Secrets (12 page)

She met Mike as
she exited the office. “I need my purse,” Sonya declared, running
up the stairs to her room. She was going to see Bryan. He was
alive, and hopefully not too badly hurt. And, she was a happy
woman.

In the back of
the car on route to the hospital, Sonya thought about all that had
happened in the past few days. What had begun as an exciting
honeymoon trip to the City of Love had turned into something far
different. Mike was quiet as well, seeming to be brooding about
something.

It was with
great anticipation that Sonya approached the door to Bryan’s room.
A man who appeared to be guarding the room, smiled and nodded as
she and Mike stood at the doorway. It was exciting to finally see
him again, but not knowing his condition was frightening. BB said
he’d be all right. And from what she could tell, he didn’t lie.
Much. Unless it was a secret.

Finally, she
summoned up the courage to walk into the room. Bryan was asleep,
for which, Sonya was grateful. His face was bruised and cut, one
eye was almost swollen shut and he had a cast on his right hand. An
IV dripped into his left arm and it seemed like he’d lost weight.
He had several days’ worth of unshaven beard and his glasses were
nowhere to be seen.

Softly, she
kissed his cheek. A smile crossed his face. Sonya,” he whispered.
“Are you really here?”

“Open your eyes
and find out,” she answered, doing her best to keep her voice light
and her eyes tearless.

“Hey, Babe,” he
smiled, having trouble to keep his eyes open. “Did they get those
SOB’s Grégoire and Lucien? Bastards!”

“Yeah, they
did, last night. They’re in jail. BB and Maurice are going back to
question them again this later this morning,” Sonya answered.

“BB? Mike’s
father? Why?” Bryan asked.

Before Mike
could answer, Bryan yawned. “Dunno what they put in that IV but it
sure puts me under.” With that he fell asleep.

It was then,
that Sonya put her head upon Mike’s shoulder and let her tears
fall. Bryan had been beaten, he’d been abused and there was nothing
that she could do about it. It made her so very angry and yet so
sad for him all at the same time.

“He will be all
right,” a woman’s voice stated. “It will take time, but it will
happen. We are grateful to find him alive.”

Both Mike and
Sonya turned as one, surprise only one of the emotions they
portrayed. Standing before them, was a woman they would have sworn
was Mimi. But it couldn’t be! She was still at the debriefing! A
second look confirmed that it wasn’t Mimi, but someone considerably
older.

The woman
laughed at their reaction and pulled out a chart. “I believe you
have meet my daughter, Mimi. I am Joselyn Dupont. Bryan doctor.
Mimi call me last night when they find him. It was good they find
him when they did. He was very dehydrate and as you can see, abuse.
Two finger was broke in the right hand but they will heal very
good, the break was clean.”

Sonya thought
she would pass out. Never had she thought that Bryan was in such
grave danger. The could have’s began to race through her mind.

The doctor took
her shoulders and gave them a small squeeze. “Think of what is good
now, not what is bad before. He will be healthy. Only a little
time, that is all. He has medication to sleep. There is no pain in
sleep
, n’est-ce pas?
He will sleep until tomorrow. Then I
allow him to go with you.”

Sonya gave the
doctor a weak smile. “Thank you,” she stuttered.

The doctor
smiled brightly. “Mimi tell me that you are the cousins of Steven.
Almost
famille.
I take care of
ton mari, Chérie.
Promis
!” With that, she patted Sonya’s shoulder and walked out
of the room and down the hallway.

“There’s no
point in staying, Sonya, much as I understand how much you want to.
The doctor is keeping Bryan under to shield him from the pain.
Obviously, he had enough pain while he was kidnapped. Why don’t we
let him sleep? You’ve been through enough too. Let’s go back to
BB’s and get some sleep. You can’t do anything here.”

Mike put his
arm around Sonya’s shoulders and manoeuvred her out of the room.
The guard nodded as they left, and took up his position at the door
of Bryan’s hospital room. The car was waiting for them and they
returned to BB’s in silence.

Sonya
immediately went to her room, throwing herself onto the bed,
uncertain whether to laugh or to cry. Bryan looked so hurt, so
bruised. And his hand, his painting hand! Broken! What would he do?
Thankfully, his job directing the art gallery in Calgary didn’t
rely on him painting.

In the middle
of having her little pity-party, there was a soft knock at the
door. It opened, and
Madame
Lalonde came in to sit beside
her on the bed.

“How is Bryan?”
she asked, although, somehow, Sonya felt that she already knew.

“Bruised and
broken, but Doctor Dupont assures me that he’ll be just fine. They
have him sedated. He may be able to come home tomorrow. I forgot to
ask when he could travel back to Canada. I can do that
tomorrow.”

Sonya took a
deep breath. “How are you?” she asked
Madame
Lalonde. “I
cannot imagine how difficult this has been for you. I’m really
sorry that things turned out this way for you.”

Patting her
hand,
Madame
Lalonde sighed. “It is a very bad dream,
non?
I did not know,
Chérie
, I did not know what it
was Lucien do. To betray, to lie, to hurt a friend, to hurt me...”
tears began to well in her puffy eyes. Immediately, Sonya put her
arms around her landlady and they both had a little cry.

“I am very
sorry,”
Madame
Lalonde mopped her red eyes. “Lucien hurt
Bryan. Can you forgive me?”

Sonya’s eyes
snapped open wide. “Forgive you? Why? You have been nothing but to
be kind to us!”

“But, Lucien…
he does bad things! He is my son,” she replied.

“And he did bad
things to you, as well. You cannot control someone else’s actions,
especially an adult, child or not! Lucien allowed those men to hurt
you, his own mother! Now that is unforgivable. You were a wonderful
example for him. It was his choice to follow another path!”

Madame
Lalonde gave her a weak smile. “You sound just like Merl. I am very
happy that you do not blame me. Thank you.” With that, she kissed
Sonya on both cheeks and left the room.

That
conversation gave Sonya a great deal to think about. It was
difficult to understand why
Madame
Lalonde would have blamed
herself for this whole absurd scenario. Now that her shock was
beginning to wear off, her curiosity was beginning to want some
more answers. Shedding her pity party, she splashed cold water on
her face, squared her shoulders and strode to the door.

She reached the
living room to find it had been put back into place, as if the
meeting had never taken place. Retracing her steps to BB’s office,
she found the office door locked, and no one replied to her knock.
Next she tried the kitchen, where she found Mike drinking a coffee
and attacking an immense sandwich.

“That looks
good!” Sonya remarked, beginning to feel hunger pangs after her
meagre breakfast. “Is there any more?”

Mike opened the
fridge to reveal an array of sandwiches and goodies, obviously left
over from the after meeting. Sonya chose a sandwich the same size
as Mike’s and after pouring a glass of milk, sat at the table
across from him.

“So, Mike, what
has you in such a funk?” she asked bluntly, knowing that something
was gnawing away at him.

“Aw, a lot of
things Sonya. I’m still wrapping my head around last night’s
happenings. Here,” he handed her an envelope that had been in his
shirt pocket. “Sara emailed this to me this morning. I asked her to
open the envelope and send me the results if it arrived while I was
here. John has the keys to my condo.”

“The DNA
results?” Sonya asked. He nodded. She unfolded the paper and read
the verdict. “Well, what will you do now? Does BB know?”

“Things have
been pretty hectic around here. I’m not sure,” he replied
cautiously.

“How do you
feel about the results?” she asked.

Mike took a
deep breath. “I’m not at all surprised. I don’t think that anyone
is. We have a lot of ground to cover, BB and I. The problem is, I
have no idea how we will accomplish that on two different
continents.”

“You will find
a way,” Sonya reassured between mouthfuls. “If it’s what you both
want, and somehow, I think that it is.”

She paused for
a moment, carefully choosing her words. “How much of a leave did
you take from your job? Can you extend it? I imagine that BB will
be tied up for another couple of days with interrogating Lucien and
Grégoire.”

“Actually not,”
BB’s voice interjected. “We have them dead to rights. With very
little negotiation, Grégoire is singing like a canary. You are
right, my dear, he really is a disgusting little slime ball. And,
they are French citizens, arrested in France, so Interpol has them
now.”

He took a deep
breath and addressed Mike. “I presume you have heard the DNA
results?” Mike nodded. “We have many things to discuss, you and I.
Sonya, would you mind terribly allowing my son and I to talk for a
while?”

“Not at all,”
she smiled. “But, is it possible to get some of our things from
Madame Lalonde’s? Or should we move back there?”

“It would be my
preference, if I may request, that you remain here. It is your
choice, of course. I have asked Lise to remain here; I do not think
that she is ready to be alone, even with her grandson as company,”
BB explained. “I have been advised that Bryan will be released
tomorrow morning. It will be easier to look after him here than at
Lise’s home.”

Sonya smiled
brilliantly. “Then it’s settled!”

“Excellent!
After Mike and I speak, I shall drive you and Lise to the house to
pack your belongings,” BB declared with a smile.

Leaving the
kitchen, Sonya tried not to listen to the discussion between BB and
Mike. From the few words that she heard, it sounded like it would
be to both their liking.

Sonya spent
some time in her room, checking email and the weather at home,
simply wasting time. She knew that Mike and BB required some
private space, something that had been in short supply since their
arrival at BB’s home. In all honesty, he had been more than
accommodating to them. She barely knew him and already, she had
been a welcome guest in his gracious home.

The telephone
at her bedside table rang. Hurriedly, she answered, wondering who
would be calling her here, especially because she was somewhere
that she didn’t know and no one else knew where she was.

“Hello.”

Bryan’s voice
was slurred but he was there nonetheless. “Sonya?” he mumbled.

“Hey Babe!” she
replied as brightly as was possible. “I thought that you were
asleep.”

“Yeah, but the
pretty doc said that you were here and I couldn’t remember and I
didn’t believe her. Were you here?”

“I did indeed
visit you, but you were asleep. Your doctor said that if you could
sleep until tomorrow, then you could come home to me. So, sweetie,
you need to sleep!” Sonya said in her brightest voice. “But, if you
need me to come back to the hospital, I can be there within half an
hour.”

“Naw,” Bryan
replied, “I’m so tired I can’t seem to stay awake. Nite,
sweetie.”

”Good night,
sweetie,” Sonya replied in her most positive voice.

“Nite, Darlin”,
Bryan replied beginning to slur his words.

Another voice
came on the line. “
Madame
Mylowsky, this is Doctor Dupont.
Bryan have fight his medication to speak with you. I will increase
his dosage, but he is more calm to have speak to you already. I see
you tomorrow morning.
Au revoir
.”

Somehow, the
phone call calmed her too. Bryan was coming back to her, and they
were staying in a really lovely home, something that previously had
totally gone without notice. BB had been a very gracious host. She
would make a point to thank him when they drove to Madame
Lalonde’s.

A brisk knock
at the door had her hopping. “Ready?” Mike asked. With a smile,
Sonya picked up her purse and followed Mike down the stairs. They
climbed into BB’s Mercedes, and this time, he was driving.

“So, you do
drive yourself!” Sonya stated.

“Oh, most
definitely!” BB laughed. “Maurice was part of our cover. He is at
his desk at Interpol as we speak, writing up reams of reports. I
was brought in from retirement for this operation. Thus, I am now
free as a bird from the paperwork. That was always the downside of
a mission.”

“About
reports,” Sonya began a little cautiously. “I have a lot of
questions about all of what has happened. Will I get some answers
to my questions?”

BB hesitated
briefly. “Some questions can and must be answered. What is
classified will remain so. I would like to wait until Bryan is
home, so that we can carry on a round table and discuss it
together. Is that satisfactory?”

“Absolutely!”

Madame
Lalonde said nothing as they approached her pretty home. The police
tape was gone, the police cars were gone, and it looked as it had
before all of the craziness had begun. She pulled out her keys and
opened the door, hesitant to step in. BB held her elbow and it
seemed to give her the courage to walk through into her own home,
the home in which she had been attacked, the home into which her
son would never again be free to visit.

The mess had
been tidied. No doubt, not all was in its proper place, but it
probably wasn’t quite as painful for Madame Lalonde to walk into a
home no longer torn apart.