Chapter Forty-two

Cautious not to disturb the myriad tubes protruding from her mouth and nose, I kiss her ashen cheek. “Lily, you must survive this,” I whisper. “I’ve waited far too long for you.”

Her only response is the rise and fall of her chest and the steady, but weak pulse emanating through the monitor, both manufactured by the ventilator breathing life into her body. This is not how I envisioned our reunion.

“You have to pull through. I know your body is broken right now, but the doctors say your mind is intact and it is strong. I need you to stay with me.”

Footsteps trek into the room, and a nurse announces her presence by clearing her throat. Once she recognizes me, her demeanor changes from nurse to soldier and she offers up a firm salute. She apologizes for the interruption then exchanges the bags of fluids to the I.V. The nurse leaves as quickly as she came and I am left to continue my pleas.

“Where are the books, Lil?” I ask, to no reply.

I sift through her pile of belongings for anything the soldiers might have missed. The shine of a blue jewel catches my eye. I remove it from the plastic bag. It is a blue diamond ring hooked on to a necklace. With a smile, I pocket the ring for safekeeping. I stroke her hair and reminisce about our time together until the doctors usher me out of the room because she needs her rest.

For one week I spend nearly all my waking moments by her side, hoping for a sign of life, for some sign that she may return to me, that my voice can rouse her from her deep slumber, but her condition remains unchanged. During my sleeping hours, I toss and turn, wondering if she would have kept the ring had she been cognizant of the truth. I yell for her to return to me and beg for her forgiveness, but she yields nothing and it is what I deserve for my deception.

“I genuinely regret killing your sister.” I run my fingers through her locks, trying to comfort her as I confess. “She knew too much, and she would have pressed you to alert the authorities. I couldn’t chance more than fifty years of planning being cast by the wayside.

“Now, you may be wondering who supplied the other bodies in the explosion. Oh, how fortunate I was that the fire burned hot enough that forensics were rendered useless. Eyewitnesses placed me in the car, as well as you and your sister, but no one saw me stuff Mad Max into the trunk after the two of you had left earlier in the day. Max had harmed you, you see. I don’t regret his murder and I ensured that he would suffer. He was bound, gagged, and wrapped in a blanket, but he entered the car very alive. He spent time baking as the sweltering sun turned the car into an oven.

“There wasn’t any movement from him when I opened the trunk for a second time, just a few hours later.

Father Xavier had seemed capable enough when I first put him in charge of the ministry, but when he ordered Mad Max to attack you, I couldn’t have that. I confronted him, said that I had you and everything else under control, but it wasn’t entirely true.

“He claimed that my judgment had been clouded by my love for you, that you were playing me and soon we’d all be in prison if I continued my relationship with you. He said, ‘She’s proven time and again that she can’t be trusted, Sigmund, and the brainwashing didn’t take. You gave it to her yourself. She’s no good to us. If you won’t kill her, I will.’

“Can you believe his gall to imply that you were no good? To suggest that you be discarded like a piece of trash? He believed that you were the one being tested, but failed to see his own shortcomings, that you were part of his test, and he had failed miserably.

“You proved that his desire to protect the Order’s secrets and missions was negligible at best. But you proved much more to me when it came to this man who fancied himself as one of the highest priests in the Order. You proved he couldn’t follow instructions, that he had an alternate agenda that put himself above our security, and that he could not be trusted with our deepest secrets.

“And I couldn’t have that type of person representing my grandfather’s mission. Father Xavier took his last breath within thirty seconds of making his suggestion and joined Mad Max in the Civic shortly after I forged a note saying that both of them were going to be recruiting in South America. No one questioned it.

“The explosion offered me an opportunity for stealth. Professor Jack Weaver died in that car, but Sigmund Dietrich was just getting started. I had my grandfather’s original writings in hand, and now I could begin the final plans for the takeover.

“Imagine my dismay when I discovered that you had the originals. I could have kicked myself when I let you drive away, but I honestly believed that I would find you, that you would slip up, that we would be together again. You went too far underground.

“It wasn’t until the holidays this past year that I finally thought I may have found you. Ryan, you remember him, right? He saw you while he was in the grocery store. He wasn’t certain that it was you, but he felt the resemblance uncanny.” I scoffed. “You’ve barely aged, Lil. You don’t look your best right now, but there’s no doubt that you’re you.

“I ordered him to find you, but it wasn’t easy. You didn’t keep routines. It wasn’t until the morning of the State of the Union when I visited my niece, may she rest in peace, that I discovered your new identity. Abi was flipping through pictures on her computer screen, discussing a soldier she was interested in, a soldier who could be of high value to the Order and someone she wanted to pursue romantically. The only problem was that he was married and his wife would not allow him to entertain the idea of joining the Order. She adored his children and his niece, but his wife…. Oh, how she loathed you, Lily. She wanted you dead and I almost agreed to it.

“I eventually looked at the screen and was shocked to see your picture staring back at me. In fact, I remember my cup of coffee shattering onto the floor as I realized that you were practically right under my nose, and had been for a few months. Abi had to coax me out of going to your house right then and there. She said that going would jeopardize all of our plans, that we’d be able to apprehend your entire family safely during the speech.

“And I agreed with her. I should have known you’d run the second you figured out what was happening, but I hadn’t anticipated your being forewarned by a member of the Order. I believed that with the weather that was coming in, you’d stay put. I called Ryan with your address and he was supposed to tail you during the day. Somehow he missed you packing your van” I shook my head at his ineptitude “and he managed to follow you when you left.

“But when his body was discovered, we knew you had eluded us again. We had to act fast and Abi made finding both you and Luc a priority. She tried whatever means she could to lure you out of hiding, ordering the killing of your cherished friends and family. But I interceded on your parents’ behalf. I felt your mother would be able to find you, to talk some sense into you.

“Then Luc was apprehended, and you came willingly to us. I was trapped in briefings, dying to reunite with you in my office, but Abi was forced to meet you there instead. I underestimated her hatred of you, thought she could be civil long enough for me to arrive. She knew that I’d be able to arrange it so Luc would be hers for the taking, that I was but a few minutes away.

“I can’t believe that she intended to wound him so seriously, but whatever happened in that office….

“When I heard the gunshots, I knew that she had disobeyed me. I couldn’t bring myself to attend her funeral because of the bruises I saw on your body, the disappointment I felt in her inability to follow my command, but she was given a funeral because she was my niece.

“I do hope that you can forgive me, Lily. I do love you.”

Frustrated that there is nothing I can do for her at the moment, I step out into the hall. I smooth my hair, not wanting the soldiers to see evidence of my duress. Peering into the rooms as I pass by them, it is another patient for whom I search. He sits up in bed, three doors down from the wife he no longer remembers. He is dredging chunk-sized pieces of his Salisbury steak into mashed potatoes and forking them into his mouth.

“A full recovery,” I’d heard the nurses say about him over the past couple days. “Soon ready for discharge.”

I reached into the pocket of my blazer and palmed the switchblade inside. If I were to have any chance with Lily, he had to be removed from the equation.

“How are you, President Dietrich?” Luc says as he chews his mouthful of food.

I stare at him, considering his murder, wondering if I will be able to do it as cleanly as when I used the same knife on Father Xavier.

“I’m looking forward to serving you, Mr. President,” he says once the bite is swallowed.

It is enough to jar me out of my trance, and the eagerness that exudes from him has my empty hand leaving the pocket. Luc can definitely be of use to me, if some parts of his memory can be restored.

“And I believe I have a mission for you once the doctors clear you for duty. It shouldn’t be too difficult.” The plan coming together, the corners of my mouth tug into a smile. “It involves finding some books.”

I walk out of the room reassured by the doctors that they’ll be able to extract the location of the hideout from Luc’s memory through hypnotism. They also assure me that he will not remember his children, that he couldn’t remember Lily before he was shot.

We walk with him to Lily’s room. He stands before her, neither recollection of their history nor concern for her wellbeing as a person on his face. He belongs to the Order now and should be on his mission by week’s end.

I motion for the doctors to escort him away from Lily and am ecstatic for the first time in fifteen years. The ring knocks against my waist as I try to contain my glee.

I remove the ring and hold it up to the light, the diamond sending beams of light across the room.

“Will you marry me, Love?” I ask as I slide the ring onto her finger.

But she gives no answer other than the beeps of the heart monitor and the rise and fall of her chest.

The End…for now.

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A special thank you to my husband and children. They have given up a lot of time with me since I started this story nearly three (!) years ago. Another special thank you to @bnlfan, MJ Gary. I can't count the number of ledges you've talked me away from when it comes to this story. Your support and valuable input has been crucial to this story that I'm sure would have been shelved for the umpteenth time because I just couldn't write it.

I want to especially thank those readers whom I have kept waiting so long for updates when I've had severe morning sickness, moved across the country, and succumbed to self-doubt. Your words of encouragement, your support, and your gentle reminders that I had a story to finish have gotten me through some really tough parts.

And finally, to each and every one of you who has finished this story and is still reading this author's note, a sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope that I have managed to keep you enthralled by the story and that you have enjoyed every moment.

Thank you for sharing in this journey.