The Five Year Lie

By the time the bus is ready to leave, Buzz is cranky and wants to go home. Ariel is scared to fall asleep in case she misses one of the four transfers. She believes that Ray and the Zarkey siblings are responsible for Zain’s death and the problems at Chime Co.

In New York, a man rudely bumps into her, and then another man steadies her with a kind word. Both get off the bus. At the next stop, a day later, Ariel realizes that the two men in New York stole her wallet and cash. In the bottom of her bag, she finds $4.37.

The last of Ariel’s money pays for a Happy Meal for Buzz, who is miserable and whiny. She quiets him with stories about his father, the first she’s ever told him. During the night, Buzz wakes up and cries about being hungry. Ariel can’t help crying as well. A passenger offers them his fries. When Buzz is asleep, the man asks if Ariel has someone to help her when she gets off the bus. Ariel hopes so and falls asleep. When she wakes up, the man is gone but has left her an envelope with money and the number of his sister who works in social services in Cedar Springs, Michigan. Ariel determines to pay the man back through his sister.

When they get off the bus in Michigan, Ariel and Buzz go to a diner and eat all they want and then rent a room to sleep for a few hours. The landlady drives Ariel and Buzz to Harrietta, where Ariel hopes to find Woody or even Jay. She reasons that the hardware store might know them but has little luck until she overhears a delivery driver say that he has lumber for someone named Buzz—Jay’s nickname. Ariel follows the truck, walking for two hours to find the correct house on the road that the man mentioned.

One of the last driveways on the road has a newer mailbox. Ariel tells Buzz to wait behind a tree. She hears a familiar whistle and recognizes Jay, who hushes his barking dog, Buster, and walks to Ariel. He’s missed her every day. When Buster barks again at the trees, Jay pulls a gun. Ariel yells, and Buzz steps out, running toward her. Jay is overwhelmed to see his son. He deduces that Ariel is in trouble; while he’s glad that she found him, it means others can too.

Jay gets Buzz food and milk and then calls Woody. While Buzz throws the ball for Buster, Ariel and Jay fill each other in on everything. When Ariel asks why Jay didn’t expose her uncle, Jay skirts the issue.

Woody arrives and is thrilled by Buzz. He says that it will be easy to get them out of town for a while. The two men secure the property. Ariel finds one of her glass pieces in Jay’s room—he bought it from her online site. He shows her his safe room and the fire ladder under the bed. When he kisses her, she feels the pain of losing him and pushes him away.

Woody shows them a news story about the police looking into Zain’s death. Ariel goes to sleep beside Buzz. Jay comes to bed, stroking his son’s hair and holding Ariel. When she starts to cry, he carries her to the bathroom, where they have sex.

Jay wakes up and sees a stuffed animal on his floor and small Toy Story pajamas. Buzz is impressed with Jay’s metal leg prosthesis. Jay wants to hold and protect Buzz and Ariel forever.

Ariel sets up a new protected email account to contact her mother. She also emails Ray to come clean about Zain’s death. On her Instagram, Ariel sees that Larri has been trying to contact her.

They get supplies to hide for a while; Jay enjoys buying Buzz toys and picking him up for the first time when he lifts him into the Jeep. Both Ariel’s mother and Ray have written back. Ray wants to know where she is, claiming that he wants to keep her safe, but Ariel writes back that Ray may be one of the people she needs protection from. Jay says that he will keep them safe or die trying.

Jay wants to tell Buzz that he is his father. Meanwhile, Jay and Woody have a plan to expose the Zarkeys and Ray. Officer Barski emails Ariel: The police are looking for Ray, so she should call her mother. She writes him back with a brief summary of what she knows. Woody alerts them that there’s something strange outside. Ariel is in the safe room watching them put gear on and notices folders full of evidence in the cabinets. She wants to know why Jay didn’t use it. Before he can respond, Woody yells that there’s an intruder, and Ariel takes Buzz upstairs. She unintentionally calls Jay his “daddy,” and Buzz catches the word, asking if his father is okay when they hear gunshots. She persuades Buzz to go into the closet and looks outside. Jay is drawing the intruders away from the house while Woody is shooting from inside. Suddenly, Jay’s shadow jerks. Ariel sees Bryan Zarkey reloading and creeping toward the shed where Jay is moving slowly. Ariel pops out the screen of the window and throws the fire ladder down, intending to distract Bryan, but this backfires as he starts climbing the ladder toward her window. When he is close, Ariel stabs Bryan in the shoulder with her knife. He falls, and Woody pummels him into submission. Ariel gets Buzz out of the closet, and when he asks if his father is okay, she doesn’t know how to answer. They both cry.

They wait in the bedroom while the police verify that there aren’t more people with the Zarkey siblings. They watch the paramedics take Jay on a stretcher to an ambulance and then go to the hospital. Woody’s mother persuades Ariel to call her own mother, who says that Ray was heading to Harrietta when he was picked up by the police. Ariel asks her mother to come and bring Buzz’s favorite book.

Jay is in surgery for a long time. Woody says that Ariel probably saved Jay by stabbing Bryan and recounts how Jay got injured in Syria by trying to help a kid. She dozes and then wakes up to Jay asking for her. He looks rough, but he will recover. They see Woody watching and Buzz pressing his face against the window. Jay waves, and Buzz hits the window happily.

Three months have gone by. Jay is driving Buzz to his first day of school and makes Buzz pose for photos. Other parents look at them oddly since their family has been in the news.

Ray is awaiting trial, though it appears that he will make a deal to testify against Bryan. Jay’s evidence is helping the case. Ariel’s mother, no longer engaged to Ray, has hired a new CEO to handle the press and pivot the company to an emphasis on privacy.

When another mother asks Ariel to sign up for bake-sale duties, Jay enthusiastically asks for more slots. After Buzz goes inside the school, Jay and Ariel spend the morning picking out paint for a house they’ve bought.

The FBI agent they are working with asks where Ariel was on November 6, 2015—the date when the false judge was entered into Chime Co. records. Ariel realizes that she was on the warrant desk that day and that Zain had lied and said that it was him to protect her. Feeling overwhelmed with guilt, Ariel throws up. She realizes that Jay must have seen the video of her entering the judge’s name too and that this is the reason why he never went public. Now that Ray and Bryan are accusing each other, Ariel is unlikely to be implicated.

Jay tells Ariel that he’s learned from her that revenge is hollow; she needs to let go of thinking she is to blame for what happened at Chime Co. When he asks about her nausea, she confesses that she is pregnant. Jay is thrilled.