"I guess I failed," she said.

"Failed what?"

"My 'trust' class. You did great in your class. You discovered the secret of self-defense. I didn't learn to trust at all. If anything, I want to back ever further away from people."

"Maybe my teacher was better than yours."

"You were great. I just didn't want to embrace it."

"It's going to take time. And it doesn't mean that when you learn it you will suddenly want to do interviews. You may never want to, but that has nothing to do with trust. Look at the sincere people you encountered—people who weren't out for themselves: The Simpsons, Emil, Luis and Paulo, even all the people on the flight to Miami. Those people were protecting you. They weren't doing it for what they could gain. They were honestly moved by your story and saw those photographers for the parasites they were. They came to your aid honestly."

"They did, and I appreciate all of the 'real' people we met. But I'm just not…"

"…Ready yet," I finished. "I understand. Despite my progress, I don't feel I'm ready yet either in my training. We just have to accept every little step we can."

She leaned over and kissed me and we made love slowly and tenderly. There was no clinging on her part, no holding on for dear life. It was love and it was trust. She may not have seen it, and maybe she never would, but as far as I was concerned, she had come a long way.

Afterward, with Sabrina sleeping in my arms, I thought about my family. I finally felt that I knew them. I didn't like any of them, but I knew them. In every case, lies and bad decisions had destroyed them. And not just my family. Sabrina's family, Bill Flynn's family, and even Mario's family, were all affected by the greedy actions of a group of men 85 years earlier.

I'll never know what my father was trying to tell me on his deathbed, but it had become moot. I was never going to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors. And the proof of that was the woman lying by my side.

The End

Author's Note:

Several real historic places and events are referenced in All Lies. 1) Fordlandia is a real town and a fascinating footnote in American history. I have tried to be as accurate as possible in my brief retelling of the story of Fordlandia, but in the effort to tell a good fictional story, some of the facts may have become a little smudged; 2) The Brooklyn Museum heist was also a real event, and is still considered an unsolved mystery to this day. The New York Times article referenced in All Lies was the exact article published in 1933 after the heist; 3) The story of the stolen Faberge Eggs is also true, including the tidbit about one being recently uncovered at a flea market and subsequently sold for more than $30 million. 4) The first entry in Ray Worth's log was taken verbatim from my father's log (a bombardier on a B-24). One other entry was paraphrased from his navigator's log.