“Yeah,” Beth asked searching for any hint of recognition of the town and her supposed birth place, but nothing was coming. But it was fourteen years later, and she supposed a lot could have changed in that time and could be a whole new place for her now.
“I can’t wait to see Alexandra,” Carrie said as they continued to drive.
“We will soon enough,” Beth smiled as they pulled into the parking lot of the motel, and the taxi let them off with their baggage and after Beth paid the driver and thanked her, she and her daughter walked to the main reception.
“I am looking for a recent check in. Sheriff Valenti handled it. It is a young teenager, female, around thirteen?” Beth asked. “I am her mother, and we would like to know what room she is in.”
“Would the Sheriff know of your arrival?” the receptionist asked. “He asked me to notify him if anyone came looking for her.”
“Yes,” Beth asked. “I appreciate the concern you have for the girl. She is my daughter and she decided to come because of a need to visit family without permission, and we came after her and the Sheriff is the one who called me, and he knows that I was heading out here to collect my daughter. I am curious, do you have a room free as I would like to book it for a few days at least?”
“Yes, we do,” the woman said. “Do you want it by your daughter’s room?”
“If possible,” Beth asked.
“That is fine. Your daughter’s room has two double beds. What do you need?”
“A single is fine,” Beth said as she looked over at Carrie. “You can stay with your sister.”
“Sweet!” Carrie smiled, and Beth could only shake her head as the front desk cited a price and she agreed to it, signed some papers, and took the keys.
*****
“Thank you for letting me go out and sight see,” Alexandra to Detective Casper as they arrived back at the motel and headed for her room. “I needed to get out of the room as it was making me go crazy.”
“We all have those moments,” Sandra smiled. Do you miss your mother and sister?”
“Like crazy,” Alexandra said. “This is the longest I have been away, minus a birthday party that is a sleepover and it was simply spur of the moment. Of course, the Sheriff doesn’t believe that, but it truly was… if I had thought of it, I might have come more prepared.”
“It will all work out,” Sandra nodded.
“But today was a wakeup call that it’s going to be more complicated than I imagined it could be.”
“You had this fantasy that they would have their arms open when they realized who you were.”
“Yeah,” Alexandra confirmed.
“It’s never that simple,” Sandra sighed. “We all want to think it can be, but it never is but in your case, I suspect it will work out in the end but it’s going to be messy until it gets there...but in the meantime, you just need to give it time.”
“Oh, I plan to,” Alexandra smiled. “I came all the way here, so I might as well hope for the best.”
“That is the spirit. If you need anything, call my room, as I am here until the morning.” Sandra smiled.
“I will. Thank you again for everything and if I don’t see you, good luck going home to your husband and kids. They must miss you,” Alexandra asked the detective. She was happy to have someone keep an eye on her even if she might protest the notion that she needed anyone to babysit her at age thirteen but so far away from home, it was nice to know she had someone looking out for her.
“They do, and I miss them too as they were away when I came here, so it’s been awhile since I seen them!”
“Good luck,” Alexandra said as she closed her door and went to sit on the bed when there was a knock on the door.
“Did you forget something,” she asked as she went to the door and opened and was shocked at who she saw...
“Mom, Carrie!”
“Sweetheart and we did forget something, you....” Beth said as Alexandra rushed into her arms. “Baby, it’s such a relief to see you.”
“Hey sis,” Carrie said with a smile.
“Hey yourself,” Alexandra said as she caught a duffle bag that was thrown towards her. “What is this?”
“New clothes,” Carrie said. “Mom figured you would need clothes.”
“Thank god,” Alexandra joyfully smiled. “Come in, come in.”
“How long have you been here?” Beth asked.
“A few hours as the Sheriff kept me at the station most of the afternoon, and then asked a cop friend of his to keep an eye on me for the night. I didn’t expect you here until tomorrow.”
“Uncle Keith offered the company plane for the quicker flight here,” Carrie smiled as she was so happy to see her sister and have the three of them together again. “I got to say that it was a cool plane. How is it here?”
“I bet,” Alexandra said. “You’re going to miss your dance recital?”
“And miss the trip of my lifetime, I think I can handle it,” Carrie smiled as she looked at her twin. “So how is so far?”
“Bizarre!” Alexandra admitted.
“Which only makes sense, given who we are,” Carrie admitted. “Our lives have always been bizarre.”
Alexandra burst out laughing, “You’re exactly who I needed right now. And Mom, I am sorry.”
“You better be,” Beth glared at her daughter.
“Mom!”
******
“Where is Grace?” Elizabeth asked Jake as they hung out in the kitchen to keep away from the adult only discussion that had commenced. “I just tried texting her, and her phone is off, and I tried her home and she’s not answering.”
“Maybe she just needs time away from technology,” Jake said as he worked to adapt his way around the kitchen with his sister’s help. “She had a big several hours.”
“How so?” Elizabeth asked.
“You don’t know?” Jake asked as he reached a piece of pie from the lower shelf in the kitchen, and went for ice cream in the freezer portion of the fridge.
“What, spill!” Elizabeth asked.
“Grace founds out that her mother might be alive!” Jake muttered as he took a bite of the pie.
“What the hell!” Elizabeth screamed so loud that it was heard upstairs and downstairs in the adult only conversation “Are you crazy?”
*******
“I take it Elizabeth now knows?” Maria asked as they sat in the den and watched as Max took stock of his reaction to the news and heard the shriek of incredulities from the kitchen “Are you okay?”
“It’s not like I didn’t suspect, once I saw Jim this afternoon” Max sighed as he weighed the news. “I just didn’t want to believe, and I still might not...”
“I am sorry Max,” Michael said. “I was shocked when we showed up in Madison and found out who I was really investigating for Jim.”
“She looks like Liz?” Max asked.
“Yes, with passage of time of course. It’s been almost fourteen years, but she looks like you would imagine Liz to look today.”
“But it’s not just her, right? She has another child, another daughter!” Max asked.
“You know about that?” Michael asked. “Yeah there is a daughter!”
“Alexandra,” Max said. “I met her!”
“You did!” Michael asked as his jaw dropped open as Maria could only sigh at the complexities of their lives.
“Jim was keeping her close to his side at the station. I take it she ran away from home, and anyways Grace happened upon her on the way to confess to Jake’s injury, and Tommy’s hospitalization.”
“She confessed!” Maria asked, raising her voice nearly as high as Elizabeth’s had been with Jake. “Is she crazy?”
“At the time, she was,” Max admitted. “Jim talked her out of it, at great sacrifice to potentially his job if the town ever finds out that he hindered an investigation even if Grace isn’t an official suspect yet.”
“My god Max, what possessed her” Maria asked.
“She was feeling guilty, as it turned out as she came by the office and overheard that Jake’s injury was more severe than we believed and would need a wheelchair for the time being. I was talking to Isabel, and she overheard. Feeling overwhelmed she went to confess and tried to, but saw Alexandra and questions were asked and answered and well you can guess the rest.”
“Jesus this is not what she needs,” Maria said pissed at the whole situation and how out of control it was spinning. Just a few weeks ago, everything was simple. Grace was waiting to turn sixteen and all she, Maria, had to worry about was her son’s flirting with her goddaughter, and now it was all so much more complex and frightening. “This is rivaling anything we went through as teenagers.”
“You’re not that far away,” Max muttered. “I don’t get it why if Liz is alive. How… why, I don’t get it.”
“Max, I know you’ve already probably heard it from Jim, but I’ll say it again. This woman who goes by Beth had a car crash, five days after Liz was believed to have died. She barely made it through. She was admitted to the hospital as a Jane Doe, with no identification and they discovered she was pregnant, and it was touch and go for awhile and she fell into a two-month coma. When she woke up in late August 2008, she had no memory of who she was... She was a blank slate. When she gave birth, she eventually was released from the hospital and she was forced to figure out a new life.”
“How would Liz have gotten out there? We’re not talking about Texas. Connecticut is pretty far to go.”
“We’re thinking she was grabbed. Connecticut has a lead in our case and their cops have a suspect who confessed to making Liz stop that night. And then she was grabbed, and the car was sabotage with another woman being put in place of Liz to make believe she was dead.”
“The crash was so bad there was no hope of trying to save her,” Max recalled. “How I tried.”
“Yeah, and dental records matched Liz to the body, and the fact that it was Liz’s car and she was known to be working in the direction she was driving in, and well, you know we believed it.”
“We did,” Michael said. “Max, the guy the Connecticut cops say confessed said he was paid ten thousand dollars to make Liz stop, and grab her. He is a known drug dealer and is known to blow the money, but he was in the area back then. He claims someone named Denny!”
“Denny....it’s impossible. We dispatched Khivar,” Max said as Maria’s mouth dropped open at the memory of Khivar. “I was there, you were there, and Isabel was there. Isabel almost wrecked her marriage to Jesse even before it began, probably a bad omen for the fate of it but still....”
“Max, we have seen it’s possible for someone like Khivar to take over a human’s body. Larek did it with Brody once upon a time. So even though we dispatched him it was always possible he could come back and pick up where he left off but with Isabel a lost cause he instead went after you to create maximum hardship.”
“Why not go after me?” Max asked. “Why my family, and most importantly… Liz?’
“Going after the family is always the number one goal of a villain,” Maria muttered. “It causes maximum pain and a whole lot more satisfaction compared to going against your target because you risk your target fighting back. He caught us unaware, and unable to stage an offensive.”
*****
“Grace’s mother is alive?” Elizabeth was asking her brother as they sat at the table in the kitchen. Isn’t that like impossible.”
“You would think,” Jake said passing the pie to his sister. “But then in our family tree, there are plenty of stories of unique things happening.”
“How is Grace taking it?”
“Like you would if Mom or Dad was believed dead for nearly fourteen years and came back from the dead, and that she might have another sibling.”
“You’re kidding,” Elizabeth asked. “She might have a sibling?”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I don’t know the details, but I do know she’s very emotional about many things in her life, and she’s not taking it all in with her usual, well, grace,” he said reflective and he knew complicating it with whatever was happening with them was the not the best move for him. “Another sister, named Alexandra.”
“Alexandra you’ve got to be kidding me,” Elizabeth realizing the significance of the name.
“No,” Jake said as they heard a high pitch shout from his mother, “she confessed, is she crazy.”
“Is that about Grace?” Elizabeth asked as their mother simmered down.
“Most likely,” Jake acknowledged with a sigh to himself.
“She confessed?” Elizabeth asked as they shockingly got diverted from the talk of the mother issue to this one. “Please don’t tell me she confessed.”
“She tried I gather,” Jake said. “Grandpa thankfully put an end to it, and probably her father using his lawyer privilege and being her father.”
“This is crazy.”
“It’s getting up there,” Jake admitted. “She was upset about my being a wheelchair most likely.”
“I just knew she was on edge of doing something stupid.”
“Well you know for stupid moves.”
“Hey, I saved you from certain legal trouble,” Elizabeth said as she glared at her brother. “I would do it for anyone and in fact I did. You know the gun.”
“The gun was stupid,” Jake glared at Elizabeth.
“The gun can save her, if he does remember or fingers you or me for that matter.”
“There is also ammunition she rather not used but most likely if she’s forced to,” Jake commented. “So, it was very foolish, but it was something I would have done if I needed to save Grace.”
“Tommy is still not awake.”
“Fantastic, good riddance,” Elizabeth smiled...
“Elizabeth, that is the last thing Grace needs right now. She’ll never be happy if he’s forever silenced and she was responsible.”
“It is karma biting him,” Elizabeth giggled.
“But let us hope for Grace’s sake he wakes up,” Jake sighed as he wanted to share his sister’s enthusiasm but couldn’t because karma was known to bite back.
“As long as no one fingers her, or you for that matter both of you are safe so he can rot in that coma as long as he wants. Grace is not hurting because she hurt Tommy Jake. She’s devastated because she hurt you.”
******
Grace was hurting alright and she was driving and driving, and she wasn’t even sure where she was heading anymore. She needed time and space. The last twenty fours had been a time bomb for her that kept exploding first with the accident when she should have been thrilled at her first official date and then it was added on today with all the revelations that kept being dropped, and on top of it she was confused over Jake.
She knew she wasn’t behaving like her normal self and she hated it. She was used to be calm and brave, and blending in. She knew now that she had held too much in and it was now all coming out, hell with the consequences.
She knew she held too much in starting with her rape. The night Tommy had refused to take No for an answer and stopped. She had been disappointed in herself, and felt it was too easy to bounce back and then it all started to bubble with her misguided trip that ultimately led to loss of a baby.
And then she turns sixteen and now everything was up in the air...
“Mom I so want you to be alive...” she mutters out loud...as she continued to drive... “But why does it have to be now…”
******
“Where is Grace?” Sue asked Elizabeth during their Skype call to discuss a science project that was coming up and they needed to figure out how to do. “I have been trying all night, and no dice.”
“I don’t know either where she is. She’s had a tough day.”
“Did her date go badly,” Sue asked.
“I don’t think so, but she won’t talk about it,” Elizabeth confided to Sue while being reminded her that her friend was being suspiciously quiet on the date. Sure, life had gotten hectic due to their actions in the park, but it was odd. But then she would have to question why Grace had been with Jake in the first place and not Dominic when mayhem ran out, but she did concede that “Something is up with her.”
“Is it Jake?” Sue asked. “How is your brother anyways? The late moving buzz around school was that he got injured.”
“Jake is fine, but it was a leg injury that is more serious than we were led to initially believe and for the time being he’s in a wheelchair while he waits surgery.”
“What in the hell happened?” Sue asked. “I thought he just injured it playing basketball or something.”
“You know my brother,” Elizabeth said. “He’s always up to something.”
“Is he up to something with Grace?” Sue asked.
“Nah,” Elizabeth smiled. “Grace has other things to worry about at the moment, so I doubt there is that. I have to get going. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Will do,” Sue said losing the connection which left Elizabeth to ponder...
“Is something happening between my brother and Grace?” she asked herself before getting up and going downstairs in search of her brother.
“Hey,” Jake said as she came into the den.
“What’s going on with you and Grace?” Elizabeth asked.
“Nothing,” Jake lied.
“Come on, you know you can’t con me like that and now I definitely think something is up. Sue says that she can’t reach Grace at all. She may not know all we know, but she knows when Grace is tense about something. And that is more than you know everything going wrong in her life.”
“She just needs time,” Jake said. “You know dead mother coming back, sister she might have.”
“You don’t seem that convinced that it’s all there is,” Elizabeth asked. “So, what is going on Jake? Tell me the truth!”
“Leave my love life out of your snooping,” Jake muttered.
“I knew it. Something did happen between the two of you. What?” Elizabeth smiled. “Come on tell me, tell your sister what happened.”
“It is none of your business,” Jake said as they heard the front door open and shut twice and moments later Michael came wondering into the den.
“What is it?” Jake asked.
“Grace is missing!”
“What?” Jake and Elizabeth asked in unison. “She was here earlier.”
“Sue apparently went by the house to see Grace and no one was home, and Grace’s car is gone. The house is locked, and dark. Your mother and Max have gone to get some answers.”
Jake muttered. “I just knew it,” he sighed as he wondered if everything had gotten too complicated for his friend and they had muddled it even more with the kisses.
“I’ll check if I can reach her,” Elizabeth said rushing out of the room and up to her room in search of her phone.
“Jake, you shouldn’t blame yourself,” Michael advised his son once they were alone in the room.
“I do,” Jake said as he moaned and wondered where his friend could have gone. “For more than you know.”
“Your mother filled me in. But I don’t think anything you guys did contributed to this. It is just a one factor. Everything has collided into this and it’s been building for awhile. It’s likely everything about her mother that has been the point of no return.”
*******
“Mom I am glad you’re here,” Alexandra smiled at Beth. Beth hadn’t wanted to leave her daughter. “I know I should have waited, and not forced your hand. I just couldn’t help myself.”
“I know you couldn’t,” Beth muttered. “Look it’s happened but know you put a major scare into me, and if not for the fact Keith was able to find traces you left. I would still be worrying about you.”
“I know. I didn’t think.”
“No, you didn’t,” Beth warned. “You’re only thirteen years old and definitely too young to be coming across the country on a mission.”
“I was fine,” Alexandra assured her mother. “But I admit it’s something stupid, and I am sorry for whatever pain I put you through.”
“You want to know more about yourself, and your heritage and I can’t fault that, but you should have waited.”
“I couldn’t help myself, but coming here has made me see how many lives have the capacity to change. I guess I didn’t think about it in that such of a way before I came here. I only knew we had the potential to find your missing past.”
“And your history,” Beth asked.
“Yes,” Alexandra. “But coming here, and actually seeing the price that learning the truth can cost, it made me see things in a different way.”
“How?”
“Mom, I met this other daughter and maybe my father, Max Evans,” Alexandra said softly because she knew how much effect all this was having on her mother and her rushing everything didn’t help matters and she recognized it and felt guilty.
“Wait up,” Carrie called from the bathroom as she came rushing out... “You met them, like face to face.”
“Yes,” Alexandra asked.
“What are they like,” Carrie asked while Beth contemplated their new reality.
“She looks like a younger you Mom,” Alexandra smiled. “She looks like a slightly older and wiser Carrie and I.”
