"So, you've been lying this whole time?" 

Josh didn’t respond. Alix knew the answer already. He watched the passport slip from her fingers. Her reality he could see was crumbling around her, and he had only touched the tip of the iceberg. At that very moment he had a choice; tell her all or to shelter her from the truth. 

[b]“This is why I lied,[/b]” he said. From the contents on the bed, Josh handed Alix the only document written in English. It was a letter from the British Government denying his visa application. 
[b]“You need to understand, I had to leave Russia. I had no choice but to enter Britain with a fake name.”[/b]

Josh paused. He closed his eyes and took a breath. He could stop there. Leave her with why he called himself Joshua White and ended up in Cambridge lying to her. Maybe she’ll understand, maybe she’ll even forgive him. But if he went further and told her everything, he would lose everything. 

He picked up a photo from the contents of the bed. The only family photo he had of the three of them. His parents and him smiling at the camera on his tenth birthday. 

[b]“That’s my Parents,”[/b] Josh said as he handed her the photo. [b]“My Father was an Army Officer in the Russian Military, and my Mother was a Professor at the Moscow State University.”[/b]

His heart pounded in his chest. 

[b]“Ten years ago I get a call in the middle of the night. My Mother is on the other-end sobbing, telling me to run. To run as far away from Russia as I can go. The next day I find out that they’ve been arrested f. So I did what I had always dreamt of doing, and escaped to Britain.”[/b]