Chapter 11

Oscar struggled with Gerodero. And although he was a man, Oscar had her ways. She was not defenseless. Oh no. Not at all.

"Ouch!" he yelled.

Gerodero collapsed onto the pavement with a sudden pain between his legs. He could hardly utter a word, only held his hand on the place she had kicked him.

"Hah!" she shouted "There you have it! Never attack on a woman like that!"

He just shook his head. Trying to stop tears coming from his eyes. This was indeed a lesson to him. A painful one.

"Oscar…I´m sorry…I never meant to…"

"I hope so. I hope you learned your lesson. I will never marry you, no matter how hard you try." She told him, and then she turned around. Oscar took her luggage and started to walk away. So, that Gerodero was left all on his own.

Oscar had walked as fast as she could, and now she was far away from Gerodero as possible. Only now she realized how far she had gone. She stopped to think about her future. And where to find a place to stay.

After considering her options, she decided to go to Marie. For the night, anyway. Tomorrow she would start to look for a place for herself.

Marie´s place wasn´t that far away, and the weather was good, too. Even though all the bad things that had happened to her today, she was optimistic. She felt as this was the first time she had felt so free and…

"Lady Oscar!" she heard someone calling her name.

As she turned around, she saw Rosalie.

"Rosalie! Where do you come from at this time of night?" she was delighted to see her friend.

"I was in movies with my friends. We just departed." she explained.

"You´re going home?"

"Yes"

"I´ll escort you."

"Oh, thank you, Lady Oscar, but you really don´t need to."

"But I want to."

"And please, call me Oscar"

Rosalie was happy to hear that. Even though they hadn´t known each other long, she felt as lady Oscar was someone she could trust. And admire.

On her way to Rosalie´s home they talked about Bernard. Rosalie seemed to be very devastated by the fact that he had been part of the jewel thieves. She said she would never speak to Bernard again. "Never!" she yelled.

"Poor Bernard" Oscar though. She knew just how much he liked Rosalie.

"But let´s talk about something else" Rosalie wanted to change the subject.

"Ok" Oscar agreed. There wasn´t really anything she could do for Bernard, after all he was the one, who got himself into the mess, in the first place. Or was there? Maybe if…Oscar came up with a crazy idea, that just might work. That is, if she still had some influence on matters concerning her work, which she obviously didn´t. Thanks to her father.

Oscar decided not to share her crazy idea. It would probably never work and Rosalie would only get more disappointed. There was no need to upset her more. Instead, Oscar mentioned that she was looking for an apartment.

"Oh, you can come to live in my home" Rosalie made an offer.

"Thank you, Rosalie. But I think I can manage." Oscar answered. And after having said that, they realized that they were at Rosalie´s front door.

"Well, goodnight Rosalie"

"Good night, la…I mean Oscar"

After having escorted Rosalie back to her home, Oscar continued alone towards Marie´s place. On her way there, her phone suddenly rang. It was Hortensia.

"Hi" she greeted "I´ve got some news for you"

Hortensia told Oscar that she had looked into the matter of what Oscar had asked her. She was quite certain that they had never met this Sean before. But Oscar already knew that. Her sister just made her more convinced that there was something else in this matter. And why their father never spoke about their family history in France? Every time she had tried to bring the matter up, he had always found some excuse to avoid it.

And why this strange blond man was so familiar to her? Sean X.F. Dumon…"X.? F?" she thought. Now that she recalled, she remembered seen those initials in his file, but…Why only now she came to think about those? And why there were only the initials? Why not the whole names? It didn´t make any sense. Unless he wanted to hide his names…But why?

"Oscar? Are you still there?" Hortensia got worried.

"Oh, sorry…" Oscar answered "Yeah, I´m here. I was just thinking…"

"About what?"

"X.F…"

"X.F?"

"No, it´s probably nothing…"

"You know, Oscar…" her sister started to think "Those letters reminds me of something…"

"What?" Oscar was startled. Why on Earth her sister would know about those?

"I remember as a kid I used to play in the attic…"

"But our father always told us not to go there. And with the voice no one would dare to disobey…"

"Yes, I know. But only after the incident…"

"What incident?!" Oscar was curious.

"It happened before you were born…

Hortensia started to share her story of her childhood…

… one night, me and Kamelia went to the attic to play. We had waited for the night to come, so that it would be even spookier then. Because we had thought that in the midst of all the old things, there must be a ghost…" she interrupted" Well, you know: kids"

"Yeah…And then?"

"We were right: There were lots and lots of stuff: it was full of suitcases, chests and boxes. We opened one of the chests…" she paused for awhile. Hmm…Now, why did they had opened that particular chest? "…Oh, yes!" she suddenly remembered "we were interested in it, because of the dreadful lion there…"

"There was a lion there?"

"A picture painted over the chest…Come to think of it now, it was like one of those coat of arms you see in museums…"

"Must be our family´s coat of arms. I´ve never seen it, but…"

"Anyway, we opened it to see if there was anything fun we could use…"

"Well? Was there?"

"Hold your horses, Oscar!" she laughed and finally answered "no!"

"No?" then Oscar realized she was just playing with her "out with!"

"Well, there wasn´t anything fun for us, and no ghost. But I remember there being lots of old stuff in the chest. I mean really old stuff. Like wigs and dresses. But then there was this medallion with a painted picture of a young boy…"

"Yes?"

"Well, it was a painting of a young boy, a really nice looking one…AND whose initials were J. X. F…I don´t remember his last name, thought."

"J?"

"But why are you asking this?"

"Sean X.F…"

"Oh…"

"You know…"Sean" is a version of "John"…"

"J."

There was a moment of silence.

"Wait a minute, Oscar! Are you saying that this mysterious boy in the picture has something to do with your Sean?!"

"I am not sure of anything, anymore."

"But those dresses were from the 18th century. At that time our family still lived in France."

"And?"

"I don´t think the name "John" is very French, do you?"

"No. It has to be something else…"

Oscar came to think about Sean´s words on the day they first met. He was convinced that they knew each other, and that he has always known Oscar, but…but…How could it be? Even thought she was catholic, she wasn´t very religious. No, her believe lied in science. Science would explain everything, well; almost everything, anyway. But this?

What if it was true? That something was so powerful, that it could bring them together, again? By her own surprise, she was intrigued by the idea. She knew almost nothing, but she felt that they had met before on very different circumstances, and she was going to find out exactly that…

J.X.F. What did those initials stood for?