Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for details
Author's note: I want to thank all those who've read this story so far and those who have reviewed and shared their opinions with me. I'm releasing this chapter early for you. Ginger – Thank you!
Time to Consider
Chapter 4
By Callisto
The Centre - Present
Blue Cove, DE
Mr. Raines sat back in his chair after receiving his hourly update from the sweepers in Buenos Aires. Both the pretender and Miss Parker had gone missing for over two weeks. What was so unusual was that Parker hadn't taken anything with her except the clothes on her back. The shakiness in Karl's voice had remained firmly in place since she vanished. It was obvious to Raines that he would have to recall the sweeper for more intensive questioning. He needed someone reliable whom he could trust not to fall apart when things got messy. Somewhere Karl made a fatal error. Raines wanted to know the extent of it and if this error was what prompted Miss Parker to disappear. The chances that somehow she elicited the pretender to help her were very high. A deep, dissatisfied sigh escaped his thin lips, the chances were also high that once she was found, Miss Parker would also have to be thoroughly questioned, then eventually remapped. She possessed skills that so far no one else could duplicate—not even her twin. Her mind was too important but certain impulses and opinions would have to be purged or drastically altered. It was an intriguing problem that he looked forward to overseeing.
Subtle pain he had learned not to ignore prompted him to unlock the secret drawer in his desk and retrieve a bottle of prescription meds that he always kept on hand. Mr. Parker was an excellent shot but the resulting damage was something that couldn't be avoided. His fingers brushed the frayed edges of an old accordion binder which held paperwork he had found well over 40 years ago. During the preliminary construction of SL-27 and buried in a carefully concealed vault, Raines' sweepers had discovered a thick sheaf of documents that Parker's father had deposited. Those papers provided the first building blocks to the cleverly constructed lie he had been living ever since. It was a lie that Parker had died believing and in the end forced him to murder Catherine. Fortunately, her inner-sense hadn't warned her of his precarious and elaborate deception and provided him an opportunity to protect his investment. Without it, he wouldn't be sitting where he was today.
With Broots' help, Sydney was able to tap in and listen to the Chairman's overseas phone calls. Things were looking bad and his worry for Miss Parker increased with each day she remained missing. As Angelo once told Parker, Sydney did know many of the secrets and lies from the past as well as a number of the present ones. Despite Broots' findings, Sydney knew that Raines wasn't Parker's father. He was also fully aware that although Mr. Parker professed paternity, he wasn't Miss Parker's father either but how Raines had pulled off the fiction that he was Mr. Parker's brother was a mystery. The documentation had been extremely convincing. So he didn't try to stop Broots from informing Miss Parker of a fact she could never nor would ever accept. He was aware of her father's true identity but he could never reveal it since he had been supplied this information as a result of his confidential sessions with Catherine, making the dead woman's revelations privileged.
For what seemed like the 10th time, Sydney sent another e-mail message to Jarod. There was no trace of him either and all Angelo could tell him didn't make any sense. Some jumbled reference to Jarod being gone from this time to another, safer time—whatever that meant.
Lakeside Bed and Breakfast Inn – Late 1970's
Lake Catherine, VT
Parker walked into the Inn with an air of relief. Prior to this trip, she had run into a 'friend' of hers. The delineation between herself and the girl whose place she took was sharp. All the friends she had from when she had originally been a teen in her old life had been transitory at best and from equally wealthy families. Estella was from a nearby town, middle-class and surprisingly worldly. Parker was able to find out a lot about her other self from this walking wealth of information. What she found, she didn't necessarily like and caused her to take time out for some desperately needed self-evaluation. Though she could take advantage of the situation, she quickly realized that she had stepped into the middle of another person's life. The fact that it was hers, served to further confuse.
Finally, she was on familiar ground and could at least see things that she felt had some connection to her old life. Actually the entire town was exactly the same as the day she had first stepped foot in it almost 30 years in the future—even the commuter bus waiting in front of the country store was a welcome sight. Being with her mother, whenever the busy woman was around, in such unfamiliar surroundings left her with a surreal feeling and kept reminding her unhappily that somehow she wound up in a bizarre sci-fi movie. Having her mother so close was the answer to a lifelong prayer. To tell her once again that she loved her was beyond her wildest dreams. Unfortunately, there were some aspects about her mother that Parker realized her sanitized memory had conveniently erased. Her mother was loving but always busy. Trying to improve the world and assist the disadvantaged was a cause that took up much of Catherine's time, energy and focus. In this warped out scenario, her mother hadn't changed a bit, it was Parker's imagination, assisted by grief and longing that had blinded her to reality.
Looking around, she was pleased to see the Inn had remained the same. An unconscious smile lit her face and Catherine, who was carefully watching her volatile daughter's reaction, sighed a breath of relief. Maritza had become an extreme handful as of late. Returning to the U.S. was an awful risk but Catherine had made up her mind to tell Maritza the truth about her parentage. How she was going to break it to her daughter that she had a twin—well the means still eluded her. Maritza was the most important person in her life and the past few weeks, though shocking had also further solidified her affection and devotion.
The day Catherine had stayed home from her appointments to spend time with Maritza, she found a different person inhabiting her daughter's body. Maritza's eyes shined bright with love and curiosity. The teenager kept hugging her and touching her face and hair while joyful tears sprang up in her eyes. Eventually she calmed down and then started asking a multitude of questions, some straying into areas and subjects she should've already known. It was during this daylong talk, which turned out to be more absorbing and interesting than anticipated, that Catherine could see the woman Maritza had turned out to be. The girl was truly mature, wickedly intelligent and introspective—almost brutally so. It was during those moments that Catherine realized she found her closest ally, confidante and friend. The lone drawback was that her daughter wanted to spend more time with her, and then wheedled her way into tagging along to work. Instead of nipping at her heels to see everything her mother did, Maritza, much to Catherine's surprise, hung out in her office. At the end of the day, Catherine found that Maritza had, in addition to cleaning the pack-rat mess of the office, systematically read and examined practically every file and piece of paper. Later that week, Catherine found that Maritza had expertly fielded calls and in some cases accurately provided information to clients who called back looking for her. Emboldened by this thumping success, Catherine invited Maritza to a charity ball the Institute was throwing in order to raise the necessary funds to keep a children's shelter in Lisbon funded and adequately staffed. She felt it was time that her daughter, with the proper guidance, was informally introduced to society.
Parker looked around the large ballroom and quickly spotted each target without hesitation. She gracefully detached herself from her mother's side and began to work the room. She was resplendent in a fashionable Baby doll dress in moss crepe with a Birtwell tulip print, satin trim and Elizabethan sleeves. Her mother had explained the goal for the night was to get the wealthy to feel good about relinquishing considerable amounts of cash for the cause. Parker smiled almost wolfishly to herself, it was like taking candy from the sticky fingers of a sleeping child. Her 'father' had taught her well. Within minutes she had one man fetching her a drink while she was engaged in a lively conversation with 4 others. None of the men surrounding her had a bank balance below the million-dollar mark and each was flirting with her to varying degrees—just the way she liked it.
To Catherine's dismay, she found her beautiful girl dazzling and flirting with men at least twice her age. At first she couldn't believe her eyes but when one of the men smiled salaciously at her little girl, Catherine found that she could no longer afford to stand by and watch Martiza get mauled by perverts. When she insinuated herself next to her daughter, Catherine, with some difficulty, managed to wrestle her away from the attentions of her male admirers. Confronted with her mother's concerns, the girl off-handedly replied, "He was interested and I was bored. You don't actually think I would let that guy touch me? His intelligence would have to be rated somewhat larger than the size of his, ummm foot, before I'd go that far. Besides, he's willing to donate a healthy sum as long as I keep smiling and making his wandering wife jealous."
Catherine blanched in dismay. However, when the influential director of Public Welfare commanded her attention, she momentarily lost sight of Maritza. A half hour later, she found her. Maritza was chatting up a very lean and handsome middle-aged man and flirting very prettily. Catherine had to cut her attendance short and forcibly drag her daughter away to safety. The resulting argument discouraged Catherine who could plainly see in Maritza's face that the girl didn't understand her mother's horror.
Parker, at first, had been confused then sadly irritated at her mother's reaction. It only took another glance at her reflection in the mirror before she had to concede that her mother was probably right. Mario, the luscious lush, was looking at an adolescent, not a fort---for—er, middle-aged woman. 'How pathetic, I can't even say my own age in my head without stuttering in denial,' she thought with a disgusted shake of her head, despite the fact that she would reach that milestone on her next birthday. The worm in Paradise for Parker was that at seventeen she wouldn't be allowed to take her energized hormones out for a spin, and like Jarod, she wasn't used to being parented, though her mother seemed hell bent on exercising every last bit of her parental rights. At her real age, Parker had to dig deep to find patience with her mother's mind-set. In contrast, her father had been neither interested nor cared about her behavior—as long as it didn't embarrass either him or the Centre. Like Catherine, Parker felt this trip to the U.S. was a time to regroup and figure some things out.
"Ladies, thanks for joining us," greeted a deep male voice with a soft Down Eastern accent. Both women turned around to find Benjamin Thomas Miller facing them. Surprised shock stopped him for a few seconds before he recovered and warmly greeted Catherine. While he was kissing her mother's cheeks, Parker felt a small hand slip into her own. Looking down at her little brother, Parker smiled at him lovingly. He was a brilliant light in this bizarre scenario that was fast becoming her reality. Everything was similar to her old life as a teen but subtle, important differences persisted everywhere. Idly she wondered if Jarod had been able to extricate himself from whatever had sucked her down Alice's rabbit hole but one thing was for sure. Her lovely mother was most definitely the March Hare in all his haste.
"Hello there, Ben. You forgot my brother. This is Ethan," she said while moving slightly aside to reveal her 6 year old little brother.
An expression of wonderment flooded his face and he exchanged a quick glance with Catherine, noting her concerned expression. Again recovering smoothly, Ben looked down at the small boy and smiled gently, "Hello there, young man. Your mother has told me a lot about you and your sister." Shifting his eyes to look into Parker's adolescent face he asked probingly, locking her gaze into his own, "Though I'm at a loss as to how you know my name. I believe this is the first time I've had the pleasure of meeting you."
Parker quickly realized her error, though with only the tiniest flinch, she smoothly replied, "I heard my mother say she didn't want to be late meeting you." Glancing at Catherine, Parker continued, "You remember Mama, when you were searching for our passports and thought you left them back at the villa." Parker offered him a toothy grin, and when she saw the suspicion subside in his face, she quickly looked away, tightening her grip on Ethan's hand and wishing she were on that bus going anywhere.
"Well, it's nice to meet both of you. Why don't I show you to your rooms so you can get freshened up?" With that, Ben gathered up a couple of their bags and led the way to the rooms.