"Ms. Florescu", Robert Angevin said when I answered, "You can be hard to get a hold of."
"I might say the same of you." I replied
"Yes, well -- I got your message. I have been working on it. It may be quarter to four in the afternoon where you are, but it's quarter to nine in the morning where I am. I'm in Pennsylvania, en route to a meeting with Rhonda McKenna and her attorney. I'm not driving and using the phone at the same time, I wouldn't do that. One of our cousins is driving. My wife, our son, and our other cousin are at the Pittsburgh airport, in preparation for our trip to Latveria."
"That -- is fast work on your part." I said.
"You don't know the half of it. Last night, Victor sent me an e-mail attachment containing one of the most extraordinary documents I have ever encountered in my study and practice of law." my lawyer told me.
"What was it?" I asked, as he seemed to expect it.
"A prenuptial agreement."
"What, now? This is just too much --." I said. This might be the last straw.
"No, you're thinking about it the wrong way. You're thinking about it like an American, as if you would get less with a prenuptial then you would without one, in case of a divorce. You are Latverian now, and more specifically, think of who you're married to. What protections do you have now?
"Believe me, you want to sign this. You should sign this. I would even go so far as to say that you need to sign this. It's all right. I was a bit concerned at first, but I read it -- all of it. It's the size of one of your hometown's phone books. As your attorney, I advise you to sign it"
"What does it have in it?" I asked.
"About a third of it concerns money and other property that he's settling on you, with provisions for children, should you have any. Half of it consists of the various protections and assurances, for you, from him, and against him. If he misbehaves toward you, he has to pay for it. Substantially. In money."
"Oh, great!" I said. "So he can slap me with one hand, and with the other, offer me a wad of euros to ease the pain."
"No, the money wouldn't be paid to you. It would go to Reed Richards." Angevin said.
"What?" I asked.
"If you have cause to complain of his conduct, he has to send a sizable sum of money to Reed Richards." the Prince of Sharkness repeated.
I took all of that in, and I started to laugh. "Please explain the details." I begged him.
He did. It was complicated -- being a product of Victor's mind, it would hardly be anything else -- and while it didn't address issues such as 'What if I were being held incommunicado in the dungeon?' -- but the mere fact that it would exist was very reassuring. While he might, while in a passionate fury, break his word to me -- his loathing for Reed Richards was such that Victor would suffer the tortures of hell for eternity before he would willingly and disinterestedly benefit his enemy.
"It's not all one-sided." Angevin continued. " The remaining part is penalties for your misbehavior,and if the worst comes tothe worst, he can exile you to a desert island, not without food or shelter but without the kids, if any, and without internet access, television, radio, or books."
"That's harsh. What is that for?" I asked.
"Infidelity and/or treason." said Robert Angevin. "I did discuss certain parts of it with him. I explained that some of his strictures precluded either tact or privacy, which are essential to any marriage, and he did allow me to make certain changes."
"I'll sign it," I said. There was a spark of light in my soul again.
"Good," said Angevin. "I'm here. You and Victor are going to get to listen in, if you stay on the line. I didn't mention it, but I'm going in wired for sound."
If Victor were going to listen in, that meant that Victor was going to have to be here.
Tentative, but a bit hopeful, I contacted him. "Victor? Robert Angevin is about to go into a meeting with Rhonda McKenna and her attorney. I -- I would like it very much if you were here with me to listen to what happens. Do you have time right now?" The proposed prenuptial agreement didn't make everything magically all better, but it was the beginning of the road back to trust.
"Yes, I have." was his reply.
While I waited for Victor, I listened with one ear to Robert Angevin as heentered Mr. Rupert's offices, spoke to his secretary,was introduced, and finally admitted to the inner office.
When Victor entered my suite, I was listening to the two attorneys. I looked up, "You haven't really missed anything yet. They're just discussing how glad they are to have a few minutes to speak before my mother arrives."
I turned on the speakerphone feature, so that Victor could hear:
"You have to admit there is a certain resemblance between the two girls. If they are two girls, that is." said Mr. Rupert, who had been the McKennas' attorney for as long as I could remember, possibly since the First World War. He was quite an old man.
"Yes, the resemblance between Rhonette McKenna and Joviana Florescu. There is a reason for that." said my attorney. "They resemble each other for the same reason that that Rhonette McKenna spoke Latverian. Once I got going on my homework, I discovered something very interesting.
"Your client's daughter was the granddaughter of Annie Sheaffer. Annie Sheaffer was born Anisoara Bran, near Brantzia, in Latveria. Anisoara Bran had a brother named Radu. After he was shocked by the Soviets for insurrection, his wife moved away with their daughter Alina, changed their names and remarried. Thus, Alina Bran became Galina Staretsky, and Galina Staretsky married Anton Florescu. They had Joviana Florescu, who is their only child. Rhonette McKenna and Joviana Florescu, as a consequence, are cousins. I have my clients history here in black-and-white, albeit in Cyrillic script, but with excellent translations."
"That can't be true," said my mother's attorney uncertainly.
"Would you like to speak to Galina Florescu? I'm sure it can be arranged." stated Robert Angevin, with certainty.
"Is that true?" I asked Victor.
" As it so happens, yes."
For a moment I could not speak. "Galina really is kin to me by blood. She's really my father's first cousin. This isn't just part of the conditioning, or something that was mocked up?"
"Entirely so. Unfabricated, unaltered, and provable through DNA. "
"Victor, I am married to a genius. I only suspected that before, but this is proof beyond any doubt. Even if they do manage to force me into some DNA test, this would still cast doubt on the validity of it."
"Such was my thinking when I chose her from among the possible candidates." said Victor serenely.
We had missed a little bit of the conversation during our exchange.
"Your client's fiancé is known to be a very clever man -- and reputed to be ruthless. Who knows what he might have done or persuaded her into?"
"Mr. Rupert -- I will ask you this outright. What does your client want?" asked my attorney.
"Why does your client care?" countered my mother's lawyer.
"My client knows the people in the publiceye are sometimes unknowingly the object of an individual's fixation. What was the name of that young actress who starred in the sitcom about 20 years ago? She was shot to death by a fan. Look at Ronald Reagan -- shot because Hinckley had a crush on Jodie Foster. My client does not want to find your client at the wrong end of a gun one day. It would weigh heavily on her conscience after her security guards shot your client."
"Mr. Angevin, that sounds rather like a threat to me." I heard a chair creak.
"It is not a threat. The security that surrounds my client is apparently invisible -- but keep in mind where they come from and who trained them. They would shoot to kill."
"Fair enough. My client wants a DNA test to prove that your client is, or is not, her daughter. Until she gets that, my client will tell her tale to the media for as long as they will listen -- and under the circumstances, they will listen for a long, long time. The longer your client refuses, the worse it will get." The man sound as matter-of-fact as possible.
"Understood. However, when the result comesback negative -- as it will -- what happens then?"
"My client will issue a full retraction and apology, as requested. Anyone can make amistake."
"But will a negative result on a DNA test be enough to convince her? Fixation is a very interesting condition, psychologically speaking."
They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Mr. Rupert's secretary announced that my mother had arrived. I heard the rustling sounds of someone entering the room, and then I heard my mother's voice say:
"Oh, she's not with you." She sounded disappointed. "I thought my daughter would be with you."
"Your daughter, ma'am? As I understand it, your daughter has been missing for a little over three years now." Angevin was perfect. He sounded very slightly puzzled, but thoroughly businesslike. "If, however, you are referring to my client. she is in Latveria, extremely busy with preparations for her wedding tomorrow."
"Your client is my daughter." My mother was perfect, too. She sounded sincere, ardent and on the brink of tears.
"Now, Rhonda," her attorney told her cheerfully, "if that's the tack they're going to take, then that's the tack they're going to take. We just have to deal with it."
"'Tack they're going to take.'" asked the Prince of Sharpness, sounding puzzled. "We aren't taking any tack. Ms. McKenna is mistaken. I have a copy of Joviana Florescu's birth certificate. Here. And here are the translations. Also, her school records, immunization records, some images that my client's mother scanned and sent, the official portrait photograph released by the Latverian government, taken only a few days ago --"
"Oh, I don't doubt that all looks very good." Mr. Rupert said. "But you must understand that order to put my client's mind at rest --a mother searching for her only child --."
"There you are wrong. Your clients missing daughter is not her only child. Early in 1984, Ms. McKenna entered the Carlyle Osteopathic Medical Center under the name of Linda McIntyre, where she gave birth to a male infant. 18 hours later, she surreptitiously leftthe center, abandoning her newborn son, to whom she had given the name of Luke McIntyre. Apparently, she never looked back. The child was put up for adoption of the records were sealed."
"How did you find that out?" My mother was no less shocked than I was -- I had a brother?
"I can add two and two." said my attorney. "Within 10 hours after you left the Carlyle Medical Center, you were back in an emergency room, this time in the York County Holy Cross Hospital, being treated for puerperal fever, an infection of the area of the uterus left raw where the expelled placenta was attached during pregnancy. You entered that hospital under your own name, and you claimed you had had an abortion. After I found that, I started looking for a baby. I found one. The child was put up for adoption, and the records were sealed."
(I looked up at Victor. He shook his head. "This is Angevin's own discovery.")
I had a half-brother.
"I don't like you." My mother said, plainly. "You have no right to --."
"I had the same right that you had to make claims about my client. Have you ever tried to find out what became of your other child?"
"Railway. I can't Caterpillar do that." said Rhonda McKenna. That made no sense whatsoever, unless of course, one knew that she was schizophrenic. Schizophrenics were prone to burst out in what was called 'word salad': gibberish statements, the product of a disordered mind.
"Rhonda, are you feeling well?" asked her attorney.
"I -- yes. I'm fine." She answered. "My -- my tongue got tied."
"So you see, your plea to find your only child, is at heart, untrue. You have received sympathetic press coverage to this point -- how will they react upon learning that? And then your attorney said that you and your daughter parted on bad terms." My attorney said it very carefully, not sarcastically, not sardonically.
"That may be the worst case of gross misunderstatement I have ever heard from someone not connected to the government. Let me re-acquaint you with the facts.
"On June 30th 2002, the police received a 911 call from Rhonette McKenna to the effect that she was being held prisoner in the cellar of her home by her mother. Upon responding to the call, the police report states that you denied the allegation and refused them entry, but a neighbor's daughter, together with a friend, from whom your daughter had borrowed the cell phone to call for help, confirmed they had seen and talked toRhonette who had called to them from a broken cellar window. They were taking a shortcut across the property in question.
"When the police entered the house, you protested, and when they reached the cellar, you assaulted one of the police officers. At first they were unable to locate your daughter, because you had locked her in a small pantry, and then moved a shelving unit over the door and loaded it with paint cans to conceal it."
"I don't want to hear this!" said my mother. "That is, I want to put it behind me."
"Do you? Not as much as your daughter would like to, I'll bet. Once the police broke down the door, after restraining you, they discovered your daughter in a state of severe dehydration. She had been confined in a space so small she could not lie down in it at full length. She stated that she had been locked in there for more than three days, during which time you had ignored her pleas and cries to be set free, and withheld food, water and access to a bathroom, from her.
"You were arrested, and she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance."
"Don't say anything else, Rhonda," counseled her attorney. "The balance of my clients mind was disturbed at the time. She was severely depressed. Her daughter Rhonette understood, and did not press charges."
"She should have." My attorney asserted. "I strongly suspect she was talked out of it. Instead, she was fobbed off with a restraining order."
"She did not --." began Mr. Rupert.
"According to the complaint filed by Rhonette McKenna, your client was in the habit of calling her places of work and, purporting to be a former employer or co-worker, perpetrated lies about Rhonette's work history, alleging misconduct and theft. Most of the calls were found to have been made at a pay phone outside a convenience store three quarters of a mile from here. Of course, nothing was ever proven. I imagine the media would be very interested in hearing about all of that."
Just hearing about it was like feeling a ball of lead sink from the top of my head through to the pit of my stomach. I had been miserable, angry, afraid, humiliated, disgusted near to insane with thirst, despairing, desperate, and finally resigned.
("I didn't go completely without water." I said, to explain how it was to Victor. "On the second night, it rained. I took off my nightshirt, and I stuck it out the window, so it would get soaked. Then I wrung it out and sucked all the liquid I could out of it. I did it two or three times. And my grandmother used to keep her preserves and canned vegetables in that pantry. I found a jar of green beans at the back of the shelf. God only knows how old they were. I ate them and drank all the liquid in the jar. It's a good thing she really knew her business when it came to canning, or it might've been full of botulism, otherwise.")
"Ms. McKenna was required to undergo psychological testing." continued the Prince of Sharkness. "And was diagnosed with depression. What was the specialty of the diagnosing professional?"
"Family counseling." said Mr. Rupert.
"I see." said my attorney.
"I don't like this," announced my mother. "I'm going. I have to go to the bathroom." She left.
Once the door was closed behind her, I presumed, Robert Angevin asked his counterpart, "Has your client ever been screened for schizophrenia? She's exhibiting certain indicators, certain symptoms of it."
"What symptoms?" asked her lawyer.
"To begin with, does your client usually dress as though she has been wearing her clothes day and night for a week? It isn't just that she looks like she did, she smells like she did. Also that nonsense statement that she came out in with the middle of things -- I don't think that was simply a case of having her tongue tied."
"You mean a split personality like Jekyll and Hyde?" asked Mr. Rupert. "No, she's not schizophrenic. Just a bit eccentric."
"No. That will be multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia does mean a split personality, but not split off inside the individual -- split off the rest of humanity. If my client were your client's daughter, which of course she is not, it would be one of the first things I would press for -- a full psychiatric evaluation by a specialist in severe mental disorders. If the specialist diagnosed schizophrenia -- that would be where the real fun begins."
"How so?" asked Mr. Rupert, sounding a bit scared.
"Again, this is simply speculation. Schizophrenia does not arrive suddenly and full-blown at the age of forty-four. If the psychiatrist can trace the onset of her disease -- and consequent mental incompetence -- well then! There will be a lot of lawsuits.
"To begin with, your client's ex-husband, who has since remarried, and has gubernatorial aspirations. He would be in for it, because not only would he immediately become a bigamist -- as one cannot divorce an insane person -- but if there is the slightest scrap of evidence that he knew his wife was unwell and he divorced her, then, rather than leaving his step daughter in her mother's care, he left his wife in the care of a minor. He may even face criminal charges, for child endangerment. And there goes his political career --.
"Then there is the McKenna family, who did nothing to help Rhonette care for her mother, but left the entire burden on the shoulders of a minor. Again, child endangerment, adding neglect and mental cruelty.
"Finally, there's you." Angevin had an amazing voice He was a born orator. He could been a minister or president-- or a really good lawyer.
"Me?" asked the McKennas' attorney. His voice came out in a squeak.
"You. You persuaded Rhonette McKenna to drop the charges. When I mentioned earlier, that I strongly is suspected that she had been persuaded to do so. I saw what you did with your eyes, and your mouth. I'm very good at reading non-verbal cues." said Angevin.
Silence.
"So it's just as well that my client isn't your client's daughter, is it?"
"Yes." I could imagine the other lawyer sweating bullets.
"A full retraction and apology." said Angevin. "If I were you, I would personally find a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia. I would even drive Ms. McKenna there.".
TBC…