Discovered (22 page)

“WHAT?!” Layla
bellowed. “What do you mean? How can that be?”

“It’s true,” Ben
butted in. “They were the best at what they did at the time.”

Layla shook her
head quickly. “What kind of incentives did you offer them to join?” she demanded.

“Not that kind,”
Jay said quietly. “We paid them a fortune and allowed them to have almost free
run of the place.”

“This is not good,”
she muttered, her voice breaking. “What did they do?”

 “We didn’t have
the high tech security we have in the basement now, only a set of regular keys.
At any rate, we started noticing that the containers that we kept the water in looked
like they’d been tampered with. There were other tell-tale signs also. But
within four years, we knew that James and William had figured out our secret
and were dipping into our supplies,” Ben explained.

“Wait!” Layla
bellowed. “Are you trying to tell me that my father is not thirty-seven?”

“Your father hasn’t
really been thirty-seven since around 1980,” Jay said regretfully. “He would
naturally be around seventy at this point.”

“That can’t be!”
she squealed. Her face drained of color, and her hands began to shake slightly.

“I’m sorry, Layla,
but it’s the truth,” he answered, feeling terrible for having to admit that to
her.

“When we confronted
them, they tried to deny it, naturally,” Ben said. “But we had their
fingerprints on the containers. I fired them both that day. When I arrived in
the basement the following morning, I noticed that two of the containers were
missing.”

“So, if my
calculations are correct, their supply of water is about to run out in the next
few years,” Joey added in. “Which is probably the reason that James hired those
thugs, Manuel and Robert, to steal what we have left. We believe that James had
put Manuel up to working for us in the first place, that Manuel was always
doing James’ bidding, which is part of the reason Ben fired him. We caught him
snooping in places that he wouldn’t have known to look in unless someone tipped
him off.”

“And we also
suspect that their small pharmaceutical company is just a ruse, only a front
for the research they were performing. Research that they got an eyeful of from
us,” Issy added.

“But if that’s
true, then what was my father doing in Afghanistan?” Layla countered, trying to
throw a spanner in the works of their theory.

“When Christopher
Columbus first discovered the new world, he thought he had landed in India,
hence the name he gave to the natives,” Jay explained. “Originally, the
fountain legends came from somewhere around the Himalayas, or so we’ve been led
to believe. We have a theory that when the settlers landed in the new world,
somehow, someone must have assumed that the fountain of youth was somewhere
nearby, which in fact it was, but that doesn’t discount the original legends.
It may be possible that there is another somewhere on one of those many
mountain ranges. This is only a guess, but we think your father may have been
looking in that region for it. It was a perfect time to do so. With so many
foreign contractors in that area now, no one would pay any mind to another
American businessman scouring the area. From what we’ve been led to believe,
the parts of the Himalayas in India and Tibet have already been thoroughly
searched by explorers over the years, and more than likely China, Nepal, Bhutan,
which is a moot point, since your father had access to helicopters anyway. I
don’t know what ties he had, and whether or not he would have been able to get
permission to fly over certain borders, but I don’t doubt that he would have
had access to other aircrafts. ”

“And just because
those areas have been searched, doesn’t mean that if there was another
fountain, it hasn’t been overlooked. Mount Everest alone is a serious feat to
climb and covered in ice. Then there’s the K-12 and various other ranges,” Joey
piped in. “Which is the reason we discarded the idea to look there. Talk about
looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Layla took a sip of
diet coke and placed the glass on the coffee table. “I…I think I need to lie
down for a while. This is all just too much to take in.”

“I’m sorry,” Jay
said, reaching over to take her hand.

She pulled back
from him and shook her head, to upset to speak.

“Go on back up to
our guest room,” Issy coaxed. “Take all the time you need. I know how hard this
must be for you, and you’ve taken it all very well.”

Layla stood up, took
one last look at them despairingly, and stormed out of the room.

Jay ran his fingers
through his hair and walked to the window. Looking out at the vast ocean, he
wondered if he’d made a mistake by telling Layla everything. Losing her now
would hurt, but sooner or later, she would have to know the truth. Maybe it was
better now than a year from now. By then, he most likely would have been in too
deep to recover from the loss. He bit his lip, trying to squelch the anxiety
that was pumping through him.

“Are you alright?”
Ben asked.

Without looking
back, Jay shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s better that
she knows everything,” Joey said sympathetically.

“Not everything,” Jay
replied, watching a seagull skim the ocean. “I left out one very important
piece of information!”

Layla

Layla walked up the
stairs in a sickening daze. How could she ever come to grips with what they had
just told her? How could her handsome father have been so many years older than
what he led her and her mother to believe? She walked into the guest room and
lay down on the bed, rolling everything around in her head.

She thought of Jay and
swallowed hard. Where did this leave their relationship? She knew she loved
him, but enough to continue seeing him? The fact that he was Arthur Vallen
already seemed to make that impossible, regardless of what Issy thought, but
this just added a whole other layer to the dilemma.  She rolled over and hugged
the pillow.

How long she had
slept, she didn’t know. A gentle knocking on the door roused her from a
disturbing dream. She sat up and tried to make sense of the unfamiliar
surroundings. Instantly, the bizarre news that Jay told her came back, and she
threw her hand over her face. “Come in,” she called out.

Issy walked through
the door holding another can of Diet Coke and a glass of ice. “I came to see
how you’re doing,” she said softly. “I brought you a drink.”

“Thank you,” Layla
said, taking the soda and glass from Issy. “As far as how I’m doing, I have no
idea.”

“I know,” Issy said
kindly, sitting on the corner of the bed. “You’re the first person that we’ve
ever told our secret to. I can only imagine how overwhelmed you are.”

“Why me?” Layla
huffed.

“Because…” Issy
replied, putting her hand on Layla’s shoulder, “you’re the first person that
has ever meant anything to Jay, besides Ben, Joey and me.”

“But how can that
be?” Layla asked. “Do you mean to tell me that in over five hundred years, Jay
has never been close to another girl? He’s never had a girlfriend?”

“Nope, never,” Issy
confirmed.

“How is that
possible?” Layla questioned.

“Well, first of
all, dating is a relatively new concept, as far as human history goes,” Issy
began. “Like Jay said, women or girls were not at liberty to choose what men
they wanted to become involved with. Marriages were arranged and more times
than not, when the girl was still very young. Then he had the added pressure of
taking care of us three to a certain degree. Even though he’s the youngest out
of all of us, he was the heir to his father’s estate, a nobleman of sorts. He
was the one that dealt with the general public on our behalf, and in some ways,
we’ve always looked up to him to make the decisions for us. His first
responsibility was to us alone, not that we expected that from him. It was more
like a position he placed himself in. When we finally settled in North Carolina
after the Civil War, there were many men who showed interest in him, no doubt
lining their daughters up to meet the handsome and well educated bachelor who
just happened to be extremely wealthy.”

“But he wasn’t
interested?” Layla questioned.

“What would have
been the point?” Issy replied. “He couldn’t very well commit to a marriage
knowing that his wife would grow old, but he wouldn’t. How would he even begin
to explain that?”

“Makes sense,”
Layla muttered.

“And besides, Jay
was never the kind of person who wanted a ‘yes’ wife, a woman who acted
inferior to him. He was always so far ahead of his time in that regard. Jay is
the kind of guy who wants a partner, a friend, someone to share every aspect of
his life with. It’s only in recent years that society has caught up to his
ideals.”

“Really?” Layla
asked.

“Jay doesn’t have,
or ever had, a male chauvinist bone in his body,” Issy responded, nodding. “In
a remarkable way, he was really far ahead of his time even fifty years ago.”

“Why?” Layla
questioned.

“I guess in some
ways it was because of Lucia’s influence,” Issy replied. “She and her husband
really had an unusual relationship. He listened to her, took her ideas and
opinions into account, which was an extremely rare thing in those days. We grew
up seeing that first hand. We grew up seeing a woman that was never treated
inferior in any way. The boys watched that from the time they were infants.
Every day when we were really little, Lucia and Maria would take the four of us
into the garden to play and run around for hours. I was always treated equal to
the boys, played the same rough games, was allowed to do whatever they were
doing. When we grew a little older, I was given the same lessons, taught to
read and write along with them. Lucia wouldn’t hear of having it any other way.
In some ways, I was more fortunate than other girls of my time were. Jay adored
his mother. He would never be happy with any woman who didn’t have her spunk.
Like I said, it’s only recently that women have become somewhat interesting to
him.”

Layla raised her
eyebrows and nodded, but then she thought of her father and her lip quivered involuntarily.
 

“What?” Issy asked,
noticing the pained look on Layla’s face.

“My father and
James…” she trailed off, too upset to continue speaking.

“I can’t really
blame them for what they did,” Issy responded. “It was a mighty temptation.
They were men of science, after all. It would have gone against their very
nature not to investigate what was dangling in front of them. The four of us
succumbed to the temptation without giving it a second thought. Try not to
think too unkindly of your father. Apart from that little transgression, he was
always a very nice man, not to mention, brilliant.”

Issy’s words washed
over Layla like a lifeline, giving her something solid to hold on to. “Thank
you,” she said, smiling sadly.

“You’re welcome,
and it’s the truth,” Issy stated.

“What’s it like to
be in love with the same man for over half a millennia?” Layla questioned, attempting
to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. “I can’t even begin to
imagine that.”

Issy folded her
hands together and placed them over her heart. “I’m a very lucky girl to have
Sebastian,” she replied with an adoring look. “He makes me feel like the most
important person in the universe…always has. There isn’t a single thing he
wouldn’t do for me and vice versa. Sometimes it’s as though his only mission in
life is to find new and exciting ways to make me happy.”

“That’s so
beautiful,” Layla butted in.

“You have no idea,”
Issy replied, smiling nostalgically.

“And you’ve loved
him since you were a little kid,” Layla added.

“Oh, no,” Issy
responded, shaking her head. “I hated him when I was a little kid.”

“Really?”

“Well, not hated
him exactly. I suppose I loved him in a certain way, but he annoyed the crap
out of me; like a typical little brother whom you can’t stand, but you love
regardless, y’know?”

Layla laughed.
“Why?”

“He followed me
around everywhere for as long as I remember,” Issy replied. “Always acting so
goofy, throwing things at me or pulling my hair, generally doing anything to
get under my skin.”

“Trying to get your
attention,” Layla concluded.

Issy nodded. “I
suppose, but he irritated the crap out of me for years.”

“So how did you
guys…y’know?”

“When did I fall in
love with him?” Issy questioned. “I remember the exact moment. It was about a
month before we found the healing water, before we set out on that journey.  I
was in my garden, tending to my flower beds. Arturo had gotten me a beautiful
lemon tree, and Sebastian was digging a hole to plant it. I spent so many years
telling Sebastian to get away from me that I guess I hadn’t really noticed that
he finally did. I looked over at him at one point and had to smother a gasp. I
remember thinking
‘when did he get such strong arms and shoulders?’
The
way the sun bounced off his hair causing the copper highlights to sparkle, and
the faint sunburn on his cheeks made his blue eyes luminous, at that exact
moment, I swear I’d never seen a more beautiful human in my life. I stared at
him for ages, overcome by the glorious young man he’d grown into right before
my eyes without me noticing. He looked over at me at one point and nodded with
a strange look on his face, probably wondering what the heck I was staring at.
I stood up and walked over to him, started teasing him a little, flirting. He
just gave me a cold smile and turned away. And then it hit me that he’d been
avoiding me for several weeks.

“This pattern
continued for another week or so, me trying to get his attention, and him
basically ignoring me. It was like the tables had turned, and I was not liking
it one bit. The more he ignored me, the more desperate I was for his attention
until I was acting like a love-sick idiot.  Finally, one afternoon, I asked him
to walk me to the beach. As we walked along, he pulled a leaf from a bush and
kept wrapping it around his finger, saying nothing. At that point, I had enough
of his aloof attitude and tried to grab his hand. He pulled away from me and
gave me a disgusted look.
‘What are you doing?’
he asked. When I
explained that I wanted to hold his hand, he became furious and told me to stop
playing silly games. At that point, I felt my heart shatter, and before I knew
it, one stupid tear escaped my eye. He turned his head sharply and demanded
that I tell him what was wrong. And then I said,
‘don’t you love
me
anymore?’
At that point he was seething, his face turning red with rage.
‘What’s
the point?’
he yelled.
‘So you don’t?’
I pushed. 
‘Isabella, what
are you playing at?’
he demanded. When I said nothing, he grew even madder,
practically shaking with fury.
‘I have loved you for as long as I can
remember,’
he yelled.
‘And to answer your stupid question, yes, I still love you, but
what good does it do
me? You have never—’
Not really interested in
letting him finish his rant, I jumped up on him and kissed him to shut him up.
And before I knew it, he was kissing me back and basically hasn’t stopped for
the last five hundred years or so.”

“That is so
romantic,” Layla gushed. “So you really have been married for a very long
time.”

“Actually, not in
the grand scheme of things,” Issy replied. “Ben and I were not legally married
until 1968. While our union would have been perfectly legal in the state of New
York, where we were living at the time, in other places it wouldn’t have been.
And besides, it was only a formality to me, only a piece of paper. Ben and I
had been spiritually married for hundreds of years at that point. And I firmly
believed that God blessed our union regardless of what others thought.”

“How ironic that
you were married more than fifty times longer than the average marriage lasts,
yet some people would have deemed it illegal,” Layla butted in, shaking her
head.

“Human irony has
never ceased to amaze me, believe me,” Issy replied sarcastically. “At any
rate, after
Loving vs. Virginia
, interracial marriages were popping up
all over the place, and Ben kind of got caught up in the whole thing. Maria
raised him to be a good Catholic boy, so while it mattered little to me, it
mattered greatly to him that our union was blessed by a priest, that we performed
the sacrament. It made him happy, so…” she trailed off, shrugging her
shoulders.

“For the life of me,
I can’t understand why people care who other people marry,” Layla said
solemnly. “And I can’t believe how romantic it is that Ben wanted to marry you
so badly after already being with you for a couple of hundred years.”

“I’m a very lucky
girl,” Issy admitted. “But, through all that, I’ve often missed having a
girlfriend. I’ve never had a friend to go shopping with or do girly things with.”

“You never struck
me as the girly type,” Layla replied. “That’s not to say you’re not feminine
because you are, it’s just that you seem so comfortable hanging out with the
guys all the time.”

“I’ve never really
had much of a choice,” Issy answered. “There have been times when I’ve seen
movies with girls doing the sleep-over thing, and generally just being silly
together, and I’ve felt that I’ve missed out.”

“We could go get
our nails done together,” Layla replied, smirking.

“Could we?” Issy
asked. “I’d really like that, I think.”

Layla giggled. “Of
course.”

“Goodie,” Issy
squealed, clapping her hands.

“I have a
question,” Layla stated.

“Only one?” Issy
replied, laughing. “What is it?”

“What do the
employees at Vallen Enterprises think of you?” Layla asked. “I met Margaret
today, and I was just curious what conclusions she’s drawn for your lack of
aging.”

“Most of our
employees generally think we’re the most vain and narcissistic people alive.
They think that we spend fortunes on expensive and rare cosmetic surgery,
facial injections and whatnot.”

“Really?” Layla
said, laughing at the irony.

“Well, truth be
told, we sort of lead them in that direction,” Issy admitted. “Every so often,
one of us will pass some comment in a crowded elevator, or some other place
with many people within ear-shot, about having a doctor’s appointment. Then,
when asked the reason for the appointment, we’ll put on a good show of being
awkward and close-lipped, acting like we don’t want to discuss the matter any
further.”