"Harry, your mother is still alive."

While we all sucked in a collective gasp, Harry breathed out an incredulous sob. "She is?"

Clive stood up and went to the door of the suite and opened it. He peeked out in the hallway and was followed back in by the unmistakable woman who gave birth to Harry. He broke down into shuddering sobs as he rushed to her and she welcomed him into her arms as only a mother could. 

The whole room was filled with weeping and crying, tears of loss, grief, and relief, for the longest time. Finally, Anne stepped back enough to hold Harry's face in her hands. "Oh my dear sweet boy," she said. "You're so handsome. You've grown to be such a fine young man."

"Thank you," he said in a sniffly whisper. They hugged again and again and finally, Harry made the rounds and introduced his mother to all of us, my parents first and then me. He kept laughing through endless rounds of happy tears.

Anne hugged me tightly and said, "I can't possibly thank you enough for caring for Harry and getting him away from that wretched man."

"Of course," I said. "He has suffered a great injustice. You both have." I looked into her beautiful face and somehow felt the weight of all her grief over the years. Having known Harry just a few short months, I wept for the years of his life that she had missed.

She kissed my forehead and hushed me. "You sweet girl."

We made our way to sit down, everyone still in a state of stunned disbelief; even Clive had been weeping with us.

"So how did this happen?" I asked, glancing back and forth between Clive and Anne. "I don't understand how you were separated from your son."

Anne began, her arm firmly holding Harry next to her, stroking his hair and kissing his head. "All three of us were in that car wreck," she began. "William, as you know, passed away. I ended up in a coma for two months. When I woke up, Theodore told me that both William and Harry had died." The emotions welled up in her throat. "I had lost everything I loved. So I went back to England."

"But didn't any of your family come when they heard of the accident?" I wondered.

"Well, you see I was estranged from my family at the time. My parents and I weren't on good terms and I left home to come to the US. I hadn't been in touch with them in a few years. They never knew I had fallen in love with William and gave birth to Harry until I lost them, or thought I did, at least. It was then I realized how much I needed my family, so I went back home and made amends. Been living there ever since," she said and sniffled a little. "I never had a reason to come back."

"That's just heartbreaking," my mother said, wiping her eyes with a tissue. "How could Theodore do such an evil thing?"

Anne shook her head. "I had never liked him; I only tolerated him because I loved William so much. Theodore is a sick man, all he loves is himself and his fortune. And I'm here to help put him away for the rest of his life." A look of fury passed over her face but it didn't stay long. Her presence was one of joy at being reunited with Harry again. She hugged him again and kissed the side of his head repeatedly and he grinned like a little boy. In this moment, it was completely appropriate for him to become like a child again in his mother's arms.

"All of this is just unbelievable," I said. And truly, none of us knew what to do next. What do you do when you witness a reunion of this magnitude? Especially after all that had happened to us in the previous days and weeks?

Clive spoke eventually. "Anne and I need to talk with Officer Michaels soon; tonight if possible. We just got off the plane a few hours ago and of course Anne had to see Harry first." He smiled warmly at Anne and then continued. "Officer Michaels is the one who contacted me and told me about everything that had happened. I haven't told him anything about finding Anne yet, but she's going to be a crucial piece in this trial, for sure."

"Of course!" I practically shouted. "There's no way he can talk his way out of this. He sent you away and raised Harry as his own son, and for what reason? So he could manipulate Harry and make sure he never inherited the company."

"That awful man," Mom said.

Anne told us, "He was extremely angry when William changed the will. But he had planned to leave both Theodore and Benjamin a substantial amount of money as well. Apparently it wasn't enough."

Clive stood up and went to the kitchen area to try to contact Officer Michaels. He came back and told us, "He'll be here in about an hour."

"Where are you staying?" My father asked. "Surely you won't want to be too far away."

"I booked two rooms here for both Anne and myself for tonight," Clive said. "Maybe in the morning we can think about long-term arrangements. I know Anne isn't leaving until the trial is over," he nodded towards her, "and I can't imagine you folks are eager to leave Juliette after all this."

"I had been thinking, actually, that I might take a leave from work, or possibly see if they would let me do some work remotely," Dad said. "We don't want to leave Jules here alone. I mean, she has all of you, but this is a pretty serious situation. What do you think, Jules?"

This was news to me, but of course, my parents had only been here a total of 48 hours. "Sounds wonderful if you can swing it. We should probably look at either an extended stay hotel or maybe even rent a cheap apartment," I said.

"True," Dad agreed. "So let's talk about that tomorrow. For now, we should probably get some dinner before Officer Michaels comes over."

Once again, we ordered room service. I was sure the hotel staff loved the business we were giving them. Clive treated us all. The atmosphere had surely shifted from yesterday's somber task of filling the lawyer in on all the important information he needed and watching Harry begin to crumble under the stress. Now, he was a new man; he had literally rediscovered part of himself and I marveled at how he and his Mum fell into an immediate rhythm of relating without any hint of awkwardness. Maybe he really did remember her from before the accident.

Officer Michaels came by with two other officers since Clive had told him about the latest development. The men were all much younger than the chief and they hadn't been around long enough to know of William Blake and his family history, so the news that Theodore had faked both Harry's death and Anne's death and then kept them apart for so long, it was literally unbelievable. They took careful notes of everything that Anne told them about what she remembered after waking up from the coma and the details that Theodore had given her about her husband's and son's deaths. He had gone to great lengths to make it all believable. It probably helped Theodore's lie to play out when Anne decided she couldn't possibly return to the house after learning that her husband and son were gone. She had bought a one-way ticket back to England and asked Theodore to have all her things shipped.

Officer Michaels sat dumbfounded, listening to the story, another officer kept rubbing his head in disbelief and the third just kept muttering, "Crazy bastard." Finally, Officer Michaels said, "I know this will seem a bit insulting, but I think we need to do a blood test to make sure you two are, in fact, mother and son. We believe you, for sure," he said, motioning to the other two officers. "But knowing Blake, he'll do anything to try to cover his ass. Uh, pardon my language."

"Of course," Anne agreed. "Anything that will help."

"And obviously, we're going to be checking into the court records, finding out details about the accident, death certificates, etc.," Officer Michaels said. "Someone obviously had to help him cover all of this up because it can't be easy to fake the death of two people."

"Thank you so much," Anne gushed to the officers as they got ready to leave.

Clive walked them to the door and suggested that they re-open the investigation of Mary Lemke's disappearance. I hadn't heard her last name before but I knew exactly who he was talking about. 

Clive then excused himself to go to his own room. Anne said, "I'd like to retire as well but I just can't bring myself to leave my boy." She hugged him and kissed him again for about the hundredth time.

"Can I come to your room?" Harry asked. "I want to be with you." Then he looked at me. "You're okay with that, right?"

"Are you kidding?" I laughed and hugged him tightly. "You just got your mother back. Of course that's okay with me." With that, Harry hugged me and then kissed me, lingering just a bit but not long enough to be embarrassing. Anne gave us a surprised look and I wondered if Clive had mentioned anything about the nature of our relationship. Obviously we had just made it more clear.

"Good-night, Baby," I waved as they left hand in hand.

* * * * *

Okay, double update...I didn't have this one ready earlier but now is as good a time as any, right? Thanks so much - again and again and again <3