Chapter 55
There were tears in her eyes, as she watched the man she loves and their daughter play cards. She listened to Robert tell her all of what Alex had told them about Dr. Bowman and his work with cases like Sean's. Could there be hope for a little more time with the man she loves? "Why would Alex tell you about this?" Tiff asked. "Sorry, it just seems strange that you two are interrogating Anna's sister and she ends up offering help to my husband."
"I wouldn't have called this an interrogation. It felt like we were just sitting and visiting with Alex this time. We really didn't ask her any questions. We didn't really talk about Peter or why Anna and I are here. I got to sit and talk to the woman that Anna first met when Alex helped her recover."
"Then how could she have hurt Anna so much with this mind mapping and Peter mess?" It didn't matter how many times Tiffany had asked about Alex she just couldn't understand doing the kind of things she's done to Anna. How could she have done that to her own sister?
Robert let out a breath as he looked over at Anna, who was talking to Andre. "Actually, we are working on uncovering just how willing a participant Alex really was in all of that. There is enough that's come to light to make us suspect that Peter has been pulling the strings for some time now."
Tiffany covered her mouth, "That's terrible. Did he use his own mother?" Tiffany knew only too well how dangerous Faison was, she had no problem suspecting his son could turn out very much like him.
"It does seem that way."
Tiff thought about that a moment longer. If Peter used his mother to get something, what was it he had wanted? What had he done? Tiffany didn't even know the woman but she was suddenly worried about her. "I hope you can help Alex get answers about what was done to her."
"So do I."
"I will call Dr. Bowman's office and set up an appointment tomorrow. I hope he can help Sean."
"So do I." Robert grinned just a little, he did think this treatment plan would be good for Sean. "I think I should let you go, we have some work to finish here before going to see Alex again tomorrow."
"Alright darling, give my love to Anna."
"I will. Love you Tiff." With that Robert ended the call. He walked back over and joined Anna and Andre. "Tiff sends her love. She is going to call the clinic tomorrow," Robert said as he leaned in to kiss Anna's cheek.
Anna smiled, "Good, I'm glad. I think this could be good for Sean."
"I do too." Robert looked over at Andre, "So what have the two of you been talking about?"
"I was telling Anna that the fact Alex asked what he did to her, even without naming Peter means she is at least aware that someone has been messing with her in some way and that should help with this moving forward."
"That's good, right. If we can prove Peter has been using mind control on Alex he might be the one sitting in prison instead of Alex." He looked at Anna, "Sorry." Peter might be Alex's son, Anna's nephew but if they are right and he has used Alex in the way they now think he did, Robert has no use for the man at all and that has nothing to do with the fact he is Cesar Faison's son.
"Don't be, if we're right Peter is the one that deserves to be in prison."
Andre could tell this was a touchy subject for them. "Well, I don't know what else I can tell you tonight but I do want to talk to Alex tomorrow."
"You will. Meet us at the same time tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah," Andre turned and walked to the door, "See you in the morning."
Once they were alone Anna leaned against Robert, "I don't want to talk about any of this for the rest of the night."
Robert nodded and kissed her head, "What will we do with ourselves for the rest of the evening then?"
"There is a nice big tub with jets, that is just calling out to us to relax in it."
"There is that. I think a bottle of wine is a must."
"This is sounding better and better." Anna looked up and touched his cheek, he looked over at her and she kissed him tenderly. "Thank you for being here for me through all of this."
"Where else would I be?" He gave her another kiss, "I love you, Anna Devane. I will always be there for you."
"I know, we will always have each other's backs. I love you too." Anna took his hand and pulled him up as she stood up. He then grabbed two glasses and a bottle of wine before following her, there would be no more working this evening.
…
When Alex was led down a different hall the next day for her visit she was a little confused. Then she was shown into a room, with the word therapist on the door. She was about to ask what was going on but then she saw Anna Robert and a man she didn't know all in the room.
"Hello Alex," Anna said as soon as her sister looked at her.
"What is this?" she asked as the door was closed behind her.
"I'd like to introduce you to Andre Maddox. He is here to help us, moving forward."
He held out his hand, "Hello Alex," he said when she shook it.
"I thought this would be easier in a setting like this than in the visiting rooms," Robert offered. He had called Frisco as well the night before. After hearing him out Frisco had agreed to set this up for them. He wanted to get to the bottom of what had really gone on almost as much as Robert and Anna did.
"Andre is here to help you figure out what has been going on and make sense of what I think even what you're not sure of."
Alex nodded slowly, she understood what Anna was trying to say without having to come right out and say it. To find out what all Peter had done to her. Oh, how she hated thinking that. Believing that, but the more she had let herself really think about this the more certain she had become. Her son has been doing things to manipulate her, he had used the skills his father had taught him on her to get what he needed from her. "How do we start?" she asked relaxing a little. This was a better setting for what she thinks will be happening now.
"Let's just talk for a little while this morning," Andre said. "Get to know a little about each other, and what we want to accomplish here."
"Alright."
"I want you to be comfortable with all of this." Andre told her a little about himself and how he knew Anna and Robert then he asked. "I assume you want Anna here during this." Alex nodded. "Is it alright that Robert is here as well?"
"I want Anna here and I'm scared that things will come out that she will need Robert for." Alex nervously fidgetted, she put her hand to her mouth. What all had Peter done? What all did she do because of her son? "I want them both here. They should both hear whatever we find out first hand."
"Alright, why don't we all get comfortable?" There were two armchairs facing each other as well as a couch along one wall. Alex took a deep breath then sat in the armchair facing away from the couch. Anna took Robert's hand and led him to sit there. Anna knew Alex might want them in the room but that didn't mean she could look at her while doing this.
Andre started by asking Alex to tell him about finding out about Peter and how they met and got to know each other. He asked her to explain how they became close, how she told him about giving him up. They went on and Alex told him about finding out about Anna and helping her. When Andre asked her about Demitri Alex said she didn't want to talk about him.
"Why don't you want to talk about Demitri?" he asked.
"He's not part of this, we're talking about Peter."
"We're talking about you and the people in your life."
"I don't want to talk about Demitri." She put her head down, "It hurts too much." They all heard the pain in her voice.
"Alright, maybe after you know me better we can come back and talk about that relationship. It was an important part of your life but I want you to feel comfortable talking to me."
"I miss him all the time. I don't want to talk about him because it just makes me miss him more."
"Alright," he reached out and touched her hand, Alex looked up at him. "We want to know what was done to you, that's all."
"All Demitri did was love me," she put her head down again and sighed. "He never knew about Peter, I couldn't tell anyone about my son. No one could know I was Peter's mother."
"And that is because of the money you stole right?" Andre asked.
"Yes, I stole a little over a million dollars from Cesar Faison the night I bedded him to steel DVX secrets for the WSB. I was fifteen years old and I thought it was my ticket out of what my aunt had planned for my life." She sighed, "It was a curse."
"You were just a child, I understand why you did what you did."
"Do you?" She looked up at him. "I was ordered to do whatever it took to get information from an evil man by the woman that raised me."
"You did what you had to but you were hoping for something better. You were just a kid and I'm sure you were scared." Andre and Alex talked about that night and her giving up Peter for adoption for a little while, when he felt she knew he understood her motives Andre moved on. "How old was Peter when you first saw him?"
"I think he was about sixteen. It was actually while he was going to university that he approached me, that he found out I was his mother." They talked for quite some time about Peter and how their relationship had evolved. How he had slowly started opening up to her about what it had been like being raised by Faison. Peter knew Faison was alive even when the rest of the world believed he was dead. Peter was never comfortable with people knowing who his mother was. He would always say it would put Alex in danger if the truth came out. She went on talking about Peter after he had finished school and going to work for his father. She hated that Peter couldn't seem to separate himself from his father even as an adult.
Then they talked about Alex finding Anna and about her helping her, getting her the proper treatment. About Anna getting her memory back and how happy Alex had been for her when Robin had shown up, how heartbreaking it was when Anna remembered Robert and believed she had lost him forever.
When they got close to talking about the time when Alex's marriage had ended she got quiet and stopped answering his questions as openly. Andre didn't want to push her, he already knew she didn't want to talk about Demitri. "Where was Peter in 2010?" he asked.
"He was working for one of Faison's businesses, he wanted to leave and start his own business. I think that was around the time he started talking about that," Alex answered.
"When did you agree to do the memory mapping?" He looked over at Anna, "Your memory was tampered with in late 2010. I have a lot of Cabit's records now and that's what it says."
"About a month before Anna was brought in. Peter explained what was going to be done and why it was important research."
"When did that happen?" Anna asked. "How was I brought in?"
"I believe it was a false lead that brought you to London. Peter did something so you wouldn't remember being drugged and taken. With what we were doing Peter told me Anna couldn't know about what we were doing." She looked over her shoulder at her sister, "I am so sorry about all of this." Anna just nodded, at this point, she just wanted to know what and how things had been done to her and Alex.
"Were you a willing participant?"
"Yes, I just thought it was an experiment. I never thought anyone would know anything about what was done. I thought I was just helping Peter with a new business venture. I wanted to help him because I thought it meant he would be getting away from Faison so I wanted him to succeed." Alex went on to explain how she thought she was helping Peter. That she never knew about the other people that were experimented on. She had no idea about Drew Cain or Jason Morgan and what all had been done to them until hearing about it in the news.
Andre realized they had been talking for about five hours. "I think that is enough for today. Tomorrow I want to start working on finding out what else has been going on with you. I may need to use hypnosis on you. Is that something you are willing to try?"
"Yes. I need to know what was done," she paused, "to me, by my son." She let out a breath, Alex knew it was true Peter had been using her and it was time to find out exactly what he had done. What she had done.
Anna got up and walked over to her, touching her shoulder. Alex turned and looked at her then stood up so they could hug. Anna knew this couldn't be easy for Alex, she is now admitting that her own son has been using her. They will get answers but how hard was this going to be on Alex. What were they going to find out now? Anna didn't need to say anything, she just held her sister.
Alex stepped back and looked Anna in the eyes. "I want to make this right. I want to help the people he has hurt."
"The first step is finding what he did to you, let's start with that," Anna said with a little grin and Alex nodded then turned.
"Am I going back to my cell now? I think I actually want to lie down for a little while. This was harder than I expected it to be."
"We are just getting started but I know once we are it won't take long to get to the bottom of all of this," Andre said as he stood as well.
"I hope you're right," Alex said, then looked at Anna and Robert who had joined her. "I wanted to believe the best in him, but I also ignored that he is very much his father's son." She hated admitting this, it hurt to know her son is like that monster but she wasn't helping anyone including Peter by continuing to protect him.
"I know this isn't easy but thank you for doing it," Robert said.
"I want to make this right."
"That's all we can ask for," Anna said as she took Robert's arm. "We have to go but we will be back again tomorrow and every step of the way."
"Thank you." Just then the door opened and a guard stepped into the room to lead Alex back to her cell.
After a moment the other left as well, none of them talking much. Andre excused himself as soon as they were outside. He had a lot of work he wanted to do now. Alex had been very open and there were a few things she had said that concerned him. He needed to think about his plan of action knowing they all just wanted to know what had happened.
Once they were back in their room Robert took Anna's hand, she looked up at him. "I don't know if this will fix anything. I don't know if this will clear Alex of the charges against her but I do believe this will help both you and Alex. I believe that your sister wants to be the woman she set out to be years ago."
"That's all I want for her. I want her to be that person I knew. That proud woman that had built a life for herself and became a successful doctor."
"You also want your sister back."
"If that happens I will be very happy but all I am hoping for is to know the truth." She turned and looked around the room. "What are we doing now, I don't want to talk about Alex any more today."
"I can think of a few fun ways to pass our time," Robert said with a little grin.
"I like how you're thinking, Scorpio." Then she leaned in and kissed him. "Feed me first then I'm all yours." Robert laughed and gave her another quick kiss then turned and picked up the phone to order room service. It's time to put the day behind them.