‘He did a lot.’ Daniel thought, this kid was just two and a half years old, but the site was full of details about him. Suddenly, he felt numbness in his body. One detail caught his attention. Tom's favorite book was the Prince and the Pauper, the book Daniel loved throughout his childhood. He felt as if lightning had struck him. He remembered the book he was reading in the library of the boarding school when he was five. Around him none of the children his age knew how to read. He didn’t know how to read Hebrew either, but he always spoke English with Julia and even managed to learn to read in English, so it did not seem strange for him. Now, everything was coming back and he remembered how he used to go to the library, take the book which was written in English, and often refused to let anyone else touch it. He was so obsessed with the book, he held it all the time, until the manager decided to bring one copy in Hebrew so Rina could read him the story. No one knew all these times, he read the story in English, which was his mother tongue. On the campus there were many English-speaking children to whom they donated the books, but Daniel was from Romania and no one thought he could read English.
His knowledge of the English language and the book were the two details that reminded him of the things from the past that had hurt him, and brought him a few years back; to the separation from his mother, Julia, the boarding school, the evil escort and so on went the memories. He experienced the pain all over again, as if years hadn’t passed. For the first time, he paid attention to the small details of his past. His ability to speak English from his first memories, his obsession with the book 'The Prince And The Pauper', and now this picture of Tom at age thirteen that looked so much like him. Everything flooded him and the memories threatened to drown him. Suddenly, he remembered his life with Julia. She did not want him to call her ‘Mom’. He always called her Julia and when he didn’t behave well, she would threaten to send him to his crazy grandfather, Moshe.
He felt tears rolling down his cheeks. Alon and Gideon were right all this time. Moshe Kowalski had something to do with this, just like Karina had said from the beginning. Now he knew Moshe Kowalski was involved in the whole story. He was freaked out at the thought Kowalski committed such a crime against him, and not only that, he didn’t regret what he did but he continued to haunt him, to prevent him from being reunited with his family and the worst thing was, he let him live a hard and wandering life without any close family. Daniel wanted to strangle Kowalski with his own hands. He knew tomorrow the answers would be positive. He knew he had found his family. He looked at the pictures again, but this time he looked at his sisters and parents, and he knew something they didn’t know yet, he was Tom Fisher. He wanted to go to Fisher and tell him he recalled things from his childhood, but he himself needed time, he needed time to digest the memories that were floating in his mind.
51
The next day when they arrived at the hospital, he was more relaxed than the day before. He was not worried about the test anymore, but he was very worried about the moment he would meet his old family again. Alon looked more nervous, as if all the burden of proof were on his shoulders.
"It will be okay." Daniel patted Alon’s shoulder.
Alon was surprised because it was not normal for Daniel to display supporting behavior. But last night, Daniel had admired the two of them for everything they did, and was especially grateful for the chance they gave him to get vengeance on Kowalski.
One question intrigued him even during this important moment. He had to clear Sultana from suspicion of craziness. "Alon," he turned to him, "What is the connection between Amos, Benjamin and Gideon?"
"They are friends from the army, if it’s possible to call these three people friends when they have done nothing but create competition amongst themselves which brought them to where they are today.”
Daniel smiled and at the same moment, he thought of Sultana and her silly vision about the three people who would come across his destiny. ‘You knew everything from the very beginning, huh?" He talked to her from his heart.
"Did she agree to marry you?" Daniel's question caused Alon to look at him, puzzled.
"She agreed to come. There is something in it as well, right?"
Daniel smiled. He definitely began to like this optimistic guy in front of him. They could be good friends. "Alon. I want to tell you a few things before the result of the test. Until now, I have had doubts regarding the seriousness of the matter. I thought the circus would be over soon and I would be able to go back to my routine. I was very skeptical about the story. Now, I want to thank you. I know you did some very hard work. No one would be able to do this. You are the best." He shook Alon’s hand warmly. It was not good to tell Alon he already knew what the result will be.
"You need to thank Karina," Alon said. "She was the one who decided to turn to us and asked us to investigate about your mother and about that creep, Kowalski. She was the one who paid all the expenses, and there were a lot of expenses. If she did not support the investigation financially, we wouldn’t have been able to conduct an investigation of this scope, and we wouldn’t have been able to find out anything."
Daniel looked at Karina with tenderness. "I owe her for what and who I am now. I am even ready to marry her, if we are already talking about marriage."
Karina looked at him in disbelief, thinking how easy it was for Daniel to propose marriage when he didn’t need to stand behind his words, because he thought she was married.
A sound from the direction of the laboratory intensified the level of suspense for Karina and Alon. There was a nerve-wracking silence. Alon couldn’t stay in one place for one moment. Eventually, he needed to go outside. "I need air" he said and went out.
Karina sat next to Daniel and held his hands.
"Karin, you can calm down, I’m his son." He surprised her.
"What?!" She was really surprised.
"Yesterday, I recalled things from my distant past. I never called Julia ‘Mom’, just Julia. Yesterday I went to the memory site of Tom Fisher. His favorite book was The 'Prince and The Pauper'. This was the book I was obsessed with in the boarding school and this was the first time I realized I have always spoken English and even a few French words. It turns out that my mother speaks French."
Karina smiled forcibly. She did not want to hang false hopes Daniel’s memory, as were a step away from the discovery of the truth. She preferred not to develop hopes at the last moment. He had no hope until now, so there would be no disappointment.
A man with black pants and a white shirt with a necktie entered the room. "Hello. I’m Professor Goldsmith." He looked at Daniel. "The moment has come, you can come in."
Daniel entered the office of the professor who explained to him the details of the procedures, the tests he planned to do, how they were made and how long it takes. Next to the professor sat a lawyer who was short, tiny and solemn, who served Daniel a document to sign. Daniel signed without reading, but the lawyer insisted on explaining to Daniel what he was signing, "So things will be clear."
Daniel looked silently at the lawyer and the doctor. Although he now knew the truth, and even if it turned out he was not the son of Fisher, it wouldn’t cause him frustration. The main target standing in front of him right now was Kowalski, revenge on Kowalski. Everything was about this vengeance.
The lawyer went out, and Daniel was left only with the Professor, because Fischer wanted less people to be involved in this whole thing. Goldsmith took blood samples from Daniel.
"Well?" Alon asked Daniel when he came out of the room.
"They took samples."
"Did you see Mr. Fisher?"
Daniel shook his head. He did not know, while he was in the examination room, Mr. Fisher sat in the room next to it, remembering the days when he lost his son. When his wife called to tell him the nanny did not come home, Mr. Fisher felt it was about a kidnapping, a thing that he had feared all his life. He was sure there would be a ransom demand, which made him doubt he would ever see his son alive again, but he
did not think the kidnapper would leave him with uncertainty over the years. There were sleepless nights, there were times he dreamt of his son and woke up to the pain of reality, but eventually he stopped seeing his son in his dreams and prayed to dream about him every night; but he disappeared from his dreams. It had been years everyone wondered why he often walked instead of driving a car. They attributed it to his healthy habits, but Fisher was looking at every child who could have been his son. Eventually the search became painful every time he looked at a boy who was supposed to be his son’s age. Every year, he was giving donations to children of Daniel’s age who lack resources. He thought maybe something would reach his son. He didn’t stop looking for his son. There was not a single Intelligence agency that did not work for him or wasn’t active in the search for his son. It was even unpleasant for them to feel they were stealing his money because everyone believed his son was murdered. There were also times he himself began to believe this. But why the hell was his son taken or killed if they did not ask for a ransom from him? This question troubled him throughout the years.
His wife also suffered a lot, but he had no strength to help her.
That same day when the three came to talk to him about a child from the other side of the world who could be his son, was the last thing he thought of as the objective of their visit. He thought they were journalists who came to talk to him about his son's kidnapping. It was not the first time journalists came to him under false pretenses. Bothering was not a shortage time. In the early years, he checked some information but after a few years he gave blood samples and left the entire process to his lawyer. When the three started to talk about his abducted son, he thought they had gone too far. Only his family was allowed to talk about this case. Suddenly, under false pretenses, three journalists came to his house to discuss Kowalski and the abduction. When they talked about the bidding he gave up on when his son was kidnapped and the alleged involvement of Kowalski, he was sure they were joking. This was a kind of abuse, just like how people did during the first year after the kidnapping. Fisher was not willing to delude himself any more.
But all night, there was only one thing echoed in his head, when Alon said, "We think we found your son, he is with us at the Warwick hotel." Was it possible after twenty five years, someone had found his son? It didn’t make sense. Was it possible Kowalski was involved in the abduction? Indeed, Kowalski was the sole beneficiary from this entire case. Until the abduction, they were friends, although not that close, but they met occasionally. Then after that, Kowalski won the bidding, and became his best friend. On the other hand, if it was Kowalski, what prevented him from just leaving the child somewhere so someone would find him after a few days? Fisher figured his little boy recognized Kowalski although he had only seen him a few times. He had many reasons to believe Kowalski was not involved and lots of reasons to believe he was, thus, he thought it was possible the three people who came to him have found something because of the fact after twenty five years, they found the connection between Kowalski, the child and the bidding. He decided not to tell his wife anything until he could verify things.
Now he was looking at the glass partition, at this man they claimed to be his son. One look was enough for him to know he was his son. He was so much like his mother when he met her. His light-brown hair looked like hers, gray eyes with long lashes which caused him to be trapped in his wife’s net thirty five years ago. Many women wanted him, but one look at Miriam and he was already captured by her. He looked at Daniel while he was doing the tests, thinking about what he had been through. He wanted to know how he lived his life ever since his trace had disappeared. He felt an accelerating pounding in his heart and choking in his throat.
Professor Goldsmith finished the test and found Fisher agitated. "Is everything okay, Mr. Fischer?"
"He is my son." He muttered with wet eyes. He lowered his head and held him with his two hands. "Do you understand?" Tears streamed from Fisher’s eyes. "After twenty five years, twenty five years someone took away from me the most precious of all things, twenty five years they took the peace of mind away from me and from my wife. There was never a night we went to sleep and didn’t think of what was going on with our son. When he was small, we hoped he was killed because we did not want him to be helpless in the hands of some pervert, but when he turned twenty, we started praying again he is alive, maybe somehow he survived his hard life somehow he reached the age of twenty." He swallowed his saliva, which threatened to strangle him.
"You had better wait for the result of the test," Goldsmith said, worrying that in the end Fisher would be wrong and be disappointed.
"I knew I would recognize him the moment I saw him." Fisher ignored Goldsmith’s warning," I knew I would feel something. And it happened to me. I couldn’t be wrong I knew I would recognize him. It was hard for me to stop myself from going to the examination room to hug him." Fisher sipped from the glass of water. "Do you know who is to blame for all the pain I have? It’s my good friend, Moshe Kowalski. Each year, during the special memorial day for Tom, only ten people were allowed to be with us, and he was one of them. He stood there every year. He never missed a single memorial day." Those memories caused Fisher to burst into more tears. All these times, he knew our son is alive, but he kept tormenting us, withholding the knowledge. I am a man who boasts my ability to get to know people quickly and know who is good in business and who is not, yet, all this time he was my son’s kidnapper, a family murderer, and I didn’t realize anything. It's much harder to discover the truth was so close, these two youngsters succeeded in a place where I failed. The truth was so close. I don’t know the whole story, but I will have time to hear everything from my son."
He was hanging on so much hope, until Goldsmith prayed the result would be positive.
"I will go to him." Fisher said.
"No, you can’t do this," Professor Goldsmith quickly reacted.
"Why? What’s stopping me?" Fisher said and got up from his chair.
"Please, Mr. Fisher, you have waited for twenty five years. Wait for few more days." Goldsmith begged him.
"Wait for a few days? I waited for nine thousand one hundred eighty seven days. There was not a single day I didn’t feel the pain. There was no time I started a day without thinking about my son."
Mr. Fisher left the room while the lawyer went after him, trying to dissuade him from his act. Daniel was standing right in the exit of the room when he saw a tall man approaching him with reddish eyes from crying and unable to speak. Daniel approached and hugged him just like he hugged a friend whom he hadn’t seen for a long time, giving him a shoulder to cry on. Tears broke out again. Fisher was unable to stop it. "You are my son," he muttered again and again while hugging Daniel, hugging and crying.
"I know," Daniel whispered. Without believing in it, he found himself crying too, giving an outlet to pain from years of deprivation. They held each other for a long time.
52
Gideon arrived at the Marina in Hertzelia, in the western part which was more peaceful than the crowded east side. He parked his car at the entrance of the dock and walked towards the gate, which could be opened with a slight push. Dimmed side lights slightly illuminated the dock. It was not bright but not totally dark. He approached the yacht with measured steps, looking at Kowalski, standing on the deck and signaled him to come aboard. He crossed the ladder that led from the dock to the yacht and stopped for a moment near Kowalski, who shook his hand. They entered into the inner room, and crossing their way was a large and elegant living room. Gideon was surprised the meeting was held in an internal room and not in the stern or in the living room, But he calmed down when he noticed it looked like more of an office than a guest room and presumed he was invited in this room for convenience. He sat in front of Kowalski, who took hold of his place alongside the outer wall. "I thought you would come with Amos," Kowalski said.
Gideon had to admit the last statement certainly confused him, but more than that, he was worri
ed it might confuse the police detectives who were waiting outside with the surveillance unit. "Actually, I was trying to get hold of Amos since noon , but apparently, he is missing. His wife said he has not come home for two days already!"
"Would you like us to wait for a bit?" Kowalski asked.
Gideon had to salute Kowalski. If he continued like this, Gideon would have to take off the mask and speak openly, otherwise he would make a fool of himself of bringing the undercover unit here for nothing, and most of all, Kowalski would turn out innocent on all charges and Gideon would turn out to be completely stupid in this whole story. "There's no point to wait for him. It seems to us something happened to him. His wife says he came to meet you three days ago. And since then, she has not heard anything from him. When did he leave you?"
"After he finished talking to you on the phone," Kowalski said.
"Well, let's move forward. You know I'm investigating the case of Daniel. Do you want to shed light on the case?"
"Tell me where you stand." Kowalski said.
"Honestly, what we think is not very flattering to you. We think Daniel is your grandson and you murdered Julia, his mother, because you were afraid she might reveal he is your illegitimate grandson."
"So, then kill someone because she slept with my son and bore a child?"
"Exactly," Gideon said, "This thing really bothered me, this is why I’m busy right now in finding the real reason that caused you to murder her. It must be something she knew about you. C’mon, tell me what you wanted to confess."
Kowalski got up from his place and looked at the small window of his room, and from there, he looked at Gideon, "Let’s be frank and lay the cards down, both of us are not stupid after all. From the moment Amos informed me you were in the United States, I understood you found out all about the case. You did not go to see my son but you went to meet Mr. Fisher. I’m not stupid."
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