Chapter 7

Once Robin knew her parents were not going to start fighting again she decided it was alright if she went back home. She had left a couple hours before and now Anna was sitting at her desk while Robert sat in one of the other chairs in the room, working on his laptop. "So Robin decided we didn't need a babysitter any longer?"

Anna looked up and smiled at him, "She'll come back if you get out of line again."

Robert smiled, "She has nothing to worry about. Anna, you needed to hear what I told you. If I had come here to talk, would you have even let me in?"

"Robert of course, oh. I see your point, I was rather short with you last time. You kept coming to help me and I kept pushing you away."

"I was a lot more brutal than was needed I realize that now, and I am sorry about that but you did hear me."

"Yes, I did." Anna looked back at her computer. "Has there been any leads on where Alex is yet?"

"There are, and they are being investigated. After she escaped custody she went underground and there has only been a handful of sightings since then."

"If she's been in hiding all this time what would have been her reason for planting false memories in my head?"

"I'm sure getting picked up wasn't part of her plan. I'm not even sure this was all her plan. I've been trying to figure out who benefits from you thinking you had a child with Faison and I can't figure it out."

Anna stood up and walked around her desk, "Faison didn't know about Peter, I'm certain of that. Peter hated Faison and had no idea about his birth, only that his mother had abandoned him. Valentin knew about the baby and how he was conceived. Is Alex his mother?"

"That last one we should know soon," Robert offered.

"Yes, we will." Anna started pacing, "Who else would know about this?"

"Your aunt? Do you think Alex would have tried hiding the pregnancy from Charlotte?"

"I don't know. Would she have let her give the baby away?" Anna stopped and turned to Robert, "What if Alex wanted to hid the child from Charlotte just as much as she wanted to hide it from Faison?"

"You might be one to something there. Would there be a reason Alex would have felt it was better for the world to believe the child was yours and not hers?"

"We need to look into Charlotte, see who she was connected to. Alex might have thought she was protecting him from someone dangerous," Anna speculated.

"Someone besides Faison and Charlotte?"

"Maybe."

"I think we've gotten a little off track here. Once you have the results, we need to find Alex."

"Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Shouldn't we wait until we know who Peter's mother is?"

"I know you have very strong maternal instincts and I think that is why you're worried about Peter. It's like your bond with Griffin, He's not your son but he is Duke's so you care about him very much." Robert stood up, "Are you doubting what we both remember?" Robert took a step closer to her. "Anna, what else can I do to help you see that you know the truth already?"

"I don't know." Then she started pacing again.

"Anna," she stopped and looked at him. "Do you remember what you told me after I found out your scar was a fake?"

Anna took a moment to think about that. "Do you mean when you came back to the hotel room?" Anna smiled, "After I sent you away to find out the truth about the scar for yourself?"

"Yes, after I knew you had worn it for all those years." Robert walked over to her.

"We talked about why I had worn it. About it being a penance for what I had done. So no other man would want me." Then she smiled, "You were the first, the last."

Robert smiled and touched her cheek. "Do we need to keep doing this? I'm sure I can come up with more little moments to prove that you never slept with Faison. There is no way I believe that you were lying then. You put it all out there for me to see that day. You needed me to understand, to believe you. Other people don't know you like I do. You can fool other people, but not me."

"I know you're right I do, but then I think about the other memories and they seem real too."

Robert took her hand and lead her over to the couch, "Sit with me." She smiled and they both sat down. "You told me Valentin told you about the night he followed you and saw what happened that night. When was that?"

"Last year sometime, I don't know."

"Before or after Alex held you captive for a month?"

Anna understood why he asked that now, "It was after. Yeah, I'm sure it was."

"That might suggest he knows what was done to you. I have a hard time believing it was just a coincidence."

"It was while Alex was here possing as me that she admitting to Valentin what she had done. That it was her not me that he had slept with."

"I wonder what else they may have talked about?"

"He made a point of telling me that he had even considered it might have been Alex he had followed but that he was sure it was me."

Robert thought about that for a moment, "I don't like this. There are too many unanswered questions. Those questions are about individuals that on their own are trouble. If they're working together, what are we really dealing with here?"

"Why can't we have cases that have nothing to do with us personally. I'm getting too old for this crap."

Robert grinned at her, "You said it Devane, not me."

"Robin wouldn't have even had to hit you for that. It doesn't sound like an insult any longer."

"Good," he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed the side of her head. "I think we should call it a day. Can I interest you in going for dinner for me?"

"I think I'd like that, Scorpio."