6

According to the book, Justin discovered that more than a few of the family's more distant relatives were famous Hollywood celebrities. Brad Pitt, Jessie McCartney, Reese Witherspoon, Justin Bieber, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise and Salma Hayek to name a few, and several others not so famous had been involved in some famous historical events. He had a great uncle who was on the Lewis and Clark expedition, an aunt who was on the Titanic, a cousin who was blamed for both the San Francisco Fire and the Old Seattle Fire and another cousin who had worked as a chef in the White House for Presidents Zachary Taylor to Ulysses S. Grant. There was also a bit of history on the mansion. Originally named Stoddard House, the structure had been built by Gregory Robert Bradford in 1848, his own mortal grandfather, for a munitions industrialist named Walter Lord, but after Lord's death, Peter Bradford Troy acquired it for Donna after the turn of the century and lost it during the Great Depression. The Troy family had sold the estate after the stock market had crashed in the Thirties, instead moving to live out west in California during World War Two. After sitting empty for forty years, Donna finally got it back in the Late Eighties, about the time William was born while she was stuck in the house by a snowstorm that left her alone for a month and a half. The only question was… was Justin really that child?

"Are you reading that book again?"

Justin jumped from surprise from the chair.

"Did I scare you?" Lisa stood before her brother in a form fitting black sweater and blue jeans. Her bright blue eyes twinkled and her captivating grin illuminating her flawless movie star-like good looks. She tilted her head to one side as her long brown hair cascaded over one shoulder.

"I was just…." Justin closed the book, palmed it along it's binding and nervously postured with his head before her. "You know… refreshing myself on our relatives. I mean… we got a big family reunion coming…"

"Yeah, well…" Lisa came gliding up further as she gazed deeply into his big brown eyes. "I can't believe you'd need reminding. You updated the book."

"What?"

"You're the one who updated it." Lisa pointed to the updated version from 2000 with gold-ended pages and the white leather cover resting on the mantel over the fireplace in the room. A green satin ribbon parted through the center of the book between the bios for Michael Clinton Odinson and Michelle Deianeira Odinson. It was a larger thicker version of the first edition. Justin glanced toward it and back to Lisa. Her head tilted to one side, she looked at Justin in a curious state; her gaze looking him up and over and then leaning in to analyze every feature of his face. "Mom asked you to do it…" She reminded him.

"Is there a problem?" Justin pressed the older edition back to its place on the shelf, crossed his arms before his chest and scowled at her suspicious activity.

"Oh…" Lisa's hand gestured casually. "Kristy got this crazy idea that you're an imposter or something…" Lisa stepped back and shifted her weight to her other leg. "She said you were checking her out?"

"Where'd she get that idea?" Justin reacted nervously afraid. Was his presence in this house exposed?

"Where does she get her ideas?" Lisa responded annoyingly with her head shaking in short annoyed movements. "She still thinks the refrigerator is run by faeries!"

Justin chuckled under breath. Admittedly, there were parts of this family he liked, but over all, he just wanted to go home.

"By the way," Lisa acted as if she was dusting and preening Justin. "Grandma arrived with Aunt Cyndi and Aunt Paula, and they all want to see how tall and handsome the man of the house has become…" She grinned mischievously and turned away. "But since there's no such person, you'll have to take his place."

"What?" Justin screeched as she turned away giggling for the stairs in the hallway. Was Lisa being facetious or did she know otherwise? Could she have figured out that he was out he was not the person he was supposed to be? He couldn't take that chance. He started for the back way through the kitchen then heard voices in the kitchen coming through and instead followed Lisa's footsteps into the hallway and started quickening his steps into the great foyer, but he was not fast enough. More voices came from the dining room far across from him and he looked up like a deer in headlights. As Donna Troy guided her mother and sisters around the various renovations, Justin recognized his grandmother and knew who she had without a doubt. She had been born Mary Elizabeth Jean Odinson in Eleventh Century England, and she had used the alias Norma Jean Baker during the Second World War. During the Fifties and Sixties, she was known to the public as Marilyn Monroe, wrapping that mortal existence with a fake death scene and favors with the help of President John F. Kennedy. Who knew that that Hollywood sex symbol was actually a demigoddess far older than she appeared? She must have stopped aging at thirty-five. Her bright blonde hair was short and vivacious, framing a bright red beaming grin and her blue aristocratic eyes, which twinkled with the stars of the sky at night. She was a photo brought to life. Her vivacious childlike demeanor had not faded, her figure shaped by a three-piece pink jacket, vest and skirt combo. Accompanied by three of her four daughters, all resembling three certain pop stars from the Eighties, she admired the grandness and austerity of the mansion. Petite and brunette, Aunt Paula was a shapely beauty in a black blouse and brown slacks and jacket. The former choreographer now taught dance out in California. Just as petite and just a bit more slender, Aunt Cyndi wore a black shoulderless top that showed off her figure with a form fitting blue skirt that extended down to her knees. She looked exactly like the vivacious Chicago socialite known for tabloid exploits with all of Hollywood's top leading single men. Her voice cackled at one of Paula's comments about Donna's taste in furnishings. Rolling her eyes to her mother, Donna just happened to casually look aloft from a brief memory and noticed Justin, quickly waving him over with her left hand with tasteful decorum.

"William, darling…" Donna gestured her son closer. "Your grandmother would like to see you again."

"I can't… you see, I've got…" Justin tried hurrying off, but Donna came after him, corralled him with her arm around him to guide him back to the other side of the foyer.

"Who's this?" Marilyn asked in her honeyed voice.

"Mother, this is William…" Donna held Justin in place. "You haven't seen him since he was eleven, but…"

"That's not William." Donna's sister, Cyndi, reacted confused and saw through the veil of magic.

"What are you talking about?"

Justin froze; his feet freezing to the spot and his eyes frightfully peering from them and back to the entryway.

"That's not William." Donna's other sister Paula also noticed and passed her fingers over her sister's eyes to remove the illusion she was seeing. Donna looked again and realized she did not know the young man she was embracing and jumped back in shock. Her son was a tall, good-looking young man with her eyes and his father's steely grin. This young man pretending to be him was just barely the same size but leaner in build. The imposture was over.

"What? How… Who are you?" Donna Troy was taken aback both shocked and embarrassed as she looked back and again unprepared; her open lips too stunned for words upon discovering this deception. "Where's my son and why are you trying to be him?"

"That is a very good question!" Justin stood terrified for his life. "You see, I'm, uh… uh, who am I? Oh yeah… Justin Russo, and, uh, uh…"

"Watch what you say next, junior…." Paula folded her arms before her chest. "You've got four very ticked off demigoddesses here very fluent in sorcery."

"Sorcery?" Justin's voice went up a few octaves.

"Where is my son?" Donna Troy's angry voice stirred up thunder off the Atlantic coast as she spoke.

"I don't know!" Justin backed way and fell into the bench at the bottom of the grand staircase, but in his terrified thoughts, he started figuring everything out in his head. "Wait! I've got a very good idea where he is!"

"This better be good!"