Three Hours Earlier. . .

"Jared, isn't it?"

Jared nearly choked on his salted beer. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before extending it to the mustachioed man wearing a baseball cap over his unruly curls.

"Hey. Long time no see my man."

The man gave a thin, stiff smile. "Life happens."

"Well, it's good to see you. Can I buy you a beer?"

Although Jared was glad to see the return of the man he had hoped to call his friend, his invitation to a beer was issued halfheartedly. Tonight wasn't convenient. He's stopped in the bar only for a quick drink, not to socialize. All day, he' been nervous as crack addict in church, wondering when Schneider would pop up, demanding to know what he'd been able to ferret out regarding Bridget Tyson's whereabouts or her car license. He had feared either he or Pedro would show up at his rental place.

But seven o'clock had come, the hour where he got to lock up after ensuring that everything was as it should. Even the black Dodge remained spotless and shiny where it was parked. He was surprised when he got no word from Pedro and her confederate. He'd trick himself into thinking they'd forgotten about him, or had found what they wanted from some other source, but the attempted self-deception hadn't worked. The longer the day stretched out, the more anxious he became.

He doubted they would believe that he'd been unable to find out anything, even though he tried his damnedest. Either Bridget dropped off the face of the earth or she'd been abducted by aliens, because there was no sign of her or the red car. That wasn't what Pedro and Schneider wanted to hear.

So Jared decided that even if he had to invent a license number and house address, he would give Schneider something. He figured the detective was as good as his word. If he didn't produce, Schneider would just as soon kill him as not.

"Thanks a beer sounds great."

"What?" Jared asked, jostled out of his grim musings.

His newfound friend was regarding him with puzzlement. "A beer?"

"Oh, sure, yeah. It's been a hard day," Jared said, apologizing for his momentary lapse. "Be right back."

When he returned with the beer, the man, a real cool customer, was chalking up a pool cue. "Watch yourself tonight. I've been practicing."

His grin reminded Jared of a carnivore with a shifty eyes and very small, pointed teeth. "Uh, actually, I don't, uh, have time tonight." The only thing more disturbing than the man's smile was his frown. It quickly changed Jared's mind. "Well, maybe one quick game."

"Great. It'll give me a chance to salvage my pride."

Between shots, they made idle chitchat. Jared played poorly. He couldn't concentrate for thinking about who or what would be waiting to ambush him when he got home. Or did Schneider have him in his sights now? Was he watching from the Laundromat across the street?

". . . about your friend?"

"Pardon?"

"I asked about your friend. The one with the red car. Say you seem a bit distracted. If you've got something better to do I'll just-"

"No,no." Jared said hastily. "Sorry."

Snap out of it, you idiot. He admonished himself. What in the world was the natter with him? Here was a cool guy practically begging to be his buddy, and what was he doing? Behaving like an asshole, that's what.

It was all Pedro's fault. Hers and that Schneider. Who were they to be breaking into his apartment and pushing him around, anyway? What right did they have to be making ridiculous demands of him? They had no muscle. At least Pedro didn't. And Schneider only made mouth and claimed to be the big bad guy. They were just puny detectives who didn't have something better to do than threaten poor car rental owners. Screw 'em. If they cane around tonight with their veiled threats, he'd call the cops on them. Inform the military or even sue then into oblivion.

Imbued with a new self-confidence, he hiked up his slipping waistband and took a large swig of brew. "I canned that bitch."

"No shit?"

"I felt bad about it," he said, his lips forming a moue of regret. "But she kept screwing up, gave me no choice."

"What else happened man?"

"Right." Jared sank his best shit of the evening. His friend hoisted his beer and mug in salute to his success. "I'm giving her a break."

"Oh?" The man lined his next shot. The balls clacked solidly, but failed to sink one. "Are you not seeing her again, because she lied?"

"No. She suddenly went MIA. Though I'm not even concerned about that now. I am doing some undercover detective work. Gotta nail that bitch."

As Jared had hoped, the man's eyebrows rose. He was impressed by the adventurous sound of that. "What kind of undercover work?"

Stung by the humiliation Schneider subjected him to, Jared was pleased to be flexing his muscles. So what if he stretched the truth a little? His buddy would never know the difference. Besides, even best friends bullshitted each other. It was all alert of the guy thing.

"Two detectives stopped by at my house last night. They're digging into the story of that missing rich girl. But they ran up against a brick wall, who'd they come to for information? Yours truly."

"Information about what?"

Jared winked. "About the missing girl and Bridget Tyson of course. They want me to point them to her house and also her plate number. They believe she had something to do with the missing rich girl and I was asked to find out the truth."

"And you got it for them?"

"Don't think it came easy," Jared said, puffing out his chest. "It didn't. I had to do some investigative work myself, tap in to my real hush-hush sources, but I found out exactly what they wanted. They will get that missing girl in no time."

"Must have made them happy?"

"They will be."

"You haven't told them yet?" The man's eyes brightened and the mustache lifted in a grin. He cuffed Jared on the shoulder. "Ah, I get it. You're holding out until you get something from them in return, huh?"

Jared chuckled. He had his new pal right where he wanted him, believing he was a might man and a lady-killer, a man of the world, a force to be reckoned with, and nobody's errand boy. "I'm seeing them later tonight. For what I've got to tell them, I get something in return, don't you think?"

"Yes. I think so."

Jared's courage was short-lived. Soon after he parted company with his new friend and left the bar, his anxiety returned. On his drive home, his plans became so slippery that he could barely keep them on the steering wheel.

Schneider was going to kick his ass if he didn't have something useful to report. And if he made up something and Schneider found out, which he would surely do within matter of hours, he'd probably come back and kill him. Either way, Jared was screwed. Unless he begged Pedro for mercy. She'd been pretty harsh last night, but he didn't think she could stand by and let Schneider shoot him in cold blood.

"No, she'd go into the other room so she wouldn't lose her appetite," he muttered as he parked in his designated spot at the rear if the building and took the stairs.

With shaky hands he unlocked Gia door and swung it open. He hesitated, straining to hear the slightest sound. Finally, he stepped into his living room and closed the door behind him.

He was fairly certain that he was alone in the apartment and that nobody had entered it since he'd left that morning. Even so, he scurried through the small rooms, moving quickly from lamp to wall switch, flooding the place with bright light. He looked through his bedroom window at the fire escape, having determined that his callers last night had used it to get into and out of his apartment. There was no one on the metal stairs zigzagging down the side of the building.

He went to the kitchen. Nerves had turned the beer in his belly sour. He belched as he opened the refrigerator, looking for something to soak up the excess acid.

"This is nuts," he muttered around a mouthful of cold pasta of indeterminate age.

He wasn't a toddler. He was a man. Yet he was creeping around his own home, scared of his own shadow. Ever since he met Bridget Tyson, Jared's life hadn't been worth shit. He'd had trouble sleeping properly. Trouble with his leisure time, too. How can you make friends when you were worried about a Detective Inspector making a mush out of what little brain you had left? Now, the trouble had resided in his home.

As soon as Pedro arrived, he intended to give her-

There was a knock at the door.

Reflexively, his gut tightened.

Then his bravery reasserted itself, and he strode belligerently to the door and yanked it open, prepared to give Pedro and Schneider a fine piece of his mind. But only one guest had come to call, and he was smiling.

"Hello, Jared. May I come in?"

* * *

Alix followed Susan and their parents through the large, homey kitchen, past the gracious dining room, and into the cozy private living room. A low fire was burning in the grate. The room smelled of apples and cinnamon. Framed photographs of the family were scattered around the room, documenting their family history and the children and grand children's growth. The furnishing were tasteful and beautiful, but comfortable. The atmosphere was inviting, although the look on their mother's face was not.

It had occurred to Alix that their parents might have heard or seen something pertaining to Annie's innocence, especially since they lived in the family house. She'd thought of it as a long shot but worth a try. Never would she have expected that their mother would agree to talk about anything related to Annie. Nor did she expect her to look so miserably unhappy and stressed.

When they were seated, Megan addressed Susan first. "How are you? A lot has happened since we last saw each other." Susan nodded as she patted her round belly. "You also, Alix."

"I'm fine, mama." Alix said. "What is most important now is Jovon and Annie." She waited to see her mother's reaction and when she got none she continued. "Annie was kidnapped almost a week after she left here and hasn't been found ever since then."

Marcello nodded. "We know that honey. We saw it on the world news too."

"Ever since I saw that news, I began to feel guilty because Susan and I left out a little detail after. . ." She rolled her lips inward. Alix wasn't the type of person to cry in front of others. She didn't continue until she regained her composure. "After we caught Annie and Lukas in bed together."

"That's true." Susan confirmed. "Two days before then, we took ambushed Annie in bed that morning, when Jovon was talking to you guys. We made her take a pregnancy test because of how off she had been that week, but didn't wait around to see the result because she started freaking out about Jovon's reaction when he found out she was carrying his baby."

"There was also the time she just arrived and I persuaded her to marry Jovon, but she strongly refused."

Megan rubbed her face with her palm. "What if she was pretending just so you wouldn't suspect her?"

"I asked myself that question too. Her parents are rich. She's beautiful and could get any other man out there other than my moody brother. Why then would she stay with him?"

"Because she loved him." Megan said quietly. "She said it that night he came home drunk and beaten up. She cried so much that night that it was almost too painful to watch."

Marcello wrapped his arm around Megan's shoulder and dropped a kiss on her hair. "I thought so myself. She was the first girl he brought home after Americus' death. My son looked so happy, and so free at the time. He even took her out on the yacht for dinner. He was already in love but was just too blind to see it."

They all nodded in agreement.

Alix fixed her eyes intently on Megan. "We jumped into conclusion without hearing Annie's side of the story first. I have never regretted something more in my life."

"What do you propose we do?" Megan asked. "Jovon don't want to hear us say her name and he's distanced himself again."

"Proof." Susan said. "We need proof that Annie was pregnant before we ever found out and what happened was all a big misunderstanding."

Marcello sat up in his seat. "What proof?"

Alix got to her feet. "The pregnancy test we gave Annie and also the hospital she went to after she fainted. I called the hospital on my way here, they said the doctor was in surgery and would get back to me. The doctor would be able to tell us if Annie and Lukas came back to see him or Annie told him not to tell Jovon and keep it a secret from him."

Megan rose to her feet too. "I'm not sure about the test because they cleaned the room already."

"We'll check for it first."

Alix was already out of the room and up the stairs before anyone could catch up. She paused at the doorway of Jovon's bedroom to take in the clean room while she sent a prayer up to whoever was out there listening to help make this easier for them. Then she made her way into the bathroom to begin her search.

The bathroom looked clean too and void of any indication that people stayed there five months ago. She opened drawers, cabinets. She searched the shower stall. Brush holder. Towel cupboards. Window sill. Behind the loofah holder. The almost empty liquid soap container. She even checked behind the water closet in case she missed it.

Nothing.

Alix combed her fingers through her hair and let out a frustrated sigh. There was no way they could prove Annie's innocence if. . . She narrowed her eyes at the tiny slit between the tub and the adjacent wall. Alix sped walked over to the tub and knelt on her knees to get a better view. A white stick sat in the slit and nearly blended in with the tub that only those with a sharp eye could only notice it.

With the help of her pink finger, she managed to get it out and right there, sitting in her palm was the pregnancy test. A smile broke out on Alix face as she got to her feet and began to wipe the dust that had accumulated on it with her shirt as she made her way into the bedroom where Susan and their parents were scouring.

"I found it." She announced. Immediately all movement ceased and they turned to her with fearful expressions as they waited for her verdict.

"What does it say?" Marcello asked.

"Two plus signs. She was pregnant before we found out."

Susan sat on the bed with a sigh as she rubbed her belly with both of her hands. "That's good to know. But we need the other-" she was cutoff when Alix's phone began to ring.

"Excuse me." Alix withdrew it from her pocket and glanced at the screen. "It's the hospital." She swiped her thumb across the screen, tapped the record button, then set it to handsfree mode. "Hello,this is Alixandra Phim."

"Good morning, Miss Phim. I was told you requested to speak with me. How may I help you?"

"Five months ago, Jovon and a lady came to the hospital because was was vomiting and then she fainted. Do you remember?"

"Uh... No. But give me some minutes."

They could hear the periodic click of the keyboard as he typed away. Alix joined Susan on the bed, still clutching the stick in her hand. After what felt like a nonillion years, the doctor finally came back to the phone.

"Ah, yes. If I am correct, he came with a lady with the name Ansela Mckade."

"Yes. Yes."

"Ah! She was a weird one, that lady. She was so shocked when I told her she was pregnant. She told me not to tell your brother since she wanted to do if herself. Now that I think of it, she looked scared at the time. And if I am right about the day the baby was conceived it should be sometime around mid or late June."

"Okay. Thank you so much, Doctor." Alix hung up. "Jovon's no doubt the baby's daddy. I am sending this to him right now."

Megan cuddled into her husband's warm embrace with tear filled eyes. "What have we done? She was innocent, that sweet girl. We were in the wrong all this time and blamed her for a mistake she didn't commit "

"It's okay. Let's us pray she's found first. We can worry about the rest later."

Alix flopped down on the bed after she took a picture of the stick and attached the recording to it, then sent it to Jovon's phone. Her head pounded and her heart was filled with joy and dread.

Joy because she was able to prove Annie's innocence and dread because of what would happen next.

"What now?" She asked no one in particular.

"Now we wait." Susan answered anyway.

Even if Annie was later found and she was still carrying the baby by some type of miracle, Alix knew one thing for sure.

Annie would never forgive Jovon or the Phim family. Not after the way they treated her.

____________________________________

A/N: I'm shitty at these things, so forgive me.

I just wanted to warn you in advance that the next chapter or the next isn't going to be pretty, but there's one light in the darkness after all. What is it? I know, but won't tell. You'll have to wait to find out.

QOTC: Who do you think killed Jared? What do you think would happen next after Jovon gets the message Alix sent him?

Moral Lesson: Dear children, don't lie or brag about what you don't have or what you can't/didn't do all in the name of trying to impress someone. You might end up like Jared or worse.

Please don't forget to vote and comment.

~ Jasmine.A.