A/N – "There You Are!" Congrats to Stearns, Allie, Maia, Timur, Paul, Steve, Justin, Ryan, Shanna, Sacha and the rest of the cast of Drood on a job well done! You're truly a unique cast! Luv, C.W. ("Don't Quit While You're Ahead"!)
"Max?" Logan watched as her face turned a pale white. He wheeled over and she placed Sofiya in his arms and approached the visitor.
"How dare you …" Max hissed.
"Do I know you?" the visitor said.
Max shook her head in disbelief, "You son of a blue balled bitch!" she sneered. "How can you stand there and ask if you know me?"
"I beg your pardon I'm sure."
"Max," Logan said harshly. "Mind telling me what's going on?"
"I can't believe this," she said to herself. "Logan, do you have any idea who this is?"
"Someone you accused of being Lydecker, who's dead," Logan reminded her. He'd gotten all the facts from Matt Sung.
"They never found the body!"
"Max, will you sit down and shut up?"
"Wait," the visitor exclaimed. Max and Logan looked at him. "I can see I'm not going to fool you."
"Huh?"
"I am, as I once was known, Donald Lydecker."
Max felt her knees go weak but she did not faint. She slowly sat down on the couch and stared blankly into space. Alarmed, Logan put Sofiya in her bassinette and went over to comfort Max. The visitor, supposedly Lydecker, followed.
"How can you be Lydecker?" Logan said. "You're dead."
"You don't look much like him either," Max said.
Lydecker ran his hand through his dark hair. Yes, it was an interesting change from his usual look. What else made him look different? Oh right, the glasses. He'd poked the lenses out of his father's old eyeglasses and replaced them with regular Plexiglas. "It made it easier to watch for my 'kids' after what you did."
"Renfro gave me no choice," she replied coolly. "I don't get it, Lydecker, why are you here? How'd you survive the crash?"
Lydecker removed the glasses and put them in his coat pocket. He cleared his voice, "Well, when I was knocked off the road, my car did indeed go into the reservoir. I hit my head and blacked out for a bit but the cold water stunned me and woke me up. At first, I was unable to move my legs—they were trapped. Holding my breath until the point of my lungs almost bursting I was able to free myself and swim to the surface. Since then I've been tracking down almost every Manticore-ian I was able to get my hands on using a private detective. Of course this detective did not know me as Donald Lydecker but using an alias, that of Laurence Dennison. I told this detective that the people he was looking for were my family. Which they almost were. At least, you were like my—"
"Save the sentimentality," Max snapped.
"I see you're still the hotheaded rouge that I left," a small smile crossed Lydecker's face.
"You don't look anything like you used to," Max said, softer this time. She stole a glance at Logan, who was listening intently. "The dark hair, the glasses. It's interesting."
Lydecker cleared his throat, "I heard about Zack. And I'm sorry. For doing that. Or rather for letting Renfro do that. I know how much the two of you loved each other as brother and sister."
"Yeah. So," Max abruptly switched topics. "Why were you so hooked on looking for Clio and her baby?"
"I knew that question was going to come up," he sighed. "And I'm not proud of the answer … It's a long story."
"We have time," Logan said.
Max's heart skipped a beat. She thought she knew what was coming. She was afraid that if she said anything he would stop talking so she clamped her teeth down over her bottom lip.
"I fell in love with Clio's mother, Isabelle Monte, while she was a surrogate. I called her my Bella. Sweetest little thing in the world—red hair, clear blue eyes, adorable features and one freckle as cute as the next. She was only about twenty when she came to Manticore. I saw her and was stricken. I was very lonely at the time. Anna had been dead for about five years by then … "
"So you had a rebound fling with Clio's mom. Get to the point, Deck, what does this have to do with Sofiya?" Max said.
"I'm getting there," Lydecker said. "I told you it was a long story.
"When Clio was born, Bella … Bella didn't make it. During the delivery there were too many complications. Her heart rate dropped so fast that she just slipped away about a half hour after Clio was born. I was deeply scarred, thinking dust was all I was worth. Both women I'd loved deeply in my life were both gone.
"X5-803, or Clio, quickly became my favorite after you and the others escaped. She was, as I had intended, the semblance of her mother. Same hair, eyes, features and freckles. She grew … she grew so beautiful. So much like Bella. I'm only human …"
"Dear God," Logan mumbled.
"One night, I came to her cell. I was drunk—I'd been drinking heavily over the loss of everything that was dear to me and also out of anger at Renfro for taking you, taking Brin and Tinga. I'd snuck in, disguised as a guard. I didn't see her as Clio, but as her mother, as Bella."
Max's jaw dropped open, "So you're …"
"Sofiya's father."