Chapter 4

"You can't tell me there is not a high chance Nikita is actually Nayeli. Everything points to it" Brian Miller was very enthusiastic about this confirmation. He was sure he had found the right girl.

"Michael.." Birkhoff was speechless. He couldn't deny it as well. Everything lined up. Mr Miller started pulling all of the evidence that he had gathered throughout the years out on the table and it was all coming together painting a clear picture. They might have just found Nikita's real parents.

That absolutely terrified Michael. He didn't know how to handle it and what was worse is that he had no idea how Nikita would handle something like that. The couple had had a conversation about possibly trying to find her real parents again. Michael had suggested it and Nikita quickly shut him down. She was done with that chapter of her life. There was no point in being stuck in the past and what could have been. Nikita had the family she had always wanted. That was more than enough for her.

That was the one and only time they talked about her parents. That was a few years ago when they first got their freedom. Things had changed but Michael was certain that his wife's thoughts and feelings about her real parents hadn't. This new revelation was going to shake her up.

Brian Miller saw the scared face of Michael. It was a normal reaction to have so he tried to make it as simple as possible. "I know this is a lot to take in right now so I have an idea. How about we arrange a meeting for you and Nikita to meet with Anh and Edward then she can do the DNA test after that"

"No, no, no that's not happening. Do you realise what you just told us? I can't just call my wife who's 2000 miles away and tell her, Oh, by the way, I might have found your real parents. I need to talk to her in private and in person about this before doing anything else. I can't decide for her" There was no way in hell Michael would put Nikita through something like that. This was going to be on their terms and he was going to try his best to make it as easy and less painful for Nikita as possible.

"So she is really out of the country?" Brian Miller's question threw Michael off.

"Yes, I wasn't lying when I said that. Is that what you were doing at my house last night? You were waiting around for her?!" The realization made Michael absolutely livid. That crossed so many lines. "In what world did you think that was okay!"

"I wasn't obviously going to talk to her then if I saw her. I just wanted to make sure you weren't lying" Michael huffed annoyedly and tried to focus on anything out the window to calm down

"Okay, let's think about this again. As much as you and your clients won't like it Michael is right. Knowing Nikki, especially if you were to show up and start talking about her real parents, DNA tests and whatever else there is, she would probably punch you in the face to shut you up." Birkhoff saw that Michael and Brian Miller were struggling to reach a middle ground so he chimed in. It was Nikita's life they were talking about. As one of her closest friends (hell she was like his sister) he also knew how much this would affect her.

Michael smirked at the thought of Nikita punching this guy. He wouldn't stop her.

Brian Miller frowned but for the sake of his clients, he decided to listen and try to compromise. "Okay. You know her more than I do. So how about something else? I can arrange for you, Michael, to meet Anh and Edward. You can get to know them. Hear their story directly from them. So when Nikita comes back you can talk to her and tell her everything and we'll go from there."

"This sounds-" Birkhoff was cut off by Michael opposing this proposition as well. "You are missing one key thing here. We still have no solid proof that Nikita is even their daughter. I can't tell her that I have found her real parents and then later it turns out it's been a mistake."

Michael had a point yet again. Birkhoff couldn't argue against it. They needed to confirm that they were really Nikita's parents before telling her. It was a must otherwise Nikita would end up as hurt as ever about her parents' situation.

"You have my word that I am certain Nikita is their daughter"

"Your word is not enough, though" Michael needed to know this was absolutely real before bringing Nikita into this. In the back of his mind, he started playing and replaying all the possible ways that conversation could go. All of them ended with Nikita's painful expression erasing her beautiful smile, her golden brown eyes clouded by tears and..no he had to stop. He had to get back to the present and make sure that didn't happen.

"Okay then. In that case, give me something of hers we could extract DNA from. We'll do the test while she is gone. If it's confirmed that she is indeed Anh and Edward's daughter we'll proceed with my suggestion of sitting them down to talk." The room fell silent. Birkhoff looked disgusted at his suggestion. "Are you kidding me? That is so fucked up!" He looked at Michael and was shocked to see him actually thinking about it.

"Michael, I know you want to spare her this. I do too, but she will never forgive us and she will be right to do so. It's her choice" Birkhoff leaned closer to Michael and whispered. "You know I'm right and I know you would never want to do this to her"

Michael nodded slowly. His best friend was right. He himself knew he couldn't do it. It might have seemed like a better option at first but Nikita was going to be way more hurt by it. He would never go behind her back like that.

"No, we are not doing that. When Nikita comes back I'll talk to her and she will decide what to do. End of discussion" Brian Miller didn't seem too happy about that but this time Michael seemed really serious about his decision.

"Well, since you have made up your mind let me at least give you everything on the case. That way Nikita could read it all."

"That's fine yeah" Mr Miller transferred all his files on the case onto a flash drive and gave it to Michael. Michael gave him his email if there was anything else. Mr Miller gave him in return his number in case Nikita wanted to meet and talk with him. He actually strongly advised that Michael should call him when he spoke to Nikita so he could help. Michael didn't say anything. He knew he was definitely not doing that.

"So that was something" Birkhoff said as they got into the car. Michael just slumped in his seat and covered his face with his hands, groaning "What the fuck!" It was finally Michael's time to cuss. There was so much to unpack. He had no idea where to start from.

Birkhoff was as shocked as him. They both sat in the car park for a few moments in silence. Eventually, the hacker managed to let a few words slip "Let's go to mine and review everything we got. We need to do our own research"

Michael nodded. He couldn't say anything. He was feeling so many emotions all at once. He checked the time on his phone and froze when he saw Nikita had texted him hours ago. He hadn't even thought to check his phone this morning after Birkhoff came to the house. He felt himself starting to freak out. What was he supposed to tell her? How was he supposed to talk to her like nothing was going on? He took a deep breath and opened the messages.

TEXTS

Nik {3

N: Good morning! Still bummed about today :(

You better call me as soon as you get 5 minutes to yourself!

I don't care if it's from the fucking bathroom. I miss you!

Michael felt horrible. He told her he wouldn't be able to keep in touch that day just in case. He didn't want to lie to her so he figured that was the best option. He made up an excuse that he and Birkhoff were working on an upcoming project hence why he had been so busy these last couple of days. Again it was partially true but enough to satisfy Nikita.

Michael had to call her. He missed her too and wished he could just talk to her about everything. Birkhoff noticed Michael growing more and more anxious by looking at his phone "Is it Nikki?"

"Yeah and If I don't call her soon I'm pretty sure she will take the next available flight. She knows something is not right" He wouldn't put it past Nikita to do just that. If she thought something was wrong she wouldn't hesitate to come back home. Michael didn't want that. He just had to keep up the act for a few more days. Nikita was having such a good time with the girls. He was not going to be the one to put an end to that.

"Then call her when we get to the house before we start doing anything. It will be easier when your head is still not buried in all of this" Michael nodded. Birkhoff was right.

"Don't look at me like that" Michael whined at Nikita. He went to another room while Birkhoff set up everything on his computer and finally called Nikita.

"I go away for one week and you decide that all you must do is work" Nikita tried to hold her glare as much as she could but that lasted only for a few minutes. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'll make it up to you when you get back?"

"That's not even a question. You better!"

"I'm really sorry. It's just been crazy. You're having fun. You don't need me anyway" Michael tried to lighten up.

Nikita glared at him very seriously and pointed a paintbrush at the screen "Say it one more time. I dare you."

Michael lifted both of his hands up in surrender. They both dissolved in laughter. "What are you doing with that?"

"Can't tell you if I only have 5 minutes" There is that mischievous grin that Michael couldn't resist. "I can stay on until Birkhoff comes and gets me. '' He had time until the Nerd loaded everything from the flash drive onto his computer and sorted it through. His best friend also knew that Michael needed this call with Nikita so he would give him enough time and space.

Nikita beamed and instantly started explaining the activity she had planned for her and the girls. She was excited but most importantly Michael could tell how much she needed to talk with him. It wasn't about anything in particular. Just them being them. Michael realised how distant he had been in the past 24 hours with her. He vowed to never let that happen no matter what was going on.

"I love you so much" Michael spoke softly while she was showing him one of the kittens that were around the house. "I love you too. Don't take my comments seriously now. I know you're busy and I, of all people, know what it's like to get invested so much in one thing." Nikita hated the frown that had settled on his face.

"You know what"

"What?"

"Let's have a sleepover"

"Huh?" Michael wasn't sure if he was hearing her right. Did she say sleepover?

"Yeah. Over the phone. I can call you when I'm getting ready for bed. We can talk more and then go to sleep but we won't hang up" Nikita had heard it from Alex. Her best friend had told her that she sometimes did that with Sean when she was anxious or missed him.

Michael didn't even hesitate to say yes. He needed that so badly. He was able to keep the conversation more and more on her since he had secured the story of working with Birkhoff these last couple of days. So a long conversation with Nikita this evening wouldn't be a problem.

After agreeing on their plan they talked for a few more minutes until Birkhoff knocked on the door. Michael and Nikita said goodbye with the promise of a sleepover over the phone this evening.

"Everything alright?" Birkhoff had left the couple to talk for 30-40 minutes. They had the whole day ahead of them. There was no rush. He also needed some time to clear his head.

"Yeah, I got let off easy." Birkhoff laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Let's start then"

"I had a quick read through everything on the flash drive and if you think I am a mess with my files you have to sit down for this one. " Birkhoff opened all the folders and showed the contents to Michael. They were in for a lot of work. It took them an hour just to organise everything to be able to get a clear timeline of events.

"So we know Anh was 17 when she had the baby. Her parents didn't approve of her relationship with Edward. What else can we get from this?" Michael was starting to make a board to make things easier. He was tired of staring at computer screens. All that time spent with Ryan and his walls of crazies was paying off.

"I think we are missing something big. Anh and Edward are both British citizens yet they had their baby in Hawaii. The car crash also happened in Hawaii. If her parents were so concerned, why did they let her move so far away?" It didn't add up. Birkhoff was starting to think that Brian Miller threw all this information at them to raise even more questions so they would call him.

"What does it say about the car crash?" Michael thought that was the best place to start. Where things truly changed and went wrong.

"At least he was nice enough to attach the police report" Birkhoff mumbled. "Reportedly the father, Edward, was speeding down a county road. He lost control and crashed into a tree so hard that the car almost split in half. Then the car caught on fire and blew up. Due to the fact, it was a remote street by the time someone saw the smoke it was far too late. They weren't even able to recover the bodies. Only ashes" Silence. Both Michael and Birkhoff needed a few moments to recover just from imagining such a horrific incident.

"That is not an easy thing to fake. It's one thing to blow up the car but another to have such a crash present too. It's an overkill" During his time in Division Michael had helped organise lots of fake deaths. If a car crash had to be involved they would just blow up the car. It was easier to hide body remains that way. The execution was also simple. An agent would plant an explosive and detonate it at the right time. The device was specifically designed to mask itself so if an investigation were to be conducted it would seem as though the car wasn't in order.

"Maybe if it was just the explosion it would have been suspicious. Think about it. Her parents hate her boyfriend and all of a sudden his car blows up out of nowhere" Birkhoff provided an explanation.

"So let's say that is true. How the hell did the baby and father survive?" Michael was struggling to fit the pieces together.

"That is all there is to the incident. Then it follows what happened after that."

"Go on then" Michael sighed and rubbed his eyes. He would need so much more information to make any kind of conclusion. And the only way to get more information was to go back and talk to Brian Miller again. He wasn't fond of that option.

"Edward was set up in some drug deal gone wrong. He took the place of some guy named Jackson. Jackson was supposed to be the one locked up but they switched them. " That was the short version of everything Birkhoff read from the file. Everything else on the matter was pretty much useless to them.

"And the baby?" It was weird how they both avoided even guessing that the baby they were talking about could actually be Nikita. It was still a shock and something they needed time to process. Birkhoff and Michael also had to prove it before blindly believing it.

"Anh's parents took the baby and handed her to social services in the States straight away after changing the baby's name and details."

"So where was Anh during all of this?" There was no mention of her being in the car or what she did after the car crash.

"From the police report on the car crash, both the father and the baby were pronounced dead at the scene so Anh's parents came and took her back to England where they lived"

"Okay so we have…do we have the names of Anh's parents" If they were that influential Michael and Birkhoff had to look them up too.

"Yeah, Mai and Thao Nguyen. They had a real estate company. Reportedly the best in the whole of England."

"Well, that explains the money they had but not the contacts." There was way more to this. Michael felt his head starting to spin.

"So to summarize what we know. Mai and Thao Nguyen hate Anh's boyfriend Edward. Anh gets pregnant. Then she and Edward somehow end up in Hawaii and have the baby there…"

"Maybe they ran away" Birkhoff found it logical. Lots of teenagers did that when their parents didn't support them.

"It is a possibility and if her parents used their shady connections it wouldn't have been hard to track them down" Micheal instantly followed his best friend's train of thought. "So they find them in Hawaii and decide the only way to get their daughter would be to kill her new family?"

"Well not really kill"

"Yeah but Anh believed that. They made their daughter go through such a traumatic event without blinking an eye" Michael knew first-hand what the pain of losing your family so suddenly felt like. How it breaks you and kills you from the inside. How could anyone in their right mind cause such fate on their own child was beyond him.

"I think we established a long time ago how fucked up this whole thing is but unfortunately we need more" The only thing left on the hard drive was a document trace of the baby girl.

The baby girl, Nayeli, was taken in by a family in Hawaii. Then that family moved to Michigan and proceeded to give her up 4 times after taking her in again. After the fifth time there was a lot of mixing up happening so the social services put the little girl with another foster family.

"The trace leads to Gary and Caroline…" Birkhoff looked up at Michael, trying to read his reaction.

"I hate to say this I really do but…"

"We gotta call him"

"Yeah.."

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