Double Life: Pieces

The phone vibrated for the fourth time, it had been two days since Karl and Alexander had passed away. Nichole didn’t even know where she was, she only calculated it was early in the morning, the sun wouldn’t be coming out for at least another hour. Out of habit she hadn’t thrown way the phone, out of the meaning of memory either, at that, she got angry.

"I told you never to call me again!" she growled instead of hearing Natasha´s voice as she expected she heard a little sob followed by an "I´m sorry"

"Camille?" Nichole looked at the caller´s Id "Baby, why are you up?" all the anger in Nic melted away, she banged her head against the wall she was leaning on, it was obvious why the little girl was up, she´d lost her father and her oldest sister was supposedly lost. She heard the little girl sob some more

"Nat says daddy won’t come home anymore" she said between sobs

"Ah, sweetheart, I´m sorry.... where´s your mom, Mii?"

"I don’t know"

"Where are you?"

"Home -she cried some more- where are you?"

"In a small room"

"Won’t you come to say good bye to daddy? Nat says we´ll say goodbye tomorrow" she sobbed

"I..." Nichole started but didn’t know what to say, she didn’t want to go back, it was painful but the little girl was suffering too, she knew what it was like to become an orphan like that

"I´m scared" the little girl said in a small voice, Nichole closed her eyes and sighed

"I´ll go to you, baby"

"Really?" the little girl hiccupped

"mh, I promise, now, put Nat on the phone, please"

"Hello, baby"

"Don’t call me that!"

"I´m sorry, I couldn’t help it -the woman said with a satisfied tone- mii wouldn’t stop crying she wanted you"

"Where´s her mother?"

"Sleeping"

"What? How can that jerk sleep when her kid´s feeling bad? Why are you even there? Why is Mii with you?"

"I´m taking care of the funeral, your father´s will and right now I´m babysitting your little sister, her mother´s not doing well"

"In which house is Camille?

"Crystal´s house, we´re all here"

"Send someone to pick me up" Nichole said and hung up

*********************

"You have to go" Natasha said

"No, I don’t. I don’t have to go anywhere"

"It’s your father"

"I killed him"

"He did that to himself, not you"

"He never wanted me to be seen"

"He was just protecting you" Nat said, Nic laughed humorlessly

"I was never introduced, always thrown away, that´s why I went to Burgeoys, that´s why I never was in the parties; I was never to be known. I don’t have to go"

"NO, babies..."

"Don’t call me that!" Nic hissed

"it´s not that, he was protecting you -Nic started to shake her head- wait, tell me something, who knows Camille? Tell me if she´s even been introduced to anybody? Tell me if she´s ever been allowed to be at the parties or meetings?"

"I..."

"No, you and Camille have always been away or at least separated from everybody else, he didn’t hate you..."

"Why was he there?" Nic wanted to think of something else

"He wanted to be there"

"He wanted to? How did he even know? You and I went there for proof, he... ah..., you had a plan didn´t you? -Nat nodded- this is the last time I ever ask you to tell me the truth... I won’t be seeing you again anymore, after this, I will kill you if I have to" Nic threatened, Nat sighed

"I know I have always told you half trues, I´m sorry, it´s not that I have wanted to use you, it´s that it has been the only way that I´ve known to..."

"Get to the point or shut up"

"See, you just don’t want to hear me out, how could I have explained anything"

"Don’t make it like it´s my fault; you use so many words to hide the real purpose, your real intentions"

“I just want to make things clear"

"Cut to the chase, I hate your voice" Nichole said, Nat´s face contorted for a second, she exhaled heavily

"It’s justified that you hate me, I know many things I did were not the best but my heart has always been in the right place " she said as Nichole opened and close her hand in a talking gesture. Nat sighed again and closed her eyes

"He wanted; Karl wanted to be there to witness Alexander´s death. To make that possible I need a plan I needed the target alone. It was all in schedule, his maids were going home; I just had to make the replacement late and keep him home. I made him sick..."

"You made him sick? Are you god now?"

"NO, but I did make him sick -Nat sighed- Influenza on a letter that we slipped on his mail three days before we went"

"I was lost three days before we went"

“I know, I certainly didn’t need you to kill him, I could do that myself"

"Why did you bring me back then?"

"I thought that if you had found out he was the target I know you hacked into my pc, I just didn’t know what you saw, I thought that because he was an Arlington you might have tried to protect him, my belief on that grew once Karl told me you´d spent New Year´s there..."

"Father was the one that told you... How did he know?"

"He didn’t tell me, it´s true, you know your father, he just says what he wants and nothing more"

"That's why you kidnapped Josh?"

"Yeah, I thought you´d come for him; I didn’t expect you to know who he really was, though"

"Despite the letter that you knew I had from Ibsen?"

"You never showed any indication you knew, I was very worried about that but you hit it well

"I didn’t know about him until after I left" Nic confessed

"But you had the journal... "

"I was scared of what I could find out -Nic thought to herself- I had it" she said instead

"when you came back and you asked about Alexander and Ibsen you changed it all, I had to work quick, to change, no, to alter the plan, I ... you were giving me the chance to tell you things I´ve wanted to tell you since I had to give you up..."

"What was the original plan?"

"You´ve changed it a few times, dear, it´s been hard to keep up with you" Nat smiled as if proud, Nic raised an eyebrow

"The twins in Burgeoys, their unknown aunt and uncle, their parents and their grandparents, that´s the order in which the plan was going to be executed, but then you became friends with him...."

"It was to be an accident then"

"Yeah... I didn’t think Ibsen would tell you anything, there was no reason..."

 "She too, hated Arlington"

"How did you know? They were friends their whole lives"

"You've been my nurse, my doctor, my care-taker my whole life and look how that was..."

"Ok, ok, nothing´s what it seems"

"The plan changed, how?" Nichole prompted

"Yeah, I had to prove you are mine, it would explain why I did it all -she said in a pleading voice, Nic shook her head -I..."

"To the point" Nic interrupted, Nat sighed

"Arlington knew, his records showed it, I only had to detain your father"

"How can you even control that?"

"Traffic, accidents..."

"You´re awful"

"I´ve been desperate"

"Did you plan for father to die there?" Nichole narrowed her eyes

"No! I knew Camille would suffer and that´d hurt you more than anything but I hadn’t expected you to stand still there! I thought..."

"Why was Joshua there?" Nichole interrupted her again "Don’t say you don’t know" she warned before Nat said anything "you don’t seem to leave anything to fate"

"I don’t like him" the woman closed her eyes

"He was to be the one of the casualties" Nic quoted Alexander "Your plan was to make Alexander watch his grandson die again"

"Yes"

"Is he...?" the girls started but stopped

"I still don’t like him but if you don’t want me to..."

"We don’t decide on people´s fate, no matter who they are. Don’t ever ask me those things" Nic raised her voice

"The plan has changed" Nat said after a while. Nic didn’t make a sound, she was looking out the window from Karl´s office at Crystals house "Because Karl was Erick Arlington´s business partner and he was to die, all of it, their hospitals, were to be Karl’s or yours"

"I don’t want money from killings"

"This is not a dirty deal, it´s all authentic, everything that you now have is"

"Right, because bad people just let you walk away after you´ve made deals with them... I knew you guys were dealing with criminals, you sent me to kill some of them, and I just pretended I didn’t see... I guess..."

"Hey, hey, no, they don’t exist. Neither you nor Camille nor I ever existed so we´re free"

"Free? Did I kill them all?" Nic said above a whisper

"It was all my doing, Karl´s doing" Nat replied

"Through me"

"You´re innocent" Nat said, Nic looked away

"You´re now the Arlington´s business partner... AT your father´s funeral you´ll be known as Karl´s niece and soon as his heiress"

"Another reason not to go"

"You have to take care of Camille; you won’t leave her on the streets"

"I don’t want to see the Arlington"

"You have to"

"You do it, you deal with it. Karl obviously trusted you with is life, with his secrets and his dirty deals, you were loyal to him and you clearly are a good politician -she scoffed- just stop killing people" Nic said with a tone as if it was hard for her to say

"You said you didn’t want to see me again"

"Right -Nic snorted- as if you´d easily let me go"

"Should I stay then?"

"I still don’t want to see you -Nic said sternly, Nat opened her mouth- but I want to see them even less, but if you so much as try to backstab me, you´ll die slowly, I´ll plot too..."

"I wasn’t loyal to Karl; I was loyal to you, even if you don’t believe me"

"Do you blame me for that?"

"NO" Nat mouthed. They stayed in silence for a long time

"When father... Karl... said that I was to take care of Mii... that she was... -Nic shook her head - her mom would probably take her away"

"She can’t"

"She´s her mother"

"Yes, but she gave up on her parental rights when Camille was born"

"What are you talking about? Why don’t you ever speak clearly?" Nic said with exasperation

"Karl had the full custody of Camille, she was only his and now that he´s gone, she´s yours"

"She´s her mother´s"

"I guess, but really, she´s as much Camille´s mother´s as I am yours"

"What?"

"Camille, well Miriam and Karl´s embryos were one of the things I took with me when I left from Red Wood Larch hospital"

"What?! -Nichole stood up and faced Nat- My little sister is another experiment??!" she shouted

"She was part of it, yes, she should´ve been your age... I think Karl wanted her because he missed you and Miriam badly..."

"Is Camille like me?" Nic´s face contorted

"Yes" Nat replied, Nic covered her eyes with one of her gloved hands, she breathed in deep breaths, she thought she´d cry

"Your touch, your hands, that wasn’t in you originally, it is not in Camille" Nat said softly taking a tentative step towards Nichole who quickly composed and glared at her

"But is it true that she hears and sees and ... like me?"

"Yes, but it´s all potential, not as much as you, she´s never been trained as you were since before you were born, her abilities have never been developed"

"And they´ll never be"

"Someone has to be with her though, who else better than you"

"Her mother will fight it"

"Money persuaded her to give up her parental rights, you still have a lot of that, you´ll have more after you see Karl´s will. She won’t like it though"

"I´m still your puppet, aren’t I?" Nic said in a defeated tone

"No, Nicky, you just have to do what´s best for the ones you love. Now, please go get some breakfast, your dress is on your closet, you have to get ready and help me get Camille ready for the funeral"

"I´m not going"