‘Exactly, they’re your friends, now get rid of them, I don’t want them here.’
‘Seriously? You want me to kick them out?’
‘Yes, and don’t bring them back ever again. You can clean up as well, the place smells like a brewery.’
Alice went back into the lounge and told them they had to go. Jenna whispered in her ear before leaving, ‘He’s a douche, you need to get out now, before he controls your life.’
Alice wondered if Jenna was right.
***
Allie started to text Jenna an apology for Charles’s behaviour but he grabbed her phone and threw it across the room. She’d have run over to grab it, but it lay shattered on the floor. He yelled at her for ruining his home with her low-life friends, and said if she ever invited them over again, she could pack her bags and leave. He scared her, seeming to have two personalities at times, Mr Charming and Mr Arsehole. But somehow, despite his moods, she still loved him.
Charles was grumpy for the next a couple of days, so she did her best to cook nice meals for him. Cooking didn’t come naturally to her, but she tried. She found casseroles the easiest to make by throwing the ingredients into a pot, adding some salt and spices and hoping for the best. Usually it worked out well and she’d learned to make the meal in advance to ensure it tasted okay. Then she’d reheat it when Charles got home from work. He berated her if she didn’t present him with a good meal, giving her the feeling he was still punishing her for having friends over.
She wanted to bring up the subject with him, but she feared him getting angry again. She would like to think of this as her home as well, but clearly he wasn’t ready to allow her that status yet. The next two weeks ticked over, and things were okay. He’d become more attentive, and had taken her out to dinner a few times and they had even gone to a Broadway show.
Chapter 31
Present Time
It was in her fifth week at Charles’s place when she decided to pay Jenna and Luke a visit. She needed to get out of the apartment and also get herself a new phone.
She arrived at her old flat and found Jenna and Luke lounging around on beanbags smoking a joint. The sweet smell took her back to the fun times she’d had while living there.
‘Allie!’ Jenna jumped up and gave her a big hug. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you. We thought Charles might have hacked you to death and put you in his freezer.’
‘Sorry Jenna, my phone broke and haven’t replaced it yet. I’m going to do that today.’
‘Good, because I have some exciting news for you. You need to take a seat and brace yourself. Lukie, can you grab a beer for Allie? She might need one after she’s heard this.’
‘News? Are you pregnant? My cocktail has hit the number one best seller?’
‘Way better than that,’ Jenna replied.
Luke handed Alice a beer and she took a sip.
‘Brace yourself, you’re gonna freak.’
‘What? What?’
‘A man from England came looking for you. He’s got dark eyes, and olive skin, a little like you.’
Allie wondered who on earth it could be. Perhaps her cocktail had gone worldwide already.
‘Who is he? What did he want?’
‘I gave him your address, but he said he had to make an emergency trip back to London.’
‘Okay, you’ve got me worried now, giving strangers the address to my apartment. Charles would freak if he knew.’
‘Sorry Allie, but the guy was desperate to find you.’
‘So, who was he?’
‘Brace yourself!’
‘Jenna, spit it out!’
‘He’s your father.’
Alice stared at her, wondering what she was on about.
‘Is this some kind of sick joke?’
‘Sorry, I should have said, he’s your biological father.’
‘What are you talking about? Are you saying my mother had an affair?’
‘No, silly. I’m saying you were adopted, and your real parents are still alive.’
‘But I wasn’t adopted.’
‘Apparently you were, Allie. He says your mother gave birth to you soon after finishing school, and was unable to keep you, so she adopted you out.’
‘Well he’s lying. There’s no way I was adopted. My parents were my parents.’
Jenna and Luke looked at each other in bewilderment.
‘What?’ Alice said.
‘Check out the photo of your parents, they look nothing like you Allie. And you should have seen this guy. Tall, handsome, dark eyes like yours. He could totally be your father. He also showed me a photo of your mother when she was younger— she’s the spitting image of you Allie. Don’t you see, this is a good thing for you. They want you. You’re no longer an orphan.’
Alice tried to hold back the tears, the mean words from her uncle haunting her, telling her she was adopted, but she’d refused to believe it at the time. ‘No, you’re lying. I’m not adopted. Why would you say something so mean?’
Jenna tried to comfort her, but she shrugged her away.
‘Allie, I thought you’d be pleased. I mean, to have someone who cares about you enough to fly halfway around the world to find you.’
‘No! NO!’ she yelled and ran from the apartment in tears. She barely remembered the journey back to Charles’s apartment. Luckily, Charles was home, and she fell into his arms and let her tears pour forth in a torrent.
Chapter 32
Damion gazed out of the window as the plane soared between the mountain ranges before coming in to land. He loved coming back to the Community after visiting London. This time he’d been away longer than usual, and he was looking forward to seeing his family.
Even though he hadn’t been able to meet Alice, he felt comforted knowing Doofy was there. He needed to know his daughter was happy in her life and if there was anything he could do to help her, to make up for Camilla abandoning her all those years ago.
The plane landed with a thump on the runway and Damion, Terri and Josh disembarked. Camilla stood next to the Jeep, waiting to greet them. While they changed into their uniforms, Camilla handed a package to the pilot, then approached them.
‘I’m sorry to have called you all away from your busy lives, but I require your help.’
‘What’s this about?’ Damion asked.
‘I have a concern about one of the Community members.’
‘Ethan?’ Damion asked.
‘I’m not saying anything for now, I’ll fill you in on details tomorrow.’
Damion, Terri and Josh all piled into the Jeep and they trundled over the hill to the Community. When they arrived, Ben and Molly ran over to Damion yelling, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’
He scooped them up in his arms, breathing in their scent. Leonora came over and he noticed she looked tired, her face gaunt.
He glanced around, pleased that Ethan was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t feel like any confrontations today, he just wanted to spend time with his family. The four of them went down to the beach for a swim. Molly clung to him more so than usual, and wouldn’t leave him alone. He desperately wanted some time with Leonora, but that would have to wait.
He loved the feeling of the warm water on his skin, washing away the stresses of the ‘other’ world, as they called it here. Molly stood on his shoulders and he launched her into the water as she loved to do. His heart turned to mush listening to her giggles as she surfaced.
Leonora had stayed on the shore with Ben, who was less interested in swimming and more into looking for pretty shells and collecting unusual pieces of driftwood.
He so wished he could take his children back to meet his parents. They desperately wanted grandchildren, but he had to keep this alternative life a secret, for the benefit of all of the Community. He decided to broach the subject again with Leonora. She’d had such a bad time in the ‘other’ world, that she never wanted to go back, and she didn’t want her children subjected to the horrors she’d experienced.
They
headed back to the camp and Damion arranged for Molly and Ben to go into the creche for a short time while he caught up with Leonora properly. They walked into the forest until they reached the natural hot pool. They both discarded their Community clothing and hopped in.
As Damion soaked up the warm water he turned to Leonora.
‘Are you okay, Leo? You look as if you’ve lost weight.’
‘And you look as if you’ve put it on,’ she snapped, looking at his bulging waistline. It was true. He’d drunk a lot of beer and eaten a lot of unhealthy food in America and was looking forward to getting back onto a wholesome diet.
‘It’s just... you were tired a lot before I went away. I’m worried about you. Did you see Camilla about it at all?’
‘Yes, she took some tests. Blood and urine samples. She sent them off with the pilot this morning. Didn’t she say anything to you?’
‘No, I think her mind’s on other things.’ He didn’t want to tell her Camilla had called them back, not wanting to worry her until he knew the reason why. Instead, he filled her in with details from his trip. He told her about his best mate Doofy, and how he’d left the search for Alice in his capable hands.
Later that evening after dinner, Damion pulled Camilla aside and asked if she knew why Leonora was losing so much weight. She told him not to worry as there was nothing they could do until she got the results back, which would be sometime next week.
There was something Camilla wasn’t telling him, but it would have to wait until they could get some time alone.
Chapter 33
The next day after the breakfast service, Camilla summoned Damion and led him into the forest. They found an isolated spot and sat down on a log overlooking a stream. The chattering of the birds and the babbling of the brook did little to ease his anxiety as he wondered if something might be wrong with Leonora. He picked up a twig and twiddled it in his hands.
‘I’ve got some rather disturbing news for you, Damion. You’d better brace yourself.’
The twig snapped.
‘It’s Leonora isn’t it? She’s not well?’
‘Damion, this has nothing to do with Leonora. It’s far more serious than an illness of any individual. I’m sorry to be blunt, but I can’t put up with your interruptions.’
‘Please continue. I promise to be good.’
She gave him a chastising look, then continued. ‘It’s about Ethan and the way he’s been acting. I’ve heard him raise his voice many times to Matilda, and I’ve noticed her wrists are bruised. She denies he’s hurt her, but I can tell she’s lying. At first I thought it might be because he contains Martin’s genetic make-up, and it still could be, but I have my doubts.’
Damion kept quiet, wanting to see where she was going with this.
She continued, ‘I’d always believed that personality disorders were a direct result of upbringing and the events in an individual’s life. Genetics would play a part in some things, but not of the scale of what is happening here.’
She stopped to take a deep breath before continuing.
‘When I was married to Martin, his need to be in control played a large part in his desire to be immortal. His actions, however, were never rough. He never hit me, and never raised his voice. The Community members have always been brought up to be non-confrontational and non-violent. So this brings me to my next question. Where has Ethan picked these habits up from?’
Damion nodded. It had struck him as odd too. Even though his physical features were similar to Martin Bickford-Smith, the way he acted couldn’t be more different.
‘I’ve been keeping as close an eye on him as I can. He’s evasive though, always making sure not to be in a direct line of sight from me. From what I’ve seen, and from what Matilda has told me, he’s showing signs of dual personalities, but it’s not all the time. Some months he’s normal, then suddenly he changes for no obvious reason.’
Damion listened intently, not wanting to disrupt her flow.
‘Then you rang me and told me about the large file downloading on my computer. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I have a strong suspicion I know what it was.’
She stopped for what appeared to be theatrical effect, before continuing.
‘The database that Martin controlled this place with is called ACLAS and was linked to both of our computers. When there was any activity from his computer, it would show up on mine, so the download you saw was happening elsewhere. I last logged into the system over five years ago and that was how I found out Martin had kept Terri in London, rather than sending her back to the Community. Normally I would have logged out of the system, but I was in such a panic, it slipped my mind. Probably the only reason you saw it was because it had stalled, not having enough space on that old computer to download.’
Damion took a deep breath as he tried to take in what she was saying. The download had started over four years ago, a year after Martin had died. What did that mean? Was Martin still alive?
Chapter 34
Back in New York, Alice studied the photo of her parents in the locket Mrs K had given her. The more she looked, the more she realised she had no resemblance to them. Jenna was right. She was adopted. She’d probably always known this, but had refused to believe it.
The other night when she’d come home, Charles had been sympathetic with her, and told her that there were a lot of strange people around and to be careful. He told her that no matter how much this Englishman insisted he was her father, she shouldn’t believe him. But something in the way he said it niggled her. He seemed a little too insistent, and she had doubts about his sincerity and she wondered if had an ulterior motive. She wanted to speak to Jenna again, to apologise and perhaps try phoning the Englishman, to find out more.
Charles didn’t like her hanging out with her old friends though, saying they were no-hopers, with no ambition in life and he didn’t want them dragging her down. He told her if she went to visit them again, she could pack her bags and move back in with them.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and thought about her predicament. She’d been living here with Charles now for over five weeks. It had been perfect in the beginning, but now things had become boring. She still loved him, but he had changed. He’d gone from a man who wined her and dined her at fancy restaurants, to being a man who would rather stay in and watch sports and have her cook for him. What sort of life was that for a girl in her prime? She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him though. She’d signed up for this life; she’d just have to make the most of it. At that moment, the intercom to the apartment rang.
‘Hello,’ she said.
An English accent came through from the other end.
‘I’m looking for Alice Willows, or Allie Wilson, as she’s now known.’
What the hell? Was this her father? Excitement mingled with fear shuddered through her.
‘What do you want with her?’
‘I have something important to speak with her about. Can I come up?’
No way was she letting a strange man into her apartment, even if it was potentially her father. Charles would go nuts. But she did want to meet him, to find out more about him.
‘One moment, I’ll come down. Give me five minutes and I’ll meet you in the coffee shop downstairs.’
She hung up the intercom and raced around, not quite knowing what to do. She ran into the bedroom and flung her bathrobe onto the floor. She put on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair sprang out at all angles, so she grabbed a brush, wet it, and pulled it through her hair, trying to make it sit down.
She splashed some water on her face and sprayed on some deodorant. She wasn’t looking her best to meet her father for the first time, but it would have to do. She was afraid if she left him waiting for too long, he’d disappear, and she’d never meet him.
She caught the lift downstairs and walked into the coffee shop where she scanned the faces to see if she could guess which one was him. A scruffy mi
ddle-aged man wearing shorts and a T-shirt which covered a protruding stomach waved at her. This is my father? He looks nothing like the man Jenna described.
He greeted her by shaking her hand and spoke in a posh English accent, not what she expected.
‘Hi Alice, I’m Dave Bennett. I’m a private eye from San Diego.’
She shook his hand. ‘Please call me Allie.’
‘I’m going to come straight to the point. I’m aware you’ve been told your biological father has been trying to find you?’
‘Yes, my friends told me he came looking for me, but I refused to believe it. I’ve since realised it could be true. My parents look nothing like me.’
‘Well I’m sorry to say, Alice, I mean Allie, it’s true. Your biological parents are friends of mine. In fact, you were conceived at my high school party!’
Alice laughed. ‘Really?’
‘Yep.’
‘Oh my God, that’s so weird.’
‘I know, right! Would you like to hear more about it? Not the conceiving bit obviously. I wasn’t actually in the room, so I can’t shed too much light on that part.’
Alice laughed again, warming to Dave immediately. ‘Sure, I’m still trying to get my head around it all, but I’d love to hear more.’
‘Well... it was an end of school party, having a final celebration before heading off to different universities. Your parents, Damion Parker and Camilla Jones, were so much in love. We all thought they’d get married one day. I know Damion wanted to.’
He stopped to take a sip of his coffee.
‘Then that night, after one too many tequila slammers, they disappeared upstairs into my parents’ room. Well, I don’t need to say too much more, but Camilla got pregnant and she was only seventeen.’
Alice couldn’t imagine having a baby at twenty-three, let alone seventeen.
‘Anyway, Camilla had her life all planned out, with plans to become a heart surgeon, a dream she’d had since she was eight years old, after her father died from heart disease. She totally freaked out when she found out she was pregnant.’
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