I sat there in complete shock. I mean ok I was expecting that to be the truth, but I was kind of hoping it wasn’t. Louis, the man I had come to know as my father, had known from the very being who I really was.
Once the shock faded another emotion surfaced. I was furious. I looked at the faces of Michael, Joanna and David in the hopes that they would give me some comfort. But all I saw was looks that told me they had known all along as well.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Any of you? I mean you kept me from my family!” I almost screamed.
“I was involved in the entire operation.” Louis said stoically. “I had arranged that you would be staying here in the days or weeks after your kidnapping. Until your ransom was received. But the men who were hired to do the actual kidnap bungled it and you ended up with a serious head injury. They freaked out and took you to some friends. They all ended up on our doorstep and delivered you to your mother….”
“She’s NOT my mother!” I interrupted and Marie’s face fell.
“I wasn’t here at the time.” Louis continued as if the interruption had not occurred. “ If I had been I would have told them to take you away, to a hospital or whatever I didn’t care. But by the time I got home it was too late, Marie had already become attached to you. I had no choice but to go on with the plan. Then when it came out in the media, that your ransom had been paid, I expected them to come and pick you up but they never did.”
“So why didn’t you take me to the police or something?” I asked
“If I had done that, I would have been taken to prison as an accessory to kidnap. I couldn’t do that, because it would have meant I would probably never be able to see my REAL children ever again!” He said as if it should have been obvious.
“So you kept me here and pretended to know nothing about my past because you didn’t want to go to prison! What about you three? Why didn’t you tell me what happened?” I asked Michael, David and Joanna.
“We knew a few weeks after you first arrived.” Michael said electing himself speaker for his siblings. “After your ransom was paid and you weren’t collected, Dad called us into my room. He asked if I remembered the stories about the little girl who had been kidnapped. When we said we did Dad told us that you were that little girl. He said that you had to stay with us though because if you went home bad things would happen. We ass….”
“No! I don’t want to know anymore! I don’t even want to be HERE anymore.” I got up and, pulling Jake with me, made my way towards the door.
“Wait!” Joanna called “Marie-Louise….”
At the sound of the name these ‘criminals’ had given me, I spun around to face them all again.
“Do NOT call me by that name. From now on my name is Anastazia and that is the only one I will answer to. You people sicken me and I want NOTHING more to do with any of you!” I spat
With that I turned back around and strode through the doorway, out of that house and out of their lives. Hopefully forever.
~~
Four days later Jake and I were driving to my new home. It was scary but only because I didn’t know what to expect. I had five suitcases crammed into the back of Jake’s beaten up old car, I hadn’t known what I should take or not, but it was mostly clothes. My nerves about this day were replaced by awe though, as we pulled into the driveway. The house was HUGE, at least four stories and two wings. It was beautiful sandstone and marble mansion that looked like it had been built centuries ago. It hadn’t though.
As we pulled up to the front of the building, the butler came through the front door. Or at least I assumed he was the butler. He helped me from the car, and then he and Jake removed my luggage. While this was happening Rita had come outside. Giving me a quick hug she said
“Thankyou Max. Now if you and Mr Williams would be so kind as to take all the bags upstairs, Anastazia and I will follow you.”
Max the butler pick up three of my heavy suitcases (How he managed it I will never know) and made his way inside. Jake followed with the remaining bags, and Rita and I followed him.
Once inside I was awestruck once again. There was a great sweeping staircase at the end of the foyer. It broke into two different ones at the end of the room. Each lead to a different wing of the house. The second floor even appeared to have a balcony on the inside. This was the house from my dream all those weeks ago.
As I stood staring at the room, Rita came up behind me and whispered in my ear “Welcome home, Baby Girl.”