Virtuous Deception Page 9

  Armand agreed to look into it for her, but he didn’t need to. He knew who it was and was trying to take care of it. He had already made his first move by sending the pictures he’d collected to the home of Leonard Lewis. He was hoping that doing so would be a show of good faith to those watching. His meeting Michelle may have begun as a job, but his feelings for her were genuine.

  The people that hired him had suspected as much and had him under surveillance. He thought they would stop watching her place once he was no longer there. The brothers were dangerous, and he feared for her safety. The women he brought into their home were meant to serve as a distraction to them. Armand simply did as instructed and tried not to ask them too many questions. He didn’t want them to question his loyalties, and either the ruse didn’t work, or they weren’t watching him.

  They were watching her.

  “Michelle, please be careful. I love you.”

  “I am. I love you too.”

  Chapter 16

  Brianna could hear Michelle’s car pull up in the driveway. More importantly, she could see her through the peephole, where she had spent the last few minutes anticipating her arrival. She opened the door just as Michelle rang the doorbell.

  “Michelle, I’m so glad you’re here,” Brianna said with a smile on her face.

  “Hey, doll, I am too,” Michelle replied, giving Brianna a big hug.

  “So, let’s get started, shall we?”

  Brianna grabbed Michelle by the hand and led her to the white room.

  “My dad has two favorite places in this house: his office and this room,” Brianna stated as she took off her shoes and entered the room.

  Michelle slipped off her shoes and entered behind her, her eyes quickly surveying the room, searching for anything that looked out of place. White was definitely an appropriate adjective. The carpet, couch, table, walls, and fireplace were all white. Nearly everything in the room was white except for one painting that hung above the fireplace. Michelle decided to start there. Brianna took a seat on the couch to watch her work. She loved watching Michelle’s brain sort through things. It was a real treat for her. Michelle pulled the painting from the wall far enough to peer behind it . . . and found exactly what she was looking for.

  “What are you thinking?” Brianna asked.

  “This is the only thing that doesn’t seem like it belongs here. If your father has a hiding place, it would be somewhere near here.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “I also thought this painting is really awful,” Michelle joked. “Come help me move this. There’s a safe underneath it.”

  Brianna got up and helped Michelle remove the painting, placing it alongside the wall. Then Brianna turned her attention to the safe and began trying different numerical sequences hoping to unlock it. After several unsuccessful tries, at Michelle’s suggestion, she unlocked it using their birthday. Not the most imaginative idea but Michelle figured that Frank was not versed in criminology enough to know not to use a numerical sequence so easily attained. Michelle peered into the safe and studied its contents.

  There were a few rolls of cash, birth certificates, a diary, and few other nonessentials.

  “I think this is it,” Michelle stated as she pulled out a manila envelope similar to the one she received. “My friend told me that there’s some unfavorable information in here. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  Brianna had already considered the ramifications of her probing and decided that truth was better than the comfort of whatever lies she may be currently living in. “Michelle, we found out a week ago that our parents have been lying to us our entire lives. I doubt there is anything in there that could be worse than that.”

  Michelle shook her head, still not wanting to believe that, but accepting its truth at the same time. “True enough.” She opened the envelope and spread its contents on the floor around where she and Brianna were sitting. In it were bank statements, photographs, and what looked to be a lockbox key. Michelle grabbed the photographs, recognizing some of them from the package she received earlier. The others she couldn’t bring herself to even speak about.

  “Brianna, looks like you were right.”

  Brianna tried to swallow the air that materialized in her throat. She only suspected that her mother had been unfaithful, but to see her infidelity, in print, was a different beast altogether. Brianna felt like she held her father’s broken heart. She wiped the tears forming in the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “These must have been what my father saw. It was too much for him.” It was a simple statement, but her tone posed an important question.

  Brianna needed confirmation that Michelle understood and agreed with her reasoning. She needed her sister to remind her that she was not crazy for having her mother followed like some common criminal. That it was not merely right but the only feasible course of action. However, Michelle was distracted by her own thoughts. For the moment, the only father she could be concerned with was her own. Leonard Lewis, whose features were prevalent in too many frames for Michelle’s comfort. Her shock was obvious as she studied his silhouette as it draped with Lisa’s, drawn in a lovers’ embrace, trying to come up with a palpable reason for his presence . . . and finding none.

  She was even more confused now. First, a connection to Charlie she could not explain, and now this? If he had already been intimate with Lisa, why did he hire Charlie to get close to her? Although she could barely stomach the knowledge of his betrayal, a more ominous question remained unanswered: How could he do this to her mother? She was glad that her mother would never have to learn of this. Her body shuddered as the truth rose into her consciousness and embedded itself in her bones. She had no idea who her father was. Michelle shook her head to reclaim her mind and return to her here and now.

  “Bria, I know who some of these people are.”

  Brianna looked at Michelle with curiosity rooting itself in her deep brown eyes. Michelle picked up a photo of Charlie and Lisa venturing through the North Park Mall. “This woman is Charlie, an exotic dancer.”

  “Lisa’s a stripper?” Brianna closed her eyes and fell backward onto the floor. Her temple throbbed incessantly as the depravity of Lisa’s betrayal waged war on her sensibilities. Hot tears streamed down her face as her pain and anger mingled. Brianna truly had no clue who Lisa was. Michelle continued.

  “I spoke with Charlie today before I came over. She’s known Lisa since grade school. From what she told me, they recently began hanging out.”

  Brianna was hurting, and Michelle could see it.

  “Lisa is sleeping with a woman too? I don’t understand. I know it’s 2014 and all, but really? She and my father have been married for twenty years!” Brianna exclaimed. “This is not happening, Michelle; it can’t be. My mother’s gay?” Brianna was not looking for an answer. She wanted to understand, but more than that, she wanted it all to be a fictional tale.

  “Bria, I know this is hard to hear, but we’ll get through this together. You are not alone in this.”

  Michelle grabbed another picture and held it near Bria’s face. She braced herself for the words that would come out of her mouth. “That man is my father.”

  Brianna sat up so fast, she almost knocked Michelle down in the process. “What!”

  “My father and Lisa know each other somehow, though I’m not yet sure about the nature of their relationship.” Brianna was dumbfounded. Michelle wasn’t completely honest. Intuitively, she felt that Lisa and her father had a sexual history, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud, much less share that information with Brianna.

  “Michelle . . . I . . . I . . .” Brianna stammered, trying to process this information. The possible affair was a hard enough pill to swallow, but that wasn’t what had her speechless. Michelle’s eyes confirmed that they had seats on the same train of thought. If their parents had known each other, how was it that neither had ever come to realize that their children were identical?

  �
��Bria, this is crazy. This entire situation is crazy! I don’t know what to think, literally. I keep calling this man my father, but I don’t know he is.” Michelle shook her head. “We don’t know who our parents are, biological or adopted. These people that have loved and raised us are not who we thought they were.”

  Brianna shook her head in disbelief. She did not know what to make of things either, but she knew that no matter what the truth was—Frank was her father. “Regardless of whoever our biological parents are . . . these people . . . They are still our parents. They paid for our college educations, taught us everything we know. We need to try to hold on to that.” Michelle allowed Brianna’s words to imbue her judgment, fostering a temporary base, a solid place from which she began again. “I was starting to feel like I lost something, but now that I think about it, I have only gained.”

  Timidity left her words as she spoke, finding clarity in the spaces. “This has always been our reality. The difference is that now we’re aware of it. Now that we are, we have the power to change it.”

  Brianna listened intently while Michelle spoke, but questions continued to inundate her thoughts. “I guess I’m just freaking out a little. What if Lisa and Lewis are our parents? What if this was some whole diluted scheme, and they all conspired to keep us apart?”

  “Sure, Michelle, and why would they do that?”

  “I don’t know. Hell, it all seems a little ironic, don’t you think? They are having a secret affair and each of them . . . has one of us?”

  “I cannot think about that. This is already heavy enough. Let’s not add stuff without any proof.”

  “What else are you thinking about? What’s bigger than this? Why are we here?”

  “How about my dad lying up in the hospital with a lesbian wife at his side? How about that?”

  Michelle needed to calm down. She did not want to argue with Brianna. This was a lot for them both. Frustration was taking over.

  “Bria, I . . . I feel like I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what to believe. Nothing is off-limits. All I have is speculation. I’ll use that to find the truth. You have to draw a path to walk one; otherwise, you could end up anywhere.”

  Brianna looked at the picture of Lisa, her mother, with Lewis, and the other picture with Charlie, still reeling from the hard evidence. Secretly, she hoped this venture to be a frivolous one. She wanted to be wrong. She could tell Michelle was fighting to hold on to her sanity. Her eyes left her exposed and gave Brianna access to her private musings.

  “Brianna, I mean, you don’t find it odd at all?”

  “Of course, I do, but what does that mean? What does it matter if I do?”

  “The odds were against us ever finding each other. How random was it that you chose my ad on craigslist?”

  Brianna stopped breathing. Small bumps the size of iodized salt crystals climbed her arms as her body chilled from the inside out. How could she have missed it? She had completely forgotten about him in the midst of everything else that had been going on. “Not random at all, actually. Uncle Jacob—”

  Michelle grabbed Brianna’s arm and finished her sentence. “I know a Jacob!”

  Brianna stared at Michelle excitedly, energized by Michelle’s sudden burst of glee. “Jacob Wilson. He’s a lawyer, right?”

  “Yes!”

  The hype resided, and Brianna’s wheels of thought began to turn. “He recommended your company. I never thought anything of it until now.”

  Michelle could not believe it. The odds were too great that he would send Brianna to her and Charlie to Lisa without knowing anything. He had to know something. “Wait, how do you know him?”

  “Charlie knows a man named Jacob.”

  Michelle paused briefly to be certain that Brianna was following her.

  Brianna nodded her head, signaling that she understood.

  “If he is the same person, which I presume is the case, he also told Charlie how to find Lisa.”

  Brianna saw where Michelle was going. “He must know something. This is entirely too coincidental. He’s been a friend of my father’s for years. I used to have play dates with his daughter all the time. He’s been like an uncle to me.”

  Brianna rehashed every conversation she could remember, looking for clues, things she might have missed that could help them now. She would not call him again. He had twenty-two years to tell her . . . She paused in the midst of her thoughts . . . Something told her that this was his way of telling her. He led her directly to Michelle in his own way, without confessing a single word.

  “If I ever get the chance to meet him, I think I’ll hug him and thank him,” Michelle spoke from her heart. She meant every word. She loved Brianna.

  “I am grateful for that, but if he sent Charlie to Lisa, then he’s complicit in her affair as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know how I feel about him right now.”

  Michelle didn’t even want to broach the subject given the probable romance between Lisa and her father. She thought it best to move on and quickly. “Let’s take a look at some of these papers.”

  Michelle picked up the bank statements. “Umm . . . Bria . . . I think these are your parents’ bank statements.”

  Michelle handed the papers to Brianna. After perusing the paperwork, Brianna’s jaw dropped. It was her parents’ bank statements, but the dollar amount could not be right. There was less than $50,000 in there. “Michelle, if this is correct, my parents are damn near broke. My dad never gave any hint that he had anything less than a few million dollars. What is going on? Millions are missing!”

  Brianna was floored. Her parents were, in large part, responsible for the lifestyle she enjoyed. Her company was only a few years old. If their money was gone, things would certainly change for her too. She racked her brain trying to postulate some solution. She snapped her fingers as the answer dawned on her. “My mom has a secret account. Uncle Jacob told me, inadvertently, awhile ago that ‘a smart woman always keeps an umbrella because the rain will always come; every drought has an end.’ I think he was telling me that my mom has another account. One my father does not know about. We need to find that account number.”

  “What is your plan? Why do you want to find it?”

  Brianna grinned mischievously. “Perhaps we can use it to get some answers.”

  “Blackmail?”

  “Whatever it takes.”

  Michelle did not contest the suggestion. Their parents had forced them to live in an alternate reality, to exist in a negative space with no intention of ever removing them from the black room. But as more of the picture developed and the images came into focus, one thing was very clear: the deception ran deep, and their quest for the truth was not only rewriting their notion of their family but altering them as individuals as well. They simply needed to find out how much of their truth was fabricated.

  Chapter 17

  Frank was relieved to still have his life. For a moment, he was convinced he was losing it. When his world went black, and he found his breath leaving him, his last thoughts were of Brianna. He would move heaven and earth for her. He looked to his left and saw his wife, Lisa, asleep on the sofa bed. If he could speak, he would have hurled every curse word imaginable at her. He had accepted a great deal from Lisa. He thought he had been a good husband, especially since he had overlooked her various affairs, but the thought of her stealing from him was unforgivable.

  Why would she need to do that? She had full access to whatever her heart desired. He had made sure that she had the best of everything. His money was always theirs. There must have been a reason, but he could not think of one. Maybe it was Karma for the shameful thing he’d done so many years ago. The lives that were forever changed. If that was the case, Frank would accept his punishment. His beautiful daughter was a constant reminder of how desperate and callous he had behaved in the pursuit of the millions that were now missing. Each time he looked at her face, a part of him died. The guilt tore him up inside. As if the deed itself was not enough, he had to p
ay a lot of people to cover his tracks.

  Thinking of it all reopened wounds that never healed properly. He used to attribute it to destiny. Finding Brianna’s mom that day and convincing her that Brianna should be his was both the best and most awful thing he’d ever done in his life. Money had never been an issue for him; Frank was accustomed to paying for what he wanted. Out of all the things he’d purchased in his life, his college degree, his wife, homes, cars, etc., Brianna had been his greatest purchase to date. Frank couldn’t regret the manner in which he came to father Brianna since he had never loved anyone as much as he loved her. Besides, he had kept his promise; his little girl received the best of everything.

  He paid to have a false birth certificate created, to have the legal documents granting the adoption drafted, and even paid Jacob to keep his trap shut about the whole thing since he was the facilitator. Brianna being ignorant of the fact that she had a twin sister out there, as beautiful and probably as sweet as she, was the only part of this that left a bitter taste in Frank’s mouth. He could no longer stomach his hypocrisy. He possessed the information about the whereabouts of her sister; he’d had it since they brought her home from the hospital. He had gone out of his way to make sure that their paths never crossed, and it wasn’t a cheap secret to keep.

  Frank had been paying the “Marx Brothers” a hefty amount of money to keep tabs on Brianna’s twin’s family, specifically her sister. He had been able to ensure that Brianna never happened to run into her by knowing her twin sister’s exact location at all times. Now, with his money gone, he had no way to keep this in place. Even if he did want to keep this from Brianna, he did not know how he would be able to do so. He could only hope that the Marx Brothers would accept that their arrangement had run its course. Frank may not only lose his daughter but his life as well.

  Chapter 18

  It had been a few days since Michelle had last seen Brianna, and her mind was still perplexed with the onslaught of information. Not only had they discovered a possible affair between Lisa and her father, Lewis, but Brianna’s parents were broke in comparison to their usual standards. Millions of dollars were missing from their account. The two sisters had found another set of bank statements in Frank’s office that said something completely different. Something was definitely not right. One set had been altered and did not reflect the true account balance. Michelle could only surmise that it was Lisa’s doing. What if Lisa had a private account for her eyes only? It would make sense if she did.