Chapter Five
Vancouver, Canada
It was late and dark and the rain pounded against the windows.
A loud knock on the door carried over the noise of the rain.
She ignored it, hoping it would go away.
Instead, whoever was outside knocked again. Louder this time, banging against the door.
She got up to answer it, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Mummy...here!" Liam's voice called to her from hallway. "Mummy, stay here!"
She opened the door and gasped when she saw his face.
"You didn't think you could run from me forever, did you? Did you really think you were communicating with a stem cell researcher?" The creases on his pockmarked skin deepened when he spotted Liam standing behind her. "You know what happens when you play with fire too often, Alexandra. You get burned. First you play me for a fool then you steal what's mine. This time you went too far."
Alex slammed the door, but he was too fast. He was already inside.
Cesar Faison was standing in her hallway.
Her heart pounded, her limbs immobile.
"Maria, take Liam! Take him and run!"
She saw the gun in his hand. The hatred in his eyes when he raised it towards her.
"You can't protect him if you're dead, Alexandra."
She threw herself at him, but it was too late. He already pulled the trigger.
"No..."
It couldn't end like this. Not like this. She couldn't die having failed her son.
She couldn't die before she had a chance to see Dimitri and Andrei one last time.
"Alejandra?"
Alex jumped back in shock at the old woman's touch.
She realized that she was in the living room, half-sitting on her couch. Her heart was racing and she felt uncomfortably hot. Like she was suffocating.
"You had a dream, that's all," Maria assured her.
Alex must not have looked convinced because Maria repeated herself.
"You fell asleep here, after you come back from the park with Liam. He fell asleep upstairs and you here, on the sofa. Then you had a dream. It's okay." Her face was calm and reassuring.
Alex bit her lip guiltily. Maria was calm because she'd been through this before. More than once. "I'm sorry..."
"Why? Is not your fault." The old woman sat down next to her and ran a hand along the back of Alex's hair, before gently moving a strand away from her face. "If one day you don't wake up, then I promise I will be mad at you."
Alex took a deep breath, trying to keep from hyperventilating.
It's okay. You did a background check on Levy Rosenberg. You even called his supposed office in California from a pay phone to verify his existence. And there's no way Faison could correspond with you about this kind of research with that kind of knowledge. No way.
"Can I bring you something to drink?"
Alex nodded, noticing only now that her cheeks were wet too. "Please..."
She cupped her forehead in her hands. She felt drained, as always, after a nightmare.
Who are you kidding to think you can return to the land of living, like a normal person. Normal people don't take a nap and wake up screaming. Why would you even think to put the man you love through this again? Let him love someone who's not nuts.
The thought gave her a morbid smile.
What kind of physician uses the term nuts?
"It's okay," Maria answered, handing her a glass of water.
Alex didn't think she'd spoken the last words aloud. But she must have.
"I have seen crazier people than you. Mucho mas loco."
Alex gave her a lopsided smile. "Thanks."
Batuyan Islands, Philippines
Cesar Faison took a drag of his cigarillo as the ocean waves lapped at his feet.
He was seated on a lounge chair on the beach that ran along the front of his island home.
It wasn't just his beach. It was his island.
The tropics weren't really his cup of tea. Never had been. Too warm, bright and sunny.
But he was getting used to it. He had come to a point in his life where the cold and damp weather of northern Europe was starting to bother his joints.
'I'm getting old,' he thought wryly, hating the thought.
Besides, most of his business ventures were in the East now, along with the economic future of the planet. It made sense for him to be here. At the heart of it all, yet at the same time away from it all.
Behind the colonial beach house was a landing strip where a gulfstream jet could take him to Taipei or Hong Kong in just over an hour.
Faison wore a dark, short-sleeved shirt and linen pants, one foot resting on the pristine, white sand below, the other one on his chair. It was as casual as he allowed himself to be.
There were half a dozen newspapers on the rattan table next to the chair. Much as Faison profited from modern technology, when it came to personal knowledge, he preferred digesting it in the form of the printed word rather than the pixel.
Faison put out his cigar, discarded his copy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine and picked up The Times just as Jan came running out of his house.
"Sir, you left your cellular phone inside the house, Mr. Cheng is on the other line. He says it is urgent he speak with you..."
Faison raised a brow. Annoyed.
"Didn't I say I wish to not be disturbed? I haven't had a chance to go through my papers yet."
"He...he says it's urgent."
Faison sighed and looked at his assistant, wondering if there was ever a moment when Jan didn't look tense, frazzled and slightly ill at ease. If there was he hadn't seen it yet. Normally he wouldn't tolerate this kind of questioning. But this was Jan after all. His patience and appreciation for him was growing with time.
"Tell him I'm not available," he said softly.
Jan nodded. He wore a three-piece suit and there were several beads of sweat running along his hairline. "Yes, sir."
Faison listened as Jan informed Cheng that his boss had taken the boat out to go fishing.
Faison cringed after his assistant ended the call. "Fishing?"
Jan blushed. "Sorry. It was the first thing that came to mind."
Faison open The Times, starting at the end, as he liked to do, preferring to save the main course once he was deeper into the publication. He was surprised at the first picture that caught his eye. "Take a look at this," he told Jan. "Look familiar?"
Jan squinted his eyes and adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses. "Dimitri Marick?"
"He's at Ascot, with a woman." He stared at the photo, examining her. She was tall, pretty and blonde. She fit in well with the beautiful society crowd that surrounded her. "She suits her surroundings better than Alexandra. But I think Alexandra was a better fit for Dimitri than this..." He searched for the name. "This Helen Reed." Faison smiled. "I feel as though the Hungarian Count is better suited to having someone as dark, brooding and tortured as himself in his castle. This woman looks entirely too...happy." He uttered the last word with disdain.
Jan said nothing. Faison knew he was humouring him.
"We still have a credit card trail on Marick, don't we?" Faison asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Anything unusual?"
Jan shook his head. "Nothing. He keeps his time between London and his estate in Hungary. He buys an occasional thoroughbred along with an expensive suit. That's all."
"I'm curious to know what happened to Alexandra, Jan," he admitted. "She disappeared from the face of the Earth after escaping from Alexei Estate. If I didn't know that Scorpio was now in Rwanda, I'd say she walked off into the sunset with him. I'm disappointed that we don't know what's happened to her."
"I think...it's best we don't bother with her anymore."
Faison smiled. Jan rarely voiced an opinion but there was no doubting how much he wanted his boss to stay away from the Scorpios. Faison knew that his love of Anna stressed his assistant like nothing else in this world.
"Don't worry," he assuaged him. "I could care less about Alexandra Marick. I want to know only to satisfy my curiosity." He took another look at the photograph of her husband. "But I won't lie to you and say that Anna Devane isn't in my thoughts every single day."
Jan swallowed, a notch paler after that confession.
Faison chuckled. "It's mad, isn't it?" He pointed at the photograph. "Dimitri Marick only needed two years to get over Alexandra and I still can't let go of Anna after more than two decades."
Vancouver, Canada
"I see you've worked in a clinic before?" the old Arab doctor asked her a second time, glancing at her doctored resume. His thick, dark hair was peppered with white and his demeanour surprisingly relaxed, given the loud, jam-packed waiting room. "You're also a certified nursing aide?"
"Yes," Alex nodded.
"This is a small, busy place and we're open 24 hours. I run it at night, so you will be working with me. It's rare that I'm here during the day," he explained in flawless English as he ushered her into his office. "There will be times when you'll need to do more than just register the patients. You'll need to help stock the cabinets, clean the exam rooms and help the RN on duty with basic procedures. Stitching up the UDs mostly..."
"The what?"
"Undesirables," he explained, mildly apologetic. "The homeless. Not very PC, I know...but you noticed what neighbourhood we're in."
'The infamous East Side,' Alex thought. The only place where she'd seen a decently paying job that she might be able to wing with her new resume.
She was still just beginning to get to know her new home town, but already she was well aware of the East Side. It was hard to pick up a daily paper without finding an article about it. It was Vancouver's most notorious neighbourhood. Known mostly for its embarrassingly visible drug problem. And partly for the ensuing sex trade and poverty it spawned. The constant rain made the area's worn down, warehouse-style buildings look even more glum than they already were.
"Look, I'm going to be blunt with you," he added, not unkindly. "The majority of our patients are victims of violence or drug abuse or life on the street. It's not pretty."
Even so the doctor had a smile that was disarming and Alex liked that despite its location, the clinic was clean, bright and full of little human touches. A vase with fresh flowers sat on a window sill. A bowl of apples on the counter. A wall full of children's drawings.
It was a bleak place in a bleak neighbourhood, but it was run by someone who gave a damn in spite of it. An idealist.
Alex mustered a smile. There were too many cynics in the world. It was nice to think the old Arab wasn't one of them. "Alright, I'll be blunt with you too then. I'm English. I'm new here and I need Canadian experience. I daresay I'm overqualified for this job, but I need it, and I'd like you to give me a chance."
This time Dr. Ahmad Hussain laughed. "Ah...an immigrant. We have to work twice as hard, eh? To be considered half as good. But as a woman you're used to that, no?" He paused. "It's not always fair...but when I see I'm giving my children a chance to grow up in a country without war, where everybody has the same rights and the same chances to succeed. Then I think it's worth it. Many, many times over. Do you have children?"
"Yes." Alex paused. "I have... two sons."
"Then you know that we do everything for them, Mrs. Merrick, I will check your references today. You'll need to take a drug test as well. If everything is fine you can start yesterday."
"A drug test?"
The old doctor frowned. "Our last receptionist had an opiate addiction that we didn't clue in on until several dozen bottles of Vicodin went missing. It's standard now."
Alex nodded. "I see."
"Are you taking any medication?"
Alex shook her head, happy to give him her second honest answer of the day. "No." The drug test wouldn't be a problem. The references on the other hand...
Pine Valley, PA
"You're not joining us?" David asked her, surprised, as he buttoned up a short sleeved shirt. "Breakfast at IHOP with the girls? Since when do you willingly miss out on that?" He pressed a hand against her forehead. "Are you sick?"
Anna winced. "No...just..."
David frowned, serious now. "Headache?"
Anna nodded.
"Migraine?"
"It's getting there..."
His frown deepened. "It's been a while..."
"I think I'm overdue."
He moved to close the blinds for her. "Stay here and rest then. I'll take Leah and Mel somewhere else after breakfast."
Anna bit her lip. It wasn't what she had in mind. In fact, she was looking forward to spending time with both of them after she was done with her task. "You don't have to do that..."
"It's better for you if the cabin is quiet," he insisted. "And Patsy's not coming to get Mel until later today anyway."
Anna sighed. "You don't need to..."
He'd already left the room and came back with a jug of water that he put down on the bedside stand, along with a small container of prescription tablets. "In case you need them," he explained. He also placed her Blackberry next to it. "Call me, if you need me."
Anna had to hold back a chuckle. "Yes, doc."
He bent down to give her a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too," she whispered, reaching up to kiss him back.
"Feel better, okay?"
She sunk back into her pillow. "Thanks. Tell the girls I'm sorry."
Anna stared at the ceiling, listening to the noise outside, cringing guiltily when she heard David tell Leah, that, no she couldn't go upstairs to say bye to Mommy, just in case she was already sleeping. She propped herself up on her elbow, staring at a photo of the four of them, Leah, David, Robin and Anna, next to the pitcher of water David had brought her.
It had been taken by an exasperated professional photographer, because David had insisted he wanted a portrait of their family before Robin took off for Africa, and, preferably before Leah started high school. Leah had been unable to sit still that afternoon, and nearly every picture the photographer had taken that day was of Leah's face as a blur.
That is until Leah spotted a piano in the room next door and plopped herself down on its chair, entranced by the ebony and ivory keys, pressing down on each one of them with great care and deliberation.
The photographer made them move over to the piano and one of Anna's favourite photographs was one with Leah's face etched in concentration as she played the piano for the first time. They bought one shortly after, not only because Leah loved it but because it gave David a chance to play again too.
David often neglected his musical talents. It was a shame, because he played very well. On the rare occasion he sat down to play an entire sonata, it reminded her of a day over three years ago, when he'd been playing a hotel piano and Anna was about to kick him out for trespassing. She'd been pregnant with Leah then and he'd convinced her to sit down next to him so he could play her a song.
It was a beautiful piece. Mozart he'd explained. Anna didn't know much about music, but she knew that every time David insisted on playing something just for her, it made her fall in love with him a little more. He played the piano the same way that he operated on his patients, and the same way he loved her and Leah. He did it with all his heart.
She stared at the water and the pills on the night table stand, feeling bad for her ruse. He always worried when she had a migraine. Maybe it was his ability as a physician to envision some horrible neurological consequences that would never occur to Anna.
For that reason, unless it was bad enough to make it obvious, Anna generally didn't tell him when she did get one. She knew that following her head injuries on the tanker explosion all those years ago, she'd never be entirely rid of them, but for now she was grateful they didn't plague her with the same frequency that they used to. David was right about one thing. Stress made them worse, and, much as she hated to admit it, she had to make a conscious effort to avoid it.
Anna waited another fifteen minutes before getting up. Just in case he forgot something.
Then she made her way into his study and sat down across from his desk top computer.
So you lie to him, in order to find out whether he's lying. Hypocrite.
His e-mail was password protected but it didn't take Anna long to figure it out.
"Jesus Christ, David. My name and Leah's birthday? Really? For such a celebrated ex-schemer you do a lousy job of covering your tracks. I should have taught you better than that." She smiled. "Or maybe not."
Her eyes scanned the screen. The first few were obviously from Seaview Hospital and she didn't bother opening them. A couple looked like spam and she ignored those as well. There were a few from names she didn't recognize, including a Levy Rosenberg.
She opened the first unread e-mail that caught her eye.
-I mentioned to her that I'll be at the Seattle conference. But I won't mention the idea of meeting up for another couple of e-mails, 'cause you said you didn't want to spook her. I have to confess, I'm starting to consider meeting up with her myself. I sent her part of my latest project and she pointed out something that I hadn't noticed! Something that could even change the test results! Can you believe it?
Anna frowned. There was no salutation, no signature, no mention of who 'she' was. Obviously the recipient was implicitly familiar with both the sender and the topic.
"Bizarre..."
Anna closed the e-mail and marked it as unread.
She scrolled down and went through a few more that were obviously work related.
Then she saw another, older one also from Levy Rosenberg that made her eyes widen.
-I set up correspondence with Alexia Merrick. What else do you want me to do?
Alexia Merrick?
"What the...?"
Anna hastily read the other e-mails from Rosenberg but there was no mention of the name again. From what Anna deducted David was trying to set up a meeting with this Alexia, using Rosenberg as an intermediary. There was another e-mail to someone else asking to locate her and the response was Vancouver.
Anna's breathing quickened. "You're trying to meet up with a woman in Canada. A researcher, whose name is almost identical to my sister's..."
None of it made sense. Was it even possible?
Did you find Alex?
Anna couldn't wrap her mind around the possibility that David might have tracked down her sister without mentioning it to her.
I spend every free moment for two years trying to find her. You know that. You know I'd give anything just to know that she's okay... you couldn't possibly have found a lead and not told me. The man I know and love wouldn't do that to me...
Anna felt a teardrop rolling down her face.
Alex...are you really alive, sis?
It took every ounce of willpower for her not to pick up the phone and call David right now, demanding an explanation.
"Don't," she stopped herself. "Not when he's with the girls..."
Instead, Anna read the e-mails in disbelief for a second time. Needing to make sure she hadn't imagined what she just saw.
King Faisal Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda
Sandrine watched him as he paced, a cup of coffee in her hand.
Robert Saunders was a man who had once negotiated for her life with rebel guerrillas about to cut off her head. He'd done it with courage, icy-cool determination and nerves of steel while Sandrine had been reduced to a mess of uncontrollable tears as her life flashed before her eyes. But now her hero was the one who was a nervous wreck. One who couldn't stop circling the row of chairs in the waiting room.
Robert ran a hand through his increasingly gray hair. "What the hell is Robin doing in Kigali?"
Sandrine handed him the coffee. She'd chosen decaf for both of them this time.
"When I was with her in Paris, I remember her saying something about wanting to go to Africa, to work with AIDS victims."
"The doctor...the doctor said she's HIV positive, Sandi. But I know that's not possible. He must've made a mistake. I told him to redo the blood test."
Sandrine sighed. "Robert...please sit down for a minute."
"I can't...I can't sit. I'll go stir crazy." He glanced towards the closed door of the patient room where his daughter was lying unconscious.
"Robert, please! There's something I need to tell you." Sandrine grabbed his arm. "I can't do that when you are walking like a lion in a cage!"
Robert's blue eyes met hers, looking as helpless as she'd ever seen them. "Sandi...what am I supposed to tell her when she wakes up?"
Sandrine took his hand in hers. "Let me see her first. She recognized me, remembered me, let me talk to her first to lessen her shock."
Robert finally sat down. "I don't know if it's possible for anything to lessen her shock. Unless you tell her what she saw...it wasn't real. Maybe she still doesn't have to know..."
"Oh no! You are not leaving her this time!" Sandrine glared at him. "I don't care how much you think her life is better without you. You are going to stay here. You are going to tell her the truth. About you, and about us..." She put a hand on her pregnant belly. "About the baby brother she is going to have soon."
"Sandi, I can't..." the words nearly got caught in his throat, making them sound like a croak.
"We will find a way to tell her."
"She'll never forgive me. My daughter is going to hate me. And she has every right to hate..."
Sandrine tightened her grip on his hand. "Robin is going to find out her father is alive. Hating you is not going to be the first thing on her mind!"
Robert couldn't stay seated, in spite of her grip. "Where is that doctor with the blood tests? I thought when you pay to stay in a private part of the hospital you actually got treated with some sort of efficiency..."
"Robert, please sit down there is something else I need to tell you, about Robin and the HIV."
He looked at her puzzled. "You have something to tell me?"
"When I went to search for you in Paris, two years ago. I met Robin and Anna..."
"Yes, I know! You worked with Anna and Sean."
"One day I had to go to Anna's apartment because she left a disc there and Robin was home." Sandrine paused. There really was no way to put this gently. "There were a lot of medication containers on one counter...I assumed they belonged to Anna. She didn't look good then. She had headaches all the time. I was sure she was sick, maybe more so than she was telling anyone. I asked Robin about them...but she corrected me. She said they belonged to her, not Anna. That it was a cocktail to prevent her HIV from becoming AIDS."
"What?" Robert's face was pale. "What are you saying?"
"Robin is HIV positive. She has been for a long time."
He finally stopped pacing, his face completely devoid of colour now. "Sandi...how is that...?" He sat down, sapped of energy, as if something had struck him.
"It's not AIDS, Robert. HIV is something you can live with," she tried.
"I know what HIV is, Sandi!"
"Robin, she is healthy. She is going to be okay."
He raised his head to look at her. "My daughter's lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. How do you know if she's going to be okay?" He cupped his face in his hands, mumbling now. "Damn it...how is this possible. Robin is here doing god knows what in Africa...and she's HIV positive? I don't understand. Where the hell is Anna in all this?"
Sandrine sat down next him, hating what he was going through. "Try to be patient. I know this is hard, but when she wakes up, she is the best person to answer your questions."
Robert looked at her incredulously. "Answer my questions? I can't even begin to fathom her questions when she realizes that I've lied to her for all this time." His eyes watered. "Why didn't you tell me about the HIV?"
Sandrine took his hand into hers. "I would have if you had not decided to go to Paris two years ago, after Alex's kidnapping. You were supposed to tell her that you were alive. I thought after that she would have a chance to tell you herself. That's the way it was supposed to be."
Robert sighed. "But I came back from Paris, without having seen her...because I was too much of a coward. Because I couldn't face..."
"Stop it," Sandrine cut him off. "You are a lot of things, Robert. A coward is not one of them. Every single choice you made was because you believed that it was the best choice you could make for Robin."
"I should have had the guts to face her two years ago, like you told me to," Robert insisted. "No matter what the consequences. Even now I'm terrified of telling her the truth."
Sandrine shrugged. "Two years ago you did what you thought was best for Robin and her family. Maybe it was the best thing for her. Or maybe not. It's possible you made the wrong decision and maybe that's why you are given another chance now."
"I just don't know what's right anymore. What if every decision I made was the wrong one? Maybe she wouldn't have become infected with this disease if I had been around." Robert stared at the door that marked Robin's room. Shell-shocked. "My little girl has HIV. How...how is that possible?"
Sandrine put an arm around his shoulder and kissed his cheek. "I don't know...but when she wakes up, you and me, we're going to make sure that she will be okay."
Authors note: Sorry this one took forever to get out! Big thanks to my two awesome editors, Kel and Annie. And thanks to the readers for your patience. :)