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| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 96 |
Part Ninety-six continued:
Liar!! You told me you were real...you told me that he was the one trying to infiltrate your life...how could you? How could I...how could I be so duped by this...whoever the hell you are!
I'm not a neophyte...I've seen more of life than most at my age...that this man could wipe away every bit of wisdom I've worked so hard for all these years...it's...it's not possible!
"Before you say one word, Sherry," Nick's voice zoned in on her derisive thoughts as if they had been uttered outloud, "...ask yourself this...have you ever made a conscious decision to start over with your life...to cast aside those elements of your existence that were false or that dragged you down?"
"...ask yourself how right it is to be living out a destiny that submerges you and only lets you see one side of yourself? We all have sides, Sherry...some are well hidden and we never get to see them. I'm no different than anyone else, but I acted on my belief that there was something better out there."
"You lied!" Sherry almost shrieked the words after her long period of silence and shuddered involuntarily at the magnitude of what it all meant.
"Lied...distorted...twisted...changed...what does it matter? You wouldn't have believed me then or have even been able to accept it. Your mind wasn't ready for that."
Sweeping his arm out in a wide gesture, Nick took center stage as all eyes settled on him.
"You heard the jury...they're all here to convict me and send me back to my little hole of misery. Each one of them has a history with my "other" persona...but their perceptions have all been flawed. Toddy only let them see one side of his soul, and he hid everything else away from the world. Their association with him isn't accurate at all. In fact, you've had more reality with me than any of these sad, clueless people ever had with him."
"Wait a minute, pal!" Sam's face reddened. "Don't try to undercut what any of us meant to Todd Manning! I was his Coach...and yours, if you want to get technical. Viki is his sister...and Slider was his very good friend."
"A Coach who deserted him...a sister who never really understood him...and a friend...a friend who was so consumed with jealousy because of another woman that he never got over it...yeah...great little group of supporters."
Slider flinched, but said nothing. Go ahead, Nick...get it all out...this is your last hurrah...
"You bastard!" Sherry interrupted his pronouncement -- flinging out her outrage in front of everyone there.
So this is Sherry...she's captivatingly beautiful...and foreign...like Tea...
Viki's eyes had strained to see the woman who had gone unnoticed during their attempts to get to Nick. It was obvious that Nick had attached himself emotionally to her and that she had had a profound effect on him beyond what she, Sam, or even Slider had. How completely Todd had been split was now even more apparent...his alter had no use for anyone but this dark-eyed, exotic beauty.
"I'm a bastard?" Nick disengaged himself from the small group and walked slowly toward her -- his long arms swinging casually by his side. "Why... why am I a bastard? Did I treat you badly? Did I ever give you any reason to think I didn't care for you?"
"I asked you!" Sherry's voice trembled with fevered indignation. "You could have been honest, but instead you took advantage of my ignorance of who and what you are!"
"Maybe I should have introduced myself then...hi, I'm Nick...but I used to be a man named Todd Manning...really, Sherry...think about it. From the moment you saw me, you knew there was more to me than met the eye, didn't you? You could have walked away any time, and I'll bet the farm that you were ninety-eight percent certain that I had some mysterious, corrupted past."
Now only a hairsbreadth away from her, his fingers once more connected with the face which was rapidly flaming with a mixture of embarrassment and hot resentment. Their soft, grazing touch seemed to cool the surface of her heated skin and to her great dismay, she felt herself sinking back into some faint, unworldly complacency.
"You have nothing to fear with me...I've left a life behind, that's all...a life that was pathetic and ineffectual...he couldn't love...and he couldn't do anything right with these do-gooders. There's nothing back there, Sherry, and not one thing stands in the way of my taking what is rightfully mine."
lllllllllllll
The bartender eyed the man slumped against the counter seemingly pondering the depths of a shiny, empty shot glass.
"Another one?" he asked the brown-skinned man who looked every bit like he could have been a native of a Caribbean island.
"No...nothing," was the terse reply, and the bartender mentally made a note not to bother this customer again for awhile.
Raising his body up somewhat, Del still assumed the attitude of any ordinary man sitting at a bar enjoying a drink. He had many postures which he slipped into for the public in order to convey that he was anything but a vigilant FBI agent.
He had already checked his watch, and the urge to do it again was strong, but he didn't want to let anyone know he was waiting for someone. Anything you don't hide is fair game...the public doesn't have a need to know...
The shot of whiskey had been a welcome relaxant to his tired mind and body, but he detected an aftertaste that was bitter. It was not the drink. This was about his elusive, wayward sister.
Time is just about up, chiquita...
It had occurred to him after he sat down at the bar that she would not come. If he had followed his instincts, he would have more or less accepted this. Yet he had given her that one chance -- the chance to prove to him that she wasn't knee-deep in filial betrayal.
"Another one...I'll have another one," he suddenly piped his request to the bartender.
The amber liquid swirled languidly in the glass as the bartender set it down, and Del's fingers groped for the drink as if it would somehow resolve the dilemma he was in. Before he could pass it to his lips, a disturbing, ringing sound prevented him from once more draining the glass dry.
A sharp, male voice penetrated his unsettled thoughts, and he spoke the words he had repeated hundreds of times before.
"Yes...what is it?"
"Just reporting back, sir...thought you'd want to know this...the car plates you had us trace...we've finally got that info."
lllllllllllll
As Nick was walking toward Sherry, Slider initiated the last phase of his plan. Already he had seen Nick's reaction to the reintroduction of two of the most important people in Todd's life. Sam had been the father figure he had never known, and Viki had been the sister who had mothered him. The far-reaching effects of their influence were not so easily determined, but Slider was sure that their presence and impassioned words had penetrated through the alter's mind control to the man he wanted to reach. Even so, Nick was holding all of them off with the powerful mastery developed from years of keeping Todd removed from those who loved him. You're no fool, Nick...that's why this is harder than I ever thought it would be...
Not one thing? Sherry's mind channeled back to the inside of an elevator and a ring whose brilliance sparkled up into her eyes. That woman...the one who was looking for me. I heard you mention a wife to them. "She's my lawyer"...wasn't that what you said? Who isyour wife?
"I think you have ties to someone else, Nick...another woman," Sherry slung out at him -- her heart pounding loudly within her as she waited for his answer.
Damn! She's bringing Tea into it!
"Okay, you deserve the truth, Sherry...there is a wife, but she's not mine, and she was never really his."
lllllllllllll
"The plates? Yeah...let me have it." Del's voice half slurred into the phone.
"Sorry for the delay, too...the computer..."
"Cut to the chase."
"Sure...ready...well, the Pennsylvania plate belongs to a Mrs. Victoria Carpenter of Llanview, PA. The Illinois plate is right there in Chicago...belongs to a Terrence Paxton."
The hair on Del's neck stood straight up. Viki Carpenter...here in Chicago...at the old home of Todd Manning!
"Who the hell is this Terrence Paxton?"
"A professor at the University... and a psychologist."
The last word spoken had cinched it for him. It all fit...all the missing details were now falling into place. A phone call..."I'll be there in two hours, Del...call off your men." You're there, aren't you, chiquita...you're not going to meet me...I could sit here for hours...
lllllllllllll
Slider's hand shook slightly as he watched Nick's large form moving in and absorbing Sherry's space. Nick's silky, self-assurance made Slider want to run over and drag him off and away from her...as far as away as possible. Am I sacrificing her to him? She's already been compromised, and I'm to blame...
The "other sides" that Nick had referred to wasn't a foreign concept to Slider at all. He could feel the steady pull originating from the side of him that wanted to loudly declare his love for the woman next to Nick. He had never allowed himself that kind of abandon with her..until just recently. Strange...we both had problems with loving women, Z...
I just have to trust that she will understand it all...that her mind will be strong enough to fight off his manipulative, hypnotic control...
"Then let's have it, Nick," Sherry said curtly. "I'm sure everyone here will back up your claims, right?"
"No one here knows the full story," Nick responded quietly. "Yes, I have a wife, or rather, Todd has. I think you met her, didn't you? I didn't lie to you...I just didn't tell you everything. She is a lawyer, and very well paid."
"Go on," Sherry said impatiently.
"Todd had to get himself a wife in a hurry, and he paid her a cool five million to play the part. You see, he needed her to compliment his lifestyle and to gain custody of his child."
"Child? He has a child?"
"Yes, with another woman...long story. They divorced and it wasn't pleasant. Todd felt he had to do something to keep her from taking his kid, so he hired himself a make-believe wife and mommy...Tea."
"Well, this is just..." Sherry muttered, suddenly at a loss for words.
"That's what I'm telling you," Nick asserted and pressed her arms for emphasis. "She's a wife in name only, and even though Toddy thought at one point that they might make a good team, it was all smoke and mirrors...she betrayed him over and over again."
"But you're married!" Sherry shut out his persuasive words and focused only on what she knew to be a fact.
"Married...a paper...some words written down that never established a commitment...both of them consciously broke away from it because it was always too painful for them to be together...that's no real marriage..and besides, I'm not the one who married her."
"...not only that," Nick looked deeply into her widening eyes, "Todd and Tea...they never...Toddy couldn't even bring himself to touch her!"
"How dare you!!" a clear, strong voice seemed to shoot out and supernaturally strike at his back, and Nick twirled around to face his accuser. She stood at the top of the stairs -- every ounce of her petite body bristling with indignation and fired up with vibrant energy.
All right, you swaggering, pretentious pretender...it's my turn!!
To Be Continued
