"Murky water" is a common English idiom that describes situations that are complex, uncertain, or unclear. It often signifies difficult circumstances that require careful thought and consideration due to the lack of clarity or predictability.

There is no sexual activity in this story other than implied consensual acts between married adults over the age of 18.

Chapter One

"Mr. Beecher, you are under arrest for third-degree lewd conduct and sexual assault involving a minor. Please rise and place your hands behind your back."

Mark Beecher glared up at the officer but rose as instructed and waited to have the handcuffs applied.

As the handcuffs were being placed, the second officer, a female, began, "You have the right to remain silent..."

"Oh, my God!" Stephanie Cross wailed at the officers as she too rose from where she had been sitting on the sofa next to Beecher. "What did she tell you?"

"Ma'am," the first officer responded, "Your daughter told us enough to have Mr. Beecher taken into custody and for us to initiate emergency removal proceedings with your daughter. An investigator with the Department of Social Service has been notified and should be here to explain things to you within the hour. In the meantime, your daughter will ride to the station with my partner and remain in protective custody pending the results of the DSS investigation and the judge's ruling at the probable cause hearing."

Stephanie plopped back down onto the sofa, placed her face into her hands, and moaned, "This can't be happening."

The first officer ignored her as he took ahold of an elbow, led Mark Beecher out the front door of the Cross' house, and situated him into the back seat of his patrol car. Once the door to the patrol car was closed and secured, he spoke into his radio to inform his partner that it was safe to bring the girl out.

~~~

MINDY: The police are taking me into protective custody. I'll explain when I see you. I love you, Dad.

Walker Cross kept glancing at the text from his thirteen-year-old daughter as he exited the hotel parking garage. Although he had immediately typed a response to her message, he saw that it had still not gone through, which implied that Mindy's cell phone had been turned off immediately after she had sent the message. Hopefully, his wife would be able to explain things.

Stephanie's cell phone rang three times before she answered, "What do you want, Walker?"

Walker was barely able to control his rage at his wife's continuing disrespect, as evidenced by her choice of words and the tone in which they were delivered. "Where's Mindy?" he growled.

"I didn't ask and they didn't tell me," Stephanie snapped back.

"Well, what in the HELL happened for her to text me that she is in the protective custody of the police?"

"You'll have to ask her. She was supposed to be spending the night with that new friend of hers, Jocelyn, but apparently came home while I was in the bathroom. The next thing I know, there are two police officers knocking on the front door. They talked with Mindy in her room for about half an hour and then took her with them. I'm supposed to receive a visit from an investigator from the Department of Social Services but I don't know why."

Walker wasn't totally surprised that Mindy wouldn't have confided in her mother. Their relationship lately had been as strained and distant as his and Stephanie's had been.

"Okay, I am cutting this trip short. I'll be back there in about three hours. If you find out where they have taken Mindy, please call me."

Walker seldom traveled for business and this overnight trip to Charlotte wasn't important enough for him to delay returning to his daughter immediately. Something had happened to her, and he needed to be with her. He had always been with her when she wanted or needed him, and tonight would be no exception.

The memory of that day nine years previous drifted into Walker's head once more. It had been the first time that he had caught Stephanie cheating on him and he was determined that it would be the last time. As he had carried his bags out the front door towards his waiting car, three-year-old Mindy had come running after him, crying, "Daddy, don't you walk so fast."

Seeing his beautiful daughter so distraught had made Walker realize what he stood to lose by divorcing Stephanie. Mindy was too young to understand why her father would be leaving her, and that she would be facing a childhood spending limited time with him. Custody laws favored the mother and, in a divorce, Stephanie would likely get the house. Walker would be lucky to see his daughter every two weeks and on the occasional holiday.

That's if Stephanie played nice in any divorce proceedings; which she had vowed not to do when Walker had confronted her about her infidelity. If things went as Stephanie threatened, she would receive full custody of Mindy and have complete say in how often he got to see his daughter or what role he would have in her life. Walker's pride and personal happiness were a huge sacrifice to keep Mindy in his life, but it was one he had paid for the past nine years.

Husband and wife had lived as basically roommates over that time. Though they shared the same bed in the master bedroom to keep up appearances of a happily married couple for Mindy and other relatives, Walker had refused the few attempts at intimacy that Stephanie had initiated. He never caught Stephanie in any further dalliances, but he admitted that he hadn't put much effort into keeping track of her. He simply didn't care what she did outside of their house.

Walker had turned all of the time and affection that he had reserved for his wife onto Mindy. At the same time, Stephanie had allowed him to assume the dominant parenting role with their daughter, freeing her for pursuits outside the home, such as her career. Stephanie still expressed a reasonable interest in Mindy's life, and made a point to attend all of the more important school or social events that a mother would be expected to be at.

In the past few months, Mindy had started dropping hints and asking questions about Walker and Stephanie's relationship. When she turned thirteen, Mindy had been allowed to have sleepovers with her friends, and this is what apparently opened her eyes to how her parents acted differently with each other than the parents of her friends.

Walker and Stephanie never hugged or kissed each other. They never went out to dinner or attended any events strictly as a couple. They didn't celebrate their anniversary. They didn't give each other gifts, or do nice things for one another. There was definitely something odd about their relationship when compared to others that she was observing, and Mindy was getting curious about it.

While driving the three hours back to their home, Walker was wondering if Stephanie had shared more with their daughter than he had, and if so, how would she have spun it? So far, he had simply assured Mindy that both her father and mother loved her and were dedicated to her health and happiness. Walker had assured Mindy that he loved her mother, which hadn't been a lie. On the day that Mindy was born, no man could have loved a woman more than Walker had loved Stephanie.

If Mindy asked her father if he loved his wife, he couldn't swear that the answer would have been any different. Walker might treat Stephanie with indifference most of the time, but he couldn't deny that she could still touch him more deeply and hurt him more painfully than anyone else in the world

~~~

"I find it hard to believe that Mark would do the things that you claim my daughter is accusing him of," Stephanie exclaimed. "He works around young girls her age every day, and there has never been a hint of impropriety."

Mark Beecher was the science teacher at the private and exclusive prep school where Stephanie was the head administrator. Her official title of "Head Mistress" had fallen out of favor, so she was usually referred to by the faculty and students as "Principal Cross". Anyone who had faced her disciplinary actions felt that the title was quite appropriate. She ran a tight ship and certainly would have learned of any inappropriate behavior among teachers and students, and she hadn't. Having met Mark's attractive fiancée, Stephanie knew how smitten he was with the slightly older woman. How many men shared an attraction to older women and young girls at the same time?

"I understand," the DSS investigator, Fern Blaise said. "But you acknowledged that you were not present at the time that your daughter claims he entered her bedroom and exposed himself to her."

"No. I was in the shower. I didn't even know that Mindy had come home until the police knocked on our front door. I had been out of the shower for only about five minutes and was moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. When I went to answer the door, Mark was sitting in the living room checking e-mails on his phone. He seemed calm and relaxed."

"Your daughter's description of the alleged events is very consistent, detailed, and descriptive. I'm afraid that she will have to attend a forensic interview at the Children's Recovery Center. The counselors there are very skilled at validating a child's claims of sexual assault. In the meantime, it is in the child's best interest for us to proceed on the assumption that the allegations are true and accurate."

Stephanie sighed and asked, "Will Mindy be allowed to come home?"

"I'm afraid not, at least not while you are living here..."

"What does THAT mean?" Stephanie interrupted. "I'm her mother, for Christ's sake. Why should my living here have to do with anything?"

Fern Blaise chose her words carefully, "The police report and my investigative report will both show that you failed to protect your daughter. You allowed a man unfamiliar to your daughter to have unsupervised access to her. Mindy also claims to not feel safe being alone with you. Whether your actions this evening were intentional or simply neglect is yet to be determined. Until it is, a safety plan will be implemented for Mindy that prohibits you from spending any unsupervised time with her. If her father is willing and able to take custody of Mindy, that is likely who she will be placed with by the court."

"You think that I purposely allowed Mark to expose himself to Mindy and then to fondle her when she tried to push him out of her room? I didn't even know that she was home. I told you that."

Fern nodded, "Which is why I am recommending only a finding of physical neglect against you at this time. If the forensic interview reveals that you were more complicit, that finding would be upgraded. It is department policy to err on the side of caution where a risk of sexual assault is concerned."

"Oh, fuck!" Stephanie thought. If she accepted or was convicted of a finding by the Department of Social Services for physical neglect of a child, it would likely require her to be registered in the statewide child neglect and abuse database. She had barely begun to imagine the ramifications that this would have on her life when she heard the garage door opener engaging.

Stephanie didn't hear the garage door being lowered again before the door connecting the kitchen to the garage burst open and she saw her husband enter. Or rather, an enraged lunatic who bore a striking resemblance to the man she considered her husband.

"WHERE IS MINDY?!" Walker screamed at Stephanie.

Noticing the middle-aged black woman in the chair across from Stephanie, he asked in a much calmer voice, "Are you with DSS?"

"Yes, I'm investigator Fern Blaise. I take it that you are Mr. Cross?"

Walker exhaled and said, "Yes, I am Mindy's father. Do you know where she is and can I see her?"

"I'll need to ask you a few questions before I can answer yours, if you don't mind."

Walker leaned against a counter in the kitchen and said, "I don't know what's going on, but I'll answer any questions that I can. Can you tell me what IS going on so that I at least have some context for your questions?"

"Of course," Fern said. "The exact details are still sketchy, but your daughter, Mindy is alleging that when she came home this evening, she was accosted. Mindy states that upon arriving home, she went straight to her room, but claims that a strange man followed her, entered her room without her permission, then performed a lewd act in front of her. When she attempted to push him out of her room and close the door, he touched her inappropriately through her clothes. Finally pushing him far enough into the hallway to close her bedroom door, she called 911 to report the incident and responding officers did encounter a man in your home wearing only his underwear. He has been arrested and your daughter was placed into protective custody."

Walker glared at Stephanie, "You brought some pedophile into our house while Mindy was here? How fucking depraved have you become?"

"I, I..." Stephaine stammered. She had never seen Walker this angry and didn't know how to deal with him in this condition.

"Never mind," Walker growled. "I'll deal with you later."

Addressing the DSS investigator, he said more calmly, "What can I answer for you?"

"First of all," Fern said, "Are you the biological father of Mindy Cross?"

"Yes, and I have the DNA test results to prove that."

Stephanie gasped at Walker's words. They had a DNA test done on Mindy when she was six months old to identify if she had any of the 16p11.2 Duplication Syndrome genetic markers that had been discovered in two of Walker's nephews, and thankfully she didn't, but Stephanie never suspected that Walker would view the results as confirmation that Mindy was his biological daughter. She felt a momentary pang of guilt that he would even be compelled to verify that fact. The reality was, that she had never had sex with another man, or woman, in the fourteen years that she and Walker had been married.

She hadn't done anything to alter Walker's beliefs to the contrary, and admittedly, she had stoked the fire a bit to torment him in retaliation for his cheating on her. After the way that their relationship had deteriorated over the last nine years, Stephanie knew that Walker would never believe her, especially now, so it was a moot point.

Fern Blaise interrupted Stephanie's silent musings when she spoke to Walker, "I understand that you have been out of town on a business trip. Were you aware that your wife had invited a guest to your home this evening?"

"Yes, I was on an overnight trip to Charlotte for an early morning meeting tomorrow with a potential client. But no, I pay little attention to Stephanie's social life, which it appears was a mistake in this case."

"Do you travel frequently or have other obligations that would impact your ability to assume custody of your daughter?"

"Absolutely not! There is nothing in my life that comes before the wants and needs of Mindy."

It wouldn't take any time or effort for an investigation into Walker Cross to identify the commitment that he had always demonstrated toward his daughter. A successful Certified Public Accountant, owning an accounting and financial management firm with an impressive client base, thirteen other accountants, six personal financial advisors, and a sizeable support staff working for him, Walker had mastered the art of delegation so that he was never restrained where spending time with Mindy was concerned.

Fern nodded and said, "Fine, then let me explain what's going to happen. Tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, there will be a probable cause hearing held in family court. Here is a notice of tomorrow's hearing for both of you. If it gets continued tomorrow, you will be notified."

She handed each of them a yellow paper that Walker thought resembled a traffic citation, and said, "You, Mrs. Cross, and Mr. Beecher will be listed as defendants with DSS as the plaintiff. My department will be seeking a finding of substantial risk for sexual abuse and physical abuse against Mr. Beecher. We will be seeking a finding of physical neglect against Mrs. Cross. You, Mr. Cross will be listed as a defendant only because we intend to list you as the protector of the minor child so you have to be a party to the case."

"I understand," Walker said. Stephanie bowed her head and began crying.

"If the judge determines that probable cause exists, which is a virtual certainty when the emergency removal proceedings are initiated by law enforcement, the likely ruling will be for you to retain custody of Mindy as long as the other defendants have no contact with her. Mindy will be required to undergo a forensic interview to ascertain the credibility of her allegations and the results of that interview will determine our next steps."

"When can I see Mindy?" Walker asked.

"As long as you understand and agree that your daughter can have no contact with either your wife or Mark Beecher, I can release Mindy to you tonight. You'll need to sign this safety plan indicating your acceptance of its terms. Mindy is at the law enforcement center waiting for placement in a temporary foster home but releasing her to you would result in a lot less paperwork."

Walker pushed himself away from the counter that he had been leaning on and asked, "So, as long as the whore over there isn't here, Mindy could sleep in her own bed tonight, and the police would enforce that?"

Stephanie dropped her head to the table and covered it with her arms as Fern Blaise said, "Well, in not so many words, but, yes."

"GET THE FUCK OUT!" Walker shouted at Stephanie. "I don't care where you go or how you get there, but if you're not out of this house by the time that I return with my daughter, there will be hell to pay."

Addressing the DSS investigator in a remarkably softer and kinder voice, he said, "Please inform the police or whoever you need to that I am on my way to pick up my daughter."

Without waiting for either Stephanie or the DSS investigator to reply, Walker headed for the garage. He could be at the law enforcement center in ten minutes and then take Mindy out for a late dinner if she hadn't eaten or ice cream if she had. That should give the bitch he had married more than enough time to pack a few things and get gone.

~~~

"Whose idea was it for you to sleep over at Jocelyn's on a school night?" Walker asked his daughter.

Father and daughter were talking quietly in a booth at a nearly empty Friendly's restaurant as they ate their ice cream. It had been almost an hour since Walker had left their house and he wanted to make certain that Stephanie was gone by the time that Mindy and him arrived back.

"I don't know where Mom got the idea that I would be spending the night at Jocelyn's. I texted her that I was going there after school to work on a project together, and that I would probably eat dinner there, but I never said that I was going to spend the night. I didn't even have a change of clothes with me."

Anyone who checked either Mindy's or her mother's cell phone would see the text that Mindy had sent. What they wouldn't see is the telephone call from Jocelyn's home phone to the home phone at the Cross residence when Mindy had, in fact, told her mother that she would be spending the night at her friend's house. Without that call as evidence, Mindy's accounting of events couldn't be easily disputed.

Walker wouldn't have doubted his daughter anyway, especially when it came to choosing between her recollection of events over those of his wife. He hadn't trusted Stephanie for more than nine years and he certainly wouldn't trust her more than he would Mindy.

"Is that buzzing sound your phone, Dad?"

Walker felt the vibration in his pocket that his thoughts had hidden from him. He pulled his phone out and checked the display. He read it quickly and then asked Mindy, "Is the project that you and Jocelyn were working on due tomorrow?"

"No, it's due next week. It's pretty much done though. Why?"

"It looks like you will be missing school tomorrow," her father informed her. "I need to take you to the Children's Recovery Center for your forensic interview tomorrow at 9 am."

Mindy finished her ice cream before asking, "Is that where they determine if what happened to me tonight really occurred or if I'm making it up?"

The detective assigned to the case against Mark Beecher had pulled Walker aside before he had seen Mindy to explain the process. He considered now how to relay the same information to his daughter.

"Most of the questions they ask you will be focused on determining how mature and intelligent you are. They'll try to gauge how much knowledge you have related to sex and both male and female human bodies. They will ask you things like whether or not you know the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie. You will be asked to share what happened in your own words, which they will document. However, before they start talking with you, they will give you a physical exam."

"Why?" Mindy asked. "Other than squeezing my boob through my sweater, the guy never touched me. I haven't checked, but I doubt that he left a mark on me. There isn't much there to squeeze."

"It's part of the process," her father explained, ignoring Mindy's comment about her still developing female body. "There have been instances where kids downplay what happened to them and the physical exam will help verify that you aren't leaving out important details due to fear, intimidation, or embarrassment."

Walker didn't believe it would be an issue for Mindy, but he didn't want her to be surprised, so he continued, "Do you remember when your mom took you to that Dr. Nance a few months back?"

After Mindy had her first menstrual cycle earlier that year, Walker and Stephanie agreed that it wouldn't hurt for their daughter to have her first pelvic exam. Thinking back on it now, it was common for husband and wife to share the same thoughts and concerns for Mindy and easily agree on a unified course of action when it was necessary. They had even agreed that Mindy would likely feel more comfortable seeing a female gynecologist her first time, so they had found Dr. Nance instead of using Stephanie's doctor.

When Mindy nodded, acknowledging that she remembered, Walker said, "The exam will be like that, and more. It won't hurt, but it might be embarrassing. Just be prepared and know that I will be in the waiting room if it gets too hard for you."

Mindy knew that the interview portion of the forensic examination would be the hardest part, but she was confident that her story would hold up. She knew that the physical exam was irrelevant to her claims against her mother's lover, but she would endure it to accomplish her objective.

Chapter Two

"Mindy, your presence is requested in the front office," the teacher said. "Please gather up your things and take them with you. And don't forget to study for the quiz tomorrow."

She hadn't done anything wrong that she knew of, and her dad would have told her this morning if he needed to take her out of school for any reason, so being summoned to the front office must be some administrative or counseling issue Mindy assumed.

When Mindy entered the front office, the attendance clerk immediately directed her to a conference room off to the side of the office area. Mindy had been in this conference room previously to meet with a counselor so she was surprised that the lone person waiting in the room was a strange woman.

"Are you Mindy Cross?" the woman asked when she saw Mindy enter the room.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Please have a seat. My name is Doris Clark, and I am your court-appointed Guardian ad Litem. I will be your advocate for as long as the DSS case involving your parents is open."

"Uh, okay," Mindy said as she took a seat across the table from the lady.

The questioning tone in Mindy's voice made it clear to Doris Clark that the child needed more explanation. She began, "Whenever a child is involved in a case within the family court system here, the law requires that an adult not involved in the case be appointed to represent and advocate for the child in court..."

"So, you're my lawyer?" Mindy interrupted.

"No, but I have a lawyer that will represent me in court on your behalf. My role is to perform an independent investigation related to the facts of the case and to then submit a report to the judge detailing what I believe is in your best interest."

"Great," Mindy thought, "Now I need to tell my story yet again."

Doris Clark sensed Mindy's reticence but continued, "Essentially, I stand in for you at most court proceedings. If the criminal charges against Mr. Beecher go to trial you will probably have to testify then, but other than that, I will be there in place of you where any DSS proceedings are concerned. I will visit with you at least once a month until the case is closed, either here at your school, or at your home."

She didn't care how any criminal charges against Mark Beecher played out. Mindy just wanted the case against her mother to be sufficient enough that it would assure that her dad got custody of her if he filed for divorce. Mindy's attention was brought back to Doris Clark when she spoke again.

"I have read all the police reports, the pleadings by the DSS investigator, and viewed a recording of your forensic interview, so you won't have to recount any of the details from those. However, I do have a couple of questions that I don't see you have been asked previously. Do you mind if I ask you these?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Mindy said, "I guess not."

"Fine. I haven't been to your house yet so I'm not familiar with the layout. Can you explain for me how you entered your house that evening and the path that you took to get to your bedroom? You stated that you did not see Mr. Beecher in the house prior to him entering your room, so it would be helpful to understand how that happened."

"Why does that matter?"

Mindy was trying to buy time to think. Even though her accusations against her mother's lover had been a spur of the moment idea, Mindy had been vigilant through all of her statements and in all of her interviews to keep the details consistent. She knew from watching enough shows involving criminals tripping themselves up during interrogations that inconsistencies by her had to be avoided at all costs.

So far, she had been successful, but all the questions had been almost identical in every instance and the interviewers were deferential to her age and sensitive to her emotions. This Doris Clark claimed to be an advocate for her, but here she was asking a question that no one else had posed. Mindy had no doubt that she could provide an appropriate answer consistent with the rest of her statements, but it would be one more answer that she would have to remember in case someone else asked it in the future.

Doris Clark explained, "I believe it will be something that you will be asked if you ever get deposed by Mr. Beecher's attorney. If I can include the details in my report, it might be considered hearsay, but it would add even more credibility to your accusations."

Mindy nodded and said, "Other than the French doors from my parents' room to the backyard, there are three other entries into our house; the front door, the door between the garage and the kitchen, and the door to the backyard from the kitchen. When I came home, I went through the side gate and entered the house from the backyard into the kitchen. From there I headed through the dining room towards the hallway that leads to my bedroom. My parents' room is on the other side of the house but I could hear the shower running and assumed that my mom was using it. I didn't want to startle her later when she saw that I was home, so while walking to my room, I sent her a text message. If Mr. Beecher was in the living room as I passed, I didn't notice him, but I guess that he noticed me."

"Right. I saw in the police report that they verified you sending the text message to your mother. How soon after entering your bedroom did Mr. Beecher come in?"

"It couldn't have been more than a minute. I was just plugging my cell phone into the charger when I heard the door to my bedroom open. I thought it was my mom at first, but when I turned around, I saw a strange man standing in the doorway, playing with himself."

"That's close to the timeline that I had envisioned after reading all the reports," Doris said. "Now, let's discuss your parents. Do you feel that you have a close relationship with your mom and dad?"

"My mom and I get along, but we have never spent a lot of 'mother-daughter' time together. I prefer to hang out and share things with my dad. I ask him to take me shopping and stuff instead of my mom because he at least listens to me. I don't get to buy everything that I want, but Dad always takes the time to explain why he is denying me something that I want. With my mom, it's always just 'Because I said so'."

"Do you feel safe when you are with your father?"

"Oh, absolutely. There is nowhere in the world safer for me than with my dad. I know that he would never let anything bad happen to me if he could prevent it."

"What about with your mom? Do you feel safe when you are with her?"

Mindy considered her response. It had to evoke trepidation rather than actual fear if she hoped for it to sound rational for a kid her age. Yet it also had to generate doubts in the minds of people as to the suitability of her mother to have custody of her over her father.

"When I think back on things, I guess that I have always felt like I had to be on my guard when I was alone with my mom, where I never feel that way when I am with my dad. It's like I need to maintain an awareness to my situations and surroundings because I didn't feel like I could rely upon my mom to do so for me. For example, the night that Mr. Beecher came into my room, I never even considered hollering for my mom. I just began pushing him out of my room so I could lock the door."

"You don't think that your mother would have protected you?"

"The perfect question," Mindy thought. "I wish I could feel confident that she would have, but I don't."

Doris Clark slid a piece of paper across the table and said, "Here's my cell phone number in case you need to talk to me about anything. Do you mind texting me your cell phone number when you get out of school so that I have it as well?"

"Sure, I can do that."

"Thanks. I plan on visiting with your mom and dad later this afternoon. What questions would you like me to ask either of them?"

Mindy hesitated a few seconds before asking, "Could you ask my dad if he intends to divorce my mom?"

~~~

When they were called into the courtroom for the merits hearing, Walker saw that Stephanie had already been directed to the center seat at the defendants' table. He wondered where she had been waiting to be called because he knew that she hadn't been in the same waiting room as him. Not that he was complaining.

The bailiff directed Walker to the chair at the right side of the same table as Stephanie. He ignored her attempt to catch his eye as he kept his focus straight ahead on the wall behind the court clerk. He heard rather than saw a man being directed to sit in the chair on the other side of Stephanie.

Walker assumed that this was the man who Stephanie had brought home. He briefly contemplated his chances of getting his hands around the guy's neck and strangling him before the multiple deputies in the courtroom could stop him. Walker would never do something that would land him in jail, but seeing the bastard less than six feet away did make him an inviting target. Walker wondered how much Mark Beecher's bail had been for him to be out of jail after just a few days.

"You may proceed, Mr. Russell," the judge announced.

"Thank you, your Honor," the attorney for DSS replied. "We are before you today with number three on the docket, for a merits hearing in the matter of the Department of Social Services versus Mark Beecher, Stephanie Cross, and Walker Cross..."

The DSS attorney spent less than three minutes reciting the allegations against Mark Beecher and Stephanie Cross before advising the judge that the plaintiff and defendants had failed to reach an agreement and that the case was being scheduled for mediation in two weeks from today's date. The attorney further requested all prior rulings from the probable cause hearing remain in full force and effect, which meant that Walker Cross would keep temporary custody of the minor child, Mindy Cross, and that a no-contact order would remain in effect against Mark Beecher and Stephanie Cross.

The attorney for the Guardian ad Litem rose and said, "My client agrees with the findings of the plaintiff and feels that it is in the best interest of the child to maintain the status quo at this time."

Glancing from her copy of the reports on the case to the defendants' table, the judge said, "It would appear that none of the defendants are currently represented by counsel. Is that by choice or due to financial hardship, because I am prepared to appoint an attorney to represent each of you if you believe that you want one but can't afford one. Let's start with you, Mr. Beecher."

Beecher started to speak, but was immediately interrupted by the judge, "Please stand when addressing the court, Mr. Beecher."

Beecher rose quickly, "I'm sorry, your Honor. I have a criminal defense lawyer handling the charges against me but he doesn't practice family law, which is the type of lawyer that he recommends for this case."

"What is the name of this attorney?" the judge asked.

"George Axelrod, your Honor."

"Thank you." Turning to the court clerk, the judge instructed, "Please let the record reflect that I am appointing George Axelrod to represent the defendant, Mark Beecher."

Addressing Beecher once more, the judge explained, "While criminal defense and family law are different legal specialties, I believe that you having a single legal representative is a compelling enough cause for me to appoint Mr. Axelrod as your attorney in these proceedings. You may be seated. Mrs. Cross, will you please stand."

Stephanie rose and waited for the judge to speak, "Mrs. Cross, do you require assistance in obtaining legal counsel?"

"I have an appointment with an attorney this afternoon, your Honor. I am confident that she will agree to represent me in these proceedings."

"Very well, you may be seated. Mr. Cross, please stand."

Once Walker was standing, the judge addressed him, "Mr. Cross, do you require assistance in obtaining legal counsel?"

"No, your Honor. I have already retained the attorney who will be representing me..."

"Then where is this attorney?" the judge asked. "I would expect them to be here in court with you."

"He and I discussed it, your Honor, and we felt that his time this morning could be better utilized in handling another legal matter for me."

"And, what is that other legal matter?"

"He is downstairs in the Clerk of the Court's office filing my divorce petition."

Stephanie Cross slid a note across the table for Walker to read when he sat back down. It simply said, "We need to talk before leaving here."

Stephanie had forgiven Walker a hundred times in her heart, yet it seemed like as soon as she did so, another reminder of his betrayal would appear. Most frequently, the reminder would be in the form of an anonymous greeting card arriving at her office at school with a new photo of the pretty young blonde girl. Mindy's half-sister.

As much as Walker had hurt her, and as much as she wanted him to suffer in order to maintain the family he wanted for their daughter, Stephanie didn't want him to consider her so disrespectful and irresponsible that she would bring a man into their home to have sex with.

When Walker had glanced down at her note to him, he showed no reaction to the message. Once the judge had ruled that everything with their case would remain as-is until the mediation hearing, Walker had simply headed for the courtroom doors. Mark Beecher had wanted to speak with Stephanie, and it had taken her several seconds to convince him that she would find him after speaking with Walker, but she had to do that first.

Catching up to Walker in the parking lot, Stephanie had to step in front of her husband to get him to even stop and look at her.

"You don't have to say anything, but you need to listen," Stephanie panted. "If you look in the laundry room at home, you will see a man's leather jacket with what looks like vomit all over it. If you check the hamper in our bedroom, you will find the blouse that I was wearing last Tuesday and see that it has the same vomit-like substance on it."

"So what?" Walker said as he tried to step around her.

Stephanie countered his move and said, "The 'so what', explains why Mark was at our house that night and why he had stripped down to his boxer shorts. There was an incident at the science fair when one student's project experienced a mishap that spewed vinegar, corn starch, and God knows what other household concoctions on those of us near it at the time. At the conclusion of the event, I offered to let Mark wash his clothes at our house because the apartment he lives in doesn't have laundry facilities and he would have had to take them to a laundromat. His leather jacket will need to be dry cleaned so that is why it was left in the laundry room for him. I won't make excuses for what he may have done with Mindy, but you need to know that he is not, and never has been my lover. I may not respect you as a husband like I once did, but I would never disrespect you by bringing another man into your home. I hope you believe me."

Walker handed Stephanie a business card and said, "What I believe is that you are an irresponsible, cheating whore who I don't want my daughter to be forced to be around any longer. Don't speak to me again. That's my lawyer's card, communicate with me through him or not at all."

Stepping around Stephanie, Walker quickly located his car, got into the driver's seat, and locked the door. Only then did he glance back to see if Stephanie was still standing where he had left her in the parking lot. He saw her slowly walking back towards the courthouse entrance. He sensed from her posture and unsteady gait that Stephanie was sobbing as she walked. Good.

He reflected on what Stephanie had said. Walker had noticed the leather jacket in the laundry room but hadn't examined it for any stains. He had just assumed the guy that Stephanie had brought home had forgotten it or didn't have the opportunity to retrieve it before the cops hauled him away that night. The fact that the jacket was in the laundry room rather than on the coat rack in the foyer, or draped over the back of a chair someplace else in the house might add credence to Stephanie's story, but how would that change anything?

Pulling his cell phone out, Walker checked his data signal. Four 5G bars would be adequate. He opened his web browser and went directly to the cloud site that he had bookmarked. There was only one file there; the video proof of Stephanie's infidelity from nine years ago. He pushed the "PLAY" icon.

The image was of the front porch of their house through the video doorbell that Stephanie had given him for Father's Day, only the week before the video was recorded. It showed a lone man that Walker vaguely recognized standing there waiting for the door to open.

"Josh, what are you doing here?"

Walker could hear Stephanie's voice, but she was standing in the doorway behind the range of the doorbell's camera. He could hear her, but not see her.

"You left these at my place so I thought that I would drop them off to you."

The man held up a pair of women's panties for Stephanie, and the camera to see.

Stephanie chuckled as she snatched the panties from his hand, and said, "Josh, I do have more than one pair of underwear. You should have just held onto them for me until next week."

"Maybe I didn't want to wait that long to see you. You ran out so abruptly yesterday that I didn't even get a chance to kiss you goodbye."

Walker watched as the back of Stephanie came into view when she stepped out onto the porch and planted a quick kiss onto the guy's lips. "If someone wouldn't have taken so long to fill me with his third load, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry. I barely made it to the babysitter's house on time."

"Hey, that tight little ass of yours usually has me cumming pretty fast but I guess I was more drained than I thought after the first two times."

Stephanie stepped back into the doorway before replying, "Well, as fun as it was, my butt is going to need at least a few more days to recover. Now, you should go before Walker gets back with Mindy..."

"I thought that you said that they would be gone for the day. That's why I decided to come by. I figured we could mess up your bed some before hubby gets home."

"Ain't happening, today or ever, Bucko. I told you when we started dating in college that I needed variety, and obviously, that hasn't changed since I married Walker. But you and I are just friends with benefits, while Walker is my husband. This is his castle and you will respect it as such or we are through."

"And I remember telling you in college that if you had the right guy, you wouldn't need 'variety'. You always seem satisfied when you leave my place. The offer for you to move in with me still stands."

"For Christ's sake, Josh, get real! There is no way that I would give up the life I have with Walker to move into your sleazy one-bedroom apartment. I enjoy your dick but look at you. You're a furniture salesman, and not a very good one at that. Yes, I may crap turds bigger than Walker's dick, but he provides me with a standard of living that you could only dream of."

"So, I'm still nothing to you but a big cock..."

"Is that suddenly a problem for you, Josh?"

"Maybe. Look, when we were in college and everyone was sowing their wild oats, it was easier to remain aloof and avoid getting too involved with any one girl. That was a struggle for me with you then, and it's even harder now. I want you in my life for more than the great sex. I want you for myself."

"Josh, I am happily married to a great guy that I am not leaving, for you or anyone else. Yes, I play around with a few other people, but that is separate from what I have with Walker. Listen, school will be out for the summer next week. How about if I try to find several days over the summer when I can leave Mindy with the sitter so that you and I can spend more than a few hours together. That's the best I can offer you."

Walker stopped the video. He knew that all that remained was a dejected Josh accepting another quick kiss from Stephanie before leaving.

To the best of Walker's knowledge, Stephanie had been truthful in her statement to her lover, Josh, and never brought her quest for "variety" into their home. If that was the case, maybe her claims that the incident with Mark Beecher was as innocent as she described could also be true.

Did it matter? Did Stephanie believe the fact that she had never brought her lovers into their home somehow mitigated her infidelity, which had apparently been occurring unapologetically during their entire marriage?

Walker had watched the exchange on their front porch that day live as it had happened. He had been sitting alone at a table at the fast-food restaurant where Mindy enjoyed the birthday party of her cousin. He had kept the volume down so that other parents close by would not hear what his wife was confessing, but he had the opportunity to hear every word loud and clear when he played it that evening for Stephanie as he confronted her.

"It's my body and I'll share it with whomever I want," Stephanie had stated in rebuttal to Walker's objection to her betrayal of their wedding vows. "Nothing I do outside of our house affects you or our marriage."

Walker's threat to file for divorce had just fueled Stephanie's arrogance further. She made a point-by-point case for any divorce to go heavily in her favor; from her keeping the house and custody of Mindy, to her intended plans to get half of his accounting firm and alimony until she remarried, if ever.

"Live with it or live without Mindy and far less than half of our financial assets."

The next morning, Stephanie had watched him with a smirk on her face as he packed to leave. She waited until he was done and prepared to leave before saying, "Walker, if you step out that door, I will file for divorce tomorrow. I'll ruin you and make certain that you won't see Mindy again until she turns eighteen. It's your choice."

Stephanie's threats alone didn't dissuade Walker. It was the tears and cries of anguish from Mindy that had driven him back into the house and anchored him there for the past nine years. He would not leave without Mindy, and maybe now, it would be Stephanie who would have to do the leaving - for good.

Chapter Three

Three hours later, Stephanie was explaining the same circumstances for the night in question that she had told Walker to her newly hired attorney, Heather Young.

"I don't see where the cause for Mr. Beecher being dressed only in his underwear will matter much," Heather Young said. "At least not where the finding of physical neglect is concerned. He was a man unfamiliar to your daughter who you brought into your home and left unsupervised. While it might show that your actions were unintentional, it won't excuse them under the law. I will discuss it with the DSS attorneys and see if they will agree to waive the requirement for you to register with the state child abuse and neglect database if you agree to a finding of physical neglect and complete parenting skills counseling. Would you agree to that?"

"God, no!" Stephanie exclaimed. "Are you forgetting that my husband is almost certainly going to use this one incident against me in any divorce proceedings? The only thing that has kept us together as a family for the past nine years is his fear of losing custody of our daughter in a divorce. Until this crap happened, he had a snowball's chance in hell of getting custody over me. We need to keep things that way."

"There's another possible option," Heather said. "DSS likely wants findings against Beecher more than you. There is a good chance that if we file a private motion as part of any divorce proceedings stating that you intend to seek full custody of your daughter, DSS might be compelled to drop you as a defendant in their case entirely. My experience is that DSS attorneys don't like getting involved in private proceedings. Do you want me to explore that option?"

"So that would make the DSS case go away, at least as far as I am concerned?"

"Yes and no. You would no longer be a defendant in that case, but the record of their allegations against you would remain in their files and subject to subpoena as evidence in any divorce proceedings. You would have been accused but not convicted. It would not make you innocent of the charges but it might raise some doubt with the judge; depending on how I am able to spin it and how your husband's attorney presents it.

Stephanie considered her options and said, "Let's go with plan B. Try to get me removed as a defendant in the DSS case because that would also be the best outcome as far as my job is concerned. Being added to the state registry for child abuse and neglect would spell the end of my career."

"Okay, but unless you want to file for divorce yourself, we'll need to wait until you are served by your husband so that we can counter whatever he has listed from a custody perspective. From what you said, if his attorney filed the paperwork today, I would expect you to be served within a day or two. As long as it happens before the mediation hearing two weeks from now, we'll have time to get our own ducks in a row and present them to the DSS attorney in advance."

"What about Mark?" Stephanie asked. "How will me being removed as a defendant impact his DSS case, if at all?"

Heather Young shifted in her chair, "It shouldn't affect him at all. He's toast either way. I spoke with George Axelrod just before meeting with you. He will be looking to plead his client's DSS findings down from substantial risk of sexual abuse to physical neglect of a minor. I doubt that DSS attorneys will accept that since their internal policy requires any sexual abuse or neglect cases must go to trial. On the criminal charges, Beecher is in even worse shape since the detectives identified at least six files on a computer in his home that could be considered child pornography.

"Christ!" Stephanie thought. Maybe she really had been neglectful of Mindy by bringing Mark into their home.

"Now," Heather said, "Let's discuss your marriage. You said that you and your husband have been married for fourteen years?"

"It will be fifteen years in July."

"Okay. Although it seldom has any bearing on the proceedings, please share with me the reason or reasons why you believe your husband will be seeking a disillusionment of your marriage. Is it due strictly to the incident involving your daughter and this DSS case or are there other factors that I will need to be prepared to address?"

Stephanie sighed and wrung her hands before answering, "Walker thinks that I have been cheating on him."

"Have you?"

"No," Stephaine answered emphatically. "Never."

"Then why would your husband believe that you have been unfaithful?"

"Because I told him that I had," Stephanie admitted. "Well, I fabricated an exchange with a male acquaintance that I knew Walker would overhear to convince him that I was playing around outside of our marriage."

"When was this?" Heather asked.

"It was almost ten years ago. Since then, I would occasionally drop hints or act in ways that were intended to make Walker believe that my playing around was continuing."

"Let me get this straight. You have spent almost two thirds of your marriage purposely letting your husband believe that you were an unfaithful wife. Why would you do that?"

"I had to have my vengeance," Stephanie stated. "Walker only suspects that I cheated on him. I have proof that he cheated on me first.""

"What sort of proof?"

Stephanie reached into her purse, pulled out a 5x8 manilla envelope, and silently handed it to her attorney.

Heather Young opened the clasp and glanced inside the envelope. She pulled out a folded piece of paper and examined it. Several photographs fell out as the paper was withdrawn. Her attention was brought immediately to the hot pink-colored Post-it note affixed to the folded paper. She read it.

"How did you come into possession of this?" Heather asked Stephanie.

"It was left under the windshield wiper of my car where it was parked at my school. I still don't know who placed it there."

Heather read the note aloud, "I thought that you should know that Walker has another daughter. I will send you pictures so you can watch her grow up without a father and be reminded of the cheating bastard that you are married to."

Pushing the photos around on her desk, Heather was quickly able to position them to show the growth of a pretty little blonde girl. In the last picture, she appeared to be in her early teens. Unfolding the piece of paper, she quickly recognized the paternity DNA test report form and reviewed it.

The logo for Delphi Diagnostics was on the top left corner. This was a reputable lab that Heather herself had sent clients to for similar DNA tests. The words, "DNA Test Report" were centered across the top middle of the page and there was a report reference number along the upper right of the page. The table centered on the report had three rows and three columns of varying sizes. The top row had a section that listed this as "Case #338697" and below that a heading for the specific list of tests performed.

The next section in the top row listed the test subject as simply "Child" with the test identified as "338697-20" and the last section on the top row listed "Cross, Walker A." as the alleged father. His test was identified as "#338697-30".

"He probably doesn't use his middle initial too often," Heather thought.

Heather skipped over the center rows and columns that listed the specific DNA gene sequences tested and their results. She let her eyes drift to the bottom of the report where the clinical analysis and interpretation were documented:

"Combined Paternity Index: 830,244,467"

"Probability of Paternity: 99.9999998%"

Setting the report aside, Heather once more studied the photos as she spoke, "And you have no idea who this child is?"

"None whatsoever," Stephanie acknowledged. "There is no regularity to the delivery of the photos either. Sometimes they're years apart and once there were three pictures delivered in the same envelope. The girl appears to be about the same age as Mindy or maybe a little older. That would make her thirteen or fourteen, but as you can see, I have only been given six photos of her."

"So," Heather said, focusing her gaze on Stephanie once more, "You received this alleged proof that your husband had fathered another child with a different woman. I assume that you never shared your knowledge of this information with your husband. Am I right?"

"I didn't want to lose what we had," Stephanie moaned. "I loved Walker with all my heart. God help me, I still do. I thought that confronting him with his betrayal of our vows would leave us too broken to survive. Walker is the best father that a woman could have for her child, and I knew in my heart that he must have been ignorant of this other child because the Walker I know would never abandon or neglect a child of his. How would his knowledge of his other daughter affect his relationship with Mindy? I couldn't take the chance."

"I guess I can understand that a little," Heather said. "But trying to punish your husband with your false claims of your own infidelity might come back to bite you in the ass. I'm going to have to give your case a lot of thought while we're waiting for you to be served. Is there anything else you should tell me about your marriage?"

"I can't think of anything right at the moment. Is there anything that we can do to let me see my daughter?"

"I'll try. The 'no contact' order is pretty severe and I believe, unwarranted in your case now that the forensic interview is complete. I will petition the court to have it changed to 'no unsupervised contact' until the mediation hearing and I'm pretty certain that it will be approved by the judge. I'll go ahead and lay the ground work with your husband's attorney so that he has a heads-up and can advise your husband accordingly. Then it will be just a matter of us attorneys working out the visitation details with each of our respective clients. I advise you against any more direct contact with your husband. Work through me and I'll relay everything through his attorney for you.

"Will you relay a message to Walker through his attorney for me now?"

"What's the message?"

"Just tell him that I am so sorry. That covers so much and probably means too little, but I need him to hear it."

~~~

"As I explained during our previous sessions, I wouldn't place too much weight on the charges that DSS has brought against your wife contributing to you being granted full custody of your daughter in the divorce. The charges are largely administrative and there are no criminal charges to substantiate them. That being said, factors in your favor are that DSS viewed you as the most suitable protector of your daughter, and your daughter is old enough to state her preference for who will be her primary custodial parent."

"Jacob Tucker certainly doesn't sugar-coat things for his clients," Walker thought. He admired that in a person, and having a lawyer who "shoots straight" was reassuring to him.

Jacob asked, "Did you bring the financial records?"

Walker handed a flash drive to his attorney, "Everything is on here for you. Let me know if you need help understanding anything or explanations for some of the investments."

"It's nice having an accountant as a client," Jacob thought. The organization of financial assets that he expected to find in these digital files would save him a great deal of time. Less billable hours, but some things were worth it.

"No surprises?" the attorney asked.

"I wouldn't think so," Walker replied. "I did as you suggested with splitting things fifty-fifty and kept all the transactions very transparent. I'm not interested in screwing Stephanie out of anything. I just want her out of mine and Mindy's lives as much as the court will allow."

Jacob nodded and said, "I understand. Let's go over your relationship again to see if there is anything in your history that might be relevant to our position on custody."

"How far back do you want to go?"

"Back to the beginning would be good. How did you and your wife meet?"

"We met at Clemson, at a mixer held at one of the fraternities after a basketball game. From the first time I saw Stephanie, I believed that she was my Gibbon."

"Your what?"

"My Gibbon," Walker explained. "Gibbons are one of the few mammals that mate for life. I felt that Stephanie and I would be like Gibbons for each other. I thought that she felt the same way for the first five years of our marriage. That's when I discovered her penchant for 'variety', as she called it."

"Ah, yes, the doorbell video. I watched it. You mentioned in our earlier meeting that you had DNA test results that prove you are the biological father of your daughter. You might want to get me a copy of those results in case your wife makes a claim that you are not actually the father of your daughter. It's not unheard of in custody battles."

Walker nodded and then chuckled, "You know the really fucked up part of this? I still love her. I mean, I hate her for what she has done, but I still love the Stephanie that my soul bonded with all those years ago. Does that make sense?"

"Something like ninety-five percent of the divorces I handle involve two people who still love each other," Jacob admitted. "Where the ability for two people to remain married is concerned, it's like the old Tina Turner song, 'What's love got to do with it?'. Do you know who your wife may have retained as her counsel?"

"No, but I gave her one of your cards so she will be able to tell whoever she gets that you're my attorney. I assume that they will be in contact with you once Stephanie is served. You think that will be tomorrow?"

"Yes. I hired a process server and relayed your instructions on how your wife should be served. He will be waiting for her when she arrives at her place of employment and catch her in the parking lot before she enters the school building. Without knowing where she is residing, I agree that this is the most private approach to serving her. I hope that she recognizes that and appreciates your consideration."

Walker shrugged, "It doesn't matter. I will know and be able to defend my actions with Mindy if the need to do so ever arises. What do you think we should expect from Stephanie and her attorney once they review the petition and our settlement proposal?"

His attorney shrugged his own shoulders, "I don't like to predict such things. However, your offer is more than fair financially. As with most divorces involving children, custody is typically the major point of contention. That being the case here, expect the judge to immediately appoint an impartial attorney as Mindy's Guardian ad Litem, whose fee will be charged equally to you and your wife. You are requesting full custody of your daughter with standard visitation terms being offered to your wife. The Guardian ad Litem will interview you, your wife, your daughter, and probably several other friends and relatives before providing the court with a report detailing what he or she feels is in the best interest of the child. That report will carry more weight than any other single factor when the judge rules on custody."

"Mindy already has a Guardian ad Litem," Walker said. "Her name is Doris Clark. I haven't met her yet but we've spoken on the phone..."

"That's a different Guardian ad Litem," Jacob explained. "That one is actually an unpaid volunteer required by the state when DSS opens a case involving a child. There is also another group of Guardian ad Litems dedicated to vulnerable adults. If the judge assigns an attorney as a Guardian ad Litem in a private divorce proceeding, any volunteer Guardians would typically be released from the case."

"Sounds confusing," Walker said. "What about counseling? Should I agree to it or can I refuse if requested?"

"Again, I don't want to speculate. Since your wife will be served on a Friday, I wouldn't expect to hear from her attorney until early next week. If we can agree to a meeting of all parties later next week, would you be available?"

"I should be," Walker said. "There isn't much on my schedule that I can't move around."

~~~

"She really stuck something up your butt?" Jocelyn squealed.

Mindy nodded solemnly, "Yeah, when she was examining me. The doctor said that they were checking for signs of penetration. It was pretty disgusting and made me have the feeling that I needed to poop."

Her friend shuddered at the thought before asking, "But you said that the interrogation part went okay, right?"

"Okay enough for them to believe me," Mindy assured her. "I'm sure glad that you saw that guy following my mom home. I don't get many opportunities to be at home with my mom while my dad isn't there too."

"I'm probably more glad," Jocelyn said. "The plan to take some of my mom's wine for you to drink had too many holes that could have resulted in us being restricted from seeing each other."

From the first night that Mindy had spent at her new friend's house, the two girls had been discussing the apparent lack of love and intimacies shared by Mindy's parents compared to Jocelyn's parents. In the subsequent weeks, they had decided that Mindy's parents must only be staying together for her sake, and that neither of them was happy with their lives. This in turn was affecting Mindy's happiness.

Even if Mindy could convince her parents that they would all be happier if the two of them divorced and started living separate lives, she would need to also convince them that her father should be the one that she lived with most of the time. Mindy loved her mother, but she totally worshiped her father. Without some compelling factor that made a judge agree that her father was a better parent for Mindy than her mother, Mindy wasn't going to rock the boat with her parents.

Identifying compelling factors was the challenge for Mindy and Jocelyn. It had to be something that could only be attributed to her mom without her dad sharing any of the blame. That meant that it had to be something that happened only when she was with her mom, but their times alone were rare. Jocelyn thought that it could be problematic to ask her parents for advice on what sort of things could be a reason for a parent to not be granted custody of a child in a divorce. Fortunately, Jocelyn had an unmarried aunt who, although she didn't work for the Department of Social Services, she did have a job that frequently brought her into contact with various members of the department. This allowed her to have knowledge of things that might influence custody decisions.

Utilizing the advice from Jocelyn's aunt, the moment that Mindy learned of her father's planned business trip, she and Jocelyn began scheming. Their plan was for Mindy to stop by Jocelyn's house after school. Before Jocelyn's parents got home from work, Jocelyn would steal a bottle of wine from her mother's wine rack and the girls would hide it in Mindy's backpack. Returning home with the wine, Mindy would set an alarm for 5 am and get ready for school early. Once she was ready, but before leaving her room, she would drink the wine and arrive at school obviously inebriated.

Since her father would have been out of town, her mother would have been blamed for Mindy's condition. Though it would be hard to prove that her mother had provided the wine or approved of Mindy drinking it, effectively taking any charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor off the table, it was a virtual certainty that her mother would be charged with neglect of some sort. Nothing too serious, just something that might swing the custody pendulum away from her mom and toward her dad.

Mindy hadn't relished the idea of drinking the wine for a couple of reasons. The first was, that from what she had heard from older kids, there was the virtual certainty that her drinking enough wine to pull the ruse off would probably make her sick, and Mindy hated throwing up. The second reason was the impact that going to school drunk would have on her reputation. She was an advanced placement honors student with a spotless academic and behavioral record that had earned her the respect of all the teachers and staff at the school. Mindy didn't want to lose that respect.

Suspicions that her mom had cheated on her dad were the reason why their marriage was so weird arose in Mindy's mind when she compared both parents' behavior in public. Her father was always polite and friendly to women that they would encounter outside of their home, but never disrespectful to the presence of Mindy and her mom. Her mom on the other hand would frequently flirt shamelessly with men. Mindy sometimes found it humorous that the more her mother flaunted herself to other men, the more her father would ignore her.

When Jocelyn had come running up to Mindy after taking the kitchen trash out to their trashcan, she was almost too excited to keep her voice at a whisper level. Jocelyn had watched from the side of her house as Mindy's mom had pulled her car into their garage and another car had immediately pulled into the driveway behind her.

Mindy's own excitement grew as her friend described how a man had gotten out of the other car and met Mindy's mother in the garage. Before the garage door began closing, Jocelyn had seen the man and Mindy's mom both laughing as they removed their respective jackets and headed toward the door leading into the house. Both girls quickly surmised that with Mindy's father gone for the night, her mother had brought her lover to their house.

But, what about Mindy? Her mother had known that Mindy wouldn't be home until later, but she was expected to be home at some point. Would her mother risk Mindy arriving home while she was entertaining a man who wasn't her father? Mindy and Jocelyn didn't have a frame of reference for how long a sexual act would take, but they had heard the term, "quickie". They decided to make Mindy's mom believe that she had a lot more time with her lover by Mindy calling and asking to spend the night at Jocelyn's. Then, Mindy would wait ten minutes and go home.

Sneaking into the kitchen from the backyard as quietly as possible, Mindy realized that the sound of the backdoor opening would have been masked by the noise from the washing machine running in the laundry room. She walked quickly to the opening between the kitchen and dining room and listened for any sounds. Mindy focused her attention in the direction of her parents' bedroom, assuming that this is where any action would be taking place. She heard only the faint sound of a shower running.

Turning back towards the kitchen, Mindy caught sight of someone standing in the living room. It was a man, wearing only a pair of blue striped boxer shorts while typing something into a cell phone. The man that her mom had brought home!

Mindy stealthily moved to the laundry room and called Jocelyn on her cell phone. She explained the situation and asked for suggestions on what she should do if she couldn't get the hoped-for pictures of her mom with her lover. Their new plan came to life within five minutes, which is when Mindy sent the text to her mom's phone, telling her that she was home, and setting the stage for her tale.

Chapter Four

Mediation wasn't always a civilized negotiation between DSS attorneys and the defendants, even when they had legal representation. The attorneys for DSS typically presented their "terms of surrender" and the defendants had to either agree to those terms or the case would go to war at trial before a judge.

What Evan Russell was offering Stephanie Cross, through her attorney, was utter bullshit in Stephanie's eyes and she already knew that Heather felt the same way. The terms required Stephanie to accept a DSS finding of physical neglect of her daughter, requiring Stephanie's name to be entered into the state registry, agreeing to undergo a mental health assessment and comply with all recommendations, individual counseling, and successful completion of a DSS approved parenting skills course. She would not be allowed unsupervised visits with Mindy until all the terms of the agreement were met.

"You can't justify the allegation of physical neglect," Heather told Russell. "My client had no reason or cause to intentionally or unintentionally permit the alleged actions of Mr. Beecher and you can't prove otherwise."

"Your client was in the house at the time," Russell countered. "That's all I need to show the judge."

The burden of proof in a DSS case was far less stringent than in a criminal case and DSS attorneys loved to leverage that fact during mediation hearings.

Heather Young wasn't taking the bait, "Maybe if you could cite history. Do you have prior DSS case involvement naming my client in any way? Never mind, we know you don't. My client has an impeccable reputation as an educator and an administrator. Don't embarrass yourself by taking this case before the judge."

Evan Russell had only gone to trials against clients represented by Heather Young twice. Both cases came before Judge Brownly, and she was known to be particularly tough on DSS caseworkers, and subsequently their attorneys if she felt that their case was all smoke and mirrors or lacked solid credibility. It hadn't taken much effort in both of those cases for Heather Young to convince Judge Brownly that DSS hadn't justified their case, and after lambasting everyone involved from DSS, both had been dismissed as "unfounded".

"DSS policy will not allow me to drop the case," Russell explained. "What would your client find acceptable."

Heather smiled, "DSS policy will allow you to drop the case if the allegation in the case gets litigated in a private action involving the defendant. My client's husband has filed a petition for divorce from my client, which she has countered. When custody of the minor child is considered, you can bet your bar membership that the allegations in your case will be raised by Mr. Cross' counsel."

Russell returned Heather's smile, "If you can get me a copy of those filings, we will ask the judge to remove your client as a defendant in this case. Does either filing speak to interim custody and visitation of the minor child?"

"Yes, Mr. Cross's petition is seeking full custody of their daughter. We have countered with my client seeking full custody. Until we get before a judge, Mr. Cross retains physical custody and my client can have supervised visitations only."

"Good," Russell said. "I see no issues with getting your client removed as a defendant under these circumstances. I'll shoot the judge's ruling to you as soon as I have it."

Heather stood and urged Stephanie to join her. She led her client to the door and said, "Thank you, Counselor. I look forward to your e-mail."

Evan Russell was texting his law clerk before the door to the side room had fully closed.

EVAN: Send Axelrod and his client in next.

He didn't receive a reply to his text, and he hadn't expected to. Defendants and their attorneys would only be in an unused courtroom assigned to mediation participants or in one of the waiting rooms in the hallway outside of the courtrooms. His law clerk would have been keeping track of those that Evan would be meeting with today and know exactly where to find them now.

George Axelrod led Mark Beecher into the side room less than five minutes later. Neither man greeted Russell as they took seats at the table, displaying the adversarial attitude that the situation emoted in them.

Axelrod started the mediation, "If you're not ready to talk sensibly, just pull out your calendar and let's compare schedules for depositions."

Russell smiled and asked, "Aren't you interested in what we are seeking?"

"Not in the least. The fact that we are in this room indicates that you intend to seek unfounded charges against my client of some sort, and that is unacceptable to him. The police have refused to charge him due to their inability to substantiate the allegations of the minor child. While your department is willing to move forward with such scant evidence, the District Attorney isn't. Anyway, we're confident that we will prevail against DSS as well."

Evan Russell hadn't heard that the criminal charges against Mark Beecher had been dropped, but it had little bearing on his case against the man. DSS had the forensic interview report and a witness who, so far, had refused to recant her allegations. That should be more than enough to get a judge to rule in their favor relative to the findings they were seeking.

"What about the files found on your client's computer, purportedly of underage children engaged in sexually explicit acts?" Russell asked.

"It was easy to prove that the computer in question was donated to the charitable organization that my client volunteers his time to refurbish laptops and computers to provide them to underprivileged kids. The police have arrested the son of the woman who donated it to the organization and exonerated my client of any culpability related to the illegal material."

Russell shrugged and said, "Well, regardless, I'll read you the findings that we are seeking against your client so that you can decide on who you might want to get depositions from..."

"No need," Axelrod interrupted. "Regardless of the findings, we will be deposing the minor child and her mother. They are the only witnesses relevant to our defense. What days do you have available in November?"

Russell didn't have to consult his calendar, "My schedule is full until after the first of the year."

Axelrod countered, "There are other attorneys on your team. Are all of their schedules full?"

"Probably not, but this is my case..."

"Let's see if the judge agrees with you," Axelrod said. "Delaying a trial for your convenience places an undue burden on my client's right to a fair and speedy trial. Do you want to message the judge's clerk or do you want me to do it?"

~~~

"She's countering for WHAT?" Walker almost screamed at his attorney.

"Your wife is counter filing for divorce on the grounds of adultery. It will have no legal impact on the case but it does place it in public records that she is accusing you of infidelity during your marriage. It could also influence a judge's thoughts relative to custody. She is also seeking full custody of your daughter."

"So, she can just make things up about me?"

Jacob Tucker explained, "Of course not. Her attorney assures me that they have iron-clad proof of your adultery. Why don't you tell me what that might be?"

"I don't have a fucking clue, because it never happened. I have had plenty of offers and opportunities but I couldn't live with my daughter thinking that I broke my wedding vows, even if her mother never had the same reluctance."

"What do you want me to do?" Tucker asked. "I can modify our petition to also cite adultery based upon the video doorbell recording, or I can just let things proceed as they are."

"I want to see this 'proof'," Walker said. "Can we compel them to share it with us before a trial?"

"Let me make a quick call to your wife's attorney. Sometimes talking about things works better and faster than filing motions for discovery."

Jacob didn't wait for a response from Walker before leaving the conference room to return to his office, leaving his client alone with his thoughts.

Walker couldn't for the life of him believe that Stephanie would suspect that he had ever been unfaithful to her, let alone have any proof of it. When they had met, only a few months before they were both due to graduate from their respective Masters programs at Clemson, neither had been currently involved with someone else. Walker had broken things off with his former high school girlfriend over the Christmas break. Stephanie claimed that she hadn't had a steady boyfriend for months before meeting Walker at the mixer. For nine years, he had assumed that Stephanie's lack of a steady boyfriend was an indication of the "variety" she boasted about on the doorbell video.

Once they had met and started dating, Walker and Stephanie had become inseparable as a couple. They had moved in together immediately after graduation and been married two months later. Walker took a position in his father's accounting firm and easily made enough income for the couple to buy their first house. Stephanie worked as a substitute teacher and floating counselor with the local school district in order to keep their options open for starting a family.

Mindy had been born 14 months after their wedding and Stephanie had scaled back her limited teaching career to stay at home with their daughter until she started daycare, at which point, husband and wife would decide whether or not to try for a second child. By all indications, the Cross family was happy, healthy, financially secure, and on track to have a wonderful future.

Then someone had rung their doorbell.

Walker had never suspected Stephanie of cheating in all the time that they had been dating, living together, and then married. He also never suspected that Stephanie held suspicions that he had cheated on her. Before that day nine years ago, Walker had showered his wife with all the romantic love, affection, and intimate attention that any woman could dream of. He had given everything he had to their relationship, holding nothing back and demonstrating his commitment to their future in words and deeds.

No, Stephanie couldn't have proof of his having cheated on her, because it simply had never happened. Even after learning of her betrayal, Walker was steadfast in honoring his wedding vows. He had to be the one to set an example for Mindy to follow. God knows her mother wasn't doing so.

Walker heard the conference door open and watched Jacob Tucker stick his head around it, "Your wife and her attorney are just leaving the mediation session at the courthouse and have agreed to come over to meet with us. They could be here in about fifteen minutes, if you agree."

"Will they have this alleged proof with them?" Walker asked.

"Heather Young said that they had a copy of the proof with them, so yes."

"Then I agree. I'll need to be out of here by twelve-thirty to make a lunch meeting I am expected at."

Tucker checked the time and said, "That should be doable. Why don't you hang out here and I'll bring them in once they arrive?"

Walker nodded, pulled out his cell phone, and started checking e-mails.

~~~

Stephanie always turned heads when she entered a room. She always had, and Walker lamented the fact that she likely always would. He wished that he didn't still view her as the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, but he had to admit as she took the seat across the conference table from him, his wife would always be the benchmark by which other women's appearances were judged.

Her facial expression was neutral, but Walker saw deep disappointment in her eyes. What did she have to be disappointed about? This whole thing was on her. The last nine years had also been of her doing. Walker just stared at her while waiting for Jacob Tucker and Heather Young to get situated in their own seats.

"We have reviewed your counter petition and have a few questions," Jacob started.

Heather smiled and said, "We will do what we can to answer them. What would you like to know?"

Jacob had advised Walker to let him do all the talking, so he continued staring across at his wife and let his attorney speak.

"Your petition claims that my client committed adultery during the marriage, and you mentioned to me earlier when we spoke that you had proof of said adultery. My client would like to see this alleged proof before we determine how he wants to proceed."

Heather glanced at Stephanie and nodded. Stephanie pulled the manilla envelope out of her purse and set it in front of her before speaking.

"Walker, I firmly believe that if a husband and wife are going to divorce, it should be for something that is pertinent to the irreparable situation that we find ourselves in."

She tapped the manilla envelope with a manicured fingernail and continued, "I have known about your other daughter for almost ten years, and while I have forgiven your betrayal in my heart countless times, my mind remembers the anger, humiliation, and deceit every time I look at our daughter, Mindy; the purest and most beautiful thing in my life. I doubt that you ever intended to soil my perception of our daughter by your actions, and I have fought to quell the feelings that Mindy sometimes cause to surface within me, but I admit that I have failed more often than I succeeded."

Stephanie pulled another set of folded papers out of her purse and placed them beside the envelope, "It was at those times when the impact of your betrayal affected me the strongest when I would seek to hurt you in any way I could. In the eleventh hour of our marriage, I need to part with you having a clear conscience by admitting to you that I have never once strayed from the vows I took on our wedding day. Everything that you suspected, thought you witnessed, or inferred from my words were all staged with the intent of inflicting just a fraction of the pain your betrayal caused me."

Sliding the folded pages across the table to her husband, Stephanie waited until he had unfolded them and had a chance to examine their contents.

Walker first noticed the worn condition of the pages with minor tatters and large creases that made them look at least a decade old. When he began to read the words, he broke out in a sweat from his building rage.

Stephanie saw her husband's reaction and moved to calm him before he erupted, "Do the words on that script sound familiar to you? I believe that you have a video recording of the sole performance that you can verify the dialog against."

"A script?" Walker asked.

"Yes, a script," Stephanie confirmed. "I wanted the performance to be realistic but with enough exaggeration for you to eventually realize it had all been faked. I still don't understand how you haven't figured out that I staged the whole thing. I thought that buying you the video doorbell and insisting that you install and set it up before that Saturday would have raised some red flags for you, but it never did."

Walker kept glancing down at the script, so she continued, "Then there was the bit about me wanting variety. You know, or should have known that wasn't like me. I abhor things being inconsistent. I have fixed expectations and I don't adjust to change well. You know that. You've lived that with me."

"Well,' Walker said, "I always wondered about your comments on my size..."

Stephanie smiled slightly before nodding, "I thought that would certainly convince you that it was a staged performance. How could I claim that you were so small when I have always been amazed that you don't have to tuck that thing into your sock at times?"

Walker saw Heather Young blushing. He asked, "You staged a performance to make me believe that you were cheating on me, and then spent the next nine years dropping hints and making me suspect that it was continuing because you thought I had cheated on you? Why on Earth would you ever believe that?"

Stephanie slid the manilla envelope across the table and waited for Walker to open it. Unlike when she had given the envelope to Heather, it now contained only the DNA test report and accompanying note. She was withholding the pictures of Walker's other daughter from him until his reaction to learning about her could be gauged.

Jacob watched his client remove the folder paper from the envelope, examine it, and then turn white. Without asking, Jacob took the page from Walker and examined it himself.

"Has this been verified?" Jacob asked Heather.

Tapping her briefcase, she replied, "I have an affidavit from Delphi Diagnostics verifying that the report you are holding is one of theirs and still in their files under the referenced test case numbers. It's real, and it is proof that your client fathered another daughter with another woman while married to my client."

Walker leaned over and whispered in Jacob's ear, "That's impossible. I have never had sex with another woman since the day that I met Stephanie."

Jacob whispered back, "Have you ever donated your sperm or supplied any for testing for any reason?"

"No," Walker insisted. Then he had another thought. "In your file, do you have the copy of Mindy's DNA test report that I shared with you?"

Without replying, Jacob opened the file in front of him and located his copy of the DNA test report previously done on Mindy and her parents. He laid in on the table between himself and Walker. Both men ignored the women across from them as they examined both reports, side by side.

Jacob saw it first, "These are the same father and daughter. The detailed genetic test lists far more sequencing test points than the paternity test, but if you compare the results for the loci common on both reports, you will see that they are identical, for both, father and daughter."

"Let me see that!" Heather exclaimed, practically jumping across the table to retrieve the DNA reports. Jacob beat her by sliding both reports across the table. She settled back into her seat and positioned the pages so that Stephanie could also examine them.

"Where did you get that report from?" Walker seethed at Stephanie. Someone had obviously fabricated a paternity test report from his and Mindy's samples, but for what possible reason?

"Read the note that was on it," Stephanie moaned as she began to see the commonalities that Jacob had mentioned.

"What note?" Walker asked.

"Check inside the envelope, it must have fallen off the report."

Walker peeked inside the envelope and saw the hot pink Post-it note inside. He pulled it out, read it, and then passed it to Jacob.

"Do either of you have any enemies or know someone who would want to damage your marriage by doing something like this?" Jacob asked.

Neither Walker nor Stephanie answered, but Stephanie did pull the photos out of her purse and examined them. Tossing them across to Walker, she asked, "Do you recognize this girl?

Walker took a quick glance at the first photo, which happened to be the latest in the set, "Of course I recognize her. That's Mindy's new friend, Jocelyn."

Chapter Five

"Could this day get any stranger?" Walker thought as he drove to his lunch meeting.

While in the conference room, he hadn't had the opportunity to consider the possible ramifications of Stephanie's betrayal being a hoax. A hoax perpetrated by her as retribution for her belief that he had first betrayed her. Then there was the question of why someone would have wanted Stephanie to believe he had been unfaithful and fathered another child.

The short note affixed to the phony DNA test report implied that it was sent by a wronged woman; someone that Walker had knocked up and then abandoned. Stephanie had to know that he wasn't the sort of man to treat anyone like that. Yet, she apparently had accepted everything in its entirety without even attempting to discuss it with him. Why? There had to be more to the story.

"You're one to talk," Walker chided himself. If he now considered the doorbell video with the possibility that it had been staged, he had to admit that he had missed the obvious clues that would have made it clearly scripted. He now even remembered why the guy, Josh, had seemed vaguely familiar to him. Stephanie had introduced him once as a member of the community theater group that she had briefly participated in while in college. Josh in turn had introduced Walker and Stephanie to his husband, Howie.

Finally, or at least Walker hoped it was the final weird thing, was how did Mindy's friend, Jocelyn fit into all of this? He accepted the realization that Stephanie really hadn't yet met her daughter's new friend. It had been him who had gone over to the new neighbor's house two months ago to welcome them and introduce them to Mindy. Jocelyn had coincidentally only come over to the Cross house a few times when Walker and Mindy had been home alone.

Jocelyn Greer and her parents had been complete strangers when Walker and Mindy had met them. Ken and Gina Greer were nice people who Walker had hoped they might become sociable with in time. They were around the same age as he and Stephanie, and the two daughters had discovered an immediate "best friends forever" bond between them.

There was some link between the phony paternity test report and Jocelyn since her pictures had been left for Stephanie several times depicting the girl growing up. What could the link be and what was the motivation behind it? Walker didn't have a clue and he doubted if Stephanie did either since she hadn't recognized Mindy's friend as the girl in the photos.

Walker had to clear the events of that morning from his mind and get his head into the upcoming client lunch. After lunch, he would have to start considering how he could gingerly question Mindy about what she knew of Jocelyn and her parents in the short time that she had known them. Maybe he would take his daughter to Friendly's for dinner, followed by ice cream. They've had some of their best father-daughter talks over ice cream.

~~~

Stephanie was more confused than she had ever been in her life. If someone came up to her right now and told her that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus were actually real, she would likely believe them.

Walker had never cheated on her! He had remained as faithful to their vows as she had. God knows that she had given him every reason not to, but upon reflection, she wasn't totally surprised. Her husband was a good man. She knew it from the first time that she had spoken with him. Walker was the type of man who always viewed morals, integrity, and ethical behavior as sacrosanct. Why had she doubted him?

Because someone had been very convincing. Someone had manipulated their DNA records and manipulated their marriage as a result. Someone had to have known that neither Stephanie or Walker would tolerate infidelity on the part of the other, and had used this fake DNA paternity report to try to break up their marriage.

They had almost succeeded. If Walker hadn't returned to the house with a sobbing Mindy in his arms immediately after leaving it that morning, Stephanie would have followed through with her threats to file for a divorce from him. It would have killed her to do so, but she also knew that she would have stopped it before it became final. Her reactionary nature wouldn't have allowed her to do anything else at the time when everything was still so raw and painful for her.

Stephanie frequently regretted holding Walker hostage through his love for Mindy, but she didn't know what else to do to keep the family intact and preserve any possibility of her and Walker eventually mending their relationship. She figured out quickly, and had it reaffirmed dozens of times, that Walker resented her attempts to rekindle an intimate relationship between them.

He wouldn't even consider a friends-with-benefits type of arrangement between them, which had frustrated Stephanie and caused her to be spiteful over being rejected. How many times had she snarled at Walker, "Well, if you don't want any of this, I'll find some other Horndog to take care of me"?

She never did, of course, but she realized each time how her words were counterproductive to healing their marriage. Stephanie just felt so lost and alone while sharing a life with the man that she had sworn always to love. "What a mess."

Although Stephanie had done things that would have easily driven a normal man into any number of other women's arms. Walker had resisted what she knew had to have been hundreds of opportunities. She had always known the effect that Walker's appearance alone had on women; after all, he was gorgeous. Some women might find his clean-cut, wholesome all-American looks too tame for their liking, but even they wouldn't be able to deny that he was one good looking male specimen.

No one appeals to everyone. There are girls who like broad shoulders, girls who like tall guys, girls who like bad boys, and so on and so forth. When it came to Walker, there were only two types of girls; the ones who found him attractive, and the ones who weren't breathing.

Walker's good looks had originally intimidated Stephanie. She had frequently questioned whether they would be together at all if he hadn't approached her with his disarming smile and heart-stopping blue eyes firmly focused on her. She had been captivated by his looks and became completely lost to him as they began talking. Stephanie couldn't recall what they spoke about that first night at the mixer, but she did remember never wanting their time together to end.

"Their time together to end..." Stephanie thought. Now look where they were.

They had left the conference room undecided on whether the divorce would proceed. Heather had concerns about the agreement she and Stephanie had made with the DSS attorney should the divorce petition get rescinded prior to the DSS case being resolved. Heather had not yet received a ruling signed by the judge that would remove Stephanie as a defendant, so they couldn't accept it as a done deal.

Heather and Stephanie had mentioned to Walker and his attorney the possibility that the DSS charges against Stephanie might not be moving forward in hopes of sewing doubt in their minds about their custody argument should the divorce proceed. Whether Walker would insist on seeking custody without a DSS finding against Stephanie was not something that either he or his attorney would commit to, one way or the other.

If Walker dropped his divorce petition out of fear of Stephanie getting custody of Mindy, he would remain the same hostage to his wife that he had been for the past nine years. Knowing that he had never been unfaithful, and hopefully, Walker realizing the same thing about her, would that be enough to change the dynamics of their relationship? Could they fix things? All Stephanie knew for certain, was that she couldn't change things by herself.

"Screw this no direct contact bullshit," Stephanie thought as she pulled her car off the road and into a parking lot. She pulled out her cell phone and sent what she hoped was a clearly understandable text message to her husband.

STEPHANIE: Can WE be fixed?

~~~

STEPHANIE: Can WE be fixed?

Walker stared at the message that had been on his phone when he had turned its volume back up after lunch. He had not felt the vibration notifying him of the incoming text, which was now over an hour old.

"Could they be fixed?" Walker had asked himself that question so many times during their most recent years of marriage and had never arrived at a definitive answer. While it is hard to love someone who you believe let you down, Walker simply could not, not love Stephanie. There had been a lot of good times when it seemed like Stephanie's quest for variety had, at least temporarily, faded into obscurity. Her laughter and joy at being with Walker and Mindy seemed so genuine that he would frequently fail to experience the pain and humiliation that had overshadowed his love for his wife.

Stephanie would somehow sense this thawing in Walker's attitude and attempt to close the distance that had grown between them. The problem was that the thought of any physical contact with Stephanie immediately resurrected her declaration, "It's my body and I can share it with whomever I want," and Walker would not share. He could not share.

His rejections of Stephanie's advances had typically not been received well and she would boldly remind her husband that she had other options if he wasn't interested in her. Although Walker could now believe that the doorbell video had been staged, could he believe that Stephanie had never exercised her other "options" in the last nine years?

Walker wanted to. He wanted to believe that the hoax perpetrated with the fake paternity report had weakened Stephanie's faith in him enough to drive her to punish her husband with repeated false hints of her infidelity. And, that's all that Walker could claim to have experienced - hints.

Stephanie had never gone out with others after work, men or women. Her daily schedule was typically as regular as clockwork, she never wore clothing that could be viewed as sexy or provocative, there were no mysterious texts or phone calls, and except for the rare occasions when Walker traveled for work, they had slept together in the same bed every night of their marriage.

Glancing at the text message from Stephanie again, Walker considered its implications. First was the obvious assumption that if she didn't want to explore the potential of repairing their relationship, Stephanie wouldn't have asked the question. Second was, that by asking the question, Stephanie had lobbed the ball over the net and it was now on his side of the court, and Walker was confused about how to deal with it.

Should he slam the ball back with enough force to make it untouchable by his wife? Should he just let it bounce to its death on his side of the court? Should he return it with the right amount of spin to confuse her? No, they needed to volley for a while, he decided.

WALKER: Sorry, I had my phone on vibrate and just read your message. Can you come by the house after work?

STEPHANIE: I took the day off. I can come by anytime.

WALKER: Then head on over. I am on my way home now.

Before Stephanie could reply, Walker added a message that he hoped he wouldn't regret.

WALKER: Plan on spending the night.

~~~

"So, this is what real hope feels like," Stephanie thought after reading the last text message from Walker.

So many times, over the length of their damaged marriage, Stephanie had experienced a glimmer of hope that things could be returned to a semblance of what she and Walker used to have as a couple. Unfortunately, too often, when she had sensed Walker displaying a hint of desiring the closeness that they once had, she would do something to screw it up.

Her psychology courses in college were some of Stephanie's favorites, and she recalled snippets from them over the years as she attempted to analyze her reactions to her perceived betrayal by Walker. For example, she realized that she had assumed the role of a woman scorned. Stephanie knew the seven stages that a woman goes through when she has been scorned; first came tears and melodrama, followed in order by weaponizing her sexuality, silent rage, rage expressed, remorse, Mafia-style rage, and finally, detachment.

What Stephanie had never understood was why some of the stages kept repeating over the years. The first stage lingered the longest and reappeared most frequently. Her rage was almost always expressed by her weaponizing her sexuality when she would try to hurt Walker with her implied infidelity. Remorse had been constantly moving from the background to the forefront and then back again. Interesting, to Stephanie at least, was that she couldn't recall ever entering the detachment stage.

She would never admit it to Walker, but he could traipse the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders through their bedroom, screwing them one at a time, and she still wouldn't leave him. She might find other ways to make him miserable, but Stephanie would still be there.

Stephanie couldn't help craving the intimacies that they had once shared, and she couldn't help the reactions that Walker's rejections always seemed to generate in her. She knew that if there was any chance of winning back her husband, she had to let him set the pace of their journey. A journey that she prayed would start tonight.

~~~

Walker was momentarily confused when he opened the front door for Stephanie and saw that she held nothing but her purse. He then realized that other than the items that she had hurriedly packed the night that he had kicked her out, everything she owned was still in the house.

He stepped aside to let Stephanie enter and then closed the door. "Thanks for coming over," Walker said as he turned to face his wife. She hadn't moved more than the space required to pass Walker and let him close the door. They were inches apart, facing each other in the foyer. Stephanie reached up and placed her right hand on Walker's chest, directly over his heart.

"Am I still in there?" she whispered, trying not to express how overjoyed she was that Walker had not rejected her touch.

Pointing at his wife's chest, Walker asked, "Am I still in there?"

Risking further contact, Stephanie lowered the hand on Walker's chest and placed it in his left hand. She closed her fingers around his, and keeping hold of his hand, she led them into the living room of the house. Positioning them in front of the couch, she was about to coax Walker into sitting, when he stopped her.

"Do you remember what we used to be? I've been like half a man for the past nine years. I've tried to move on from you; from what we once had and to find closure, but I can't. Stephanie, you must know that you are part of my soul."

Stephanie had tears building in her eyes as she more forcefully pushed on Walker to get him sitting on the couch. He saw a look of absolute reverence on Stephanie's face as the tears slowly trickled down her cheeks.

"Walker, meeting you was fate. Becoming your wife was my choice. But, falling in love with you was totally beyond my control. You were, are, and always will be the best thing that ever happened to me. You must also know that you are a part of my soul. I am sorry for ever doubting you. Reflecting back on things now that we know the truth, I should have realized that the same logic that I relied upon to keep the test report from you and our family together, if applied to the paternity test, would have resulted in me dismissing it as being impossible..."

Walker urged Stephanie to sit beside him on the couch before asking "Can you explain that logic because I'm not seeing it?"

Tucking her legs beneath her so she could turn and face Walker, Stephanie explained, "I knew that you had to be unaware of what I thought the paternity test indicated. If you had known that you had fathered another child, you would have taken responsibility for them; of that I was certain. I feared how that might affect your relationship with Mindy. I was angry at the thought of your betrayal and felt that protecting my own daughter by you was the priority for me. I needed to keep you being Mindy's father over anything or anyone else."

Walker considered Stephanie's words and could understand a mother's instinctive desire to protect her own offspring over someone else's. He said, "I can't fault you for that."

"But here's where I now realize my logic failed me," Stephanie continued. "The same moral standards and character traits that I feared would compel you to take responsibility for this supposed other daughter are the same ones that would have prevented it from ever being an issue. If you were too honest, ethical, and moral to abandon a child that you fathered, those same traits would have never allowed you to violate your wedding vows to me. I saw you as a righteous man in one scenario, but ignored how righteous a man you were in a more important scenario; your love for and devotion to your family. For that, I am so sorry."

When Walker didn't immediately respond, Stephanie said, "I promise you that whoever tricked me with that paternity test might have corrupted my mind where you were concerned, but I swear to you that they never corrupted my heart or my body. Both have always belonged only to you. If you give me a chance, I will prove it to you, and continue proving it for the rest of my days."

"I think we both have a lot of proving to do," Walker said. "And that has to start with us proving that we trust one another, something that must have been lacking for these falsehoods to have consumed our lives and our marriage for the last nine years. Obviously, emotions at the time likely fueled our insanity, but we have wasted nine years by not attempting to move past things. Have you ever considered us seeing a counselor together, because I know that I have. I never brought it up out of fear of what might be revealed about your 'quest for variety'."

Stephanie admitted, "Yes, I once even had a counselor picked out for us, but like you, I feared what would happen if your other daughter became known to you."

Walker shuddered as he said, "The words from that doorbell video have haunted me. The idea of some other man doing things with you, especially things that you and I have never done was bad enough, but you made me believe that I had been nothing but a meal ticket for you; someone to satisfy your material desires but not your physical desires. For nine years I have had images of you and that Josh guy in my mind, I didn't want to hear more details. It would have ruined me."

She knew exactly what Walker was referring to. The tears that had ceased began anew as Stephanie grabbed Walker's hands in hers and cried, "I am so sorry. I only wanted the torment to be momentary for you. I thought that I had scripted the performance in a way that you would quickly ascertain the frivolity of what was said. You have always been more than enough for me, in every way. I have never deserved you and all that you have done for me."

Walker handed Stephanie a tissue for her tears and said, "I believe that now, but the images, as false as they may be are still in my head. I'm afraid that they may continue to haunt me."

"And you think that I wouldn't have images of you breeding some Scandinavian beauty?" Stephanie asked. "I see the pictures of that pretty blonde girl and imagine what her mother must look like while in the throes of ecstasy from what I know your body can do to a woman. Talk about being haunted."

"So, what do we do?

Stephanie was still holding one of her husband's hands, and he wasn't complaining about it. She dabbed the tissue against her waning tears with her other hand as she considered her answer.

"We can either throw up our hands or roll up our sleeves. All these years, I have slept lonely beside you. When you are ready, and not a second sooner, we should attempt to overwrite the haunting images in our minds with new images of just you and me. I've wanted to do that for years and now I'm convinced that it is something that we both need to do, but not until you're comfortable doing so. You will have to want me as much as I want you or I'll know. I think images of you just going through the motions without any real desire for me would be worse than anything that I've been imagining."

Walker grinned as he looked in Stephanie's now sparkling green eyes, "Believe me, there is no way that you will ever be able to doubt my desire for you. I also like the idea of creating images that overwrite those that have haunted me. Give it time, and don't give up on us."

"I hope it's like riding a bike," Stephanie said as she leaned against Walker's chest. "Once you learn how, you never forget."

Walker put his arms around Stephanie and embraced his wife for the first time in nine years, "I don't know about you, but I haven't forgotten a thing."

Stephanie kissed Walker's neck just below his left ear; a spot that she remembered being sensitive but consistently arousing on him. He moaned and pulled her tighter against his body.

Her whispered words, "I certainly hope that you don't plan on getting any sleep tonight," were both welcomed and prophetic.

Chapter Six

"You must be Jocelyn."

Stephanie hadn't meant to startle the two girls. She had heard her daughter come in while she had been folding some towels in the laundry room and had wanted to see her for the first time since the last time. THAT night.

Mindy's bedroom door had been ajar, so Stephanie had simply stuck her head in to say "Hello" when she saw that her daughter wasn't alone. She had the girl from the photos with her.

"Geez, Mom, you scared us to death," Mindy exclaimed. Then she asked, "Does Dad know that you're here?"

Stephanie stepped fully into her daughter's room, smiling broadly, "Yes, he's the one that asked me to come over. I've been here for almost three hours while your father and I have discussed things between us, and if things go as well as they have so far, I won't ever be leaving again. Now, would you please introduce me to your friend? Is this the amazing Jocelyn that I have been hearing so much about?"

It took Mindy a few seconds to comprehend what her mom had said, then she recalled that Jocelyn and her mom had never met before. It had always been just her dad.

"Oh, yeah. Jocelyn this is my mother, Stephanie Cross. Mom, this is my friend, Jocelyn Greer. I forgot that you two hadn't already been introduced."

When Jocelyn turned to face her directly, Stephanie genuinely recognized just how lovely this young girl was. The photos had always been primarily from the neck up, presenting a pretty face framed by long honey-blonde hair. Seeing her now, it was easy to appreciate that she radiated a remarkably statuesque grace for someone as young as she was. Stephanie wondered if Jocelyn had done any modeling yet because that is what her stature implied.

Jocelyn stood at least three inches taller than Mindy, and at 5'5", her daughter was no slouch compared to other girls her age. Mindy could certainly hold her own against Jocelyn in the pretty looks department, but Stephanie knew that Jocelyn's height would be an advantage for her daughter's friend except where it came to boys their own age. Most of them hadn't hit a growth spurt yet and would likely be intimidated to be seen with a girl so much taller than themselves.

Stephanie stepped over and extended her hand, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Jocelyn. Please ask your parents if they would entertain an invitation to join our family for dinner one day next weekend. I would love to meet them and welcome you all to the neighborhood personally."

Jocelyn shook the offered hand of her friend's mother, "It's a pleasure to meet you too. My parents have mentioned them wanting to get together with you and Mr. Cross, so I'm sure that they would be glad to have dinner with you sometime."

"Excellent. Well, I'll let you girls get back to your homework, talking about boys, or planning for your world domination. I'd invite you to stay for dinner, Jocelyn, but Mindy's father and I need to discuss some family matters with her tonight, so we're just going to order pizza and keep things simple. I hope that you understand."

"My parents are expecting me home soon anyway, so it's not a problem. My aunt is in town and will be having dinner with us."

Mindy frowned, "Your aunt is in town? How long will she be here?"

"Why is Mindy interested in Jocelyn's aunt's itinerary?" Stephanie thought. She would have to ask her later.

"She'll be staying with us through the weekend," Jocelyn said. "Maybe you can come with us when she takes me shopping?"

The glee in Mindy's voice was unsettling for Stephanie when she heard her say, "Oh, that would be so cool. I'll ask my dad and let you know what he says. Mom, where is Dad?"

"He's finishing an online course in his office, so don't disturb him. We'll have plenty of opportunity to discuss things tonight. Please bring your laundry with you when you say goodbye to Jocelyn."

Addressing Mindy's friend, Stephanie added, "It was a pleasure to finally meet you, Jocelyn. I'm sure that we'll see each other again soon. Mindy, would you like your bedroom door opened or closed?"

"Closed please."

"Okay, Sweetie. Don't take too long. The pizza is supposed to be delivered at five."

The instant that Mindy's bedroom door latched closed, Jocelyn grabbed her arms and whispered, "What is going on? It looks like your parents have gone from enemies to lovers in a single day."

Mindy was shaking her head in disbelief, "I have no idea. When I left for school this morning, my dad was preparing to meet with his lawyer to discuss the divorce. I heard them talking on the phone yesterday and my dad was mad that my mom was fighting him getting custody of me."

"Do you think something happened to make your dad think that he wouldn't get custody and that is why he let your mom move back in?"

Mindy shrugged, "It's possible. I need to find a way to talk to my dad alone before dinner. Maybe you should go and I'll call you later with what I learn."

"You should text him," Jocelyn suggested. "That way you two could chat privately."

"Good idea," Mindy said as she removed her cell phone from its charger. "Let me take my laundry to my mom first so that will keep her occupied while I text my dad."

~~~

Her mom wasn't in the laundry room when Mindy took her hamper in. The washer already had a load of clothes being washed so she just left her hamper and headed back to her room. She started considering possible scenarios that would explain why her dad had asked her mom to come back home. The first was that something happened in the meeting with his lawyer that convinced her dad that he wouldn't be granted full custody of her, and that left him with no choice but to stop the divorce from happening.

The interesting thing about that scenario was that Mindy would have expected her mom to gloat about besting her dad but that hadn't been evident in their earlier conversation. Her mom had been warm, pleasant, and happier than Mindy could remember seeing her in years, especially when she had mentioned moving back home.

This didn't seem like a temporary situation either, because her mom had brought up meeting Jocelyn's parents and having dinner with them at some time in the future. That made it sound like her mother believed that she and Mindy's dad would be living together for a while. Plus, her mom was doing laundry and assuming her role as the woman of the house rather than acting like a temporary visitor or guest.

As she passed the entrance to the dining room, Mindy pulled up short. Something was different. She studied the items in the room for a few seconds before noticing the pictures on the walls. There was a photo now hanging on the wall that Mindy hadn't seen since she was a child. Where recently had hung a painting of a beach scene, the space was now filled with a large photograph of her mother and father.

Mindy remembered the photograph because of the bubbles. She had been told that it was taken on her parent's wedding day and captured the couple leaving the church immediately after the ceremony. Rather than tossing rice at the newlyweds, guests had been provided small bottles of blowing bubbles. The air around her mother's radiantly glowing face was filled with hundreds of iridescent bubbles. Her father's face was off to the side and slightly behind her mother's, and it held a look of loving adoration for his new bride.

Mindy realized how much she had missed the way that her parents used to look at each other. This photograph brought back how happy they had once been together. The sudden reappearance of this picture had to hold some significance to her mother returning home. The picture rekindled a memory she had practically forgotten.

It had been her parent's fourth anniversary. Her mom had opened one of the bottles of blowing bubbles from their wedding day and let Mindy blow bubbles at her mom's head before father and mother then took turns blowing bubbles all around their daughter. It had been a joyous occasion for all of them, one of the last ones that Mindy remembered them all sharing.

Five o'clock couldn't arrive too soon for Mindy. She returned to her room and retrieved her cell phone from the charger once more.

MINDY: Dad, what happened today for Mom to be here?

It took her dad a few minutes to reply. Mindy assumed that he had waited for a break in his online course before answering her.

WALKER: We'll discuss it at dinner. Your mom told you that we're having pizza, right?

MINDY: Yes. Okay, tell me this at least, are you still planning to get a divorce?

WALKER: Your mother is here because I asked her to be here. We will explain it to you over dinner. I need to finish this course before then, so hold off on your questions for now.

Mindy had the patience of the typical thirteen-year-old, which was basically zero. She wanted to know what was going on NOW! She considered the wedding picture once more.

Who had taken the picture down all those years ago? Had it been her mom or her dad? Mindy couldn't remember, but it must have been her mom since it had been her that did the decorating for every room in the house except her father's office. The fact that the picture had reappeared as soon as her mother had supposedly moved back into the house today also supported her being the one to put the picture back up in the dining room. But why? What had changed?

Not that Mindy was complaining. Though it had been years, the picture had reminded Mindy of how happy everyone, especially her, had been when her parents had seemed to love one another. Mindy had an epiphany and quickly headed for the living room. On the mantle over the fireplace were now pictures of her parents during their honeymoon in Paris, of her father kissing her mother's pregnant stomach, and several others of the once loving couple that Mindy knew had not been there this morning. She studied each, and her smile grew with every image of her parents' visible love for one another.

It had been the absence of this love that Mindy had noticed, and it had been her recognition of the unhappiness both her parents displayed all the time that had prompted Mindy to give them an excuse to separate and hopefully live happier lives apart. She loved both of her parents, but it had been her dad who had treated her with more love, kindness, and understanding so it was him that she would choose to live with if her parents did split up.

If things were as they were beginning to appear, something had happened to ignite a spark of the love that her parents had once shared. Mindy would do all that she could to fan that spark into a flame.

~~~

"Wow, this stuff is sweet. You need to make sure you brush your teeth really well when you go to bed tonight."

"Sure, Mom."

Mindy was just surprised that her mom was drinking root beer with her and her dad. Normally she'd be drinking red wine with her pizza. They were eating their dinner at the smaller intimate breakfast table in the kitchen instead of the more formal dining room. Mindy was sitting across the table from her mother and her father was sitting on the end between them.

"So, is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Mindy asked.

Walker said, "I'll tell you what, you keep eating and just listen and your mom and I will try to explain things to you. Okay?"

Mindy simply nodded and took another bite of her pizza slice.

Her mother started, "I know you have seen enough of those crime shows to understand what 'being framed' means."

Mindy nodded again.

"Good, well several years ago somebody sent me something that made me believe that your father did something that he hadn't. Basically, they had framed him and I believed what they told me.

"What did they tell you he did?" Mindy asked.

"What it was doesn't matter. What matters is that I did not have enough faith and trust in your father to believe him over somebody else, and that was my fault."

Walker picked up the explanation, "As a result of your mother believing that I did something that I didn't do, she convinced me that she had done something that she didn't do. We both learned today of the deception that had been perpetrated on her and the damage it did to our marriage.

Stephanie took over again, "It's not like we can just forget the last several years but we are going to try, your father and I, to get back to what we had before this all started."

"And," Walker said, "That starts with your mom moving back in here and sharing this house together - all of us."

Stephanie began, "We plan on seeing a counselor..."

"Like a marriage counselor?" Mindy interrupted.

"We may consider someone for family counseling," her father told her. "You will need to be part of this healing process too."

"Why me?"

Stephanie had tears starting to form on her eyes as she explained, "Because the things that the person or persons sent me to frame your dad influenced my relationship with you too. I have always loved you, Mindy, and treasure you as the best daughter imaginable, but there were times that I resented you because of what I thought your father had done. No, that's not right. I didn't resent YOU; I resented what you sometimes reminded me of. There is a distance between us that should never exist between a mother and a daughter and I want to work on that with you. If you'll let me."

Mindy looked to her dad for some sort of confirmation that what her mom had said was true.

"Think about it, Sweetie. Do you know any other girl your age who would prefer to live with their father over their mother? I love you and will always protect you, but you need to realize that a papa bear is nowhere near as ferocious as a mama bear when it comes to protecting her cub. You haven't had a chance to see that side of your mom since you were little, and it's time for that to change."

Mindy ate her remaining pizza in silence as she considered what her parents had said. Seeing the pictures earlier had made her remember happier times, and now she was recalling times when she was younger when she and her mom had done things together. She recalled one trip to a park when a dog off a leash had scared her and her mom had gone nuclear when she identified the owner of the animal. Her mom had always protected her, kept her safe, but not sheltered from the world.

Her dad had worked and her mom had stayed home when Mindy had been younger. It had been her mom who had helped her take her first steps. "Momma" had probably been her first word. From potty training to learning her alphabet and the names of the primary colors, Mindy remembered her mom being there rather than her dad. A mamma bear and her cub.

"I love you, mom. I'll do anything to make things good again between you and Dad."

"What about between you and me?"

Mindy considered both her memories of earlier years and what her parents were now sharing. She asked, "Mom, why didn't you want me to go to your school?"

"That was on me," Walker said. "But I'll let your mother explain."

Stephanie reached over and squeezed her husband's hand before speaking, "Initially, I wanted you to attend Warrenton Academy. I would have been so proud to have my daughter at the school that I ran. Your father and I discussed it for several days before he convinced me that it would be horrible for you to be there."

"Why?"

"It was because I ran it. Warrenton is filled with hundreds of spoiled rich kids who would have made your life a living hell. Thanks to your father, we are in the same economic position as most of my students' families, so you would have been viewed as a peer in that regard. Academically, you would have been one of the top students, if not the very top. The problem you would have had is with your mom being the principal. Other kids would not have liked you for that and treated you unfairly as a result."

"We've discussed at the start of every school year since," Walker said. "Your mom has even considered enrolling you at Warrenton under a different name to disguise who your parents are, but that would have forced us to miss so many of your school events and activities in order to keep the secret. Your mom loves you and wanted you at her school, but she was protecting you from almost certain bullying and emotional torment."

"Well, Mom, as far as you and I are concerned, if Dad can put up with you, so can I," Mindy teased, and they all laughed.

"Okay, Smarty Pants," Stephanie said. "Wasn't there something you wanted to ask your dad and me about going shopping with Jocelyn and her aunt?"

"I was going to wait until Jocelyn had told me more of the details so that I could share those with you," Mindy explained. "I assume that her aunt will want to take her shopping on Saturday but I don't know what time or where they will be going."

Mother and father shared a glance before Walker said, "You are smart to wait. The details on when and where will influence our decision. Having met Jocelyn's parents, I am reasonably confident that you would be perfectly safe with her aunt, but we may have some family things that your mom and I want to fit in this weekend. We will try to work them around you going shopping with your friend, if possible."

"Do you know if they will be shopping for anything in particular?" Stephanie asked.

Mindy giggled, "Jocelyn's parents said that since I had my ears pierced and hadn't started dating any sailors yet, they would agree to let Jocelyn get hers pierced too. I suspect that is what Jocelyn wants her aunt to take her shopping for, ear piercing and studs. I think they'll also try to find the stuff for Jocelyn's costume for the Halloween dance at school."

"What's her costume going to be?" Stephanie asked

"There's a ninth grader at school named Steve Harrington that Jocelyn kinda likes. She plans to dress as a Hawkins cheerleader for the Halloween dance to see if she gets his attention."

Stephanie looked at Walker, who simply shrugged his shoulders. She then turned back to Mindy and said, "I don't understand."

Mindy sighed and said, "Jocelyn wants to dress as a Hawkins High School Cheerleader from 'Stranger Things'. It's a TV show that a lot of kids watch and it has this character in it named Steve Harrington. The Steve Harrington at our school is very popular just like the character on the show and people have been teasing him about the character being based on him in real life."

Nodding in understanding, Stephanie asked, "What about you? Have you decided what your costume for the dance will be? Do you need any help with it?"

Mindy rose from her chair, "Wait here. I'll go get it and you can tell me what you think."

As their daughter hurried out of the kitchen, both parents turned to each other. Walker spoke first, "She seems to be accepting of things."

Stephanie nodded, "I don't want to push her too fast, but we've missed so much. Maybe she would agree to having me accompany her when she goes shopping with Jocelyn and her aunt?"

"I think you should suggest it," Walker said. "I would be surprised if she objected."

Mindy returned and held up a t-shirt for her mom to see.

"Cousins Rowing," Stephanie said. "Why does that sound familiar?"

She was referring to the words printed in large white letters above and below the image of crossed oars on the dark blue t-shirt. The imagery wasn't familiar but the words were. From what?

Mindy said, "Hello? Cousins Beach? This is Belly's favorite t-shirt."

It took Stephanie a few seconds longer to draw the conclusion that her daughter obviously intended. She smiled and said "From 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' books. Wait, didn't they make that trilogy into a television series? Is that where you got the idea from, not the books?"

"The Summer I Turned Pretty" was a best-selling trilogy of young adult romance novels that Mindy had read last summer. Out of curiosity, Stephanie had read the first book once Mindy had finished it. That is why the words on the t-shirt looked familiar. The young female protagonist in the stories, Isabel (Belly) Conklin spent her summers in the fictitious setting of Cousins Beach. Mindy, and probably a lot of kids her age were likely watching the TV series based on the popular novels, hence Mindy's selection of costume for the dance.

The story had been a bit juvenile for Stephanie's tastes, but she had enjoyed sharing something that her daughter was into at the time. Maybe she and Mindy could watch some of the television shows together and share that experience too.

"I like it," Stephanie said. "But it's only the top half of your costume. What do you plan to wear underneath?"

Mindy refolded the t-shirt and placed it on her lap once she had retaken her seat at the table. "Well, Belly always wears just the t-shirt with shorts, or just the t-shirt over her bathing suit. The dance is at night and it will probably be a little chilly for shorts, so I guess I'll just wear it over jeans."

"How about shorts with nude-colored leggings under them?" Stephanie suggested. "We might want to try to find some a shade or two darker than your current skin tone to make it look like your legs still have their summer tan."

"That might work," Mindy eagerly agreed. "Can you help me find some? If it's convenient when Jocelyn and her aunt want to go shopping, maybe you can come with us?"

Walker winked at his wife and watched her wipe a small tear from the corner of her eye. As vehemently as he would have fought to get primary custody of his daughter, he had never lost the recognition of how much Mindy needed her mother in her life. He would have never denied her that. Now it looked like that would no longer be an issue for any of them.

"I don't know if Jocelyn and her aunt would appreciate your old Mom tagging along," Stephanie said.

"Jocelyn said that you and her aunt appear to be about the same age. I need to finish one more worksheet for homework and then I'll call Jocelyn and see what she says. How's that?"

"Sure, Sweetie. Help me straighten up the kitchen first so your dad can get back to his office and finish his work for the day. I'll put things back into the fridge if you round up the pizza box and paper plates. They should just about fill the bag the rest of the way, so you can take that out to the garbage can and replace it with a new bag when you come back in."

Without replying, Mindy stood, laid her t-shirt on the table, and began collecting the items destined for the trash. When she reached around her dad for his paper plate and napkin, Mindy leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "Thanks for the pizza, Dad."

~~~

She had stayed on the phone with Jocelyn too long and it was now past her weeknight bedtime. Mindy wondered why neither of her parents had come into her room to remind her. She opened her bedroom door and didn't hear the TV or any other sounds from the center of the house, so she assumed that her mom and dad were already in the master bedroom on the other side of the house.

Remembering her t-shirt, Mindy quickly headed for the kitchen to retrieve it. She had just picked it up from the table when she heard a scream from her parent's room.

It was her mom's voice, "OH, GOD!"

Her mom didn't sound in pain but Mindy paused to see if anything would follow that scream. It took only a few seconds before repeated screams of "YES! YES! YES!", once more in her mom's voice could be heard.

Mindy giggled as she thought, "Definitely not screams of pain." She headed back to her bedroom, but before she got out of the living room, she heard her mother scream, "JESUS! I sure love my bike."

"This is too weird," Mindy thought as she closed her bedroom door behind her.

Chapter Seven

"Shower with me?"

After the night that husband and wife had just spent together, they both needed a shower, but Walker worried about the temptation that Stephanie's wet, naked body would present to him and whether he would be able to respond accordingly. Of course, he had experienced that same worry several times during the night when he was certain that his wife had exhausted him beyond recovery, yet she had repeatedly proven him wrong.

Walker admitted having doubts about whether jumping directly back into a sexual relationship with Stephanie was the most sensible approach for them to take so soon. However, learning that she had never shared herself with another person since their wedding, and had remained exclusively his, popped the lid clean off the place within him where all of his suppressed desires for his wife had been festering for nearly a decade. He could not find any justifiable reason not to reclaim the woman that he loved over anyone else.

"I'll tell you what," Walker said. "You go ahead into the shower and I'll go get us each a cup of coffee. I'll be back in plenty of time to wash your back. What do you say?"

Stephanie didn't want the closeness and intimacy that had been rekindled during the night to diminish even a fraction by Walker being anywhere that put him out of arm's reach to her. Her yearning for her husband's proximity was as strong this morning as it had been on their honeymoon. Today was different however. Today they had a teenage daughter that they still had to awaken and get ready for her day at school.

Extricating herself from Walker's embrace, Stephanie rolled onto her back, and said, "You should probably stop by her room on your way back and make sure that Mindy is awake. Are you sure that you are going to be fine with playing hooky with me here today?"

Walker swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slowly rose, "Do you want your robe?"

Stephanie followed her husband out of the bed and wrapped her arms around him from behind. She planted a kiss between his shoulder blades and said, "No, I'll head directly to the shower. Now, please answer my question."

Walker turned to face his wife and smiled down at her beautiful, glowing face. God, how he had missed seeing her post-coital radiance.

He kissed her forehead and said, "While it seems like the end of the year filings come earlier each year, things are still relatively slow right now, so I am perfectly fine taking a long weekend here with you."

Stepping around her husband towards the master bath, Stephanie said, "Good. Things are slow at the school right now too, so this is a perfect opportunity for me to also take a long weekend. Hurry back, Lover."

Walker quickly donned his own robe and headed out of the bedroom. The sight of Stephanie's naked derriere had enticed parts of his body that didn't need any more enticement at the moment. Closing the bedroom door behind himself, he tried to remember the last time that he and Stephanie had stayed up all night making love.

Words spoken by his bride on their honeymoon came to mind, "If we're going to spend a third of our lives in bed, I want to make that time count for something." She had made it count then, and she had made it count again last night.

After turning the shower on, Stephanie stood before the vanity sink and saw her reflection in the mirror. She had suspected that Walker might have left a few hickeys on her during the night and studying her naked body in the mirror quickly proved her suspicions correct. She smiled at the marks, confident that all of them were in places that her clothing would hide and be evident only to her and the man that she allowed to mark her as his own.

The confidence she had this morning that Walker once more was assured of her love, devotion, and commitment to their wedding vows was exhilarating. She had done everything a woman could do with her body to prove that she had complete trust in her man and their life together going forward. She would continue to do whatever it took to demonstrate her undying love for Walker and their daughter.

Placing a hand on her bare stomach, Stephanie smiled even broader when she considered the date. She had stopped using any birth control over nine years ago and the timing of her cycle had remained pretty consistent. Plus, women in her family had always displayed a high fertility potential. "Yes," she thought, "it could have very well happened at some point last night." She would need to explain that possibility to Walker pretty soon.

Her knees were not the first part of her body to feel the warm water of the shower, but they were the first body parts to remind Stephanie of the night's activities. The skin on her knees didn't look abrased, but the activities when she was on her hands and knees had been quite robust at times. The slight burning pain caused by the warm water was inconsequential when compared to the pleasure those activities had provided to her and Walker.

With her head under the stream of warm water, she hadn't heard her husband joining her in the shower, but Stephanie had felt Walker step behind her. The poke that she had felt in the small of her back had brought a smile to her face.

"Can that wait until after Mindy leaves for school?"

"I won't apologize for my desire being obvious, but placating it is not that urgent right now. Are you ready for me to wash your back?"

"Let me shampoo my hair first and then you can do my back while the conditioner sits. Are you warm enough?"

Walker stepped back and said, "I'm fine. Take your time."

He was in no hurry for the vision of beauty before him to end. At 37, Stephanie could still wear everything that she owned from the day that they were married and was equal to or superior to any woman who might grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Her slim, yet curvy athletic figure could be attributed to both genetics and her love for tennis.

Walker noticed that Stephanie's long lustrous hair, which was normally close to the color of chestnuts, still turned to a shade more closely resembling dark walnut when it was wet. It was full and rich at a length that extended halfway down her back. Before Mindy was born, Stephanie would frequently go topless around the house, with just her flowing locks of hair falling over her shoulders to teasingly conceal her breasts; reminiscent of many portrayals of mermaids in artwork.

He couldn't resist helping his wife, applying the shampoo and massaging her scalp. The intimacy expressed by Walker's actions brought a tear of joy to Stepanie's eyes and a moan to her lips. This was "Them". The "Them" which had had been replaced by strangers for the last nine years. The "Them that she knew that she would die before neglecting ever again.

After silently enjoying the pampering of her husband for several minutes, she said, "Now that whole house tankless water heater that you installed is finally going to pay us dividends."

Walker stopped massaging Stephanie's scalp to allow her to rinse her hair. When her head was no longer under the water, he said, "I told you it would be better than simply replacing the old water heater with a larger capacity one. Mindy is probably in her shower right now and none of us will sense any change in the hot water or the water pressure."

Stephanie spread her conditioner through her hair before turning to face Walker, "We may have an infinite supply of hot water, but we don't have an infinite amount of time before I need to feed our daughter breakfast and get her off to school."

She turned her back to Walker, "So, if your offer to wash my back still stands..."

Stephanie felt the loofa against her back almost immediately. Smiling over a shoulder at her husband, she said, "Please use just your hands."

Walker had resisted using his hands because he knew what the feel of Stephanie's warm, wet, and soapy back would do to him. But he couldn't deny her request and steeled himself for the sensations that washing her back with his bare hands would create for him. He purposely kept his hands above her waist and tried to make his actions utilitarian rather than sensual for either of them.

Stephanie wanted more. The temptation to position her body so that Walker's hands were washing her front side instead of her back was difficult to resist, but she did so by taking the soapy loofa and washing herself everyplace that her husband wasn't. She finished quickly, turned, and pulled Walker into an embrace that transferred soap from her body to his.

"Let me rinse and get out, then you can have the shower to yourself. Tomorrow is Saturday and we won't be as rushed for time, if you get my meaning."

"Loud and clear," Walker said as he stepped back once more to give Stephanie full access to the stream of water. "By the way, don't be surprised if Mindy asks you about the new bike that she apparently heard you mention at some point last night. She said that maybe you and her could go riding together some time"

Stephanie turned so red that her back appeared sunburned.

~~~

Walker knew that Stephanie had had "the talk" with Mindy when their daughter had experienced her first menstrual cycle because Mindy had immediately come to him for verification that the things her mom had told her about where babies come from were true.

Her mother had been far more graphic and detailed in her explanation than Mindy's father would have been, so Walker wasn't surprised that morning at the breakfast table when Stephanie once more took the lead in the topic of human reproduction.

"Riding a bike is a metaphor for a learned task that once you know how to do it, you never forget," she explained to Mindy.

Mindy grinned and asked, "Are you telling me that you and Dad were remembering how to have sex last night? Because if you are, then the sound of it is something that I will never forget."

Stephanie stuck her tongue out at her daughter, which made Walker laugh. She then said, "Well, Miss Smarty Pants, you obviously did forget because those sounds used to occur frequently in this house, and you can expect to hear them a lot more in the future."

"Now might be a good time to invest in a new Bluetooth headset for me, Dad. One with exceptional noise-cancelling capabilities."

"Finish your French toast," Stephanie chided her daughter. "And you soon might be able to buy your own headset with the money you earn at your new job."

Mindy had a bite in her mouth that she chewed quickly before asking, "What new job?"

Stephanie grinned at her husband who was silently watching the mother/daughter interaction with a grin on his face. He raised his eyebrows in question to Stephanie's last statement. She held up a finger, indicating that he would have to wait a bit.

She spoke to Mindy, "Well it's not definite yet, but hopefully, in about nine months, you will have a new job."

Walker's eyes grew wide and his grin turned to a full smile. He kept silent though, allowing Stephanie to share her announcement with him and Mindy both.

Mindy had considered what her mother said before responding, "In nine months, I'll still only be 14. I can't get a work permit until I'm 16. What kind of job are you talking about that I could do without a work permit?"

"The job will be babysitting your new brother or sister. It will probably be the most rewarding job that you ever have until you become a mother yourself."

"YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Mindy screamed.

Stephanie laughed at her daughter's exuberance but stopped when she saw the puzzled expression on Walker's face.

She shrugged and said, "It's not certain, but based upon timing and certain other factors, my bike ride last night would definitely make it a possibility. We'll have to wait a few more weeks to see, but would either of you be opposed to me having another baby?"

"Heck no!" Mindy said before her father could respond. "Have two or three. I will gladly babysit for all of them."

"Whoa, slow down," Walker said between laughs. "Your mom and I need time to discuss a few things before we start adding a wing onto the house to accommodate all your desired siblings."

Mindy grinned and said, "I know. I can't wait to tell Jocelyn that I might be getting a brother or sister. She says that her parents have talked about another baby too, so wouldn't it be cool if Mom and Jocelyn's mom had babies at around the same time?"

Stephanie glanced at Walker, who nodded slightly. They had discussed how they could begin asking Mindy questions about Jocelyn and her family that might shed some light on why pictures of Jocelyn had been used in the hoax. This might be an opportunity to start the questioning but it couldn't be too protracted right now since it was almost time for Mindy to head to school.

"What kind of work does Jocelyn's mom do?" Stephanie asked. "Some careers lend themselves to a woman having a baby more than others."

"She's a doctor," Mindy replied. "But not one who sees patients. She only works with dead people. I don't remember what it's called, but they moved here when she got hired as the deputy medical examiner for the county."

"She's a pathologist?" Walker asked.

"Yeah, that's it!" Mindy confirmed. "She's a pathologist."

Walker nodded, "They moved here from Charleston if I remember correctly from when I met them."

"Yeah, Jocelyn's mom used to teach at some medical university there."

"What about her dad?" Stephanie asked. "What kind of work does he do?"

"That one I know because Jocelyn says that she wants to have the same job when she grows up. He does graphic design for video games and other types of animation. Jocelyn says that he is a freelancer and that is where all the money is."

"Well, I can't wait to meet them," Stephanie said. "Please ask Jocelyn for her mother's phone number so that I can call and invite them over for dinner."

Mindy rose from her chair, "I will, Mom. Hopefully, Jocelyn will have spoken to her aunt about us going shopping with them by the time I get home from school."

Walker rose as well, and said, "I'll drop Miss Smarty Pants off at school and be right back."

Stephanie quickly rose and threw her arms around Walker's neck. She planted a smoldering kiss on his lips, ignoring the gasp that emanated from her daughter. Mindy may not remember witnessing any passion between her parents until now, but she will witness plenty of it from now on.

~~~

Jocelyn's giggling was drawing unwanted attention from other students in the school library. Mindy and she had persuaded their study hall teacher to give them passes to the library for the class period to work on a project. The real reason was so that they could talk quietly amongst themselves, but if Jocelyn couldn't control her amusement, they would get sent back to class. Mindy shouldn't have said anything about her parents having sex and her mom's metaphor about the bike.

Mindy whispered, "Shhh! You're going to get us kicked out of here and we won't have another chance to talk about anything until after school."

"I'm sorry, but did you really tell your dad that maybe you and your mom could go for a ride together sometime?"

"Yes, and it sounds horrible in hindsight so forget I even mentioned it. I didn't know the facts at the time when I said that to him. I assumed we were talking about a real bike."

Jocelyn said, "Okay, I understand and I won't mention it again. That won't stop me from thinking about it and laughing though. It is exciting to think that your mom might be pregnant."

"Yeah, that would be cool."

Nodding in agreement, Jocelyn asked, "What does this rekindling of your parents' love life mean for the divorce? Have they talked about that?"

Mindy shook her head and said, "They haven't said anything specific other than to say that my mom has moved back home and that we would all likely be seeing a counselor to help us work on things as a family. It sounds to me like the divorce is off. My mom also sounded sincere when she said that she wanted her and me to get closer again. That's why I asked her to come shopping with us if your aunt won't mind."

"I'm sure she won't mind," Jocelyn said. "But let's think this through..."

"What do you mean?"

"If your parents aren't going to be getting a divorce, who gets custody of you won't be an issue anymore. That means that the claims you made against that guy in your house aren't going to be of any benefit to you, but they still hang over his and your mom's head. How are you going to handle that?"

Mindy frowned, "I don't know. I've been thinking about that since yesterday evening. How do I get the charges dropped without getting in trouble for making the claims against him? I'm open to suggestions."

"I don't have any of my own right now," Jocelyn admitted. "But my aunt might be able to offer some options. That's kinda why having your mom with us while shopping might not be a good idea. We couldn't ask my aunt for advice if your mom is around. I was thinking that maybe you could spend the night with me tomorrow, then go to church with us Sunday morning. We could ride there with my aunt and then all of us could meet up with your mom at the mall after church."

Mindy smiled, "And by the time that we meet up with my mom, we would have had plenty of time to get advice from your aunt. Brilliant. Do you think she'll agree to that plan?"

"Count on it. My parents have some work event of my mom's to attend on Saturday night so you, me, and my aunt will have the house to ourselves. My aunt actually suggested that I invite you over to spend the night so she could meet you and get to know you better. She said it would be her first slumber party in almost twenty years."

"I hope that us trying to figure out a way to get me out of this mess won't put a damper on the party," Mindy lamented. She then smiled, "Although I doubt that my parents will be disappointed to have me spending the night somewhere tomorrow night. It seems like they have a lot of interest suddenly to get me a babysitting job."

~~~

"How much of a priority do you want to make it?" Walker asked.

They were sitting together in the hot tub adjacent to their backyard pool. Walker's arm was around Stephanie's shoulder as they shared another long-forgotten intimacy. Much like the refreshing nap that they had shared that morning, with one or the other spooning against their partner, instinctual habits as a loving couple were rapidly resurfacing.

Stephanie replied, "High, but not the highest. The top priority needs to be us as a family and getting past the damage whoever did this inflicted on us. Learning who that person, or persons is takes a back seat only to that."

"I won't disagree with that," Walker said. "How would you feel about us hiring a private investigator to start looking into the hoax?"

"Maybe. Let's brainstorm the whole thing some first. I'm thinking it had to be someone who harbored some resentment towards, you, me, or the two of us together. Any ideas who that might be?"

Walker shook his head, "I've been wondering things along those same lines. Who was the target? Since the faked documents were sent to you, implicating me as having betrayed you, were you the target or was it me?"

"It had to be someone who could get access to the original DNA test that we had done when Mindy was an infant," Stephanie surmised. "Does that sound like anyone either of us might know? And what about Jocelyn? How does she fit into this? Whoever did this obviously knows her too, or at least has access to photos of her since her birth."

Stephanie added, "So, it is most likely someone who knows you, me, or both of us. Someone who knows Jocelyn, and someone who has access to DNA test reports..."

Walker concluded, "Not just access to DNA test reports, someone who had access to two different testing facilities. The reports were from different labs. Whoever that someone is, they apparently didn't want us to remain married, but why?"

"Here's another question," Stephanie said. "The last photo of Jocelyn was left for me only a few months ago, in late May. What do you think whoever this is will do once they learn that we have discovered their hoax?"

Walker nodded, "Was the Greers relocating here simply coincidental after all these years or somehow connected? If they had remained in Charleston, we never would have recognized Jocelyn as the girl in the pictures. And I wonder if Jocelyn being an adopted child might play into this somehow."

"How do you know she's adopted?" Stephanie asked. "Mindy hasn't mentioned anything like that."

"You'll see."

Chapter Eight

MINDY: We're just entering the mall, Are you here already?

MOM: Yes, I am in the food court at a table near Cinnabon.

MINDY: I see you. Be right there.

Stephanie spotted Jocelyn first due to her height. Well, she actually spotted the beautiful blonde woman beside Jocelyn first, but since she was not anyone that Stephanie recognized, her attention had fallen onto the girl that she did know. From there it was easy to pick her own daughter out of the crowd.

Mindy rushed over to Stephanie and gave her a hug, "Sorry, Mom, but there's been a slight change in plans. Jocelyn's aunt can't stay long because she has to drive back to Charleston this afternoon, so she is going to take us to get Jocelyn's ears pierced and then leave. Jocelyn's mom is on the way here to meet us.

Smiling at the blonde woman, Stephanie said, "You must be Jocelyn's aunt. I apologize for my daughter's manners. I'm Stephanie Cross."

The woman's smile didn't reach her eyes, "It's a pleasure. I'm Payton Lange. Mindy is such a joy. You must be very proud of her."

"Oh, we are extremely proud of her, most of the time."

Mindy blushed with embarrassment before asking, "Mom, can Jocelyn text your phone number to her mom so that she can communicate with you when she gets here to know where you are? We were hoping that you could wait here for her and then we will come and join you once Jocelyn's ears are pierced. Then you and me could go searching for leggings and stuff with Jocelyn and her mom."

Stephanie addressed Jocelyn rather than Mindy, "If your mom's only reason for coming here is so that you have a ride home, please text her and tell her that I will be more than happy to bring you home and save her the trouble."

Payton explained, "Gina wanted to come with us but got delayed by some business at her church. She plans to buy Jocelyn her first pair of real studs to replace the stainless-steel set that they will use when her ears are pierced. She will be coming here regardless of who Jocelyn ends up riding home with."

Glancing at Mindy's ears, Stephanie smiled. Her daughter was wearing the studs that she had taken her to buy as a thirteenth birthday present. Many people didn't recognize the Peridot stones mounted on the studs as the birthstone for August, but Mindy had always worn them proudly,

"When is your birthday, Jocelyn?"

"It's in June. June thirteenth," she told Stephanie.

Stephanie made a mental note that she would transfer to her calendar later. If her mother didn't do it before then, Stephanie would let Mindy buy her friend birthstone studs. She would let her daughter decide on which of the three recognized birthstones for June she would give her friend; pearl, moonstone, or Alexandrite.

"We need to get going girls," Payton urged after checking the time on her phone.

"Give Jocelyn my number," Stephanie told Mindy. "Have her text her mom where she can meet me here and send her my number in case she needs to contact me"

Seeing that Jocelyn and her aunt had already turned and started down one of the wings of the mall, Mindy hurried to join them, hollering, "Thanks, Mom" as she was swallowed up in the crowd.

Stephanie decided to check in with her husband while she waited.

STEPHANIE: I miss you. Is there anything on your calendar for next weekend?

WALKER: I miss you too. I thought that we might try to play tennis together again at the club on Saturday if you're interested. Other than that, I think we're free. Why?

A smile broke across Stephanie's face. Walker had signed the family up as members of the local swim and tennis club soon after they had moved into their house. Even though they had their own pool in their back yard, he knew that they would get a lot of use out of the tennis facilities at the club. For the first few years of their marriage, the Cross husband and wife pair had reigned as the mixed-doubles champion at the club. They both continued to play but they hadn't done so as a couple for almost a decade. Doing so again would certainly get tongues at the club wagging.

STEPHANIE: I would love to join you for tennis, but let's do that on Saturday morning. I want to invite Jocelyn's parents over that afternoon if you wouldn't mind.

WALKER: I'll book us a court right now. How does 9 am sound?

STEPHANIE: Perfect as long as the weather cooperates. By the way, Jocelyn's aunt is a stunner. I'm going to have to keep her away from you.

WALKER: Do you think that after what we have been through that I would ever have interest in another woman?

STEPHANIE: Of course not. I am just emphasizing how beautiful her aunt is. I trust you without any reservations. You have certainly earned it, and a lot more.

WALKER: You've earned my trust too. I can't believe that I feel that way when weeks ago I wouldn't have trusted you to tell me the right day of the week.

STEPHANIE: We're going to make it, Baby. I kno...

She didn't finish the message.

"Excuse me, are you Stephanie Cross?"

Glancing up at the strange woman standing before her, Stephanie's face showed her confusion over the stranger addressing her. She said, "Yes, I'm Stephanie Cross."

"Well, it's obvious where Mindy gets her beauty from. I would recognize you as her mother anywhere. I'm Regina Greer, Jocelyn's mother. Please call me Gina."

This woman might recognize Stephanie and Mindy as being mother and daughter, but there was no way that anyone would recognize this attractive black woman as the biological mother of pretty, blonde, Jocelyn. Walker's words about Jocelyn being adopted came to mind, "You'll see."

Standing quickly, Stephanie hugged Gina and said, "I am so glad to finally meet you. I apologize for not coming over to welcome you to the neighborhood but things have been pretty crazy at work and in our house recently. Everything is fine now and I hope that we can get to be as close as our daughters appear to be becoming."

"I would like that. I'm going to go and get an iced tea while we wait for the girls. Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you," Stephanie said. "I'll wait here and hold this table for us."

As soon as Gina Greer walked away, Stephanie resumed her conversation with Walker.

STEPHANIE: Jocelyn's mom is here and I DO see. We have a few things to talk about tonight.

~~~

It was a school night, so Mindy went to bed at her normal time of 9 pm. Walker and Stephanie retired to their room right after saying goodnight to their daughter, but sleeping would wait for them.

When she and Mindy had arrived home Stephanie had managed her anxious mood with the remarkable sangfroid that she typically displayed under stressful conditions. Walker had barbequed steaks and baked potatoes for their dinner, which allowed mother and daughter to focus on Mindy's Halloween costume details. After dinner, Stephanie and Mindy spent a few hours watching recorded episodes of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" to get more ideas on how they could make Mindy's costume as realistic as possible.

The sound of the master bedroom door clicking latched closed was Stephanie's signal to release all the anxiousness that she had been simmering inside her since the mall. She pulled her sweater over her head, confirmed that she had Walker's attention, and said, "The plot thickens."

"How so?"

Continuing to undress, Stephanie said, "The suspicion that Jocelyn is adopted was verified to me by Gina, her adoptive mom. She didn't go into the details of the adoption because the girls were with us but she did explain that her best friend and Jocelyn's godmother is the blonde woman that is referred to as her aunt."

Walker had finished undressing and was preparing to pull back the covers on the bed. He said, "That sounds reasonable. A close friend can sometimes be more of a family member than actual family can."

"I know," Stephanie said. "However, I can't help thinking that there is more to the Jocelyn Greer story. You've never met her aunt, have you?"

"No. From what Mindy has said, this is the first time that Jocelyn's aunt has visited since they moved here a few months ago. Why?"

Crawling in bed next to her husband, Stephanie asked, "Do you think that Mindy and I look like mother and daughter? I mean, are there enough physical similarities shared between us that no one would mistake us being related?"

Walker chuckled, "Yes, thank God. Mindy is blessed to take after you instead of me. I can't imagine anyone not recognizing you two as mother and daughter, or even sisters."

Lifting Walker's arm and placing it around her shoulders, Stephanie snuggled against him. "Obviously, no one would view Gina and Jocelyn as biological mother and daughter, but the same isn't true with Jocelyn and her aunt. Those two could easily be assumed to be related."

"Are you implying that Jocelyn's aunt is actually her biological mother?" Walker asked.

"I'm not implying anything. I'm just considering the possibility that there is more to Payton Lange being Jocelyn's aunt and Jocelyn being adopted than we know so far."

Stephanie's head bounced against the pillow as Walker abruptly jumped out of the bed and stared down at her with a look of shock on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Tall, blonde, with smoke-gray eyes and a beauty mark just above her left nostril?"

Now Stephanie had the shocked expression. "I thought you said that you hadn't met her?"

Walker slowly returned to the bed and got his wife situated against him once more. "I haven't met Jocelyn's aunt. I have met Payton Lange. She is my ex-girlfriend. The one I broke up with a few months before you and I met."

"Oh, fuck," Stephanie groaned. "Do you think..."

"I don't know what to think," Walker replied. "Payton didn't take the breakup well, but we haven't spoken since then. My parents probably still run into her parents on occasion, but they have seldom mentioned anything about her."

"What do you think we should do?"

"I'm going to get in contact with Jacob Tucker first thing in the morning. He didn't believe that perpetrating the hoax on us would be viewed as a criminal offense since we weren't being blackmailed, defrauded, or threatened. He was going to explore other options to deal with the person or persons if we could identify them. I now wonder if there might be a case for stalking if Payton is involved."

Stephanie shivered against Walker and said, "I wonder why Gina never mentioned to me that her best friend knows my husband. Maybe this is just a bunch of coincidences."

"You're sent a fake DNA test report, apparently intended to break up our marriage, and then start receiving pictures of a pretty blonde girl over the next several years. A girl whose family moves into our neighborhood nine years later and becomes best friends with our daughter. A girl whose so-called aunt happens to be my ex-girlfriend. The surname Cross isn't rare, but it isn't that common either. I would find it hard to believe that Payton learning that Mindy's and your last names were the same as mine wouldn't have triggered some suspicions for her that you might be related to her former boyfriend. She knew that I was destined to take over my father's business eventually and both of our parents live less than fifty miles from us. I don't think Rod Serling could write this script any weirder."

Stephanie couldn't disagree. Instead, she said, "I wasn't going to mention this but I can't help it..."

"What's that?"

She snuggled harder against Walker, "The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the woman that we now know as Payton Lange approaching me in the mall today was that she was the image in my mind whenever I thought about you being unfaithful to me. Her face was that of the woman I imagined you making love to and impregnating to produce the little blonde girl in the pictures."

"I swear to you that I haven't even spoken to Payton since I broke up with her the December before I met you. Her and I hadn't had sex for months before that."

"Please, don't think that I doubt you," Stephanie implored. "I only mention it because of the images we are trying to overwrite in our heads. Knowing that there really was a beautiful blonde woman in your past isn't going to make purging her image from my mind any easier."

"I can understand that and I have a suggestion that might help both of us in that regard."

"I want to hear your suggestion," Stephanie said. "But first, should we be concerned about how enamored Mindy seems to be with Jocelyn's aunt? In fact, I'm not sure that I am that comfortable with Mindy hanging out at Jocelyn's house until we can get a better handle on all of these apparent coincidences."

Walker considered his wife's words before responding, "I don't want to demonize Jocelyn or her parents based upon whatever relationship they have with Payton. While it would certainly be prudent for us to pay closer attention to Mindy and Jocelyn's relationship, it is that very relationship that may provide us with insights that we might otherwise not have. Although, encouraging the girls to hang out here rather than at Jocelyn's house is also a good idea."

"We'll have to get a better understanding of why they have typically chosen to go to the Greer house after school instead of here," Stephanie said. "Maybe those are Jocelyn's instructions from her parents? Being new to the neighborhood, that sort of direction seems likely to me."

Walker nodded, "We can ask Mindy about that in the morning. There is no adult supervision at the Greer house until one of her parents gets home, which I've noticed is typically the mom at a little past 5 pm. Between our schedules, one of us could be home by the time the girls get out of school and that might be an incentive for Jocelyn's parents to have her come here instead."

Stephanie was nodding her head but Walker sensed that her thoughts had deviated from the topic of conversation. He waited to see where she would take their conversation next and was surprised at his wife's route.

"Tell me about Payton. You've never talked much about any former girlfriends."

To Walker's way of thinking, there wasn't much to talk about. He decided to share the basics and then let Stephanie ask any questions that arose.

"Before I met you, Payton was the only other girlfriend that I ever had. We went to school together from sixth grade, which was right after her family had moved to our neighborhood. In hindsight, the whole dynamic was pretty strange. Our parents became friends and obviously liked each other, but neither set of parents ever seemed to like the other parents' kid. Her parents made their dislike for me very evident by not letting me in their house unless I was there with my parents. They also kept trying to get Payton to date other boys instead of me and I know that they had some pretty loud arguments over that.

"I wonder why? My parents adored you from the very beginning, and they still do."

"And I them," Walker said. "My parents were slightly more tolerant with Payton but my mom always made it clear that she didn't believe that Payton and I would last, and she kept expressing her surprise that we were still together each new year."

"So why did you break up with her?"

"I grew up. I finally accepted the realization that there was no future for me with someone like Payton..."

"What was she like?"

"My mom probably described her best when she said, 'She admires herself so much that her awareness of existence ends at the air that grazes the outermost layer of her skin.' Essentially, Payton knew that she was beautiful and she felt that this entitled her to act far superior to everyone else around her. I was at a stage in my life where my future was finally coming into focus. I already had a career path established with joining my dad's company, and the idea of starting my own family pretty much excluded Payton from the equation. She certainly wasn't 'mother material', and I can't envision her being very good wife material, especially when weighed against what I found in you."

Stephanie snorted, "Yeah, some wife I turned out to be."

Placing his index finger under her chin, Walker turned her head until her eyes met his, "I don't want to hear that. Even when your faith in me was shaken to your core, you sought to keep our family intact. You sacrificed years of happiness for the sake of our daughter being raised by her mother and her father. Even though you were conned into believing that I had betrayed you, you stuck with me. True, not always pleasantly, but you did more than most wives would have done, and for that, I am eternally grateful."

"God, I don't deserve you," Stephanie cried.

She recovered and asked, "You said that Payton didn't take you breaking up with her very well. What happened?"

"Not much at the time. There were tears, angry words, some groveling, and pleading, but I stood resolute in my decision. As much as her parents didn't like me, they took my hurting their daughter's feelings personally. It damaged the relationship between her parents and mine for a few months but everyone eventually got over it. Or, so I thought."

"What do you mean?"

"After our graduation ceremony, my mom said that it was a shame that Payton wouldn't be graduating too. She had apparently gotten so depressed after the Christmas break that she didn't return to school until the next fall semester."

"Did she go to Clemson? I realize that it's a big campus but I know that I would have remembered if I ever saw her there."

"No, she decided to go to the College of Charleston for her undergraduate degree since she planned on going to the Medical University of South Carolina for her doctorate. Her parents bought her a condo in Charleston to live in while attending school there so it made more sense for her to stay in one place."

"Did she eventually graduate?"

"I have no idea," Walker admitted.

"She certainly is pretty," Stephanie sighed.

Walker snorted and said, "Anyone who saw the two of you side by side would agree that I definitely traded up with you."

Stephanie rolled over to lay on top of Walker and gave him a tender kiss on his lips. "Now, please share your suggestion on how to drive the image of you with her from my mind."

Walker kissed her back and said, "Like we discussed last Thursday, we need to overwrite the bad images with new ones of you and me. The challenge is that I can see the image of you in my head, and you probably can see the image of me in yours, but we can't see the image of 'us' in our heads because all we see is each other and not both of us together."

Stephanie giggled and asked, "So, do you want to install a mirror on the ceiling?"

Before Walker could answer, Stephanie's eyes grew wide in realization of what her husband was likely considering. She scooted down his body and began kissing her way further south.

Pausing to speak, she said, "I love it! Walker and Stephanie make a porno!"

Chapter Nine

"Are you paying attention to how I am doing this?"

Stephanie saw Mindy watching her in the mirror as she wove her daughter's hair into the French braid she had asked for, but the expression on Mindy's face was one of distracted thought.

"I'm watching, Mom."

"What's on your mind, Sweetie?"

Mindy had lay awake a long time last night contemplating how to broach the conversation that she needed to have with her mom, her dad, or both of them together. After everything that she had done to ensure that her father would get custody of her in a divorce, Mindy suddenly felt like her mother was the parent that she needed to have this conversation with. It affected her more.

Jocelyn's aunt, Payton, hadn't offered any suggestions other than for Mindy to "do nothing". She had explained that a marriage as volatile as Mindy's parents had been over the years might still fail, so waiting to see if the reconciliation held promise made sense. The worst-case option, according to Payton, would be for Mindy to simply refuse to testify against her mother or Mark Beecher, claiming that she didn't want to relive the traumatizing experience again.

Payton hadn't been much help, but in her defense, she hadn't witnessed the changes in Mindy's parents that their daughter had. The excited love between Mindy's mom and dad was evident in everything that they had done over the past four days. They were happy, carefree, and more energized as a couple than Mindy had seen since her early childhood. Her mom looked like she was floating on air anytime that she was near her husband.

For his part, Mindy's dad had a smile on his face that refused to fall. There was no disguising the happiness that had returned to his life. No, Mindy couldn't wait to confess her part in the charges against her mom and Mr. Beecher. She needed to do so in order to fully join in the happiness her parents were experiencing.

"You and Dad weren't happy for a long time. Why did you guys stay married? Was it because of me?"

Stephanie remained focused on her task as she answered her daughter's question, "No, we weren't happy, but that unhappiness was towards each other and never included you. I can tell you that the reasons that I would never leave your dad are because I love him with all my heart and he is the best father in the world for my precious daughter. He demonstrated that by tolerating me causing his unhappiness and remaining here with both of us. Most men wouldn't have done that."

"Mom, were you cheating on Dad?"

Stephanie paused her braiding and brought her eyes to meet Mindy's in the mirror. "No, Sweetie, I have never cheated on your father, but I am ashamed to admit that I sometimes said things and acted in ways that made him believe that I had."

Mindy had a tear starting in each of her eyes as they stared back and her mom in the mirror. "I thought that you were cheating on Dad. I thought that the guy in our house that night was your lover and it made me angry."

"I can't blame you for that," Stephanie assured her daughter. "While the reason for Mark Beecher being here was perfectly innocent, I realize that it was inappropriate to bring him here while your father was gone. It was disrespectful to him and you. I'm sorry. I'm especially sorry for what he did to you."

Tears had begun trickling down Mindy's cheeks. She used her hands to wipe them off, and confessed, "He didn't do anything to me. I made it up to get you and him in trouble for cheating on Dad."

Stephanie dropped the completed braid and picked up her cell phone.

STEPHANIE: Please come to Mindy's room

WALKER: I'll be right there

Turning Mindy around on the stool she was sitting on, Stephanie said, "You're not in trouble, but I want your dad to hear what I am about to tell you. Okay?"

When they heard Walker tapping on the door, Stephanie replied, "Come on in."

Walker entered and followed Stephanie's hand directions to sit on the edge of Mindy's bed.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Mindy has just confessed something to me and I want you to hear what I have to tell her. You may want to add a comment or two as well, but please wait until I am done."

"No problem. Go ahead."

Stephanie squatted down to be at eye level with her daughter. She began, "I understand how unhappy you have been living here with two equally unhappy parents. That part of our lives is over. We have discovered that the reasons for our unhappiness were due to the vile actions of someone who, for whatever twisted purpose, wanted to cause us all pain. I was a victim, your father was a victim, and you were a victim. As a victim, you wanted to escape the unhappiness and took actions to attempt that escape. I don't blame you for that and I'm sure that your father doesn't either."

Turning to Walker, Stephanie explained, "So you know, Mindy confessed to me that she lied about the incident with Mark Beecher because she believed that he was my lover, and that made her angry enough that she wanted both of us to get in trouble."

Walker nodded in understanding but remained silent. He watched as Mindy leaned forward to hug Stephanie before getting up from the stool and coming to give him a hug too.

"I'm sorry for causing so much trouble," whimpered Mindy.

"What you did might be understood by your mom and me, but that doesn't make it acceptable. Do you realize what your accusations could do to this man's life; that he could end up going to prison for something that you made up?"

"I know," Mindy whimpered. "Although, if he was someone that mom was fooling around with, prison would have been too good for him."

Walker couldn't argue with his daughter's sentiments in that regard.

"Once I learned that I was mistaken about him, I started thinking of how I could get him off the hook without the embarrassment for all of us if I were to admit to making it up. I'm sorry."

"I think we need to discuss this with our lawyers," Stephanie said. "We don't want to open ourselves up for a lawsuit, but we have to do something to get the charges against Mark dropped."

"Of course, you're right. I'll bring it up with Jacob Tucker when I speak with him this morning. Did you happen to discuss the after-school situation with Mindy yet?"

"What after-school situation?" Mindy asked as she wiped tears from her eyes.

Stephanie had to pause and recall the situation herself. Then she remembered, "Your father and I were curious about why you and Jocelyn always go to her house after school instead of coming here. Are those the instructions of her parents?"

Seeing Mindy start to blush, Walker pulled her onto his lap. "It's okay. You can tell us."

Mindy tried to find the words to explain that their house had been viewed as "gloomy" by her friends and that was why no one, including Jocelyn, would choose it over one of their own houses.

"Jocelyn didn't think that this was a very happy place for us to do our homework or anything else, so we would go to her house instead."

Stephanie felt a knot in her throat but suppressed the threatened sob. Walker hugged Mindy, and said, "Like your mom said, the unhappy here is in the past. We would like you to invite Jocelyn to come over here each day after school as long as her parents don't mind. Your mom or me will be here every day, and you know what one of us being her means you can do, right?"

"We can use the hot tub?" Mindy asked excitedly.

"After any homework is done," Stephanie confirmed. "What better way for two young ladies to relax and discuss boys than in a warm, bubbling hot tub."

~~~

"No, definitely not," Jacob Tucker insisted over the phone. "First of all, it would leave you open to a potential defamation lawsuit, but secondly, even if the case goes to trial, all we have to do is refuse to let Mindy testify and the case wil get dismissed. Problem solved."

Walker considered his lawyer's advice and asked, "Is there at least some way that I could cover the guy's legal expenses? He shouldn't have to go into debt over this."

Tucker replied, "That could be done, but it might get tricky. We are dealing with attorneys here." He chuckled at his own joke. "Let me give it some thought. Axelrod isn't as greedy as some others and I might be able to channel your contributions to Beecher's legal fees through some anonymous legal defense fund. I assume that you would want to cover his bail too?"

"Yes. Let's make the guy whole from a financial perspective. Now, what are your thoughts on finding out who created the hoax that became the impetus for all of this?"

"I can appreciate your family wanting some form of closure by identifying who created and sent the fake DNA test report and subsequent pictures, but I haven't been able to find where any laws have been broken. That means that we won't get the assistance of law enforcement in tracking the source."

"What about hiring our own private investigators?" Walker asked.

"I'm slightly ahead of you there. I sent the items that we have; the test report, hand written note, and pictures of the girl over to my contact at Sea Coast Investigations. They have several investigators who have CDIA certification. If there are any clues in those items as to their source, they should be able to find them."

"What's CDIA?"

"It stands for 'Certified Document Imaging Architect'. These people are skilled forensic document experts and have been used to identify the source of all sorts of images and documents. Hopefully they will be successful with what we have."

"When should we know?" Walker asked.

"By Wednesday or Thursday, I would guess. Do you want me to go ahead and schedule a meeting with them for us on Friday?"

"If not sooner. I would prefer that they not delay looking into something else, though."

Before his attorney could ask "what", Walker explained about Payton Lange and the multiple coincidences surrounding her relationship with the Greers.

"E-mail me as much of the details as you can and I will get Sea Coast to make learning everything possible about the Greers and this Payton Lange a priority. This is too strange to imagine the coincidences are legitimate."

Walker asked, "Do you know if the judge agreed to remove Stephanie from the DSS case?"

"Yes, I received the update from Heather about an hour ago. I assume that means you are fine with me retracting the petition for divorce filing?"

Walker chuckled and said, "Retract it, shred it, and burn the pieces. Then bury the ashes."

~~~

Payton Lange recognized the incoming caller, "Hey G..."

Gina Greer replied, "Tell me what's going on. You blasted out of here yesterday with some lame excuse about having to get home. When we planned your visit, you were intending to stay until tomorrow. Now I've taken a day off work and have no one to hang out with."

"I'm sorry," Payton apologized. "I just couldn't risk staying any longer under the circumstances."

"What circumstances?

Gina heard her friend sigh before answering, "The Mindy Cross circumstances."

"You're going to have to explain that one to me. Wasn't it your idea to have Jocelyn invite her friend to spend the night and then go shopping with the two of you? Is Mindy the reason that you were acting so quiet yesterday morning? What did she do?"

"How could she explain this?" Payton thought. "Saturday night, Mindy Cross revealed herself to me. Do you remember how distant and depressed I was when you and I first met?"

"Of course. You were still getting over your break up from a few months prior."

"The break up happened almost seven months before we met," Payton recalled. "You propped me up and helped me bury myself alongside you in our studies. I wouldn't have made it through a single class that semester without your support. I owe you for that."

"You don't owe me anything, Girl. We were a team. You supported me as much as I supported you. Medical school forged us both. We just did it together."

Gina could hear her friend sniffle before she said, "Thanks. Do you remember during our clinical pathology rotation when several of us students got assigned to assist with the DNA sequencing and genetic testing project that the university had partnered with Palmetto Bioscience to conduct?"

"Vaguely."

"It was forgetful work," Payton admitted. "Boring and repetitive. You probably don't remember the time that I found that DNA test report that someone had left on one of copiers there."

"Wait," Gina said. "I do remember that. I remember your started crying and refused to explain why. Is that what this is all about?"

"It was a genetic test report," Payton explained. "It listed the DNA sequencing results for an infant girl, her biological mother, and her biological father. The specific genetic anomaly they were searching for was absent, by the way."

"I still don't understand. Palmetto Bioscience probably conducted a hundred genetic tests each month. We frequently did the analysis on the tests as part of our assignment. What was so special about that report that you saw?"

"The name of the girl on that report was Mindy Cross."

Gina scoffed, "So, when you learned Mindy's last name on Saturday it conjured up your memory of a genetic test report with her name on it? That's just a weird coincidence."

"Yes, hearing her name conjured up a memory for me," Payton admitted. "It conjured up my memory of the father's name on that report, Walker Cross. The only man to ever own, and then break my heart. Mindy is his daughter."

When Gina remained silent, Payton continued, "I don't know why, but I kept a copy of that genetic test report. One of the reasons that I wanted to come home earlier than planned was to verify what I had remembered from it. Father, Walker Cross. Mother, Stephanie Cross. Infant girl, Mindy Cross. I had barely held myself together at the mall when I met Mindy's mom. I couldn't risk spending any more time with them, or worse, running into Walker."

"You're still crazy over the guy, aren't you?"

Payton sniffled and said, "I went from having the greatest guy in the world to being stalked by perverts. But if you want to know if I still get sick to my stomach thinking about him being with someone else, then the answer is 'yes'. Have you seen him? Met him?" Payton cried.

"Yes," Gina said. "And I'll admit that he is a very attractive man. However, I also understand that their marriage isn't that strong, and that his wife and him separated for a while recently."

"According to what Mindy was bragging about Saturday night, her parents are reconciling and she claims that they are 'better than new'," Payton stated. "Realizing that Mindy is Walker's daughter, and recognizing that she is going to grow to be as beautiful as his wife is, has me considering a return to therapy. If I was to see him with them, I really don't know how that would affect me."

"That sounds like a pretty blatant admission that you won't be visiting us here, which is fine. We can always make more trips to Charleston to see you. If the memories of this guy still affect you so much, maybe returning to therapy is the right thing to do. I just want to be sure that you know that I will always be there for you. We're still a team, even if we don't work together any longer."

Payton sniffled and said, "I know, and thanks. I spoke with my dad last night. I didn't mention anything about Walker Cross because he has always been a sore point with my dad. Instead, we discussed my interest in spending the holidays this year in Linköping visiting with his family around the city."

Gina didn't want to appear insensitive or selfish, but if Payton was going to be returning to Sweden for a vacation, she couldn't ignore the opportunity this presented to her and her family.

"Will you have a chance to visit Vreta Abbey while you are in Linköping?" Gina asked.

The mention of the historic nunnery excited Payton and immediately changed her previously dour mood one hundred and eighty degrees. It had been on Payton's last visit to her father's home town thirteen years ago that she had met several members of her extended family and learned of the recent death of a second cousin during child birth. The infant girl had been placed at the orphanage run by the nuns until a suitable family member would step forward to adopt her.

Though she hadn't wanted children of her own at the time, Payton knew of Gina's desire for them so she immediately began the adoption process to claim the baby girl that they would name, Jocelyn. As a relative to the child, though a distant one, Payton had rapidly moved to the top of the list for prospective adoptive parents. While Payton was listed in Swedish adoption records as Jocelyn's mother, that legal status had been modified once Payton had returned to the U.S. and allowed the baby to be adopted from her by Regina and Kenneth Greer. Gina was the only mother that Jocelyn had ever known.

"I'll make the chance," Payton replied enthusiastically. "Although, I haven't heard of any other relatives being available."

Gina's voice echoed her friend's excitement, "Jocelyn's relationship with you certainly strengthened the bond between us, but even if another baby had no genetic connection to you, we would love him or her just as much. When will you know if you are going?"

"Even though it isn't celebrated in Sweden, I would like to leave shortly before Thanksgiving and return after the new year."

"Could you leave after Thanksgiving?" Gina asked. "That way, we could come to Charleston and combine Thanksgiving and Christmas with you at the same time."

"I could do that. I wouldn't want Jocelyne to have to wait until January to get the Christmas present that I have planned for her. I'll talk to my dad again tonight and start finalizing plans."

"Okay, let me know what you work out. And, Girl, no man is worth the pain that this guy has caused you. Let's work on getting him out of your head and out of your heart. I'll talk to you later."

Gina had disconnected the call before Payton could assure her that Walker Cross would always be worth the pain.

She hadn't been as enthusiastic as Walker when they had discussed things like marriage and children, but those conversations had occurred at a time in her life when Payton was still exploring who she was and what she wanted her life to encompass. If he would have simply been patient with her, Walker would have seen her opinion on both life choices change. Her problem was that the changes occurred after the only man that she would have wanted those things with had broken off their relationship.

Payton had always refused to accept that what she wanted was beyond her reach. Thoughts of Mindy Cross had permeated her mind since she had learned that she was Walker's daughter. The girl was beautiful, smart, spunky, loyal, and tenacious. Exactly the qualities that a child of her own would have. Why shouldn't Payton have that?

Chapter Ten

"Mrs. Cross, can we expect your counsel to be joining us?"

"No, Mr. Tucker, I have no need for Heather's services any longer. If Walker trusts you to represent our family's best interests, I'll do the same."

"I appreciate the trust that you both have in me, but I currently only have an attorney/client relationship with your husband..."

Walker grinned and said, "Then I guess that you'll have to fix that. It shouldn't be too challenging for superior legal mind such as yours."

Jacob Tucker chuckled and said, "I will have a new joint client agreement prepared for you both to sign before you leave. I'll even do the most unlawyerly thing you can imagine and apply the balance of your existing retainer to the new agreement instead of requiring you to create a new account. Make yourselves comfortable. I'll go have my assistant start on the agreement and then escort our other guests in here."

As soon as Tucker had closed the conference room door, Stephanie turned to Walker and said, "You know something that I have never done is to make out in an attorney's conference room."

Walker laughed before leaning down and kissing his wife. "You and I are going to have to have a long and in-depth discussion soon about your bucket list."

Stephanie lowered her right hand and rubbed the slight bulge in the front of her husband's pants as she said, "You bring your list and I'll bring mine."

They had both once more taken this Friday off from work. Their meeting with Jacob Tucker was scheduled for the afternoon, which had left them a good portion of the morning to enjoy a few hours of rest after another sleepless night of lovemaking and a steamy shower that had nothing to do with the water temperature.

Hearing voices in the hall, Walker quickly pulled a chair out at the conference table for Stephanie. She had barely taken her seat before the door to the room was held open by Tucker to allow two men and a woman to enter. As soon as the door was closed, introductions were made.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cross, I would like to introduce the president of Sea Coast Investigations, Penelope Firth. She has brought with her, Sonny Helms, one of her senior agents, and Colton Ashe, another agent with CDIA certification. The gentleman with the gun prominently displayed at his side is Detective Campbell with the cyber-crimes unit of the county police."

Walker shook hands with each of the individuals before taking a seat next to his wife. After everyone else had taken a seat at the table, they all silently watched as Penelope Firth connected her laptop to the projector already on the table. That was a clear indication that a presentation was forthcoming.

Penelope addressed Tucker, "Do you have a preference on where we start? Either the forensic examination of the documents and pictures or the background reports on the individuals?"

Tucker asked Walker, "Do you have a preference?"

"Let's hear about the individuals first."

Without hesitation, Penelope began a presentation that included several candid images of Payton Lange. These were obviously surveillance photos taken of her recently that seemed to show her leaving her residence, entering a large building, later leaving that building, and finally returning to her residence. Whoever had taken the pictures had been good. They were very detailed and left no doubt about who the subject was.

The man introduced as Sonny Helms spoke to the pictures, "In the three days that we have been observing the subject, Payton Lange, she has exhibited a consistent routine. Leave for work at 7:45 am, arrive at her place of employment, the pathology labs at the Medical University of South Carolina, leave work shortly after 5 pm and arrive home by 5:15 or as late as 5:27 pm depending upon traffic. She has had one delivery of groceries but no other visitors have been observed."

"Have you tapped her phones or bugged her home?" Stephanie asked.

"No, those actions would be illegal," Helms explained.

Everyone watched as Detective Campbell nodded his head as confirmation of what Helms had said.

Before his wife could insist that these illegal actions be taken, Walker asked, "What else have you found out about her?"

Helms replied, "Again, we have only had three days to check her out, but here's what we have learned: Dr. Payton Lange, age thirty-six is a clinical pathologist and adjunct professor with MUSC where she has worked since completing her residency there. Her FICO credit rating is on the high side of 'very good' at 785. She has a widowed father but no other relatives in America..."

Walker wondered why neither of his parents had ever mentioned Mrs. Lange passing away. He wasn't interested enough to ask them though.

"... She is single, and as far as our research has shown so far, she has never been married. She has no children, but there is an adoption proceeding on file that lists her name. Adoption records are sealed, so we haven't been able to access that to learn what her role might have been in those proceedings."

Stephanie asked, "Do you at least know when the adoption might have occurred?"

"Not yet, but we still have some outstanding queries underway which might make that information available to us soon," Helms explained.

"So, nothing you have discovered so far indicates that Payton Lange might be involved in the fake DNA test report?" Walker asked.

"We have discovered nothing that would prove or disprove her involvement," Penelope answered for her team. "Payton Lange, by the nature of her job, certainly has both the knowledge and the opportunity to produce the false report. What we haven't discovered as of this time is whether she has the motive."

"Then what are your next steps with her?" Walker asked.

Helms responded, "We will identify individuals who have more than simply a casual relationship with her to interview. Friends, neighbors, and possibly some long-standing coworkers for example. Hopefully, we'll find out if she is harboring some resentment or other feelings towards either of you that would point towards her having a motive to cause you problems."

Jacob asked, "What about the Greers?"

Helms glanced at the report in front of him and said, "Dr. Regina Greer, nee Jackson, age 36, is a forensic pathologist employed in this county as a deputy medical examiner. We decided not to run a criminal background check on her under the assumption it would come back clean or she wouldn't hold the position that she does. The criminal background check on her husband, Kenneth Greer, did indicate that he has a record related to some computer hacking activities while he was in college. He received probation for only 18 months so the charges were likely not too serious. He is self-employed as a graphic design consultant. Both of the Greers have a FICO credit rating smack in the middle of the 'good' range at 705. They have one daughter, Jocelyn, who is obviously adopted, but we face the same challenges in gaining access to those records as we did with Dr. Lange. Based upon the long-term and almost familial relationship between Drs. Payton and Greer, it isn't unreasonable to assume that the adoption records associated with both might be the same."

"Did you locate a birth certificate for the girl?" Jacob asked.

Penelope slid a document across the table to Jacob, "Yes, and it lists the Greers as her parents. However, as you can see, the hospital of record for the birth is listed as 'Universitetssjukhuset', which we have identified as the University Hospital in Linköping, Sweden. I have an associate in Sweden assisting us with attempting to track down any records associated with the girl's birth, or her adoption if it originated there."

Walker and Stephanie both examined the copy of Jocelyn's birth certificate before turning their attention back to Penelope. Walker said, "Okay, we understand that it will take you a while longer to complete a thorough investigation into the individuals that we have requested you look into. What about the pictures and other pieces of evidence? What progress have you made with those?"

"Those are a work in progress," Penelope said. "I'll let Colton explain."

Everyone turned their attention to the third member from Sea Coast Investigations. Colton Ashe wasted no time. "I'll start with the pictures of the girl. As I believe everyone can tell, these are not the original photographs but reproductions. The clearest evidence of this would be the paper the pictures are on. It is standard twenty-pound bond paper, the same type typically used in a photocopier or laser printer. If I might borrow that birth certificate, I could use it to demonstrate what I am going to tell you about these pictures."

Though confused, Walker slid the birth certificate across the table as requested. Everyone else watched as Colton picked it up and carried it to the copier at the far end of the conference room. He opened the document feeder on the device, laid the birth certificate flat onto the glass, and closed the document feeder once more.

As he pushed a button on the front of the copier, he turned to address his audience, "The colloquial term, 'copier' is still how most people refer to a device such as this, but the reality is that for almost fifty years, the xerographic process has been digitized. "

When the copy of the birth certificate exited the copier, Colton picked it up before retrieving the original and returning to the table. He slid the original birth certificate back to Penelope but kept the copy of it face down in front of him.

"What you just witnessed used to be done by a light illuminating the original. The reflection of the image on the original was reflected through a series of mirrors and lenses to illuminate a photoreceptive medium to create a differentiated electromagnetic charged surface. Oppositely charged toner particles would be attracted to the surface of the medium in use and then transferred to a piece of paper through another opposite charge being applied from the backside of the paper. There were a few more steps involved, but it was essentially an analog process."

No one was going to disagree. No one could. It was all foreign to them.

"What I just did with the birth certificate was entirely digital. It involved three distinct processes; input, processing, and output. The original image was scanned to input the digital data to the system, that data was processed, and then it was output as a printed document."

Colton turned the copy of the birth certificate over and held it up for everyone else to see. It resembled the original, but clearly present on it was a faint watermark reading "COPY" that wasn't visible on the original.

"With the advent of digital technology for the reproduction of documents, several governments and organizations became concerned about how the technology could be used for counterfeiting and forging of documents. As a result, several safeguards have been introduced over the years to prevent the unauthorized reproduction of sensitive documents. In the case of the birth certificate, the original from the county clerk's office was created on special paper with embedded metadata that was captured when it was scanned. This metadata informed the system during the processing of the image that it was a protected document and to identify the output as a copy rather than the original."

Pulling a ten-dollar bill from his pocket, Colton handed it to Helms, "Please go make me a copy of this and show everyone the result."

Helms did as requested and was soon showing everyone a white sheet of paper with a black rectangle the approximate size of a U.S. ten-dollar bill.

Colton explained, "The United States Secret Service requires that any device capable of reproducing color documents must have coding it in to prevent the one-to-one reproduction of American currency. In the case of the machine over there, it recognized the original as currency and produced only a black image of it. Other devices might produce a reasonable reproduction of the currency, but the output size would not match that of the original. In addition, the output document would also have embedded metadata which would identify the device that produced it, and possibly the individual user if that is tracked."

Holding up one of the pictures of Jocelyn, he continued, "The same metadata that would allow the Secret Service to identify a device producing counterfeit currency can be used by us to identify the device, or devices that produced these pictures. While invisible to the naked eye, the make, model, and serial number is embedded in each of these pictures for the device that scanned them and the device that printed them."

"Are you saying that they were input and output on different devices?" Stephanie asked.

Nodding, Colton explained, "My analysis identified that the pictures of Jocelyn Greer are from photo proofs stored on a computer at a commercial photo studio in Charleston. These proofs were scanned on a multi-function device located at the Boeing plant in North Charleston and saved to a removable USB device. The pictures were subsequently printed out on a device at Cross Financial."

Before anyone could respond to these revelations, Colton held up the fake DNA test report and said, "This is a cut-and-paste reproduction from multiple other documents. Since some of them were originals without metadata embedded in them, I focused my analysis on the output device details. My examination indicates that this document was output from a device at the Warrenton Academy."

Stephanie sensed Walker's mood and acted before he could, "This is ridiculous! Are you saying that someone took pictures from a photo studio, scanned them into a device at Boeing, and then printed them at my husband's office before delivering them to me? Even if someone had access to all those places, why go to that much trouble?"

Penelope asked, "Do either of you know anyone who works at the Boeing plant in North Charleston?"

Walker glared at Penelope and said, "If your investigation didn't provide you the answer to that question already, then you're fired."

"Yes," Penelope said, "We did identify that Henrik Lange, Payton Lange's father, works at that facility. We're asking if either of you might know of someone else who works there."

Walker and Stephane shared a glance before he said, "We're not aware of anyone. Answer me this, how did whoever did this get access to the DNA information that would allow them to cut and paste it into the fake report?"

Colton Ashe replied, "My analysis proves that the DNA sequencing data listed on the fake paternity test is definitely derived from the DNA test report performed by Palmetto Bioscience thirteen years ago. However, there is not a pixel-to-pixel match. That means that they didn't cut and paste the DNA data but printed out another report that excluded sequencing elements that would not be present on a paternity test. They then took the relevant DNA printout and overlayed that onto a blank form from Delphi Diagnostics and filled in the required fields to make it appear authentic. The final document was created using a free-ware image processing application called 'Gimp'."

"So, they had access to Palmetto Bioscience in addition to Boeing, my office, and Stephanie's school. Is that what you're telling us?"

"Don't forget the photo studio," Stephanie added.

"They could have gotten the DNA data someplace other than from Palmetto Bioscience," Helms explained. "Most people don't know this, but courts have consistently ruled that once the DNA leaves a person's body, they no longer own it. The samples that you all provided to Palmetto Bioscience are likely stored in a database accessible to virtually every other lab or organization that deals with DNA data for one purpose or another."

"We don't own our DNA?" Walker asked in amazement.

"Not once you willingly submit it," Jacob said. "Sometimes it doesn't even have to be willingly submitted. Courts have upheld the police using DNA evidence from items thrown into the trash or otherwise discarded by a suspect does not violate their constitutional rights."

Penelope tried to bring the discussion back on topic, "What we propose is that we attempt to pin down the dates and times when the document metadata was created in each instance and at each location. That will involve Colton inspecting each device and reviewing the various user and job logs..."

"That won't work," Stephanie interrupted. "If the fake report was printed out at Warrenton, that was over nine years ago. Our equipment leases never run more than three years due to the volume of prints and copies that we produce. Whichever device produced that report has been long gone for years."

"The same at my office," confirmed Walker.

"Okay," Helms said. "Does Warrenton Academy keep a visitor log that guests to the school have to sign, and if so, would you have records from those logs that go back that far?"

"It might be challenging to locate the records," Stephanie said. "But we should have them."

"Same with me," Walker agreed.

Helms nodded, "Then once Colton identifies the date and time embedded in the metadata for the printed pictures and the fake test report, we will target the visitor logs at each of your locations for those days. Our suspect is almost certain not to be an employee of either of you so let's look for commonality in visitors to your locations."

"What about Palmetto Bioscience and Boeing?" Jacob asked. "If it would be of any assistance, I could contact their legal departments and see if they would cooperate with your investigation without court intervention. Intervention that we are not likely to get at this point."

"It couldn't hurt," Penelope said. "In the meantime, Sonny and his team will continue digging into the Greers and Payton Lange."

She addressed Helms and said, "Get someone looking into Henrik Lange as well. It would be handy to have his background profile when we identify the common visitor to see if there might be a connection there"

Helms made a note of her request.

Detective Campbell had sat quietly listening to the presentation. He finally raised his hand and said, "I am not convinced that there aren't criminal charges that would apply to what has been shown here today."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked.

"I will need to draft a report and run it by the Solicitor's office, but if an individual uses someone else's personal information without consent, which this appears to be, it could be identity theft; a criminal charge. Creating fake profiles to scam people out of money is fraudulent activity, but you state that this hasn't happened here, at least not yet. Cyberstalking, or harassment in this case, using a false identity can have legal consequences, so that would certainly apply. Since the hoax did involve a minor, it could certainly lead to severe penalties, including imprisonment. Based on what you all have shared with me, yes, I would definitely recommend taking this case to the Solicitor's office."

Everyone was paying rapt attention to the detective as he continued, "Regardless of what the Solicitor's office decides, if we can find out who did it, you would have a strong civil case against them. I believe that it would be easy to show that the behavior of this person was extreme or outrageous, beyond what a judge or jury would consider offensive or harmful in everyday life."

Jacob Tucker nodded and said, "Certainly a case of emotional distress could be proven." He turned to Walker and asked, "Would you be interested in pursuing a defamation suit against this individual as well?"

Stephanie interrupted, "But his reputation was only damaged with me, his wife. I doubt that would be enough..."

Walker interrupted, "It is more than enough for me. My standing with one of the two people who I needed to trust and respect me the most in life was besmirched intentionally by person or persons unknown. True, it wasn't irreparably harmed, but it did impact nine years of our lives. Let's keep that option in our back pocket until we find out who did this."

Stephanie said, "I still think that there are too many unexplained coincidences where Payton Lange is concerned. Her having extensive knowledge and likely easy access to DNA data is the first thing. Then there is her still unknown role in an adoption, which I think we all know is of Jocelyn Greer. Now, our daughter has become her best friend and is getting closer to Payton Lange as a result. I want to know what's going on there."

"I just remembered something," Walker said. "That hospital in Sweden you mentioned, didn't you say it was in some place called Linköping?"

Helms nodded to confirm, "The University Hospital in Linköping. Why?"

"I'm pretty sure that I remember that being the place in Sweden that Payton and her family relocated from. Her father worked for some aerospace company there before being recruited to come here to work for Boeing."

Penelope was checking something on her phone, "SAAB Aerospace has their main facility in Linköping."

"That's right," Walker said. "SAAB, like the car brand. Her dad used to drive one."

"See!" Stephanie exclaimed. "Another coincidence."

~~~

Mindy noticed the strange car parked along the curb in front of her house as she and Jocelyn approached and could see that there wasn't anyone sitting in it. She led Jocelyn through the gate to the backyard and used her key to enter the house through the door that led to the kitchen. As soon as they entered, Mindy could hear the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Why hadn't they rung the doorbell?

~~~

The notifications on their cell phones were almost simultaneous and both knew what the tone signified. The video doorbell at their house had detected motion from someone stepping on the porch. Instinctively, both parents checked the time to see if Mindy would be out of school and at the house yet. Yes, it was late enough that Mindy should be home.

"I'll check the video," Walker said. "You call Mindy."

To the others in the room, Walker said, "Please excuse us for a minute, folks."

He quickly opened the app to bring up the live view of his porch. He saw a woman there that he didn't recognize. Walker turned his phone screen so that Stephanie could see the image just as he heard her get in touch with Mindy.

"Yes, Sweetie, we know that someone is at the front door. It's a woman that neither your father nor I recognize. Hang on while we find out what she wants."

Walker tapped the microphone icon on the screen and asked, "May I help you?"

The woman didn't appear startled to hear a man's voice speaking to her. "Yes, Hello. Is this Mr. Cross?

"I am Walker Cross. What can I do for you?"

"Mr. Cross, I am Doris Clark, Mindy's Guardian ad litem. I would like to visit with her for a few minutes if she's home."

Muting the microphone, Walker glanced at Stephanie, "Did you know anything about her visiting with Mindy today?"

Stephanie simply shook her head.

Walker unmuted the phone and said, "Did we miss some communication from you requesting a visit today?"

"No, Mr. Cross. With new cases, I will typically make a random, surprise visit to the child's home. You would be amazed at the things that can get swept under the rug with even the slightest advanced notice."

Stephanie took Walker's phone and said, "The only thing that got swept under the rug today appears to be your manners. I'm sorry, but none of us are available to meet with you today. You are free to keep wasting your time with random surprise visits that will find no one home, or you can act in a professional and courteous manner and schedule a visit beforehand."

"If you refuse to allow me to visit with Mindy, you will be in violation of a court order. I could return here with law enforcement if necessary."

"Then you would be wasting their time as well. We are sitting in our lawyer's office and this conversation is being recorded. At no time did we refuse to allow you to visit with Mindy. We simply explained that we are not home at this time to accommodate your request."

"I understand, but your lawyer should be able to tell you that I am under no obligation to schedule visits with you or inform you of them beforehand."

"That may be true, but you should be intelligent enough to recognize that not checking to see if someone is home prior to coming to their house puts the risk of disappointment squarely on your shoulders. We should all be home in a couple of hours if you would like to come by later. Goodbye."

Stephanie watched the screen to see Doris Clark stepping back from the front door before turning to walk to her car. She handed Walker's phone back to him and then spoke into her own, "That was your Guardian ad litem at the door. We sent her away for now but she may come back later to visit with you once we get home. Is Jocelyn with you?"

"Yeah, we're just going to grab a snack and then go watch some music videos."

"Have fun. Your dad and I will be home shortly. We love you."

"I love you too."

Disconnecting the call, Stephanie turned her attention back to the others in the room. She saw the group from Sea Coast Investigations packing their things in preparation for their departure.

Detective Campbell addressed Penelope, "Can I stop by your office tomorrow to pick up copies of everything that you have for my report?"

"We'll have them waiting for you," Penelope confirmed.

Jacob Tucker rose and said, "I'll escort our guests to the lobby and bring the new client agreement back with me for you both to sign. I should only be a few minutes and then we'll get you on your way."

When the group had left Walker and Stephanie alone, he chuckled and said, "I don't think that I have ever told you how much Momma Bears turn me on."

Chapter Eleven

"We have no case without the testimony of the alleged victim," Evan Russell explained for the third time to Fern Blaise and her supervisor at DSS.

Doris Clark, who was also present in the side room at the courthouse, seemed resigned to the case against Mark Beecher being dismissed and hadn't raised any objections like the ladies from DSS were doing. She decided to make her position as the Guardian ad litem known in the hopes that it might get DSS onboard.

"I had doubts about the veracity of Mindy Cross' claims almost from the beginning. I know that DSS puts a lot of value on allegations made during a forensic interview, but in this case, things didn't look right to me. The child's body language told me that there was the potential for deception in some of her responses. Then there are her repeated statements about not knowing that the defendant was in the house when she arrived home, which made no sense. She couldn't have missed his car being parked on the driveway of her house when she walked past it on her way to the backyard. No, I think that this was a ploy to get her mom into a disadvantageous position to get custody if her father divorced her."

"Why would you think that?" Russell asked.

"Because that was her primary concern when I first met with her. Not how much trouble her mom or Mark Beecher were in, she didn't ask when she would be able to see her mom, and she had no interest in who I was going to be speaking with and what I was going to ask them. Now that whatever was going on between her parents seems to have resolved itself, refusing to testify is her way of recanting her allegations without embarrassing anyone, especially herself."

Russell added, "The judge will never allow the trial to proceed on the basis of the forensic interview alone. As soon as Axelrod informs the court that he was unable to depose the victim, the case will get tossed anyway."

"I just don't like it being entered on the record that one of my cases has been deemed as unfounded for the reason for the dismissal," Fern Blaise said. "It makes me look bad."

"No, it doesn't," Russell insisted. "You open a case based upon the best information available to you at the time, and everyone understands that facts that come to light subsequent to that could influence the merits of the case that you opened. It's not on you at all. For example, you had no way of verifying the background or criminal record for Beecher to see if he had any prior allegations of a similar nature made against him. It's your job to protect children based upon the information available to you at the time, and you did your job in this case. Hold your head high."

~~~

Henrik Lange was just where his daughter expected him to be. She smelled his presence before she saw him.

Seated at his workbench in the converted upstairs bedroom, Henrik was concentrating intently on one of his "impossible bottle" projects. His hobby had progressed from building ships outside of glass bottles with hinged masts, to the much more intricate and challenging skill of constructing the ship completely within the bottle itself.

Payton didn't want to startle her father or interrupt his current task, which appeared to be affixing sails to the rigging of the practically complete miniature sloop inside the bottle. She remained in the doorway and smiled at the familiar scent of the cherry flavored smoke from the Black Cavendish tobacco wafting through the room. Her father's favorite Duke sitter pipe, made from pear wood, with a bone shank rather than briarwood sat on the bench beside him.

When her father had retracted the long hook and set of tweezers from the neck of the bottle, Payton said, "Hi, Pappa."

"Min Skatt!" Henrik said. "I wasn't expecting you. Have you had your dinner yet?"

"My Treasure", or "Min Skatt" in Swedish had been her father's nickname for Payton since the day she was born. Her delivery had been so problematic that Payton's mother was never able to have additional children. Payton didn't know that her mother's inability to have more children didn't impact Henrik's ability to father them. He had sired three sons from three different women over the years, but none of those bastards carried the Lange name.

"I had a late lunch", Payton told her father. "But I brought you a freshly baked Kladdkaka that I wouldn't mind tasting a piece of."

Payton had baked the sticky chocolate cake, popular in Sweden and one of her father's favorite desserts. If prepared correctly, it would be crunchy on the outside and ultra-moist on the inside. While denser than typical chocolate cakes, a Kladdkaka becomes even more of a treat when finished with powdered sugar, as the one Payton made was.

"I need to put the clay and glue away so why don't you go down and start a pot of coffee and I'll join you in a few minutes?"

"Okay, Pappa."

The stainless steel Faberware stovetop percolator sat in its place of honor on the unlit back left burner of the stove. The finish had dulled over the years, but her father insisted that this coffee maker still produced the best coffee in the world. He sometimes had difficulty finding the course-ground coffee that this percolator was designed for, but Henrik Lange had always been a man set in his ways.

Payton made quick work of preparing the percolator and getting it started. She was only brewing a few cups, so it shouldn't take more than five minutes for the coffee to be ready. While waiting, she sliced two pieces of the Kladdkaka and had them plated on the kitchen table when her father entered the room. Henrik took his normal spot at the table while Payton poured them each a cup of coffee.

After tasting his slice of the Kladdkaka, Henrik smiled his approval and asked his daughter, "Now are you going to share with me the reason for your surprise visit?"

Payton wasn't offended by the question. Father and daughter respected the busy career lives that each had and attempted to demonstrate that respect by scheduling their infrequent visits in advance. Her father wasn't unhappy to see her, but he knew that there had to be a reason for his daughter to break the normal routine and show up at his house unannounced.

"I want to spend the holidays in Sweden and wanted to get your advice on the best way to do that."

Henrik snorted and said, "You buy a plane ticket and go. How difficult is that to do?"

Shaking her head at her father's condescension, Payton replied, "Funny. What I need your advice on is how to not offend anyone by staying in a hotel or bed and breakfast instead of with any of our family there."

Henrik raised an eyebrow, "That will be difficult to do. Denying any of your aunts, uncles, or cousins the opportunity to play host while you are there, especially over the holidays, will not be taken well. Everyone is very proud of you and will want to show you off at every opportunity."

"Which is exactly why I want to avoid staying with anyone. I would love to spend a lot of time catching up with everyone, but I also have some personal objectives that I want to spend time on, and I will still want my privacy at times. I thought that staying someplace on my own would allow me to attend family gatherings and provide me with an avenue of escape at the end of the day."

Henrik considered Payton's comments and said, "Then the purpose of your trip will have to be presented as something other than for leisure. Is there some work-related reason that you can think of requiring you to visit your hometown?"

"That's a great idea and I'm sure that I can come up with some plausible reason. Would you like another slice of Kladdkaka?"

"Maybe a small piece. When are you planning to leave and for how long?"

Payton stood, picked up her father's plate, and walked to the counter where the dessert sat. "I won't leave until after Thanksgiving and likely return around the middle of January."

She sliced another piece for him and asked, "Would you like me to put the rest in the refrigerator?"

Without waiting for an answer, she handed her father his plate and carried the remaining Kladdkaka to the refrigerator. Opening the door, she noticed the note affixed to it with a magnet, "Mark Beecher 803-515-8796."

"Who's Mark Beecher?" she asked. "The name sounds familiar."

"I don't think that you ever met him, but you probably heard me mention his name a time or two. He was an intern at Boeing while in college and I was his mentor. He left me a voicemail today asking if he could give his lawyer my name as a possible character witness for him."

"Why would he need a character witness?"

"I assume he is in some legal trouble," Henrik surmised. "I'll call him back tomorrow and likely get the details then."

"I do remember you speaking of him fondly," Payton said. "Does he work at Boeing?"

"No, he became a science teacher."

"Well, I hope that whatever his problem is, it isn't too serious."

Henrik nodded, "I'll find out tomorrow when I call him back."

Discovering what legal problems Mark Beecher had would be one purpose for the call. It would also allow a father and one of his illegitimate sons an opportunity to catch up with each other.

~~~

"So, what you're telling me is that we have been 'catfished'."

"How do you know about 'catfishing'?" Stephanie asked her daughter.

The Cross family was enjoying the pleasant fall evening together in their backyard hot tub. The bowls, which until recently had held the ice cream that they had all had for dessert, were stacked together behind where Walker sat so that neither his wife's nor his daughter's long hair would have any concern about falling into their sticky bowls if they leaned their heads back.

"The School Resource Officer has given us a lot of presentations on cyber-bullying," Mindy explained. "Including sexting, catfishing, and harassment. Whoever targeted us might not have used cyberspace, but the principle was the same. They created a fake identity and used fake information with the intention to cause emotional distress."

Walker said, "She's pretty much nailed it. While we hope that a criminal case will help identify the person who did this, and that they'll be punished for it, we will keep the civil case options open."

Stephanie quelled the instinctual comment in her mind before she spoke it. While she and Walker had agreed to share the basics of the hoax, they had also agreed not to mention Jocelyn or any potential role that either the Greers or Payton Lange may have had in it. If she raised the question of how much they might expect from a civil case settlement against a pathologist, that would certainly let the "cat out of the bag".

Mindy saw her mom biting her lower lip and knew that she was contemplating something. She said, "I understand why you don't want to share too much of the details, such as the pictures that you say have been left for you, but this can't be as random as you think it is. Not if it's been going on for as long as it has. It's kinda like those serial killers that wait years between victims. The FBI always eventually discovers some pattern."

Walker chuckled, "You really do like all those crime shows. Maybe there's a career as a criminologist in your future."

Shrugging, Mindy said, "Possibly. It sounds interesting and the characters on all the CSI shows make it look exciting. But, back to the picture, Mom. You said that you have received six of them over the nine years, right?"

Stephanie glanced at Walker and saw him shrug his shoulders. It couldn't hurt to go over each of the events again. Maybe they had missed something that Mindy would pick up on.

"Yes. The first picture was with the fake document that was left under the windshield wiper of my car in the school parking lot. I didn't receive another for five years when three of them appeared at one time."

Walker hadn't heard this tidbit before. He had assumed that each picture had been delivered separately and at random intervals. He asked, "I thought that you said that the ages in the pictures were all different? They looked like that to me."

"They are all different," Stephanie confirmed. "The second delivery had three pictures at three different stages of the person's life."

They hadn't told Mindy that the pictures were of a girl, so Stephanie wanted to maintain that omission.

"The fifth picture arrived two years later and the sixth one came last May."

"That five-year interval is interesting," Mindy said. "If this was a crime show the gap would be explained by the person being in jail during that time or something similar."

Walker had a sudden recollection of events that seemed to correlate with the deliveries as Stephanie was now describing them. He asked, "Did all of the deliveries arrive around the same time of year?"

Stephanie thought for a few seconds before answering, "They didn't arrive every year and I don't remember exactly when each did come..."

"Think harder," Walker said. "The first picture with the fake document arrived before Father's Day. Your anger over what you believed it told you was why you launched your plans with the video doorbell that you bought me. Remember? It must have been delivered in late May or early June at the latest."

"You did say that the last one was delivered in May, Mom,' Mindy added.

Walker was now able to correlate the delivery of each picture with drastic changes in Stephanie's attitude and behavior in the weeks following each. He vividly remembered the torment that she would rain down on him for no apparent reason every few years around Father's Day and well into the summer. Those must have been the years that she had received one or more of the pictures, triggering her rage at the reminder of an alleged betrayal by him.

Stephanie must have reached a similar conclusion. She threw her arms around Walker's neck and buried her face against him, crying, "Oh, my God! You're right. The pictures always appeared shortly after Mother's Day in May, each and every time. What do you think that means?"

"It means that we have a pattern!" Mindy exclaimed. "Sort of. We still don't know why there are gaps of a year or more between deliveries of the pictures."

"Right," Walker agreed. "It is something that Sea Coast Investigations might be able to dig into. I'm going to send an e-mail to Penelope Firth explaining what we have determined. Maybe they can figure out when each of the pictures were taken to see if there is some further pattern that ties into when they have been delivered."

"They weren't school pictures, were they?" Mindy asked.

"No, Sweetie," Stephanie said. "Definitely not. Why?"

"Just curious. We get our school pictures taken next week and it just came to mind."

~~~

"Can I ask you something?"

Mindy placed the dirty glass into the dishwasher before answering her mom, "Sure, Mom."

"When we talked about Halloween costumes, you mentioned that Jocelyn chose hers to try and impress a boy at school that she likes. Is there someone at school that you are trying to impress as well?"

Mindy closed the dishwasher and started it. "Can we discuss this in my room?"

'Of course. Just let me tell your father where we'll be and then I'll meet you there."

Stephanie was curious about why Mindy would want the privacy of her room to discuss the topic of her wanting to maybe impress some boy with her Halloween costume, but at this stage of rebuilding her relationship with her daughter, Stephanie would bend over backwards to appease Mindy.

She found her husband in their home office. He was focused on the computer display and Stephanie could see that he was reading an e-mail.

"Is that from Sea Coast Investigations," she asked.

"Yes. Colton Ashe already had the information on when each of the pictures were taken. The same girl, Jocelyn Greer, has her picture taken at that studio every year right before Mother's Day, based upon the dates in the meta data of the images. It appears to be a tradition of some sort."

"If the pictures are taken every year, that doesn't explain the gap in the deliveries of the pictures to me," Stephanie said.

"No, it doesn't," Walker admitted. "But it doesn't eliminate the pattern either."

"True. If you need me, I'll be in Mindy's bedroom for a while."

"Is everything okay?"

"I think that everything is great. We're going to be discussing boys and maybe a few other mother/daughter subjects."

Walker stood and hugged Stephanie, "Better you than me. Do I need to clean my guns?"

Slapping her husband's chest as she laughed, Stephanie said, "Not yet, but you may want to keep your powder dry for the foreseeable future."

"I'll do that. I'm going to be in our room checking out the lighting. Don't be surprised if a lamp or two get moved around."

Stephanie laughed and said, "I won't, Mr. Spielberg."

"I was going more for Adrian Lyne, but Spielberg might work too."

Stephanie moved in to embrace Walker, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but the more that I have thought about it, the more confident I am that watching you make love to me will be even more therapeutic for me than feeling you make love to me. I can't believe how excited the idea has made me."

"Ditto, Baby. Give me the word when Mindy is ready for me to kiss her goodnight."

Turning for the door, Stephanie said, "I will, and I really love you."

"I love you too,"

Mindy had changed into her pajamas by the time that her mother knocked on her bedroom door.

"Come in."

Stephanie entered and took a seat on the bed next to her daughter. Mindy turned the cell phone in her hand to show her mom the display.

"Who's that?" Stephanie asked.

The picture was a selfie of Mindy and a cute boy with their heads together. Mindy had a broad smile on her face but the boy showed no expression on his.

"His name is Yul," Mindy replied. "He's an eighth grader at my school. We sometimes eat lunch together."

"And you like him?" Stephanie asked.

Mindy set her phone onto the bed beside her and said, "Yes, but I don't know if I should. I think he has ASD."

Stephanie placed her arm around Mindy's shoulders as she considered her daughter's concern over this boy. Was the possibility that he had autism spectrum disorder an embarrassment to Mindy, or was it an obstacle in some other manner?

"Tell me about him."

Mindy sighed and said, "Well, obviously he's as cute as a newborn puppy. He doesn't talk to many people but he will talk to me, and he always says the nicest things; complimenting me and stuff. It took me months to get him to take a selfie with me and even though he isn't smiling in the picture, he did smile when I showed it to him."

"So, what are your concerns? What people will think about you and him being a couple?"

"No. People have seen us together and never said anything. I think most people just assume that Yul is quiet and shy, but I've seen some of the milder symptoms of ASD in him, such as him sticking to the same routine and getting anxious when things change unexpectedly."

"Possible ASD is your diagnosis," Stephanie said. "Not something that you are certain of."

Mindy pointed to her computer, "I've been researching ASD and it's symptoms for months. If Yul has it, which I'm pretty sure that he does, it appears to be mild. He's not in any special needs classes but he doesn't have much social interaction with people other than me, and sometimes Jocelyn when we're together."

"Then explain your doubts to me," Stephanie said.

"I don't know if me liking Yul would be good for him."

"It seems to be working okay so far," Stephanie observed.

"But what if I want more?"

"Like what?"

Mindy shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe to hold his hand or ask him to come to the Halloween dance with me. I don't want to do anything to trigger something with his ASD, but I don't know enough to know what to avoid."

Stephanie believed that her daughter could easily land any boy at her school that she wanted to, yet here she was, questioning her chances with a boy with possible emotional disadvantages. Mindy apparently saw something in this boy that had touched her, and as her mother, Stephanie wanted to support that.

"I think that you should ask Yul to come to the dance with you, but don't be upset if he declines. Even if he doesn't have ASD, he is still a teenage boy. That in itself comes with a lot of insecurities and inexperience that can make a boy feel intimidated by a girl. Be patient with him and give me a chance to check with a few experts on ASD that I know. If you like him and want to take the chance, your father and I will support you completely."

"Thanks, Mom."

Chapter Twelve

"Mark Beecher submitted his resignation today. He'll finish out the semester and then be gone."

This pronouncement was followed by Stephanie leaning down to kiss Walker as he sat in front of the computer in their office.

"That doesn't really surprise you, does it?" he asked his wife.

"No, I expected it. There was little chance that his contract would have been renewed for next year. The stigma surrounding the charges against him wouldn't have allowed the board to consider him."

Walker understood what his wife was saying. It wasn't fair, and there wasn't anything that anyone could do to change it. If his case had gone to trial and Mark Beecher had been found not guilty, that would have been different. Having the case closed as "unfounded" might be viewed as a legal "dismissal with prejudice" by the courts, but most lay people viewed it as the prosecution being too lazy to seek a conviction.

"What do you think his chances are of landing another teaching position elsewhere?" Walker asked.

"I think that if he wanted to teach somewhere else, he'd stand a good chance. I told him that I would write a letter of recommendation for him at any time. What did surprise me was his attitude about the whole thing with Mindy. He figured out on his own that Mindy must have assumed that he was at our house to fool around with me, and that was why she made up her story. Can you believe that he actually laughed about it?"

"He laughed about it?"

"He sure did. 'No harm, no foul', were his exact words. He said that this actually pushed him to follow his dream of becoming a commercial pilot. He already as a private pilot license and he plans to begin training for his commercial license this summer."

"Well, I wish him luck," Walker said, "And I genuinely mean that. The guy faced a challenge due to us and I'm grateful that we were able to make it right, financially at least."

"Me too. Is Mindy in her room?"

"Yeah, she said that she was going to change into her swimsuit while waiting for Jocelyn to arrive."

Stephanie leaned down and kissed her husband again, "I'm not going to put on a swimsuit, but I am going to go change into something more comfortable. How much longer do you expect to be in here?"

"I could quit any time, so if you think that you might need help with your zipper or anything..."

"As tempting as that offer sounds, one of us will need to supervise the girls while they are in the hot tub. Why don't you do that while barbequing our dinner?"

"What are my options for that?" Walker asked.

"There are some nice center-cut pork chops thawed out in the refrigerator, but if you don't want those, you could make hamburgers or even grill up hot dogs. I'm fine with whatever you choose."

"Do you want to invite Jocelyn to stay for dinner?"

Stephanie considered the suggestion before saying, "I'll text Mindy and let her know that it would be okay to invite her friend for dinner if she wanted to."

"Good idea," Walker said. "I'll wait for that to be determined before deciding on what to grill for dinner."

They both heard the doorbell ring seconds before their cell phones notified them. This was followed almost immediately by the sound of bare feet running through the house towards the front door.

"Mindy must be pretty confident that it's Jocelyn," Walker laughed.

Stephanie nodded, "I'll go greet her on my way to our bedroom and ask about her staying for dinner. Plan on eating around six?"

"Why so late?" Walker asked.

"It will give the girls more time in the hot tub and I understand that it will closer to when Jocelyn is used to eating dinner."

Walker said, "I'll make it work."

Mindy and Jocelyn were just passing the door to the office on their way to Mindy's bedroom when Stephanie encountered them. "Jocelyn, would you like to join us for dinner tonight? Mindy's father is going to barbeque while you girls are in the hot tub."

"I'll have to ask my mom, but if she says that it's okay, I would love to stay."

Stephanie studied the bikini that Jocelyn was wearing as her swimsuit. It was conservative and didn't reveal too much of the young girl's body, but Stephanie and Walker had not allowed Mindy to wear anything other than one-piece swimsuits until she was at least sixteen.

"Jocelyn, can I have a word with you in private?" Stephanie asked.

"Mom!" Mindy objected.

"It will just take a minute. Wait in your room and Jocelyn will be right with you."

Mindy huffed a bit but didn't argue. She went to her bedroom but left the door to it open while Stephanie led Jocelyn into the kitchen.

Stephanie leaned against one of the counters and said, "Sweetie, I could simply invoke house rules on this, but I want to let you make the choice once you know the situation."

"What situation?" Jocelyn asked.

Stephanie explained about Mindy not being allowed to wear a bikini and how Jocelyn wearing one might cause some consternation, with comments like "How come she gets to but not me?"

Stephanie continued, "If you choose to wear a bikini, I will deal with any objections from Mindy over it, but, like I said, I want to give you the choice."

Jocelyn shook her head, "Mrs. Cross, if the rule here for Mindy is no bikini, then that rule applies to me too. I'll go home and change."

"I don't think that will be necessary. I'm sure that Mindy has another swimsuit that you could wear. Let's go see."

Watching Mindy going through her drawers and showing her friend the different options that she had for one-piece swimsuits gave Stephanie a moment to consider things. As Jocelyn selected the swimsuit that she wanted to borrow, Stephanie said, "Girls, how about if I talk to Mindy's dad about modifying our rule about bikinis? Maybe we could allow you both to wear a bikini when it was just the two of you, or any other girls here. When boys are here, no bikinis. How does that sound?"

"I could live with that," Mindy said.

Jocelyn said, "I will follow whatever rules you and Mr. Cross agree upon."

Stephanie smiled and said, "You know, Mindy, your dad is going to insist on having the final say on any bikinis you want to buy."

"I would expect nothing less," Mindy laughed.

"Good," Stephanie replied. "Jocelyn, is your mom home?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I think I'll stroll over and chat with her for a while. I'll bring up you staying here for dinner and let you know what she says. Mindy, please tell your father where I am and that I'll have my phone with me if he needs anything."

~~~

Stephanie didn't know what kind of wine Gina might like, but even if the McLaren Vineyards Shiraz that she brought with her as a welcome gift was favored by her neighbor, they probably wouldn't share more than a single glass at this time of day.

The front door to the Greer house opened before Stephanie could ring the doorbell or knock. A friendly looking black man showed his surprise to see someone on his porch as he was stepping out of the door.

He adjusted to the situation quickly and said, "You must be Mindy's mom. She looks just like you. I'm Ken Greer."

"I'm please to finally meet you, and yes, I am Stephanie Cross, Mindy's mother. I was just bringing over a bottle of wine as a welcome to the neighborhood gift for you and Gina. Is she home?"

"Sure, let me get her for you. I was just heading out for a meeting with a client but I'm glad that I got the chance to meet you first. Come on in and I'll let her know that you are here. She was excited to have met you over the weekend."

Stephanie followed Ken Greer into the house and waited in the foyer while he headed for what Stephanie assumed was the kitchen. Within seconds, Stephanie saw the smiling face of Gina Greer rushing towards her.

"I hope that I'm not interrupting anything," Stephanie said. "With Jocelyn joining Mindy at our house, I thought that this might be a good time for the mothers to spend alone together in peace."

Pulling Stephanie into an embrace, Gina said, "Girl, you have got perfect timing. I was just getting ready to pour myself a glass of wine and here I see that you came prepared. What have you got there?"

"It's my favorite Shiraz from the McLaren Vineyards of Australia," Stephanie proudly explained. Have you ever tried a Shiraz?"

"No, but I'm always game to try a new wine. Come on, let's go pop that baby open."

Within minutes, the two women were taking seats at the kitchen table with a fresh glass of the fruity red wine in their hands. Neither had paid any attention to the departure of Ken Greer.

Gina sniffed the wine and said, "It has a peppery aroma, doesn't it?"

"Most people comment on the darker color first," Stephanie said. "I'm impressed that you detected the aroma so quickly."

Gina chuckled, "It's a hazard of my job that I won't go into. My sense of smell seems to naturally focus on some scent ranges more than others. Fortunately, culinary scents, such as garlic, curry, and peppers rank high on what I can detect easily."

Stephanie took a sip of her wine and watched as Gina did the same. "What do you think?"

"Oh, Girl, this is delicious. Thank you for introducing it to me."

"The bottle is our gift. I hope that Ken enjoys it just as much."

"Oh, that beer heathen isn't getting any of this fine nectar, believe me. So how has your week been?"

"Mostly routine," Stephanie said. "I did hope that you and I could discuss a few things about our daughters."

"Jocelyn isn't causing you any problems, is she?"

"Heavens no! She is an angel and, in my opinion, a wonderful role model for Mindy. I invited her to join us for dinner tonight so that she and Mindy could spend more time in the hot tub."

"That's fine. It was just going to be her and me here since Ken is dining with a client."

"Then you should come over and join us too," Stephanie said. "It might be good for our daughters to see their mothers socializing and communicating about them. I think that it might also be a good time for you and I to get in synch on a few things."

"In synch? What do you mean?"

Stephanie began by explaining her and Walker's rule for Mindy related to bikinis. "And, as they start experiencing new things, such as dances at school, and eventually wanting to date, I think there might be an opportunity for us all to present a united front to them. For example, Jocelyn is apparently trying to attract the attention of a ninth-grade boy named Steve Harrington. How do you feel about your daughter pursuing a boy two years older than her?"

Gina thought about the question and said, "My first instinct is to shut it down, but then I remember how stubborn and rebellious I became at Jocelyn's age when my parents told me not to see one boy or another. I suppose that if I trusted Jocelyn, I would allow a supervised relationship with this boy. Things like school dances would probably be okay with me."

Nodding in agreement, Stephanie said, "Good, because I was considering a similar approach with Mindy. She likes an eighth-grade boy. What would you think about you and I hosting a little get-together for our daughters where they could each invite their current boy of interest over to our house for a hot tub party? We could explain the rules to the girls tonight at dinner, such as one-piece swimsuits when the boys are there and our other rules for when they could see them."

Gina considered Stephanie's comments and said, "I actually like that idea. Having our rules for Jocelyn being the same as someone else that she knows would certainly reenforce them and result in fewer arguments."

"True in our case as well," Stephanie said, "But it also will allow us to evaluate the rules for two girls instead of only one each." She explained how she had come to the decision about acceptable swim wear for Mindy when she had been able to consider Jocelyn not having the same rule.

"It was sort of like you seeing Mindy with pierced ears and deciding that made it alright for Jocelyn to get them too."

Gina said, "Actually, it was Jocelyn's aunt Payton who used that argument to convince me."

Stephanie took another sip of her wine before asking, "Did you know that Payton and my husband have a history?"

Gina set her glass down and said, "I didn't until last Monday. I mean, I knew that there was some guy in her past that still haunted her, but that was before Payton and I had met. It wasn't until Payton met Mindy last weekend and found out her last name was Cross that the connection came together for her. She's still a mess over him, by the way."

Stephanie's curiosity couldn't be contained, "Can I ask you something? Is Payton Jocelyn's biological mother?"

Gina smiled and said, "No, but I can see where you might get that impression since they are looking more and more alike as Jocelyn gets older. Payton is related to Jocelyn, however. They are third cousins. That relationship is what helped Payton adopt Jocelyn in Sweden. Ken and I then adopted her when Payton brought her back to the states."

"Payton didn't want her?"

"It wasn't like that," Gina insisted. "Payton adopted Jocelyn for me and Ken. I'm sure that if we hadn't been in the picture, Payton would have kept and raised Jocelyn as her own. She did what she could to save a relative's child from the orphanage and give us the child that we so desperately wanted. While she probably doubts it herself, Payton would make a wonderful mother. Let me show you something. Hang here a second."

Gina left the kitchen but returned within minutes carrying a large photo album. She took the chair next to Stephanie rather than the seat across from her that she had been in before.

"While she leaves it here most of the time," Gina explained, "This is Payton's photo album of Jocelyn. It has pictures from the first time that Payton saw Jocelyn in the orphanage through just this past weekend. Take a look at it and tell me if this isn't the work of someone who treasures a child."

Stephanie began flipping through the pages of the album. It was easy to recognize that the photos were arranged chronologically to trace the growth of Jocelyn from infancy to adolescence, and now into her teen years. Most of the photos were obviously amateur pictures, printed from the digital image file captured by a cell phone or digital camera. However, each year of Jocelyn's life as depicted in the album began with a single, large 8x10 professional portrait. When she reached the portrait introducing Jocelyn's fourth year, Stephanie paused. She recognized it as a larger version of the very first picture left for her. The one that had accompanied the fake DNA test report.

Gina saw Stephanie spending more time on the one photo, so she said, "Those are my Mother's Day gifts from Payton each year. She has a friend who owns a portrait studio in Charleston that she takes Jocelyn to each year to have a professional portrait made for me. She always gets a second one made for herself, as you can see, and a few smaller prints for other relatives and friends."

"The portraits are beautiful," Stephanie admitted as she began turning pages once more, easily identifying the remaining years' photos that she had been sent. The last picture in the album was a cell phone selfie of Payton, Jocelyn, and Mindy. Payton and Mindy were each pointing a finger at one of Jocelyn's ears and smiling at the new studs from the piercing.

Stephanie silently closed the album and picked up her wine glass. "Payton Lange was certainly the impetus behind the photos that had been part of the hoax, but was she more complicit than that?

"Has she ever been married?" Stephanie asked.

Gina expression turned gloomy as she said, "No, Payton's longest relationship since I've known her has been with her therapist, trying to work out her obsession with the man that broke her heart."

"Walker?" Stephanie asked. Learning that some beautiful woman was obsessed with her husband was not something that she could ignore.

Gina merely nodded.

"Wonderful!" Stephanie thought. "How might Payton's obsession over Walker contribute to all of the coincidences related to the hoax?"

"Why did you move here?" Stephanie asked Gina. "I mean, why did you pick this particular house to buy?"

Gina was surprised by the question and took a few seconds to reply, "We moved here because I accepted a position with the county. The VanHorns were tired of renting this place out and decided to sell. We reached a deal and bought it. End of story."

"We're glad that you're here," Stephanie admitted.

Both women returned to their glasses of wine for a few minutes before Gina spoke, "Now, do you mind if I ask you something?

"What?"

"How is your marriage? Jocelyn mentioned that you and your husband had separated but now you're back together. Is there anything that you want to share? I can be a good listener."

Stephanie sat for several seconds considering her response. She finally said, "We're fine."

Gina wasn't satisfied, "How do you mean?"

Sighing, Stephanie said, "For many years - far too many - Walker and I had been like a couple of marcescent leaves; withered yet resolutely attached to our marriage. It turns out that our love is like a ruderal, able to grow and flourish from the rubble that had attempted to bury it."

"What caused this 'rubble'?" Gina asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't go into it right now. There may be some litigation involved with it at some point so the less I say, the better."

"Listen," Gina said, "We adore Mindy, and she has been like mana from heaven where Jocelyn's adapting to the relocation is concerned, but I don't want her getting exposed to a lot of drama if you and Walker are not getting along. Maybe the girls should spend most of their time together here rather than at your place."

"Gina, if you don't believe anything else I say, you can believe me when I tell you that my marriage is a solid as a rock. In fact, we may be bringing another member into our family shortly."

"You're pregnant?"

"I think so," Stephanie beamed. "I will take a home pregnancy test tomorrow morning, and if it's positive, I'll make an appointment next week with my doctor to confirm. If this is my last glass of wine for a while, I am glad to be sharing it with you."

"That's wonderful!" Gina said. "I'll let you in on a little secret that's just between me and Payton right now. I don't want to get Ken's or Jocelyn's hopes up yet, so please don't repeat anything."

Stephanie leaned forward in her chair and said, "Your secret will be safe with me."

"Payton is going to be returning to Sweden after Thanksgiving to spend the holidays with her extended family. While there, she is hoping to visit the same orphanage where she adopted Jocelyn to see if there are any other infants available for her to adopt and bring back home to us."

"And you will adopt it from her like before?" Stephanie asked excitedly.

"That is the plan," Gina confirmed. "So, our family may get a new addition as well."

Stephanie pouted and playfully said, "And you won't have to give up wine to get yours."

Gina tapped her nearly empty wine glass against Stephanie's and said, "I'll drink to that!"

When both wine glasses were empty, Stephanie said, "I probably should head back. Would you like to walk with me or come over in a half hour or so?"

Gina took Stephanie's wine glass and placed both in the sink, "I'll walk back with you. Just give me a minute to slip on my sandals."

As they were crossing the street towards the Cross residence, Gina pointed over her shoulder to the house next to hers, "Do you know the people that live there?"

"Dent and Cindy Follweiler? Sure. They are wonderful people. They're both retired now and spend a lot of their time travelling. I actually think that they are Playa Del Carmen, Mexico right now. Have you met them?"

"Just briefly after we first moved in. Do you know if they have any kids?"

"Yeah, but they're all grown and living out of state. Why?"

"Earlier this week, Ken found some guy walking around their house. When he asked the guy what he was doing, he said that he used to live there and was just reminiscing."

Stephanie stopped on the sidewalk and glanced back at the Follweiler house. "Interesting. As far as I know, Dent and Cindy are the only people to have owned that house and their kids were all out on their own when the house was built. I'm going to ask Walker though. He knows them better than I do."

Chapter Thirteen

"This could turn into a regular thing if you wanted. Mindy spends Friday night with Jocelyn, giving us a date night and then Jocelyn could stay here on Saturday night to give Gina and Ken their night alone."

Walker replied, "Let's give it a try for a couple of weeks before committing to anything long-term. Although, having Mindy out of the house tonight eliminated one of my concerns about us watching the video while she was home."

Stephanie, like most women that she had discussed the subject with, didn't care much for watching pornographic videos of other people having sex. She would rather read a steamy romance story or even more graphic erotic content and let her mind conjure up the images for her. Tonight, she had learned that watching her and Walker having sex was night and day different from watching other people.

The one video that they had made a few days earlier would probably be considered boring by most porn afficionados, because Walker had purposely focused the single camera to capture their faces as they made love in the missionary position. And while it was clearly evident that they were having genuine and passionate sexual intercourse, their positions obscured any of the coupling from view.

Watching the video with Walker laying naked beside her in their bed had accomplished two things for Stephanie. First, it had planted the image of her and Walker having sex into her consciousness strong enough to begin pushing out imaginary images of him with someone else. Secondly, it had convinced Stephanie that she wanted to make more videos, in different positions, and doing different things to one another. She would bring that up to Walker later. She doubted that he would be opposed to her ideas.

While they had been preparing for bed, Stephanie had shared with Walker most of the conversation that she had earlier with Gina. Now she wanted to mention the strange guy seen at the Follweiler house by Ken Greer.

"Dent and Cindy never had any of their children living with them in their house here, did they?"

"That's a question from out of deep left field," Walker said. "But the answer would be 'no'. Why?"

Stephanie explained what Gina had told her while walking between their houses earlier.

"He told Ken that he used to live there?" Walker asked.

"That's what Gina said. Who do you think it was, and should we let Dent and Cindy know about it?"

"They're supposed to be home on Monday, so we can mention it to them then if you want. In the meantime, I'll keep a closer eye on their house. I can adjust the range of view for our doorbell camera beyond just our porch to cover the front of their house and activate the motion detection feature. We'll get pinged every time that a car drives down the street, but it shouldn't be too much of a nuisance."

"I'll ask Gina if she and Ken could also keep an eye out since they live next door," Stephanie said.

"I wonder," said Walker. "Do you remember that kid, Roger? He was the foster kid that Dent and Cindy had living with them for about nine months."

"That had to have been, what, almost eleven years ago?" Stephanie asked.

Walker nodded, "Yeah, about that timeframe. Whatever happened to him?"

"If I remember right, he aged out of the system. Cindy said that the state paid for him to get some type of vocational training, and as far as I know, they never heard from him again. Why, do you think the guy might have been him?"

"Can you think of anyone else who ever lived there beside Dent and Cindy?"

"No, but it could have been someone casing their house and just using some story about their prior residency as an excuse for why they were walking around the house."

"Maybe, but we'll mention it as a possibility to Dent and Cindy when we see them."

"That kid was strange," Stephanie said. "I do remember that. He gave off weird vibes at times."

"I do remember you mentioning something about that back then, but I don't remember the details."

"They're not as clear to me any longer, but I do remember frequently being disrespected by him when he was here doing something that you had asked him to do. Like one time, Mindy and I were in the pool and he came over to clean it, as you agreed to pay him to do. He made some comment about not only was I simply enjoying the fruits of your labor while you went to work and I stayed home, he also said that I should show more respect by getting out of the pool so that he could do the job without delay."

"Yeah, I do remember speaking to Dent about that particular incident. He said that he and Cindy had spoken with the kid several times about his need to treat Cindy as an equal to Dent, but the message never seemed to get across. Dent didn't know what in the kid's past had made him so resentful of women but it was something that they struggled with the whole time that he lived with them."

"I don't think he resented just women," Stephanie said. "I also remember him making a comment about how guys as good looking as you make it harder for normal guys to get with any girls."

Walker snorted, "I remember him asking me once how many girls that I had had sex with. Although it was an inappropriate question, I told him, 'Two'. I don't think he believed me because he got angry and stomped off. He avoided me for about three weeks after that. Wow, it's funny how the memories start coming back. I haven't thought about that kid for years and now it's almost like some of our interactions happened just yesterday."

"Well, let's stop thinking about him now," Stephanie said. "I want to talk about how you made that movie of us."

"What do you mean? You saw me just set the digital camera onto the tripod and start it recording."

"Yes, but you did something to the recording after that. When we just watched it, the part where you came to bed after starting the recording wasn't there, nor was the part at the end when you got out of bed to stop the recording. You cut some stuff out. Tell me how you did that?"

Walker said, "I don't get it. Did you want to see those parts of the recording when we were just getting setup and after we were done?"

"No, I want to know how you edited the recording to achieve the final version that we watched. Do you have a video editing application or is there something in the default programs on your computer that allowed you to do it."

"I used a popular video editing application," Walker admitted.

"Good," Stephanie said. "Now we're getting somewhere. Can you show it to me?"

"Right now?"

"Yes. I want to see what all it can do before I discuss my ideas with you."

"Okay," Walker said. "It's on my laptop in the office. Let me go get it..."

"No, we can go in there. My ideas are making me too anxious and I will be able to focus better if I'm not laying here next to your naked body. Grab your robe, and let's go."

Stephanie jumped out of bed and found her own robe. She had it on and tied tight before Walker could join her at the door to their bedroom. Taking her husband's hand, she led them quickly across the house to the room used as their home office.

She released Walker's hand and said, "Why don't you bring the laptop over to the coffee table and set it up there so we can both see the screen better?"

That's exactly what Walker did. He then pulled the coffee table closer to the couch so that he could reach the laptop while sitting back rather than leaning forward.

"What do you want to see?" he asked his wife.

"Explain to me what some of the symbols and icons mean."

Rather than explain each one, Walker moved the cursor over each to get the name to appear. He knew his wife was intelligent enough to understand the function for most of the symbols and icons just by reading the name of it. He only had to explain a few of the more obscure ones to her.

Stephanie waited for Walker to finish his tour of the application before saying, "It looks like that in addition to cutting out sections of a video like you did with ours, we could also use the application to join sections of different videos together to make a compilation of sorts."

"We could," Walker agreed. "What did you have in mind?"

"In a minute. Let's talk about audio. Can that be merged in to the recorded videos?"

"Are you thinking of something like adding cheesy porn music over our video? It could be done, but why would we want to?"

"Not music, our voices. I know that we both professed our love to each other while we recorded the video, but the camera was apparently too far away to capture our voices. If we had something closer to our heads to record our words, would we be able to merge that audio with the video?"

Walker considered Stephanie's question before answering, "It might take some tinkering to get the audio and video timing synchronized, but it should be doable. Actually, you know what might work better? Our camera is supposed to support a paired connection to a Bluetooth microphone. If I got us one of those, we could place the microphone closer to our heads and the audio that it recorded would become part of the video recorded by the camera."

"That sounds like a great investment," Stephanie giggled. "Let's get one. Now, I know from us trying to watch DVDs and BlueRay discs that there are different video formats out there. If we were to use other devices, such as our cell phones to record different angles of the same video, would the formats of those present us with any issues when we went to join them with the video from the digital camera?"

"No, the default video format for all of them is MP4. But we need to be careful with recording on devices that might potentially get hacked. The digital camera doesn't connect to anything unless I physically do so with the laptop or something else. Our cell phones are usually connected to the house Wi-Fi while we're here, and the cellular network at all times. I would vote against using them for that reason."

Stephanie shrugged, "Then I guess we're buying more cameras."

~~~

"I'll take the trundle again," Jocelyn offered as she led Mindy into her bedroom. That is where she had slept the last time that Mindy had spent the night.

Mindy shook her head, "No, it's your house so you get your own bed this time. Plus, I don't want to have to climb over your body in the morning when I wake up before you. You complained about me stepping on your arm for two days."

Setting her backpack onto the floor, Mindy started pulling out the things that she would need to get ready for bed, such as her toothbrush and toothpaste. She searched for several seconds before realizing she had forgotten something.

"Crud, I left my cell phone charger at home."

Jocelyn checked the time and said, "It's only 7:30. Why don't you run home and get it? I'll even go with you. I just need to let my mom know. I'll meet you downstairs."

"Okay, but maybe I should text my mom first so we don't surprise them and walk into something that our young minds might never be able to forget."

Jocelyn giggled, "Oh, what's the fun in that? Come on."

~~~

"Somebody's got really shitty timing," Stephanie moaned as she got up off her knees and reached over for her ringing cell phone.

Walker paused the recording on the digital camera that he had been using to capture a point-of-view perspective of his wife fellating him. He waited for some signal from Stephanie before deciding whether they would continue after the phone call, or if their recording would have to be continued later.

Checking the display, Stephanie said, "It's Gina."

She answered the call, "Hey, Gina, are the girls giving you trouble?"

"I should be asking you that," Gina replied. "They headed over there more than a half hour ago. How long does it take Mindy to get the charger for her cell phone?"

Stephanie quickly put her cell phone on speaker and set it on the nightstand so that she could use both hands to securely tie her robe closed. As she did that, she said, "I've been in my bedroom and haven't heard anyone come in, but if Mindy used the back door, I might not have noticed. Hang on and let me check her room."

"What's going on?" Walker asked as he tied his own robe shut and followed Stephanie out of their room.

"Gina says that Mindy and Jocelyn came over here to get her charger but that was over thirty minutes ago."

Both parents could see from the living room that the door to Mindy's room was open and that there didn't appear to be anyone in there. As soon as they entered the room, they saw that Mindy's charger was plugged into its normal place.

Speaking to her cell phone, Stephanie said, "Gina, they're not here and it looks like they never came over. Mindy's charger is right where it should be. Are you sure that they left your house?"

"I'm positive. I closed the front door after them. Where could they have gone?"

Walker said, "Let me grab my phone. I can use the 'Find my device' app to track her cell phone."

While her husband ran back to their bedroom to retrieve his phone, Stephanie opened the app for the video doorbell and checked the recorded activity for any sign of the girls. She went back forty-five minutes and saw no sign of them.

Walker came back into Mindy's room and said, "It shows that her phone is right outside the house next door. I'll go see what they are up to out there."

In just his robe, and with bare feet, Walker quickly went out the front door and headed in the direction that the phone was reported to be. There were no people outside, which confused him. Where were the girls if Mindy's phone said that it was out here? He quickly dialed Mindy's number and saw the illumination of the cell phone's display a second before he heard the ringtone. The phone was lying in the grass parkway between the sidewalk and the curb of the street.

Leaving Mindy's cell phone where it lay, Walker ran back to his house as fast as he could. Stephanie was standing at the open front door continuing her conversation with Gina when she saw the panic on her husband's face.

"Call 9-1-1!" Walker yelled as he flew past Stephanie. Over his shoulder he added, "And then get dressed."

~~~

He had changed into sweatpants and a zippered hoodie in record time, but Walker was still bare foot as he walked down his driveway to wait for the police to arrive.

"Don't touch it," he yelled to Gina when he saw her stooping to pick up Mindy's cell phone on her way to their house. "I want the police to see where it was found."

Gina paused to consider what Walker had said and finally decided that he might be making sense. It would be one of the very few things this evening that made sense to her.

"Did you bring a picture of Jocelyn?" Walker asked Gina, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of fast-approaching sirens.

"No, crap I forgot. I'll be right back"

Gina quickly ran back towards her house. Stephanie came running out of their house at the same time. She asked, "Where's Gina going? The police should be here any second now."

"She went home to grab a picture of Jocelyn to share with the police."

"Shit! I knew I was forgetting something. I'll be right back."

Walker moved from his driveway to stand on the parkway beside where Mindy's cell phone still lay just as the first police car pulled to a stop. It was followed almost immediately by two others. Officers began piling out of the cars and heading towards Walker.

Pointing to the officer closest, he said, "That's my daughter's cell phone. It's lying exactly where I found it when I came out to search for her."

"Tell us what happened," the officer said.

"I'm not sure exactly what happened at this point," Walker told them. "But I'll tell you what I know. My daughter, Mindy, is supposed to be spending the night with her friend, Jocelyn, who lives in that house across the street. Here comes her mother now."

He quickly relayed the call from Gina informing them that the girls had left Jocelyn's house to come over and get the charger for Mindy's cell phone, but the girls had never made it to their house. Walker then explained how he had used an app to track Mindy's cell phone and his subsequent discovery of it, but no girls.

"I checked the recordings from our doorbell camera but the horizontal range is limited due to it being at the end of our porch alcove."

"We're still going to want access to the videos," the officer said as he continued to take notes. "Our lab may be able to discern something from them that you missed."

"Of course. I'll write down the credentials that will allow you access to the cloud server where they are kept."

Mentioning the cloud server for the doorbell videos reminded Walker of something else that he had completely forgotten about.

"JESUS!" he yelled and almost bowled over Stephanie as he turned and rushed back into his house.

Slamming through the front door, he headed directly back to Mindy's bedroom and turned on the overhead light. Turning to check the top of her dresser, his eyes sought out and found the lighted necklace holder stand. A quick inventory of the items on it showed that the locket was missing. Good. That meant that Mindy must be wearing it.

Walker next ran to their home office and opened the address book on his desk. Finding the correct tab, he pulled out his phone and entered the required information for him to access the Micro Hornet developer sandbox website. Within seconds, he had entered the required identification details and a map appeared on his cell phone screen. He kept it open as he quickly ran back out to join the gathering of police officers still arriving on the scene.

"Officer, we can track them!" Walker exclaimed as he reached the crowd and held out his cell phone for them to see.

A patrol sergeant stepped over and asked Walker to explain what he was talking about.

"For Mindy's fourth birthday, I gave her a locket. One of my clients at work is a company that makes miniature GPS trackers. I got one from them at cost and then paid a jeweler to embed it inside of the locket so that I could always be able to track my daughter. I just checked and the locket is not in her room, which means that she must be wearing it. According to the tracking map I am receiving, she is about ten miles north of here heading towards Florence."

"Can I see that?" the sergeant asked.

Walker handed him his cell phone as Stephanie moved to stand beside him. "How come I never knew about that locket being a GPS tracker?" she whispered up at him.

He whispered back, "Because it was my safeguard against you one day taking Mindy and leaving me not knowing where you were with her. I had forgotten about it until tonight. Sorry."

Stephanie wrapped her arm around Walker's waist and said, "No, it's me who is sorry. We'll talk about it later. I love you."

"I love you too. Let's just focus on finding the girls for now."

The sergeant stepped back to Walker and said, "Tracking her direction of travel, speed, and current location is helpful but we don't know what type of vehicle she is traveling in. So, we've requested that the highway patrol coordinate with the county police to set up roadblocks between here and Florence on all major highways. Right now, it looks like they are on U.S. 76 and there aren't many good alternative routes intersecting with that highway before it reaches Interstate 95. The pictures of the girls have been transmitted throughout the state so every law enforcement agency can see them. An Ambert Alert will be issued at 9 pm if we haven't located them by that time.

Stephanie and Gina checked the time on their cell phones simultaneously. Both saw that it was 8:27 pm.

Stepping away from Walker to stand closer to Gina, Stephanie asked, "Gina, do you know where Payton is right now?

"No, but my guess is that she is on the road heading here at about 600 miles per hour. I called her to inform her of the situation and she couldn't get out of her house in Charleston fast enough. I wouldn't be surprised if she beats Ken here, and he's only ten miles away."

"Are you sure that she was at her house when you reached her? Could she have been someplace else?"

"I could hear her favorite ABBA album playing in the background, so yes, I'm sure that she was home when we spoke. Why?"

"I'll explain later. Thanks."

~~~

At 8:54 pm, the radios on the officer's shoulders started coming to life. The sergeant listened to his radio and then stepped over to where Walker, Stephanie, and Gina stood together.

"A grey Ford Transit compact van was in line for one of the roadblocks when it suddenly cut across the grass median on U.S. 76 and started heading away at a high rate of speed. Highway Patrol units are in pursuit."

"Oh, God," Stephanie said. "Do you think it's them?"

The sergeant glanced down at the screen of Walker's cell phone that he had been using to monitor the GPS tracking. He said, "The signal is moving in the direction reported for the van, so I would say it's a good bet. Excuse me while I update the units in pursuit."

Chapter Fourteen

"Would you like some more iced tea?"

Stephanie turned her head slightly and said, "I'm fine for now. Relax. You're our guest. If I want anything, I have a perfectly capable husband-servant over there to fetch it for me."

Gina laughed and told Payton, "I'm not as solicitous, so if you're going to get yourself some more wine, feel free to top my glass off at the same time."

"Bitch!" Stephanie growled, which made Gina and Payton laugh. The thirty-nine-week fetus inside of her must have heard the women because it suddenly felt like he was laughing along with them. Stephanie smiled as she placed a hand on her swollen abdomen and felt the movement of the soon-to-emerge life inside her. Her son.

When a still laughing Payton Lange headed for the house, Stephanie and Gina turned their attention back to the pool. Walker and Ken sat on the first steps of the pool, with Henrik Lange seated between them. On Henrik's lap sat the perfect little one-year-old girl, Heidi, joyously kicking her feet in the water.

This precious little girl would always know Henrik as her grandfather since Payton had adopted her and wouldn't let her go. Heidi's fraternal twin brother, on the other hand, sat on his adopted sister's lap in the hot tub. Jocelyn and Mindy took turns teasing Karl by dripping water onto his head.

Ken Greer would likely take over the entertainment of his son once Steve Harrington and Yul Adams arrived to join their girlfriends in the hot tub.

It was a beautiful sunny and warm day in the middle of May. Mother's Day. The moods of everyone celebrating couldn't have been happier. One hundred and eighty degrees from that Sunday eight months prior...

~~~

"When can we take them home?"

Gina smiled and said, "They're preparing the discharges now. Why don't you go help Mindy get dressed? You did bring her some clothes, right?"

Stephanie lifted the paper bag that she was carrying and nodded in the affirmative. She glanced down the hallway of the hospital and saw Walker and Ken Greer still in a heated discussion with the police detectives. She wanted to hear all of the details being discussed, but she wanted to get her daughter home more urgently. Walker would relay everything said to her later. Mindy came first.

Entering Mindy's room and closing the door behind her, Stephanie saw her daughter sorting through the plastic bag that the hospital staff had placed what was left of her clothing and other belongings when the ambulance had brought her in. The bandage on her forehead had been changed from the last time Stephanie had seen it. Now it was just a regular-sized Band-Aid instead of the monstrous gauze patch.

"Here, Sweetie," Stephanie said as she handed the bag of clothes to Mindy. "You're going to need these. The police are still holding your clothes from Friday as part of the evidence."

Accepting the bag from her mom, Mindy said, "They can keep them. I don't want any reminders of that guy taking them off of me."

"I can understand that," Stephanie said sympathetically.

Neither girl had been sexually assaulted but it was apparent to everyone that this had been the intention. Both girls had been recovered from the back of the wrecked van naked from the waist down with their hands taped behind them and tape across their mouths.

The girls had been unconscious when found and the EMTs couldn't initially determine if they had been drugged or had suffered head injuries when the van had been wrecked. Lab results later proved that each girl had been forced to take just enough Xanax, a well-known benzodiazepine, to knock them out. They had been kept two nights in the hospital for precautionary observation.

The driver of the van had been injured in the wreck, but that didn't stop him from trying to flee the scene on foot. When tackled by a police canine, he pulled the same knife that he had used to threaten Mindy and Jocelyn when he forced them into the van. The canine officer's handler placed two bullets into the man's chest before he could harm his partner with the knife. He had died at the scene.

The police had been able to quickly identify the man from his driver's license, but they refused to release his name until any next of kin could be notified. His name may have been concealed from the public, including victims and their families, but the logo on the side of the van had been shown clearly in all the news reports of the incident. The logo consisting of three dots, followed by three dashes and then three more dots identified the van as part of the fleet of service vehicles belonging to Southeast Office Solutions, or "S.O.S." as their advertisements promoted.

Stephanie asked her daughter, "Do you need my help with anything or would you prefer that I wait outside?"

"I don't need any help but you can stay. Where's Jocelyn? Is she getting to go home too?"

"Yes, Gina is down the hall in her room helping her get ready too. They'll be coming over to our house so that you girls can spend some therapeutic time in the hot tub. We figured the bumps and bruises you both received would benefit from some time in the warm water."

"While you grownups sit far enough away from us so that we can't hear what you're talking about. Right?"

Stephanie laughed before turning serious again, "I don't know how much we'll be talking about while the Greers are there. A lot will depend on what your father learns from the police between now and then."

"Why? Jocelyn was abducted too. Why wouldn't you want her parents to hear whatever you and Dad have to say?"

"Because they don't know about the catfishing hoax," Stephanie explained.

"What has that got to do with what happened to me and Jocelyn?"

"That's what we don't know, and that is why I can't commit to discussing everything in front of the Greers."

The two families did spend the afternoon together but the topics of their discussions were limited due to the lack of information that they had been provided by the police. When the question of having the girls seeing a counselor came up, the girls themselves made it clear that they wanted to do it together rather than individually or they wouldn't do it at all.

The parents had agreed before bringing the girls home from the hospital that they wouldn't ask any questions about the abduction and let their daughters share what they felt comfortable with. Mindy openly related the experience of her and Jocelyn crossing the street and almost being run over by the van. When the driver got out and grabbed Jocelyn by her arm, Mindy had started running towards her house. Jocelyn's scream when the man held a knife against her neck made Mindy stop.

The man threatened to slash Jocelyn's throat if Mindy didn't get into the van with them. He grabbed her cell phone and tossed it onto the ground before roughly pushing both girls into the back of the van and closing the doors.

They had driven only about five minutes when the van had stopped. They were behind a strip mall in an alley that neither girl recognized. The driver warned them not to scream when he opened the back door or he would kill them both. When he opened the door, he told them to both turn around and place their hands behind their backs. He wrapped tape around Mindy's wrists first and then did the same thing to Jocelyn.

He forced each of girl to swallow two pills without any water. After he put tape over Mindy's mouth, he turned her around and pushed her into a lying position in the cramped back area of the van. He then taped Jocelyn's mouth and laid her beside Mindy. When he started unfastening the waistband of Jocelyn's pants is when he started recording with his cell phone and insulting both girls, calling them "cock teasing little sluts", and similar derogatory names. He kept asking them how many boys they had fooled around with, teased, or had actual sex with even though he knew that they couldn't answer due to the tape over their mouths.

He alternated between insulting them and asking them questions about their sex lives until he had stripped both girls of their pants and underwear. He was laughing as he got back behind the wheel and began driving again. He hadn't made any other stops or spoken a word to them before they had fallen asleep. Neither girl remembered anything about the police chase or the accident.

For their part, the parents spent the afternoon listening to their daughters recounting of the incident, and then voicing their own frustrations with law enforcement over the lack of information that they were willing to share.

The description of the man provided by the girls was so generic, and the circumstances of the abduction so random that neither Walker nor Stephanie could see any correlation to the catfishing hoax.

That would change on the following Wednesday.

~~~

"Roger Elliot was what is commonly referred to as an 'incel'," explained the FBI agent who had identified himself as Special Agent Stuart Jenkins out of the Atlanta field office.

"What's an 'incel'?" Stephanie asked.

Jenkins explained, "It stands for 'involuntarily celibate'. There is a community, mostly online, of predominantly young males who categorize themselves as either 'red pill' or 'black pill' individuals. Elliot was definitely a black pill incel."

"What's the difference?" asked Walker.

"The red pill was a metaphoric term representing a choice between learning an unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill. It has been used as a prop in a few Sci-Fi movies, such as the 1999 film 'The Matrix'. Incels in this category believe that they can be more socially acceptable to the opposite sex if they make changes to their appearance, social class, or financial situation. Most don't succeed and eventually transition into 'taking the black pill'."

"And black pill incels?" asked Stephanie.

"Someone who has 'taken the black pill' has fully adopted the belief that they are socially hopeless, and that their lack of success romantically and sexually is permanent regardless of any changes they might try to make to their physical appearance, personality, or other characteristics. These are the members of the incel community who are most likely to seek retribution against individuals that they resent, or society as a whole. Roger Elliot believed that he had no power to change his position in society or chances with women, so he attacked those who he felt contributed to his lot in life."

"So, they're basically outcasts, or perceive themselves as such," Walker said.

"Do you want to handle that, Silas?" Jenkins asked his partner, Special Agent Silas Gates.

"Sure. It's more involved than that. The online incel community is comprised of men radicalized by their shared mistrust of women. The incel community's main grievance is with women's ability to choose their own sexual partners. It has existed on the internet for years, but it wasn't until April of 2018, when a man identifying himself as an incel online drove a van down a street in Toronto and killed 10 people that most people learned of its existence. That attack was classified as misogynist terrorism by the Anti-Defamation League and others because it was motivated by revenge for the perpetrator's perceived sexual and social rejection by women.

"Like most incels, Elliot saw women as either 'Stacys'; attractive, and unattainable, or 'Beckys', representing the 'average' woman. Attractive, muscular, and popular men are referred to as 'Chads' and are presumed to sleep with lots of women.

"Certain discussions on incel forums indicate that to a large portion of the incel community, there are only two types of women in the world; both of whom are white, thin, and attractive. But while incels seem to believe that the untouchable Stacy will never sleep with them, they feel as though they are owed attention and sex from Becky.

"Some in the incel community believe that twenty percent of men are having eighty percent of all sex. That would mean that for every ten girls who are getting laid this week, eight of them are doing it with just two guys. They also postulate that the bottom eighty percent of men are left to fight for the bottom twenty percent of females. This works out fine for about seventy percent of the males, leaving just ten percent of the males to struggle for the bottom ten percent of females, who naturally only want access to the top twenty percent of males. In their equations, incels see themselves as that bottom ten percent, and view their celibate status as a mathematical problem that's rigged against them.

"Misogyny, both online or otherwise, isn't anything new. However, by grouping women by their attractiveness and personal style and then transforming their philosophy of inadequacy into a math problem, incels are making it easier for sexually frustrated men to see women not as human beings with their own sexual frustrations, but as numbers. That in turn makes it even easier to treat them as such."

Jenkins took over, "Our techs are just scratching the surface of Elliot's online presence but the documents on his personal computer indicate that your family has been a target for his disdain for almost a decade."

Stephanie gasped while Walker raised a hand indicating that he wanted Jenkins to pause, "Let's hold things right there."

~~~

When Walker had heard that the FBI investigation surrounding Mindy's and Jocelyn's abduction might also involve elements related to the catfishing hoax, he had arranged for Jacob Tucker to host a meeting in his conference room two days later. The FBI agents had no problem with the team from Sea Coast investigations and Detective Campbell listening in on the update, and they had been able to gather additional details in the meantime.

"Roger Elliot's manifesto was posted online to one of the more popular incel discussion forums the morning of the abduction," Jenkins explained. "Since it is already in the public domain, we have no problem sharing it with you."

He passed copies of a one-page printout around the table before continuing, "As you can read for yourselves, the incident involving Mindy Cross and Jocelyn Greer wasn't planned, but it also wasn't a random act. Elliot was intent on abducting an attractive girl for the sole purpose of capturing her humiliation on a video that he planned to share with his incel community."

Walker snorted, "So he just happened to come across our daughter and her friend while they were making an unplanned and unscheduled trek to our house?"

Special Agent Gates answered, "The digital journal that was found on Elliot's computer contains dates and times when we would sit parked on your street watching your house over the last ten years. These instances were random and appear dependent on his work schedule and route more than anything else."

"Has it been confirmed that he worked at Southeast Office Solutions?" asked Penelope Firth.

Gates nodded, "He worked for them as a field supervisor for the past three years. He was a senior technician for eight years before that. Other than his one deployment and his bi-yearly duty time with the National Guard, Southeast Office Solutions is the only place he has ever worked."

"When was his deployment?" Stephanie asked, although she now felt that she could identify it herself.

Jenkins checked his notes, "He was deployed to the Middle East in 2016. He was injured in 2019 and spent 8 months recovering in the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center."

Stephanie turned to Walker, "That explains the five-year gap."

Walker nodded and said, "And I'll bet that his bi-yearly Guard duty times were the years in between pictures."

"Anyway," Gates continued, "Elliot was parked watching your house when he apparently spotted the girls crossing the street and he saw them as his opportunity. There for his taking were two pretty girls that he knew and felt resentment towards already."

Penelope Firth had been holding a whispered conversation with the other members of her team, Sonny Helms and Colton Ashe. She paused and looked to Walker, "Your office equipment is serviced by S.O.S. isn't it?"

"Yes, and I think we've come to the same conclusion as you. S.O.S. likely provided service to equipment at all the locations where the fake documents originated and the photos were scanned or later printed. Am I close?"

Ashe answered, "That's what our investigation has determined, although some of the visitor logs we've reviewed don't list the name of the visiting technician every time. Frequently they only list 'S.O.S' as the entry. Roger Elliot's name does appear on the visitor logs at Warrenton Academy several times in the periods when the pictures were left on Mrs. Cross' vehicle."

"I just don't get why he hated us so much," Stephanie said.

Jenkins replied, "Elliot's original contempt for your family stemmed from his time as a youth spent in the foster care system. Although he lived with families, he was never part of a family. While living with the Follwielers at a time in his life when his social and sexual identity was developing, he saw you and your husband as having the perfect family that he could never be part of. His initial resentment grew out of that."

Gates said, "It gets more complex. When he started working for Southeast Office Solutions, Elliot would frequently come into contact with attractive women in the workplace who he perceived all viewed him as unworthy of their attention. One of these women was Payton Lange. I trust that you all recognize that name. His journal lists her as the first 'Stacy' that he decided to torment. Most of his harassment was online, but he claimed to have broken into her condo on several occasions to leave framed deep fake images of her in various poses, all of which showed her performing some variety of sexual self-gratification.

"Elliot claimed that he originally intended to use the pictures of Jocelyn Greer to further torment Payton Lange, but when he discovered her former connection to Walker Cross, his plans changed. He constructed the false DNA test report from copies and forms he had obtained while servicing equipment at Palmetto Bioscience and Delphi Diagnostics. His journal indicates that he was unaware that his hoax had been discovered and that he was growing frustrated every time that he discovered you were still a happy family."

Stephanie growled, "We're not at all sorry to have disappointed him."

"That's understandable," Jenkins said. "If it's any consolation, we can find no evidence that similar efforts by Elliot against other couples and families ever succeeded either. We believe it was his growing frustration over his tactics failing to achieve his desired results that led to him escalating his behavior and abducting the girls."

Ashe held up his cell phone and said, "Roger Elliot is listed in the CompTIA database as having A+, Network+, Security+, and CDIA certifications. That makes sense based on how long he worked for S.O.S. and also explains his skills at manipulating digital and analog images."

Detective Campbell asked Jenkins, "How widespread were this guy's actions? Everything you've mentioned so far would appear to align with the service territory for the company he worked at."

Gates shook his head, "Our technical people are still reviewing his e-mail, texts, and thousands of discussion forum posts to identify more of his online victims. What we have shared today comes primarily from his personal computer. I can give you a contact if you want to see what our technical team has so far."

"I'd like that. I have a couple of identity theft cases that I might be able to tie to this guy."

~~~

"Nothing cancels out an obsession better than finding a different obsession."

Walker asked, "Are you talking about our videos or something else."

He was rubbing lotion on his wife's abdomen while they lay in bed discussing the earlier Mother's Day gathering.

"I wasn't talking about our videos, but now that you mentioned them, can we watch one after you're done lubing me?"

"Anything that you want. So, what were you referring to if not our videos?"

"I was referring to Payton. You were skeptical about me inviting her and her father, but I knew that her obsession with you had been replaced by her obsession with Heidi. Plus, we think that even though they will be raised as pseudo-cousins, the twins should be together as often as possible. Gina and Payton have done a good job with that so far, and I wanted to support them."

"I didn't have a problem with you inviting them," Walker assured his wife. "I just wanted you prepared for any possible drama, especially from her father."

"You seemed to be getting along okay."

"Yeah, I guess being a grandfather has mellowed the old coot. He was actually pleasant to talk to for the first time in my life."

Walker watched Stephanie's eyes suddenly go as wide as he had ever seen them.

"Oh, oh, oh..."

"What's wrong?

She stared at her husband, "Don't you feel it? You're kneeling between my legs in a puddle. My water just broke."