CHAPTER 8: Telltale Memories

LEX´S PENTHOUSE

The drive from the middle-class neighbourhood where Chloe had settled down when she moved back to the big city had been fast and completely silent. Hardly had Chloe climbed into the silver Porsche and buckled up than they were speeding across Metropolis in the direction of the expensively pretentious LuthorCorp-owned building where Lex resided whenever he wasn´t doing business abroad.

Although she had never set foot in the apartment, the large living-room was exactly like she had pictured it in her mind- cold, sterile and impersonal. There seemed to be nothing of Lex-the man- in it, nothing that could give the impression the penthouse was anything other than a convenient pied-à-terre. However, that impression changed when the billionaire took a key out of his pocket and unlocked a polished mahogany door that led into what must be his private den, his refuge to get away from the life he had tried to leave behind when he moved to rural Kansas. Everything was made of the best-quality wood and crafted by the most exquisite artisans- the walls were covered by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and, in front of the panoramic window which overlooked the city and the green plains in the distance, there was a beautiful solid oak desk. Chloe loved the smell of timber, wax and old books which mingled with his own heady masculine cologne. The study was an unexpected surprise and the view from the window, breathtaking.

"A few months ago a package arrived at the mansion, " said Lex briskly as he sat on his swivel chair and unlocked the top drawer of his desk. "The new owners of my grandparents´ farm in Montana were doing some recycling and they came across a few belongings of my mum´s in the attic. They thought I might like to have them, so they politely sent them to me with a very courteous letter. Inside the package I found an old volume of Scottish poetry and a photo album recording all our holidays together on the farm," he added in a voice charged with emotion. "It´s all I´ve got left of my mother apart from the watch I always wear around my wrist. He burnt everything that could remind him of her when we got back from the funeral," he continued, leafing through the album until he got to the page he was looking for and stopped. "There was one photo which captured my attention because it was older and because it was obvious it hadn´t been taken in Montana. She looked happy and relaxed- the way she used to only when he was away on business and we had all the time to ourselves; but I wasn´t in the picture. Is this the man... Iaian Grierson? " he asked Chloe, handing her the photo.

"He looks younger, but yes I´d say it´s the same man," she responded, resting her eyes on the top of Lex´s head while he perused the old book in his hands.

"He must have given her this as a gift- it´s dedicated," he murmured before reaching a bookmarked poem. "She seemed to have a special fondness for this passage:

A slender crosslet formed with care

A cubit´s length in measure due

The shafts and limbs were roads of yew

Whose parents in Inch Cailliach wave

Their shadows o´er Clan Alpine´s grave,

And, answering Lomond´s breezes deep,

Soothe many a chieftain´s endless sleep. "

"Sir Walter Scott´s `The Lady of the Lake´, " responded Chloe with a smile.

"You know your British literature, Chloe," he said with the ghost of a smile." My mother loved Scotland, that´s why he had the castle brought stone by stone all the way from the shores of Loch Lomond- the lake mentioned by Scott. It was his wedding gift- a very pretentious one. You know, my mother said... when I talked to her at the hospital... that I just had to be patient, that all the answers would come to me when the time was right. The Clan of MacAlpin- the first King of Scotland- was the clan of the MacGregors. Grierson is but a sept of this clan."

"This photo was taken in January 1979, according to what´s printed on the back. It doesn´t say where, but there´s a lake in the background. Weren´t you curious to know more when you got the album?"

"I was too busy with my crumbling marriage and trying to find out who was penetrating LuthorCorp compounds around the world to worry about an old picture."

"When did your mother marry Lionel?"

"They married on February 1st 1979 after she came back from a two-month tour of the Scottish lakes," he replied. "I was born a little under nine months later- which leaves a very narrow margin. He must have suspected something and in true Luthor-fashion dug up until he found out the truth."

"Why did she marry Lionel if she was in love with another man... if she was carrying someone else´s child?"

I should have protected you and told him the truth before it was too late. Things would have been so different if I had... if he had, at least, known.

"My guess is she must have found out she was pregnant soon before the wedding," responded Lex, remembering Lillian´s words at the hospital and realising she hadn´t been talking about Lionel but his real dad. Although she had discovered she was expecting before marrying Lionel, she hadn´t told her lover about the baby- a fact that she never forgave herself- and Lex thought he knew why. "My grandmother hated the Luthors. I remember overhearing arguments between her and my grandfather... she wanted mum to leave Lionel and bring me to live with them in Montana. Grandma said it´d been a mistake, that they should have found another way... I wasn´t old enough to understand the ups and downs of national and international economy then. It had been a marriage of convenience- Lionel had the money to help them out, and my mum had the right breeding and connections; plus, he was smitten by her looks. My mother loved her parents dearly and she wasn´t a strong person- she wasn´t determined enough to oppose either them or the mighty Lionel Luthor."

"Do you resent her for what she did now that you know the truth?"

"Part of me wants to, but I´ve spent too much of my life living in the past. I don´t know if I´ll ever be able to fully forgive her but... "

"Is it at least a consolation to know he wasn´t your father?"

"It certainly lifts a heavy burden from my shoulders. It explains a lot- why he was so obsessed with Julian, why he cloned him and he went out of his way to show me I could never be enough in his eyes. He gave my mother the chance to fix things by giving him a son. Julian had been his true first-born and heir, but when she smothered the baby he was stuck with the bastard son of a wife he loved to distraction but who didn´t love him back. Not even Lucas was good enough- he was a Luthor but he had the misfortune of not sharing Lillian´s blood. If you ever feel like writing a soap opera, Chloe, I´ll give you the rights. You´ll have to change the names to protect the innocent, though," he laughed ironically.

"Lex, " she interrupted him with concern in her voice, "I´m sorry."

"Why? Why should you feel sorry for being the bearer of the greatest news I´ve ever got in my life?"

"I wish I could tell you more about him," she gulped, giving the photo back to him," but I came against a brick wall."

"I know enough and I know where to start," he told her calmly. "Have you got your papers in order?"

"Excuse me?" frowned Chloe.

"Your passport?" he cocked an eyebrow.

"I used it once to visit Canada with Lois and my uncle during the hunting season. Why?"

"Johnson, get the jet ready. We´ll meet you at the airfield in forty-five minutes," he ordered his pilot on the mobile." Will that give you enough time to pack and grab your passport, Miss Sullivan?"

"What about Lucas and the estate attorneys?"

"They´ll be waiting here till we come back. Don´t worry, Chloe. I know for a fact Lucas is busy in Atlanta betting his monthly cheque. They have orders to draw him another for ten grand if he asks for it. After all, it´s his money, isn´t it?"

"I suppose so," she shrugged her shoulders.

"We´re leaving for Scotland, then," he finished, pressing a button under his desk, which revealed a hidden safe behind one of the bookshelves." Pack light. You´ll get a new wardrobe, courtesy of LuthorCorp," he smirked, taking a couple of wads.

"Lex, about that..." began Chloe.

"We´ll talk about it later, Chloe."