CEO & the human improbability 3/3

Nothing was ever as strange as the time she woke up with a husband she didn’t remember

The CEO and the Human Improbability Engine 3 of 3
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Chapter 5
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The next morning Samuel walked over to where Mary was sitting at the breakfast table, with her head lying on her crossed arms. The screen of the laptop open in front of her was dark. Stealing a bite of pancake from her untouched plate, Samuel discovered it was cold and dry around the edges.
Hearing cutlery clink, Mary raised her head only to be met with a fork carrying a huge square, roughly cut from the centre of a pancake, aimed at her mouth. Taking a bite, she sat up and reached for her coffee to wash it down, grimacing when she found it cold. “So, how were your calls to the hospitals? And you never said how it went with Hannah’s father.”
Samuel sat down beside her, took a bite of the pancake square, then said “Well, St. Mathew’s claims that the transfer from St. John’s was normal as far as they knew, but they will be investigating. And Dr. Smythe wants you to come in to get reassessed. Your appointment is tomorrow at 6 am.” He smiled wryly at her groan “He’ll be coming in before his shift in order to get it done as soon as possible, and he wants to get your hair sample to the lab first thing. He thinks you were right and we should investigate how long you were being dosed with the sedatives he was told were for seizures, and if you were drugged with anything else. He’s going to be putting together a list of things they should test for and wants you to send him a description of any symptoms you can remember from when you first woke up. St. John’s on the other hand has no record of you. Both hospitals are willing to let me send them some forensic computer specialists to check if they were hacked to create your paperwork. And I’ve contacted the police. They’re skeptical, but will send over an officer this afternoon.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek, ignoring her glare, then leaned his head against her shoulder and sighed “My call to James,” He looked up at her. “Hannah’s dad, went as well as it could have gone.” Mary patted the back of his head in commiseration. “He wants to meet you. He doesn't believe you could be mistaken for her and he’s suspicious that I’m somehow at fault and have orchestrated this whole thing in order to shack up with some trashy gold digger, but he yelled a lot less than I expected. He’ll be here tomorrow and we can ask him if he has any information that could help with the search.” He sat up and pulled her onto his lap to hug her, but she wiggled off. “How are your chats going?”
Mary rolled her eyes at him, then pulled the computer over and hit the power button to wake it up. “The chat with Temo went fabulous. He wants five thousand for a retainer and will be charging you three hundred an hour for his time. He called it a friends and family rate. Considering what I know of his relations with his friends and family, I don’t know if that means he’s charging more or less than he would a stranger, but I thought it seems reasonable since he’s bringing specialist knowledge.” Samuel nodded and she continued. “He seemed pretty happy that I’d be telling my family about the lightning strike, and resigned to them knowing the rest. He gave me until noon to spill the beans, and left rubbing his hands together like the bad guy from a black and white cartoon.”
Unlocking the computer, she turned it so that Samuel could see her email draft. “But, I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out what to say to my parents about what’s been going on.”
Samuel looked at where she had written. It was a point form list of what had happened, a few possible greetings followed by an impressive list of foul language and smashed keys.
There was a pop up window with a timer featuring a cartoon bomb that looked like it was set to explode at twelve.
“I see. Would you rather phone?”
Mary glared at that suggestion.
“Would you like me to phone?” She gaped at him “As your fiancé?” He quickly stood up and jumped back as she lunged at him, then moved quickly across the room and out the door. Ducking around the corner, he waited a moment, then hearing no sounds of pursuit he stuck his hands in his pockets and ambled away, smiling.
Retreat was not cowardice, but wisdom.
His smile spread into a grin and he gave a little skip.
She hadn’t said he wasn't her fiancé.

At noon, Samuel went to find Mary.
She was in her room, lying spread eagle on the bed, with a pillow over her face.
He dropped down beside her and pulled off the pillow.
Staring at the ceiling she said “I told them everything.” then dragged the pillow back.
He climbed across the bed to hug her and nuzzled his face against her neck under the pillow. “It can’t be that bad.”
She pulled the pillow off and turned to face him, pulling out of his arms. “I just emailed my parents and Nan to let them know that I’ve been kidnapped twice and never told them, one of the abductors being a guy who’s home I’ve regularly crashed at for years, got struck by lightning a third time they didn’t know about, been in a coma for at least a couple weeks if not longer, and now I’m living with a married man whose wife disappeared under very suspicious circumstances."
“It…does sound bad when you say it like that” Samuel inched after her, then changed tactics and moved to sit against the headboard, pulling her up onto his lap so that he could tuck her under his chin. “But there were a lot of mitigating factors. We are the innocent victims of a conspiracy.
She groaned and pushed at his arms, trying to get away. “You’re still married.”
Samuel pulled her back. “Which is why I am sitting here, politely not assaulting you, with all my clothes fully on.” He rubbed his chin against her hair “We will find my contractually soon to be ex-wife, make sure she is safe and sound, and then if she’s innocent I’ll ask to end the marriage early, and if she isn’t innocent I’ll blackmail her with possible fraud charges, and you can decide how you want to handle the kidnapping, assault and unlawful confinement, and even if we can’t get her to agree for an early divorce I still have a contract with a firm end date, so as soon as the divorce is final I’ll propose and we will be getting married.” He gave her a significant look.
“Hm.” She considered him “I was kinda trusting my past self to have put some thought into the decision to marry you, but now that I know that past me never even met you, I’m going to have to think about it.”
“But you like me.”
“I do like you.”
“And you trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“And you’ll stay.”
She sighed. “Yes, I’ll stay.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, hanging on tight.
He hugged her back. “And can I see your keys?”
Mary sat up, sliding off his lap towards the bedside table. “I thought you wanted me to stay?!”
Samuel straightened up. “I just need to fix something.”
She grabbed the keychain out of the crystal dish sitting on the table and handed it to him. He popped open the locket to pull out the wedding portrait of him and the other Hannah, replacing it with a selfie he had taken with Mary in front of the roses. “We’ll get a better picture of the two of us soon, but for now this…” he tossed the wedding portrait into the waste paper bin beside the bed with great force “has got to go.”

Late next morning Mary and Samuel returned from the hospital to find a man and two women waiting with Temo under the pergola in the rose garden.
“Mary!” The younger of the women, in her fifties, short, chubby and blond, with a round face, got up and ran forward to envelope Mary in a bear hug that almost knocked her off her feet. She was quickly followed by another woman who could have been her twin, down to the distinctive bump at the end of her nose, if she hadn’t been at least twenty years older. The man, thin, in his fifties, with salt and pepper hair, followed slowly behind. Samuel examined him, noticing how much he looked like the other Hannah’s mother, Joyce.
The woman in her fifties was crying. “Sweety! I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about getting kidnapped, Three Times, and getting struck by lightning again. We will be having a talk about trusting strange men exhibiting blatant red flags, even if Mr. Alievi and Mr. Willson didn’t turn out to be serial killers," Temo scratched his eyebrow, partially hiding his face “and, what on earth happened to your nose!?!”
Samuel started “Three kidnappings? Oh, I hadn’t counted the coma in the hospital.”
Mary, ignoring him, rubbed her nose and looked at her family “Mom, I thought I was imagining it whenever I thought my nose was different.” Mary gestured at Samuel “Mom, Dad, Nan, this is Samuel. Samuel, these are my parents Tom and Elzibeth Cook and my grandmother, my Nan, Julie Cook.” then turned back to the women “I was told I had amnesia so I thought I wasn’t remembering right, and all the pictures I had access to looked like this.” She pointed at her face, then turned to Temo. “Why didn’t you notice anything?”
He shrugged. “I did. I just don’t comment on women's plastic surgery.”
Mary grunted.
Samuel asked “What did her nose look like before?”
Tom pulled out his phone and opened up a photo folder labeled ‘Munchkin’. Samuel examined a picture of Mary with the same nose as her mother, then kept scrolling while she talked to her mother and grandmother.
Her father stepped forward and extracted Mary from the women, pulling her into his arms and lifting her up onto her tiptoes “Hon, I think this might just be your wildest tale … other than the Tiger Incident of course.” at which Mary slapped his side and wailed an aggrieved “Dad!”
Samuel looked up from the photos to ask Tom “Could I forward a few of these to myself?” doing so at Tom’s nod before handing the phone back. He looked at Mary. “I think we should check with the doctor to see if there’s any way to tell if you had plastic surgery while you were out. It might give us another clue about where you were and how long you were held.” He glanced at everyone. “Let’s all share locations and contact information.”

Samuel walked down the stairs into the front sitting room to see Mary snuggled in her Nan’s arms with her eyes closed, and her father, mother and Billy lounging on the couches and chairs listening as Temo finished a story that involve Mary being rescued from a car by a passing C list celebrity before the car was crushed by a piece of falling building. The celebrity had later recounted the tale to Temo when he’d been the consultant for a heist movie.
Samuel cleared his throat to get Mary’s attention, only to receive the attention of everyone in the room “Um, Dr. Smythe has arranged for a plastic surgeon to see you on Friday. Her name’s Dr. Horen. She’ll check for surgical scar tissue and underlying nasal anatomy changes and the degree of healing to give us a broad idea of when the surgery on your nose took place.”
Elzibeth gestured towards the laptop in front of Billy “We’ve also checked the locations that were recorded to the cloud by her old phone, and compared it with her last memories before the hospital and calls and emails we had, and I think we’ve pinned down the last date we know Mary was free before she was abducted.”
Samuel walked over to look at the document on the screen, full of maps and timelines. “That’s about six weeks before Mary showed up at St. John’s, and a week before Hannah disappeared.”
“I’ll add that in.” Billy typed “I’ve got it all saved on a USB for the police.”
“Good job.” Samuel looked at his watch. “They should be here in half an hour.” He unlocked his phone and handed it to the teenager. “Add Dr. Smythe’s contacts, he’s coordinating the medical information.”
Temo gave him a cynical look “Your doctor seems to be taking very good care of you.”
“Yes, well I’ve agreed to hire him on as our personal doctor for a year after this all gets sorted and we don’t need his access to hospital records. He’s looking forward to enjoying a highly paid sabbatical with a bit of light work.” Samuel turned to Billy “Have you talked to your dad yet about going home?”
Billy handed him back his phone “Yeah, he says he’s worried about Brock and Nick messing with me and seems to have forgotten that he asked me to come back. I think what he’s really worried about is missing out on the gossip if I’m not here to report back.”
Temo nodded sagely, and Samuel narrowed his eyes at him “By the way, have you figured out how you’re going to get started on your end of the investigation? Do you need a travel allowance,” Samuel looked at Temo hopefully. “maybe a hotel account so you can follow the clues?”
Temo shook his head “I need to be here for your talk with the police and to coordinate with them if it seems like they’re the sort to be useful. I’ve reached out to my contacts to see who might know a guy, who might know a guy who can put me in touch with the locals, so it would be best for me to stay here,” he grinned at Samuel “to organize the information gathering. I have arranged for my men to take care of business back home,” He winked at Billy “and they have charged me to keep them apprised of the Mary lore as it unfolds.” Mary glared at him. He turned innocent eyes towards her “I fear I would be facing a rebellion if I left your home before this tale reaches a conclusion,” he gave a little bow to Samuel “so I thank you for your continued hospitality.”
Samuel grunted, and then turned as the doorbell rang.
Expecting the police, he walked over and opened the door, only to find the other Hannah’s parents waiting on the porch.
Joyce Maria Abigail Jeseph was thin and dark, a feminine version of Mary’s father. Beside her stood her husband, James Michael Robert Jeseph, a cold looking, well cared for man with thick well styled light grey hair. They stepped inside and frowned up at the space on the entryway wall where their daughter’s wedding portrait used to hang. Then they looked down at the people sitting watching them, caught sight of Mary and froze.
Mary raised her head and looked at the newcomers, then looked at her father before turning back to examine Joyce again.
James shook his head as he moved forward, examining Mary closely. “You aren’t Hannah. You look so much like her, but you’re not…”
“No.” Mary replied “Well, actually, I’m a Hannah, just not your Hannah. I go by Mary, my middle name. Samuel found me at the hospital when I was coming out of a coma, and he was told I was your daughter. I was told he was my husband, and that I had amnesia. Between the brain fog from the coma and the wedding pictures that looked like me and the fact that we had the same first name, I didn’t question it too closely during my recovery.”
Joyce narrowed her eyes. “And you never thought that it was all a bit…strange?”
Everyone else’s eyes met, all of them trying to suppress or hide a smile.
Except Temo, who grinned openly without any attempt at politeness. “Our girl eats strange events for breakfast. I’m only surprised that this time electricity didn’t descend from the sky.”
“Don’t you dare jinx her!” Julie pointed her finger at him, and he raised his hands, bowing his head in sincere apology.
“Joyce.” Tom drew her attention. “Let’s not blame people for believing what their doctors tell them when presented with reasonable evidence, and concentrate on how we can get your girl home.”
Samuel stepped towards Joyce. “We’ve started checking with the hospitals where Mary was left and hired private investigators, one of which has contacts with kidnappers and others who might be involved with shadowy activities. If you’re able to check with Hannah’s friends and check her financial activity, or anything else you can think of, we can add it to the information we’ll be giving the police. We’re expecting them shortly, and they’ll be opening an official investigation.”
Joyce and James stiffened and looked at each other. “It would probably be best to find Hannah ourselves and make sure this isn’t a misunderstanding before bringing in the police.” James replied.
Their audience showed various stages of shock, except for Temo, who was looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. Or a mobster with a juicy new bit of gossip to pass on.
The doorbell rang.
Walking to the door, Samuel glanced at Hannah’s parents “Mary was kidnapped and drugged for several weeks before she ended up at the hospital. We will be involving the police.” Then he swung open the door and smiled “Officers, thank you for coming. Please come in.”

After the police left, Joyce and James sat facing the rest.
Mary examined them and pointed at Joyce “So you’re Dad’s sister?” Joyce nodded. Then Mary pointed at James “And you’re my uncle. And Hannah is my cousin, and looks a lot like me.” Her eyes moved as the wheels turned in her head. Then she turned to Temo “Who were you trying to kidnap when we met?”
He nodded. “Hannah Joyce Maria Jeseph.”
James reared up and Joyce held him back from lunging forward. “You tried to kidnap my daughter?!”
Samuel narrowed his eyes at him, “And you’ve decided to take your time providing your daughter’s financials, and suggested delaying notifying the police in spite of the fact that she’s still missing.” He tightened the arm he had around Mary’s shoulders, pulling her closer “And as I understand it, when you were called by someone claiming to have your daughter prisoner, you blocked the number rather than checking to see if there was another girl who had been stolen in Hannah’s place. Did you even report the call?”
James lowered himself back into his chair, grunting “When was this?”
“Six years ago.” Mary answered.
Temo turned to Samuel “No one in the nearby villages heard about the kidnapping from him.”
Mary nodded “Mm, Captain Beridze was quite scandalized. He’d called all the nearby towns and villages, but no one had let anyone know they had gotten a ransom call, even if it was a wrong number.”
Temo looked at her startled. “He had the energy?”
Mary nodded “He’s actually quite diligent when it comes to innocent bystanders.” Mary poked Temo’s arm and Samuel frowned at her hand until it returned to her lap. “Remember how he is when he has to organize a search for a missing kid. And how fast he caught everyone in the Bolkvadze family.”
Temo snorted. “They were a menace.”
Mary looked at him with her eyebrows raised, and he looked back offended. “I am nothing like those monsters.”
She nodded and turned her attention back to the Jesephs. Then she had a thought. “So all my kidnappings were because I look like my cousin!” Mary leaned forward to look at her Nan. “None of them were because I was being reckless.”
Julie Cook snorted and crossed her arms.
Samuel clapped his hands sharply to draw everyone’s attention “Back to the topic at hand.” He looked at James and Joyce. “You refused the police, but would you allow us access to Hannah’s financials so we can see if and where any of her cards or funds have been accessed while she’s been missing?”
James crossed his arms “We’ll take a look, and let the police know if there is anything they need to see.”
Joyce turned to Tom “Does father know you’ve been hiding a child?”
Tom raised an eyebrow “I’m hiding a wife too. Don’t know what he knows, never talked to him since I left. Maybe he knows and was content to ignore me since I didn’t manage to produce a boy to continue on his Great Name. Or maybe he just preferred the son-in-law that took his name to the family run away.”
“Father would be less content if he found out that your daughter is trying to steal the marriage he arranged for Hannah.”
“Mary didn’t steal anything.” replied Samuel, irritated. “She was dropped into this mess by a villain who apparently didn’t want us to know that your Hannah was missing. And what I had with your daughter wasn’t a marriage so much as a real estate and PR contract set to expire in eight months.”
Joyce’s face turned sour. “There’s no reason the marriage can't continue. It’s a good match.”
“We all know the marriage isn’t going to continue.” Samuel replied “Before this mess I had no ill will towards Hannah, but the fact that it took months for me to figure out she wasn’t the woman living in my house lets you know just how little time we spent together and exactly how not interested we were in each other.”
Joyce raised her chin. “It’s not really up to you.”
Samuel’s jaw dropped. “What on earth do you mean by that?”
Tom stood and stepped forward to partially shield Mary “What does Father have on Samuel?"
Standing up to fully block Mary from Joyce’s view, Samuel turned his head to look at Tom “He doesn’t have anything on me.” Then he faced Joyce. “Explain!”
Joyce’s chin went up a notch “You need us. Your capital is all tied up with Jeseph Industries."
Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Some of my capital is tied up with yours…for another six months. We’ve got a few deals that extend past then, but I’ve already secured financing elsewhere for when we get closer to the divorce.”
“You’d never be able to grow as fast without our support.”
“Considering the direction the next generation’s interests have taken, that’ll only be a concern if Mary pops out a real estate mogul. Some of the family have even split off from the main company to start their own businesses.” Samuel turned to Tom and gestured at Joyce. “Is this kind of thing why you took your wife’s name?”
Tom nodded.
Shocked, Joyce yelled. “What on Earth could you be thinking! Father will be furious you’ve turned your back on his name!”
“Then it would be in your best interest not to be the one to tell him.” Mary stood up and walked around her men to face her aunt. “What with killing the messenger and all.” She leaned in confidingly. “I promise we won’t tell if you don’t.” She gestured towards the door. “Now, I’m sure you’ve had a long trip and want to get going.” Taking their arms in a firm grip, she led James and Joyce back to the entrance and out the door. “We’d love to hear from you if you have anything helpful to share, and we’ll be sure to let you know if we hear from Hannah or the police.” Backing the couple through the door, she quickly closed and locked it before turning back and brushing off her hands to find everyone staring at her.
Billy gave a slow clap and Tom a proud nod. Samuel looked at Temo for an explanation.
“She has been good at that as long as I’ve known her. She gets rid of people so decisively that the well meaning ones don’t argue, and most of the ones looking for a victim catch that glint in her eyes and decide to take all that aggressive politeness at face value and leave without a struggle.”
“Hrmph!” Mary glared at him with her arms crossed, looking remarkably like her Nan in spite of sharing no physical features. “They were just looking for an excuse to go and I gave it to them.”
Temo walked over to tap her on the nose, nodding knowingly “You go on thinking that.” then headed for the back exit leading to the guesthouse.
Samuel came up behind Mary draping his head and arms over her shoulders “We will get the guesthouse back someday, won’t we?”
Mary nodded “As soon as we get boring. But you know he’s going to be claiming it every time he’s in the country.”
Samuel sighed.
Tom examined his daughter being embraced by a man who was entangled with the family he’d spent decades avoiding, a man he had just met a couple hours ago, then spoke. “Samuel, I’m assuming that a house this big has a private room where we could have a talk.”

A bit over an hour later, Samuel and her parents joined Mary and everyone else in the dining room. Her mother and father sat down on either side of her and Samuel sat at the far end of the table with a resigned look on his face.
Tom took a deep breath and tried to look reasonable. “We understand that what has already happened was due to an honest belief in what your status was, but I think that everyone has agreed that what happened won’t be happening again until Samuel’s marriage to Hannah is fully and legally ended.”
Tom paused to give the youngsters time to absorb the weight of what he’d said, then continued. “I am somewhat reassured, having seen the letters that Samuel’s lawyers have prepared for his divorce in all possible circumstances. Now that we’ve seen Mary is okay, Mom has to go back tomorrow since she was only able to get a couple days off work and Nan will be going home with her since she has orders coming up. But,” He turned to Mary. “I will be moving in, since I’ve seen how well Samuel has been keeping to the no touching rule he apparently already agreed to.” Samuel studied the ceiling as Temo smirked.

After supper, Samuel and Mary took her relatives out to the kitchen garden, maintaining a scrupulous half meter distance under her father’s watchful eye, and leaving Billy alone with Temo. Taking the opportunity, Billy leaned across the table to ask “You seem to be really happy with Mary and Uncle Samuel getting together. I thought you liked her?”
Temo looked at him like he was an idiot. “She’s a pretty little thing, resourceful and fearless, who died to save my life. Of course I fucking like her!
The only reason I didn’t lock her up in my castle once she got out of the hospital is because I had just seen how disastrous trying to trap her could be, and her trusting words gave me the delusion that I could coax her. But that was when I first knew her.” He held up his hand, palm up before flipping it over. “Now, Mary has become my very good friend, and even though I would grab the chance if she ever showed any interest, there is no romance between us.
I am happy that my very good friend has found someone who makes her eyes shine, and delighted that she has shown the good sense to pick someone rich and useful to fall in love with.”
A scheming smile crossed his face. “I am also delighted that I am now free to crush the feeble tales of all those who used to be so proud of their little adventures with the very best story. And it looks like I’ll soon have an even better tale to add to the lore of Mary.” Temo sat back with a grin. “So, yes I am very happy.” He got up and walked around the table to lean over the back of Billy’s chair, pressing him down by his shoulders, and spoke close to his ear. “Happy enough that, just for today, I won’t be teaching my very dear friend’s new nephew a lesson about asking rude questions.”
Patting Billy hard on the cheek, Temo left.
Wide eyed, Billy let out a breath “Shit.”

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Chapter 6
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The next day Samuel had a driver take himself, Mary and her family to the airport. He’d had his secretary upgrade his future mother and grandmother in-law to first class and got everyone else tickets for a flights the next day, so that they could keep the women company in the lounge.
While Tom was distracted for a moment getting Nan checked in, Mary slid into the half meter zone around Samuel to whisper “Showing off?”
Looking straight ahead, he replied “I just thought you’d like to spend as much time as possible with your Nan and Mother before they left.” Then glancing to the side at her, he smiled, putting his arm around her waist to pull her close. “And I’m hoping you're all at least a tiny bit impressed."
Hearing a throat clear they looked up to see Tom standing in front of them with a stern expression. They quickly untangled themselves and stepped back, reestablishing the half meter zone.

Samuel, Tom and Mary walked through the airport after seeing Elzibeth and Julie off.
Mary stretched and looked around for a bathroom sign. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that much tea before in my life,” she pointed to the opening in the wall leading to the washroom. “I’m going to the lady’s. I’ll just be a minute.”
Tom nodded, “It’s a three hour drive, we should all go.”
Samuel checked his texts. “Okay, the driver says he'll be at the front in fifteen minutes. I’ll wait for you to get back, and then you can wait for Mary while I go.”

The driver had timed out in the pick up zone twice and gone to park.
After checking map sharing and finding Mary’s phone off, the men had sent a female staff member into the washroom, where she found the phone and the tracking device from Mary’s pocket on the floor. Samuel arranged for a search of the airport. Tom went to have Mary called over the PA system then called his sister, who claimed to know nothing. He called Temo and Billy, asking them to cover the phones at the house and contact anyone they could think of.
Samuel contacted the officer in charge of investigating Mary’s previous kidnapping so they could bypass the wait for getting her declared missing.
Then Samuel and Tom sat in the airport and waited.

Mary sat on one of two beautiful but highly uncomfortable armchairs facing an ornately imposing desk in a large office full of antiques and various pictures of a portly man in an expensive suit shaking hands with expensive looking people. The man looked like he would steal your hand and sell it back to you one finger at a time.
After checking the door to see if it was locked, and staring at the large clock on the wall behind the desk for twenty minutes, she decided that whoever had had her grabbed was making her wait so that she could realize how very unimportant she was.
Mary sighed, turned the chairs face each other, kicked off her shoes and propped her feet on the second chair, settling in for a nap.
Feeling herself being watched, Mary stirred and woke to find the man from the photos staring at her from where he stood behind the desk.
Lowering her feet into her shoes, Mary grabbed her chair's arm rests and loudly hopped the chair she was in around until it almost faced the desk head on. She waited until the man sat and then adjusted the chair to better face him, making sure to create a grinding noise on the hardwood floor. Over-correcting, she then spent a great deal of time fine tuning the direction of her chair until she faced him head on.
Looking up she found the man observing her, frowning. He leaned back into his chair “Are you done Hannah? Or would you like to fiddle around a bit more before you deign to explain why you disappeared for over a month before showing up pretending to be someone else.”
Mary raised her eyebrow “Did James and Joyce tell you I was Hannah pretending to be someone else?”
“No. Apparently you have them fooled,” he slammed his hands against the top of the desk and rose up to yell “but you’re not going to get out of this marriage by making up outrageous stories.” He pointed at her “And you had better get that Willson boy in line, I don’t care how!”
Mary considered him dispassionately, then leaned forward, speaking calmly “One, I am a Hannah, but I’m Hannah Mary not Hannah Maria, and while I may look similar to her, part of that is because whoever kidnapped and drugged me into a coma also had plastic surgery done on me.” She leaned back. “Hannah’s parents realized I wasn’t her as soon as they saw me, probably because they Are Her Parents. Second, Samuel gets to decide if he stays with her and he’s already decided not to. He had decided not to at least a year before I came along. Meeting you, whoever you are,” She waived her hand at him. “I’m actually starting to sympathize with Hannah a bit, even if she does turn out to be the one who kidnapped me. If you really doubt her parent’s ability to tell who their own daughter is, I suggest you bring James in so we can do a DNA test and get this sorted.”
The man narrowed his eyes “Why just James, and not Joyce, or me?”
Mary stared at him, trying to force her brain to move quickly.
She was pretty sure this was her grandfather. The grandfather that her Dad had cut contact with decades ago, and with what little she’d seen of this man, she was happy to keep contact cut. Mary didn't want him to know her full name, nor that they were blood relatives, so she carefully answered, “Well, I know that James is Hannah’s father but I don’t know who you are, so I wasn’t about to suggest testing you.”
“You must have heard of Michael Jeseph?” He stated as he pushed back the front of his jacket to hook his thumbs into his suspenders.
Mary waited for elaboration, and when it didn’t come, she spread her hands and shrugged in inquiry.
At his look of indignation she said “I don’t keep track of business news where I live, much less other countries! I’m guessing from the pictures you’re a big man in some kind of industry.”
“Your parents never spoke of me?” he growled.
She shook her head “My parents are a secretary and a house husband. They don’t really move in executive circles. I’d never even encountered the name Jeseph until this week. I get the impression it’s a big deal, but what with investigating multiple kidnappings, informing everyone of the mix up and trying to track down what is going on, everyone who knows about you has probably been too busy to think of filling me in.”
He looked surprised. “Multiple kidnappings?”
Mary gave a nod and held up three fingers. “This is abduction number three in relation to this mess, so I would appreciate it if we could quickly confirm that I’m not your Hannah so I can go about my merry way.”
Michael considered her for a moment then walked over to pull several hairs from her head, ignoring her indignant yelp. “No need to bother my daughter or son-in-law, you just have to prove you’re not my granddaughter and I’ll know that you’re not Hannah.”
Mary jumped up to grab the wrist of the hand holding her hair, “No!” then closed her eyes and dropped back into her seat, still holding tight.
“Do I take it that you will test positive as my granddaughter?”
Mary sighed and looked up at him, letting go of his wrist. “I’m Tom’s kid.”
“And is that such a secret?”
“He moved to another continent to get away from you and hasn’t mentioned you in more than a quarter century, so I guess so? Plus I don’t trust people who kidnap their family members.”
Michael walked around the desk and headed for the door. Looking over his shoulder, he said “I’ll get a sample from my daughter.”
He left, locking the door behind him.
Mary watched the door with her hands on her hips, then walked over to check if it was locked, before checking the windows, all of which were barred. Testing the wall panels and shelving units, she found only one hidden door, which led to a small windowless powder room. The desk was also locked tight and the surface clear.
Flopping down on the chair behind the desk, which turned out to be extremely comfortable, Mary spun in place and contemplated the fact that her possible grandfather was better at imprisoning people than her favourite former human trafficker.

Four hours and the deliveries of two snack trays, one supper tray and a fruit platter later, Mary heard a commotion out in the hall, and then Samuel’s voice yelling “Get this door open or I’m going to break it!” followed by Temo’s shout of “Wait, let me check.”
There was the sound of tapping on the door and the walls to either side, before she heard Temo’s voice again “Aim here.” then a fist banged against the wall to the left of the door. “Drywall.”
There was a large bang and a cracking sound.
A strange voice yelled “Wait!” and then a key turned in the lock.
The door cracked open, and she saw Samuel hand a sledgehammer over to someone before pushing through. He strode in and pulled her into his arms, holding her so tight that she could barely breath. She held him just as tight and cried as he patted her back muttering soothing noises.
Temo strode over holding the sledgehammer and tapped Samuel on the shoulder “We should get going.”
Picking Mary up, Samuel carried her downstairs.
They passed a sitting room on the way to the entrance where Tom, Michael and Jason stood arguing.
Tom had just finished calling the other men horrible persons in many creative ways, yelled over their objections, and vowed to keep Mary away from his family forever.
He shouted “Find Hannah and clear up whether she had anything to do with Mary’s abductions! Or I won’t be keeping your secrets any longer. Some things may have passed the statutes of limitations, but many haven’t passed the interest of public opinion!” then stormed out.
Temo propped the sledgehammer against the opposite wall and leaned beside it, watching the two remaining men speaking in intense whispers with a gleam in his eyes.
Once Michael and Jason seemed to have finished their conversation, Temo sauntered over for a chat.

------------------
Chapter 7
------------------

Tom, Samuel and Mary stopped by the police office with a couple of Samuel’s lawyers to call off the search for Mary and inform the police that they would be considering things carefully before deciding whether to press charges against Michael Jeseph.
The officers looked relieved to put off having to deal with the possibility of arresting the man.
After thanking the police for their hard work, the three went to join Temo in the back of a dark red van where he was busy with Samuel’s laptop.
“Samuel, you can let go of Mary and sit over with him.” Tom said as they climbed in “I’ve been letting things slide because she’s had a scare, but you’ve had more than enough time to comfort my daughter.”
Samuel sighed and moved as if to join Temo, but Mary held onto him and glared at her father until he relented.
After settling her into the seat, Samuel asked Tom “Do you think your father will help us find Hannah?”
Tom shook his head, but Temo looked up and replied “He’s managed to terrify his son-in-law into sending me the other Hannah’s financials. He’s also given me a retainer, I’m charging him twice as much as you,” he nodded to Mary and she gave him a thumbs up “with the understanding that you are my primary employers and he’s only buying protection from me for as long as the retainer lasts, a heads up if we find anything, and my promise not to hand anything I find using the information he gave me, directly to the police.”
Samuel nodded “So you didn’t promise you wouldn’t be handing copies of any and all evidence to us, and you didn’t promise that we wouldn’t then hand it all to the police?”
Temo smiled, “I would never presume to speak for you.”
“And have you found anything useful from her cards?” Samuel asked as he adjusted Mary’s head leaning on his shoulder.
Temo’s smile grew wider “Maybe. Let’s get the father and daughter settled and then we can discuss it, and discuss how many men you can gather.”
Mary glared at him, then rolled her eyes. Putting her head back on Samuel’s shoulder, she settled in to nap away the ride home.
Concerned, Temo whispered to Samuel “Lately, she seems…sleepy?”
Nodding Samuel replied quietly “Dr. Smythe says it’s because of being in a coma so long, especially since it was drug induced. It could pass, but it could be permanent.” He pulled out his phone, messaging his assistant to investigate bodyguard and security companies, and saying “So, how many people do you think we’ll need?”

The next afternoon Samuel stood waiting outside a small blue house with a garden full of flowers and a tall metal privacy fence, surrounded by guards in black suits.
Temo finally showed up, followed by a blond well groomed man in a dark grey shirt, pulling a battered rolling tool case.
Samuel examined the newcomer, wondering why he looked familiar. “Who’s he?”
“Lets just call him kidnapper number 3.”
Samuel blinked “Why the hell is he here?! And I thought he got an NDA.”
“From Mary, yes. And you will notice I didn’t tell you his name.” Temo said, grinning “He’s here in case we need someone to open the door legally, or in case we need someone to open the door.” he spread his hands, shrugging “And I knew that as long as he’s here to help Mary, I could trust you to be reasonable.”
Samuel growled “You are enjoying this way too much.” Then he shook his head and turned to the house “Fine.” He gestured to the guards “You four, surround the house and block any exits, you two come with us to the front door. Let’s see if she’ll answer.”
Pressing the intercom button, Samuel waited. After a moment a click and the tone of the silence indicated that it had been answered and the video monitor turned from grey to black, but no one spoke. “Hello Hannah, it’s Samuel. I’d like to talk to you.” With a click the silence on the intercom changed from low empty static to true silence as whoever was inside hung up.
Samuel pushed the button again. Again the speaker sounded like a microphone picking up silence and again the monitor went from off grey to blocked black “Hello Hannah. I understand that you don’t want to stay married to me. I don’t want that either. I have no intention of letting your grandfather trap us. But we need to let everyone know if you’re safe so we can call off the police investigation. Can you please answer?”
After a wait an altered voice answered. “There’s no one here by that name.”
“But someone is using Hannah’s credit card to rent this place. If she’s not here, then it might have been used by someone who harmed her, so we’ll have to bring in the police.”
Seconds ticked by and the intercom stayed live. Samuel waited, hoping whoever had answered would break the silence.
Finally, Hannah’s voice came over the speakers. “I’m here and I’m fine. You can let the police know I’m not missing.”
“I’m afraid that I need more than a voice telling me that. I haven't seen that you’re okay, and have no way to know that you’re not being held against your will.”
Hannah’s voice sounded irritated “It took you three months to even notice I was gone. Just let the police know I’m not a missing person and everything will be fine!”
The intercom switched off and Samuel angrily reached out to hit the button again, but Temo stopped him. “The girl has a fair point.” Samuel turned on him and he held up his hands “And it’s the exact same point you made to her parents and her grandfather.”
Samuel backed up a step and sighed, then took out a crumpled paper on which he’d written “Officer Baker. Taking over Friday. ###-###-#### ext.####” from his pocket before pulling out his phone to call the lawyer he had left waiting in the car and have him call the police.

Half an hour later, Officer Baker, a short woman with bright red hair and a very official looking frown, arrived with several other officers.
After checking that neither the guards nor anyone else had trespassed nor unlawfully confined whoever was in the house, and reviewing Samuel’s recording of his conversation on the intercom, Baker had a short discussion with the lawyer, reviewing the missing person file and several documents the lawyer handed to her. And then she had another conversation on the phone with her office about whether all this counted as exigent circumstances.
Baker nodded and then walked back to Samuel “Okay, I think we’re clear to go in, but it might take some time to get a locksmith.” At which point Temo walked over with kidnapper number 3 who handed her a locksmith licence and lifted his toolbox with a smile.
Samuel tried to take a peek at the licence, but Temo ‘accidentally’ bumped him to the side and then gave him a slight head shake and a smirk.
Baker looked at Samuel, who sighed and gestured at Temo. “This is Temo. He’s an investigator hired by Mary, the woman who was kidnapped and left in Hannah’s place. He’s very good at sub contracting and has a lot of experience talking to kidnappers.”
When she left, Temo sidled up to Samuel “The money comes from your account, but I’m Mary’s hire.” He nodded, patting Samuel heavily on the shoulder. “Very good.” Samuel frowned. “It is good that you know you are your wife’s wallet.” Temo smirked, “Very husbandish.” Samuel gave Temo a glare, then walked away to hide his smile at Mary being referred to as his wife and being called husbandish.

Samuel sat, arms crossed, with a lawyer beside him, in the waiting area of the police station watching through a glass wall into the room where Hannah sat across the table from a police officer typing on his computer. The officer had been ignoring her, other than making sure she stayed where she had been put, for the last half hour.
Baker and several other officers came through the front doors of the station carrying boxes. The group walked through the station to a door at the back.
Minutes later, Baker came back out without her box and walked over to go into the room where Hannah sat. She leaned down to talk to the officer, then escorted Hannah out of the room and through the back door where Baker and her team had disappeared before.
Twenty minutes later Samuel saw a group of expensive looking lawyers rush through the station and through the door where Hannah had gone.
Samuel nodded to his lawyer, who got up and went to talk to the officer that had been sitting across from Hannah, giving him his business card.
The lawyer came back and nodded at Samuel. Samuel got up, straightened his coat, and they left.

Getting back home late, Samuel went up the stairs as quietly as he could and then gently knocked on Mary’s door.
The door opened and Samuel leaned on the door frame smiling at the sight of Mary in a pale blue set of his pajamas.
Mary raised her eyebrows in inquiry while Samuel continued to enjoy the view. After a minute she leaned against the inside of the door frame, putting their faces less than an inch apart, and whispered “You know if you continue to just stand there staring, Dad might come by and wonder what your intentions are.”
Samuel smiled and began lowering his head to close the gap when Tom’s voice sounded loudly behind him “He might.”
Samuel swung round, hit the back of his head on the door frame and barely managed not to slide down to the floor. Mary reached out as if to catch him “Are you okay?”
Nodding in response to her, Samuel straightened up and faced her father “Evening sir. I was just wanting to let Mary know that Hannah was at the house Temo found and is now in police custody. We should think about whether we are willing to drop or reduce any of the charges in exchange for a quick divorce.” He tugged on the line of buttons on his shirt then scratched the back of his neck under Tom’s gaze. “I’d like to set up an appointment with the officer in charge of the case once we are all on the same page.”
Tom continued to stand watching him silently with his arms crossed.
Mary broke through the tense atmosphere, saying “I’m glad she’s been found. Thanks for letting us know.” She looked at her father and then back at Samuel with a cheeky smile. “I guess we should talk about this tomorrow.” Then leaned forward on tiptoe to kiss Samuel’s cheek before closing the door in his face, leaving him to face Tom alone.
Samuel cleared his throat and pointed down the hall in the direction of his room. “I guess I’ll go to bed now.” he took a step backwards away from Mary’s door “Our lawyers will be coming over tomorrow at 10 to discuss things.” He nodded several times, backed away, then turned to hurry down the hall, feeling Tom’s eyes boring into him until he closed the door of his room behind him.

The next morning Mary handed cups of coffee to a trio of lawyers sitting in the breakfast room while they opened folios on the table, and then moved to sit across from them beside her father, while Samuel sat on his other side.
The lead lawyer, with a close cropped grey beard and a charcoal pin striped suit, spoke. “We’ve conferred with Ms. Jeseph’s lawyers, really Michael Jeseph’s lawyers, and she is currently not willing to end the marriage early. We could take her to court, but it would probably take longer than just waiting out the prenup since your marriage is set to end in a bit more than seven months. While you can claim that she kidnapped someone else in an attempt to create a substitute and that that is a case of mental cruelty and thus justification for divorce in absentia, proving it before the end of your contract would be difficult. And they’re bringing up the fact that you have been living with another woman,” He nodded towards Mary. “which is much easier to prove; and the fact that the prenup included a fidelity clause.”
Mary scratched her head “Well, I was drugged unconscious, allegedly by Hannah, for at least a month so I was in a receptive state when I was told Samuel was my husband, and Hannah had spent the majority of their marriage avoiding Samuel, so the fact that Hannah had arranged plastic surgery” the lawyer interjected an “allegedly” “to make me look like her fooled him into thinking I was his wife. I think that the fact that she went,” she paused and nodded to the lawyer “allegedly, to such lengths to convince us that we were married to each other might be taken as her intention to either leave the marriage, or consent to our forming a relationship within the marriage.”
Tom spoke. “I vote you wait out the prenup. Seven months is a good amount of time to plan a wedding, and” He frowned at Mary and Samuel in turn “a good amount of time to get to know each other and see whether you might not change your mind about getting married.”
Mary leaned forward to look at her father’s face, smiling teasingly. “Are you saying that the five days you took to get to know Mom before you married her wasn’t a good amount of time?”
“Neither of us were drugged and we were both single.” Tom stared straight ahead and his frown deepened, then he nodded to himself. “But whatever the circumstances, we’re a bad example, since I tricked her into marrying me to get a new name and a hiding place, and planned to abandon her to turn her into a false trail for my father if he came searching for me.” He crossed his arms, not meeting anyone’s eyes.
Mary’s mouth hung open, then she snapped shut as she gathered herself together enough to shout “What the hell, Dad?!?”
Samuel clapped his hands sharply to break the tension, and draw the gaze of the lawyers who were now staring at Tom with stunned expressions. “Okay. Please prepare for my divorce to be completed the second the prenup concludes. If they don’t pursue the fidelity clause in the prenup, I’m willing to hold off on pursuing Hannah with charges of fraud, and accusations of mental cruelty and abandonment for myself. The charges related to her alleged involvement in Mary’s kidnapping and other abuses including fraud, mental cruelty and whatever we call putting someone in a coma for over a month and performing non consensual surgery, are not part of this negotiation, since Mary is an innocent bystander and not party to the contract.” He got up and moved around Tom to sit beside Mary on her other side, putting his arm around her. “We will spend the next seven months celibately getting to know each other and organizing the wedding. Hopefully Temo will consider this enough of a conclusion to the story to take back to his men so that we can oust him from the guest house, and you” he kissed Mary on her temple “can move in there to preserve the proper optics.” He glanced over at the lawyers “Does that work for everyone?”

A week later Hannah and Samuel had signed a letter of understanding.
Temo had vacated the guesthouse carrying an extravagant, one off invitation to Mary and Samuel’s wedding to show to his men.
Mary moved into the guesthouse, then took her father to the airport to send him off.
And Tom still hadn’t elaborated on what he’d said about his marriage.

--------------
Chapter 8
--------------

Five days after Samuel’s divorce was final, Mary walked down the aisle wearing a champagne silk wedding dress covered in bluegreen embroidered vines under a tulle layer, itself covered in 3D blush pink rose appliqués. Her sheer sleeves showed off the tattoos on her left arm which mimicked the lichtenberg figures she got whenever she was struck by lightning.
The wedding ran like a well oiled machine. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the very expensive wedding planner, with extra staff and security, made absolutely sure that nothing untoward nor exciting happened.

After the reception at Samuel’s country house, Temo approached. “Levan is bringing in your wedding present. He’s been babysitting it in the guest house.”
Samuel and Mary looked at each other in concern.
Temo’s second in command, Levan, came in through the back door with a huge padded basket over one arm. On the other arm he carried a large red cooler and a cloth bag with a selection of cat teasers sticking out the top. Temo lifted the light blanket covering the basket to expose a collared kitten as big as a large adult cat and handed the basket to Mary, before taking the cooler and cloth bag and handing them to Samuel, who gingerly lowered them to the floor.
“Valeri’s cat just had a litter, and I thought of you two.” Temo winked, grinning “Pets are good practice for raising children.” He threw Samuel the guesthouse keys and turned to leave, waving as he and Levan quickly walked to the front door. “We are all packed up and will leave you to your honeymoon.” Pausing at the threshold, he shot back, “Go make some babies!” and pulled the door shut on any response.
Mary and Samuel exchanged a look, then turned to look at the kitten. They examined the basket. It didn’t look like there were any traps attached, and Mary felt just a little bit guilty for being suspicious of a wedding gift, but then they turned their attention to the creature curled up and purring inside the basket.
The kitten stretched, bracing huge paws against the base of the basket handle and arched its back revealing he was a boy. His collar had the name tag flipped over, showing her phone number.
Tan in colour, the kitten had dark spots along his back, a dark muzzle with pale fur under his nose, dark markings over his eyes that looked like pointed eyebrows, and new kitten features in spite of his size.
Mary handed the basket fully to Samuel and crouched to look at the cooler. After examining the zipper (for what she didn’t know), she cautiously pulled it open and pulled back the lid.
After staring at the packets of frozen meat inside for a minute, she looked back at the kitten, then at the meat before zipping the cooler closed and standing up.
She reached for the kitten, and lifted him, cooing. Cradling him in her arms she scratched the side of his neck as she flipped over the name tag.
“‘Puma.” she read. “Do you think that’s literal?”
Samuel answered, “I think we need to take him to a vet for genetic testing.”
“Mmhm, and I think I’m lucky to have married someone with lots and lots of land and a big grocery budget for meat.” Mary smiled at him, and Samuel thought of his future now filled with warmth and interesting times. Carefully gathering Mary in his arms, so as not to squish the cat (who was definitely getting a new name), he kissed her, feeling her laughter.

--------------------
Extras
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Epilogue 1

Samuel and Mary arrived at the charity gala and made their way to table nine.
He was the first to spot Temo. “Why on earth are you here?”
Temo grinned from his seat “Ah, when I was dropping off my stuff at the guest house, I saw the list of people you’d crossed out beside a pair of spare tickets stuck to that giant chalkboard calendar in your kitchen. I didn’t want you to be lonely, so I grabbed one and decided to meet you here.” He tapped the catalogue now laying beside his plate. The catalogue which they had forgotten in the library. The library, which was through a pair of solid wood doors down the hall then through the sitting room, dining room, and breakfast room away from the kitchen. “And some of the items up for auction looked interesting.”
Samuel settled Mary into her chair, being careful not to bump her heavily pregnant belly, while she unsuccessfully covered her amusement “Yes, but why are you in the country? And we talked about letting yourself into our house without asking. And about checking with us before using the guest house. It is our guest house and you aren’t the only person who uses it.”
Temo waved his hand and ignored the challenges to his occupation of the guesthouse. “You two make such adorable babies, and Jeseph Industries offers such interesting sums to help transport their more interesting items, how could I stay away?” Temo took a sip of his wine. “Oh, and Valeri has asked me to request your nephew come to take care of his animals. He was inordinately jealous when I told him the woman I gave Puma to,” He ignored Samuel’s interjection of "Ferdinand!”, the name Samuel had chosen for the big cat Temo gave them as a wedding present, and continued “has a vet specializing in exotic animals in her family. Who knew that reassuring him that you were taking proper care of his favorite pet’s offspring would lead to envy?”
Temo’s smirk indicated that he knew very well exactly how jealous Valeri would be. Then he raised his hand against Mary’s glare “Don’t worry, I only said that I would ask, and if William says yes, I will personally make sure he is free to come home again whenever he wishes.”
“Hmph” grunted Mary, crossing her arms.
At that moment a man with white blond hair and a boldly checkered red suit approached the table. He pulled out his seat before noticing Mary.
“Mary! I haven’t seen you in years. And how’s my saviour doing?” He turned to Samuel “You know, she…”
A waitress who had been approaching with a water carafe interrupted, “She’s your saviour, too?”
“Ah,... yes?” Disconcerted, he stepped back.
“I’m sorry.” the waitress dipped a little curtsey towards him, gripping the carafe tight to her chest “She pulled me out of a fire in my apartment and lowered me down the side of the building. I’ve only met a few of the other people she’s saved, but I've heard lots of stories.”
Temo leaned back in his chair and casually raised his hand “She saved me from being struck by lightning.”
The waitress turned towards him, smiling. Her eyes widened and her smile dropped when she saw the gleam in his eyes.
He grinned at her and leaned forward with his hand extended. She hesitantly placed the tips of her fingers against his “You can call me Temo.” He slid his fingers into her palm and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, gently tracing the nearly invisible scaring on her skin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you...” he read her name tag “Alicia.” his grin widened “A beautiful name, for a beautiful woman.”
Alicia pulled her hand out of his and hid it behind her back. Mary stood up moving towards her “Never mind him. He gets giddy in polite company.” Temo raised his eyebrow at her.
Mary reached out and gently grasped Alicia’s forearm. “But how are you doing? You look great! It’s so good to see you walking.”
Alicia put the carafe down on the table and leaned over to hug Mary tightly for a moment, and then backed up “Oh, I saw Tony! He’s at another table!” She turned to walk away. “I’ll go let him know that you're here.” she called back to the men “She rescued him from a flood!”
“But I didn’t…” Mary had raised her hand to stop Alicia, but let it drop and turned back to the table “I didn’t actually save Tony. We were trapped together on a roof when a river flooded and kept each other company until a boat came. If anyone saved anyone, he saved me.”
She dropped into her chair, leaning against the back, then gestured towards the man in the red suite who had just finished sitting down. “By the way everyone, this is Sam White, he’s the lead singer from…” she faltered.
Temo interrupted her, attempting to hide the fact that she had obviously forgotten the name of Sam’s presumably super famous band “So what daring act did our Mary accomplish to become your saviour?”
Sam straightened the deep V collar of his suit, as if it felt tight. “Ah, she helped me get to a side door when a crazy fan who thought she was my girlfriend splashed wine on me.”

Alicia soon came back with two men in their sixties.
“Mary! So, I hear you’re my savior!” Smiled the one with the appearance of a Mediterranean Santa wearing a dark green suit.
Mary rolled her eyes “Tony! I tried to clarify that we just shared a rooftop, but Alicia had already left.” She held out her hands, which were warmly grasped. “It’s good to see you.”
The other man, wiry and dour, spoke with a thick German accent. “And is it good to see me? Or do you only greet the ones you save, rather than the ones who save you?”
Mary smiled. “Of course I want to greet the man who saved me from being robbed at knifepoint Lyulf. I’m really pleased to see you.” She held his arm as she turned back to Samuel. “Hon, this is Lyulf Torsten. I met him in Rome.”
Samuel reached out with both hands “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for keeping Mary safe.” Shaking Lyulf’s hand, he continued. “And I really enjoy your movies.”
“At least you have good taste.” Lyulf nodded, then turned to Mary, saying, “I’m glad to see that you continue to survive your adventures. I will now return to my meal.” then left.

-----------------
Epilogue 2

Samuel found Mary in the sitting room reading a book, occasionally glancing out the window to keep an eye on their girls in the back yard. Temo was with them, playing some kind of game involving sticks wielded like swords, projectile stuffies and garden furniture arranged as barricades. Samuel idly wondered if their children were being taught current, historical or fictional battle tactics, before turning his attention back to his wife.
Standing across from her, he spoke “My love, have we not been married for many, many a year now?”
Mary slowly turned the page of her book, then looked up, stroking the forehead of the big cat stretched out on the sofa with his head on her lap. She considered Samuel with an eyebrow raised before replying. “Yes. Five of them.”
“MmHm.” Samuel reached out, offering a finger for Ferdinand the mountain lion to boop.
The big cat opened his eyes and looked at the finger, then dismissed it in favour of focusing on his favourite lioness stuffy, fresh from the wash, hanging loosely in Samuel’s other hand.
Samuel waited until Ferdinand began to lift his head, then tossed the plush lioness into the human sized dog bed on the floor beside the sofa. When the big cat moved to join his fabric friend, Samuel scooted onto the vacated spot on the sofa, laying his head on Mary’s lap and reached up to pull out the bottom of her book so that he could gaze up at her with puppy dog eyes. “After five whole years of marriage, six years together, and three children, I think you know me well enough to let me in on the ‘Tiger Incident’.”
She put her book down, open on the armrest and looked down at him. “My family, and many others, have been harassing me about that stupid tiger since I was Three. I will not be handing you” She tapped him gently on the forehead. “ammunition to use against me. You certainly don’t need any more.”
“Joyce asked Temo about it.” Samuel looked disgruntled. “He didn’t tell her, but I could tell he knows.” He smoothed out his jealous pout, putting on a reasonable tone. “She’s four now, and the other two are going to be old enough to ask questions about this sort of thing soon, and you really shouldn’t let the father of your children be caught unaware if ‘Grandpa Temo’ decides to spill the beans.”
Mary sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine. The joke is that it was actually a really meh event that everyone makes a big deal of because it Isn’t a big deal. There was a zoo break out due to a downed tree when I was three years old and I spotted a tiger through the car window, but lots of other people did too. There was also a monkey and an emu and other things that escaped, which I didn’t see. In fact Dad is the one who saw the most animals of anyone in town.”
Samuel stared at the ceiling as he processed that. “That’s…rather anticlimactic.”
“So is the reason why the chicken crossed the road.” Mary picked up her book again to go back to reading, resting an arm on his chest.
Samuel shifted his gaze to look up at her, placing his hand on her belly and then running it up to her rib cage so that her shirt outlined her breasts. “This view on the other hand isn’t anticlimactic at all.”
Mary continued reading her book without looking at him. “Bedtime is in two hours.”
“One hour and fifty two minutes.” Samuel replied.
She turned the page, avoiding looking down, but he caught her smile and snuggled in to wait until their girls were safely asleep in their rooms.

----------------
Epilogue 3

Bob, having asked Mary for a place to crash while he was going to a series of hearings and protests in the nearby city, was sitting in the living room of the guesthouse arguing with Samuel and Temo about the results of the men’s olympic figure skating competition. He was clothed in denim covered with political pins and sporting a dark green fauxhawk with a picture of a frog mid-leap carved into the short hair over his left ear.
Ferdinand the mountain lion lay on the floor nearby keeping a hopeful eye on the snack bowls on the coffee table.
The discussion had been civil up until the winners took to the podium.
“Jamaica was robbed.” Temo grunted, crossing his arms and glaring at the screen.
Bob stomped on the floor, and nodded over at the TV where a man held the Georgian flag out during his anthem. “That’s your countryman! You should be backing me up.”
“He’s fine. But I know one of his uncles.” Temo shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “They're the type to have had something to do with the audio issues.”
“But Ireland really should have earned more points for difficulty, even if it didn't get them on the podium.” Samuel repeated the argument he had been making for over half an hour. “That landing was only a little wobbly, and none of the others tried to do anything nearly as hard.”
Rolling his eyes, Bob repeated the reply he’d been making for the same 30 minutes. “He wasn’t trying to do a jump, he just caught himself after tripping.”
Hearing the men all looping back over the same points, Alicia walked up behind Temo, holding her hugely pregnant belly, and leaned over his shoulder “Guys! I can’t believe you’ve been arguing this long over a sport that you only watch once every four years. Could you please just get a tape measure and figure out who has the biggest so we can kick you all out and I can go to sleep!”
Mary’s distracted voice rang out from the dining room “That would be Bob.”
Everyone in the room looked at her. Feeling their focus, Mary slowly looked up from the video she had been watching on her phone to meet everyone’s stares. Her eyes widened as she replayed the conversation in her head. Slapping her hand over her eyes, she sank deep into her chair as she realized what she’d just said.
Bob smirked, but then looked at Samuel. "It was totally innocent!"
Mary sighed “Okay, I’ve seen yours” she pointed at Samuel “because we’re married. And before he married Alicia, he” she pointed at Temo “would often pull a naked Mr. Darcy walking out of the lake in front of his place.”
Alicia nodded. She had seen the show many times herself.
Temo reached over the back of his chair to hug where Alicia’s waist used to be and pointed at Mary. “It’s really not fair to judge a man who has just come out of cold water.”
Mary glared at him, “Which I’m sure you’re rather used to, considering the number of times I’ve seen you arise like Venus from the waters.”
Samuel caught Mary’s hand and brought it to his lips “My dear, exactly how often did you visit him back in the day?”
“Um, a few times. I used to stop by when I was giving tours close by in Europe or the Middle East and he let me use his place as a home base, so I’d spend occasional days there over the course of two or three months. And Bob and I met when I drove past a protest and saw him” She pointed at Bob “get absolutely covered in teargas while shielding a group of teens. After the police moved on, I drove him to a friends place who had an outdoor shower and helped him get cleaned up, and saw everything.” Then turning her attention back to Temo, she said. “And I’m pretty sure those circumstances would have been at least as deflating as a cold lake.”
Alicia heaved a loud sigh. “Now that we’ve gotten that sorted, you can all leave. The event has long ended, I’m two weeks past my due date, and I’d like to get some sleep!”

Mary, Samuel and Bob, accompanied by Ferdinand who was tugging against his leash, soon found themselves standing outside the locked door of the guesthouse.
Samuel hugged Mary from behind as they walked away, and leaned his chin on her shoulder “We’re never going to get our guesthouse back, are we.”
Shaking her head, Mary stopped and turned around in his arms to look up into his eyes. “I’m just glad Alicia lets us know ahead of time when they’re going to show up.”
Samuel dropped his head back down to rub her shoulder with his chin and asked “Do you think they’d let us have it back after Alicia has the baby? We could threaten to tell the kids that Temo isn’t really one of their grandpas?”
Mary kissed his cheek “But, he’s always so good about babysitting.” She whispered seductively and kissed his ear, drawing little circles on the front of his shirt with the tips of her fingers. “And the girls are so excited about the baby. Amy’s even stopped asking when it’s her turn to be a big sister.” Leaning back she grinned, speaking in a normal voice. “It also really derailed his hints about childhood betrothals when I pointed out that Joyce had started calling his kid their little uncle. I swear I saw the gears turning in his brain as he weighed the possibility of a future wealthy marriage for his son vs. the munchkin being a nominal authority figure to All the heirs of your millions.”
“Are childhood betrothals really a thing where he’s from?” Bob asked.
Mary shook her head “Mm mm. The last one in his village was years and years ago, before I even met him, but the girl hit her groom over the head with a brick. The story I heard was that Temo was actually the one to talk to the guy's father out of retaliation, and let the groom know forcing the issue was just not on.”
Bob asked “So, is he some kind of mafia or gangster or something?”
“Oh no, he’s a member of his local council” Mary answered.
But Samuel nodded “Georgia not only has mafia, they also have warlords, both major and minor. Or at least they do until they retire and run for office.” He looked at Bob surprised. “He hasn’t told you how he met Mary has he?”
Bob raised his eyebrow “No. I mean I met him years and years ago, but it seemed to be a sore spot.”
“Hm, it was a sore spot, until just before we got married, but only because he loves telling the story and he’d promised not to tell anyone who might say something to her parents, because it involved her getting hit by lightning … again. As soon as Mary let the cat out of the bag to her family, he was telling everyone how he kidnapped her and she escaped out a third story window, though it may be four or five stories by now, and then she saved him and his minions from getting electrocuted." Samuel considered Bob. “I’m really surprised that he didn’t take advantage of having a fresh audience.”
“Well, he was pretty focused on telling me about the solar farms for his village which he's looking for investors for.”
Mary and Samuel looked at Bob for a while, before Mary asked “Bob, are you secretly a rich investor and you just never told us?”
Bob looked offended. “Hey! My personal wealth has never gone over five digits.”
Mary and Samuel looked at each other, eyebrows raised. “His…personal wealth?”
“Okay, I admit I got an inheritance from my bio-dad, but I never kept any of it. I turned it into an environmental investment non-profit asap. I don’t get anything from it and don’t run it. I just have an honorary seat on the board.
Mary and Samuel glanced at each other, then looked at Bob. Samuel asked “Would this board vote on funds that go to environmental businesses, businesses like solar farms in underdeveloped villages?”
“Well, yes, but he wouldn’t know that. It’s not public.”
Mary shook her head. “Oh, he knows.”
“But it’s not going to do him any good. I’m only one vote.”
“One vote, by the secret founder.” Samuel nodded. “So, would the investment he’s looking for be a huge part of the non-profit’s budget or a rounding error?”
“A bit more than a rounding error,” Bob sighed. “but not by much.” Samuel nodded and Bob kicked a stone “Dammit!”
Mary reached out to pat his arm. “On the plus side, I’m sure the project is real and beneficial to the locals.”
“You trust him a lot for someone who kidnapped you.”
“Well, yeah. I…just got a good feeling about him after I woke up in the hospital.” Mary smiled. “And he really came through the next couple times I got kidnapped.” This time Bob and Samuel looked at each other in understanding. “He even flew all the way over here just to loan me five hundred thousand for my ransom.” Samuel frowned looking into space for a moment, then pulled out his phone to text Temo. “He didn’t even know if Samuel would pay him back. For all he knew it could have been decades, or maybe never, before he got all his money back.”
“And with your kids?” Bob asked.
Samuel looked up from his phone. “Mostly they have supervised hang outs. I was a bit nervous to let him actually babysit, but they’ve always been perfectly safe with him. The worst that happened is when they formed plans for an overthrow of the neighborhood and we had to explain that preemptive strikes aren’t allowed since that’s just a weaselly way to say ‘I hit first’.”
Mary tapped his arm and asked. “And what are you doing on your phone?”
He smiled and leaned down to kiss his wife’s cheek. “Nothing much, I just figured out how we can claim the guesthouse for my parent’s whole Christmas visit.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Nope. It's like making a wish. It won't work if I tell.”

Temo was emptying his pockets onto the bedside table, having finished fetching Alicia’s pre-sleep snack, adjusting the temperature and perfecting the pillow structure supporting her belly, when he saw a series of missed texts on his phone.
(Mary mentioned the 500,000 you loaned her for her ransome)
(it would probably be rude to ask for the extra back)
(My parents found the main house a bit noisy last visit)
(they are getting older)
(but they don’t want to have to drive in from town to see their grandchildren when they come over in December)
Temo frowned at the texts, then looked over at his wife. Her eyes were closed, but her breathing told him she wasn’t quite asleep.
He sat on his side of the bed and put his hand gently on her shoulder “Beloved, it occured to me that by Christmas, the baby might be old enough to leave overnight with Mary and Samuel occasionally.”
His wife stirred. “Hm?”
He stroked his hand down to her elbow, gently tracing her scars and kissed her shoulder. “And you might be ready for some alone time between visiting your family before first Christmas and hosting my family for second Christmas.” She opened her eyes a crack and glanced suspiciously over her shoulder at him. “So, I could book a hotel in case we wanted to stay by ourselves in the city for a day or three and just drive in to visit and drop off the baby when we felt like it.”
Alicia shifted to better see his face, displacing several of the pillows. “Does Samuel have something on you?”
Temo reared back offended, and held the neck of his shirt like he was clutching a string of pearls “I would never cross you, and you know Samuel would snitch if I ever did anything he thought would hurt you.” Putting the pillows back in place, he snuggled in as close as he could and kissed the back of her neck. “Nice places book up during the holiday,” He kissed her ear. “I’m sure our friends will want the opportunity to give the girls time with the baby and redirect Amy, who has been talking a great deal about how much she is looking forward to being a big sister.” He kissed the back of her neck again. “And I know I will want to take you out on the town, even if all we do is eat delicious food, drink delicious wine and sleep.”

Outside, Bob continued down the path ahead of Mary and Samuel, then turned back before opening the back door of the main house. “Well, I should get to sleep. I’ve got my statement to deliver at the hearing tomorrow, and they’ve scheduled it at the ass crack of dawn to avoid a crowd.” He made an overly elaborate bow. “And I do thank you for letting me stay, in spite of giving you zero notice.”
Samuel waved “You’re welcome. We love visitors who actually ask. And good luck tomorrow. I’ll be dropping Mary off at a reasonable hour, and picking her up on the way home from work. So just let her know if you want a ride back by then.”
Bob nodded, said “Goodnight.” and headed inside. Then he suddenly turned in the door, pointing at them. “Ferdinand, the flower smelling bull!”
The mountain lion perked up at hearing his full name and Mary gave a smiling nod. “Yes, we wanted something friendlier than Puma, which was what was on his collar when we got him.”
Bob gave them a thumbs up and headed inside.
Samuel, Mary and Ferdinand meandered off through the rose garden, enjoying the evening quiet.