short red hair. My mom wears her hair long and keeps its natural color, brown. And most importantly, the woman in the photo had brown eyes. My mom's eyes are blue. I looked at the photo even more carefully. If this woman wasn't my mom, she had to be my mom's sister. Because she looked exactly like my mom. I realized that I could click on the photo. When I did, I was taken to a page that showed what that person's crime was. She was wanted for theft. As I read the rest of the page, I screamed "No way!" She was accused of stealing a lot of money from a charity. The charity that was mentioned here was the same one that my grandparents founded for kids with leukemia. This couldn't be a coincidence. I had an idea. My mom was at the grocery store. I went to the kitchen. The trash from the previous day was still there. I put on some gloves and started going through the trash bag. Yes, it was disgusting but it would be totally worth it if I could find what I was looking for. And I did: packaging from contact lenses. My mom's eyes were not blue, but brown. She used blue contact lenses to hide them. My mom had stolen my grandparents' charity money and disappeared. The police were still looking for her. I regretted having learned about this. I wish I hadn't done so much research. After what I learned, I would start looking at my mom differently. We were a very happy family. We didn't need something like this to come between us. 

When my mom came back from the store, I went to her. I told her I wanted to talk to her about something important and told her about what I had found out. She started sobbing. She wasn't able to speak for some time. Then she told me her story. "When I lived with your grandparents, I was working at a beauty salon. I wanted to start my own business but I didn't have any money. I was young and I didn't know anything. My parents had organized a big fundraising event one night. They were going to put all the donated money in the bank the next morning. I took the money and ran away to open my own beauty salon. When I started making my own money, I was going to donate twice the amout I took back to the charity. I thought your grandparents wouldn't report me to the police. But they weren't able to explain to the families of the sick kids why the money had disappeared. That's why they had to go to the police. I was really mad at them. I never got in touch with them again. I married your dad and started a new life. I changed the way I looked because I knew the police were after me, and I've been using contacts since then. 

An older lady who recently moved into the building had heard the story and she recognized me. She called your grandparents and told them where I lived. They wanted to see me when they found out. But unfortunately I did not treat them well because I was still so ashamed. Ella, I'm not a bad person. I really regret what I've done. I sold the beauty salon and donated all the money to your grandparents' charity." I started crying as my mom was telling me all this. This was her biggest secret. She was so ashamed of it. Unfortunately, now I knew about this secret, too. Her shame had naturally deepened. A month later, my grandparents came back again. They had submitted proof of my mom's donation to the charity to the court. The judge said there had to be a final hearing, and my mom would most probably get off with just a small fine. Now we're waiting for that hearing. I went to visit my grandparents last week. I told them I wanted to work with them at the charity. They were so happy. Soon there will be a new fundraising event. I'm really excited to be helping them.