Changes and New Challenges
Jessica was smiling. It had nothing to do with the new Bentley Flying Spur Azure that Albert had insisted she use as her pregnancy progressed past her capacity to drive. It had nothing to do with the lunch she was heading to or the money she was about to receive.
She was smiling because she had finally admitted that she was in love. She never thought it would be possible for her to love; it was a commodity she had always refused to fall victim to. She had viewed love like a drug dealer who refuses to use their own product while they destroy lives and seek more and more wealth.
Albert was currently out of town, but their wedding was being planned. He had commissioned furniture from the Blue Serene Gallery after seeing Jessica look at a few pieces in awe. He had bought an island long ago and was now building a home for them there, and he had already promised her father and mother that he would not only take care of her but ensure they stayed connected to the family.
He was everything she never knew she needed or even wanted. Being with him was giving her a sense of true joy she never felt was possible to experience, let alone recognize within herself. None of it made sense to her, and she continued to see her thoughts tangled in knots. So, she was smiling broadly, a beautiful glow on her cheeks, when she stepped out of the Flying Spur to meet Christopher for lunch.
She entered the café, her Mina Roe Aaliyah feeling like a second, rather comfortable skin around her still-growing belly, and saw Christopher almost immediately. He seemed to have been nursing a scotch, and he looked tired and worried.
Her tigress mannerisms automatically engaged when she saw him this way. He had always been so gullible to her, so easily manipulated. She smiled sweetly as she gracefully sat down, deliberately allowing her large belly to be a focal point. Christopher's eyes went straight to it, seeming to examine her to ensure everything was okay.
She smiled, feeling she had successfully ensnared him again. He looked at her and sighed. "How much money do you need this time, Jessica?"
She smiled politely and looked to the waiter. She waited for the man to arrive and ordered a passion fruit juice; only then did she look to Christopher to answer. "I do not need extra. Just put my monthly payment into my account. As we agreed, you will continue the payments for the next fifteen years, and after that, we will decide what to do."
"So, my children will always be a commodity to you?"
Jessica shrugged as she smiled at the returning waiter. She ordered an appetizer and a main dish, took a sip of her juice, and looked back to Christopher. "Our children, Christopher."
He sighed again, took out his cell, and transferred the money. "Gladys wants to be at the delivery."
"No."
Christopher looked up at her, and she smiled broadly. "Why should I grant such a request? I did this for you, not your dreary wife."
She was taken aback when his eyes suddenly glistened with tears. Something cracked within her as the twins stirred in her womb. The appetizer arrived, and she quickly ate two seafood puffs dipped in a rich marinara sauce.
"Okay. She can be there. Albert will be there as well." She paused, the weight of the moment settling on her. "The delivery date is set for two weeks from tomorrow."
"Thank you, Jessica."
She didn't look at him. Her emotions were too unpredictable at the moment. She checked her account, then her mind roamed to thoughts of Albert. Maybe it was time for her to actually build something real. He was so good to her; perhaps she needed to be good to him as well.
The office of Mr. Lents at the intelligence agency was quiet. He worked silently at his desk—an unassuming man with a receding hairline, thick glasses, and pale skin marked by blemishes and patches of dry skin.
He was a far cry from the dashing perfection of Albert Cummings.
Mr. Lents finished his work without issue. His assistants had left the office a few hours ago, allowing him to focus on completing specific, pre-planned tasks. He sighed, stood, and stretched. Then, he meticulously collected his things and quietly left the high-security building.
He drove his vehicle toward his home. His watch chimed, and a "digital ghost" protocol—a high-tech, military-grade AI program unknown to the public—initiated exactly as he had set it up weeks before.
He turned off the main road, quickly pulling into a hidden driveway where he parked next to another car. Today would be the last day of Allister Lents' life. He went to the trunk of the second car; the body he pulled out was genetically a match for Lents. He placed it carefully in the driver's seat of the first vehicle.
The intelligence agent acted with lethal efficiency. He attached a device to the first car and cleared his traces from the hidden driveway. Both cars began their trek back toward the main highway.
That night, Mr. Lents' car suffered a catastrophic "mechanical failure." It went off the side of the road and plummeted down a cliff, where it exploded.
All of Anthony Shaw's aliases were now burned—leading back to a dead end: Allister Lents, the late US intelligence agent.
That night, in a basement in the Midwest, a young man watched the only woman he ever loved on one of his social media pages. He smiled as he watched her red hair glisten in the sun. She smiled back at him from the screen, and he felt his heart thunder in his chest.
"I will see you soon, my love. I am so glad you finally sent for me."
He pulled out his desk drawer and checked the tickets—a train to Carson City.
End of Arc 1: The Shrew Tamed