Longing and Lies (14 page)

W
hen Elliot dragged himself back to the apartment, it was eerily quiet. He walked through the rooms to his bedroom and immediately knew that something was wrong. All of Ashley's things were gone. He quickly retraced his steps and went down the hall to the other side of the apartment. He pushed open Ashley's door. Empty.

He felt as if he'd been kicked in the gut. The force of the realization that she was actually gone was so strong that it was physical. He turned in a slow circle, momentarily lost and off center. He gazed down at the file in his hand. Exhaustion gripped him one final time. He lowered himself onto the bed, supine, threw his arm across his eyes and begged for sleep.

 

Savannah, Danielle and Mia helped Ashley with the last of her things.

For Ashley, the decision to leave the apartment and Elliot was more difficult than anything she'd ever done. Her insides felt raw as if they'd been gouged out with some sharp object. Her head pounded and she was sure that her heart was broken. But what choice did she have? It was better to leave now than to watch him walk away from her. That, she knew she would not be able to bear.

“You should have at least left him a note,” Savannah was saying as she unzipped one of the suitcases.

“I don't know why you left at all,” Danielle added. “You know you love the man, just work it out.”

“It's not that simple, Dani. I can't just profess my love for a man who would just as soon hop on a plane to the jungles of the rain forest as make love to me.”

Mia put her hands on her hips. “I have to agree, Ash. You won't know what's on the man's mind until you lay your cards on the table.”

“You can't be any more hurt than you are now if he doesn't give you the answers you want to hear. But if you don't pose the questions you'll never know.”

Ashley plopped down on the side of her bed and looked up into the three concerned faces of her girls. Deep inside she knew they were right. But she didn't think she could stand to hear him actually say that he didn't want to be with her.

“I can't deal with this right now,” she finally said. “I need some sleep.” She slowly stood and gathered the trio in her arms, kissing each cheek. “Thank you guys for everything. Ya'll don't have to go home, but you gotta leave here. I'm beat.”

Mia snatched up her purse in mock indignation. “I've been kicked out of better places than this.”

“No, you haven't,” Danielle said, pushing her toward the door.

“Call me if you need to talk,” Savannah whispered and finger-waved on her way out.

Ashley sunk back across the bed and in moments she'd drifted off into a troubled sleep.

 

The sound of ringing and banging permeated her dreams. She'd been running, pushing through a series of never-ending doors in search of the answers that would lead her to what happened to her sister twenty-three years ago. At first she imagined that the noise was the sound of the doors slamming shut behind her and her ringing bells to gain entry to the empty rooms. But it wasn't her dream.

Groaning, she blinked against the darkness and pulled herself up. She peered at the digital clock. It was after ten. She'd been asleep all day. Struggling, she got up and went to the door.

“Who is it?”

“Elliot. I need to talk to you.”

Elliot! She looked down at what she had on; baggy,
dingy sweatpants and a wrinkled T-shirt. Her hair felt like it was matted down on one side and she could feel the crust in her eyes.

“Come on, Ash. Open the door.”

She wiped her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair. Reluctantly she pulled the door open and stood in the frame, blocking him from entering.

“Trust me, you don't look
that
bad,” he said, hoping to tease a smile out of her.

The instant she opened the door, his whole world shifted. There was suddenly daylight in the midst of his darkness. He felt a surge of possibility and an overwhelming desire to take her in his arms and never let her go. But of course he couldn't do that. The simple reality of her being back in her own apartment spoke volumes about everything. The case was over and so were they. That truth devastated him. But if this was what she wanted…He forced a smile.

She made a face and stepped aside. “What are you doing here?” she asked, walking behind him into her dual-purpose living and dining room.

“I have something you need to see. For the past couple of weeks, I've been feeding details to Jasmine.”

Her heart began to race.

“Between what she found and what was pulled from the Ettinger's home, I've been working on putting this together all night and most of the day.”

“Working…on what?”

He went into the inside jacket pocket of his FBI
windbreaker and took out a rolled-up manila folder. He handed it to her. Her hand trembled as she reached out to take it.

 

Some time later she gazed up at him, her eyes teary from emotion and fatigue. “Do you think it's true?”

“I'm pretty sure,” he said, nodding his head.

The tears fell freely now. “So, what do we do?” she asked, her voice breaking like a scratched CD.

“You need to decide what you want to do with the information, Ash…” He paused and sat down beside her. “Whatever you decide, I'll support you. I promise you that.”

Ashley broke down and sobbed. He gathered her in his arms and held her, letting her release all the years of hurt, and guilt and loss. He knew that whatever decision she made it would change lives for better or worse.

T
he campus of Brooklyn College was in full swing as students rushed from one building to the next and geared up for the Homecoming Weekend. Located in Brooklyn's Midwood section, the sprawling campus was one of the borough's crown jewels. They walked toward the graduate buildings and the President's office.

It had been ages since she'd walked the halls of a college campus, Ashley thought as she and Elliot navigated their way to the administrative offices. The closest she'd come to being back in school was on her last assignment where she posed as a high school student.

“Should be around the next corner,” Elliot said, referring to the college president's office.

Ashley's heart thumbed in anticipation. She'd spent
two weeks of sleepless nights debating about what was the right thing to do. It had been a painful, but thoughtful decision. She only hoped it was the right one. And during that two weeks when she'd wrestled with what to do, Elliot was there to support her, just like he'd promised.

Elliot opened the door to the outer office, and they stepped into the reception area.

An auburn-haired receptionist greeted them. “President Stevenson is waiting for you. You can go right in.”

Elliot tapped lightly on the door and they walked into President Stevenson's office. The elegant gentleman, surrounded by plaques and degrees, was seated behind an enormous cherrywood desk. The young woman, seated in front of his desk turned to look at them when they walked in, and Ashley's heart nearly stopped. They were her mother's eyes, wide and almost see-through brown. Her knees wobbled and Elliot held her tight around her waist. The birthmark, a dark circle the size of a quarter, rested by her right ear, which she didn't bother to hide with her hair. She remembered asking her mother if the mark would go away. Her mother had hugged her and told her no, saying that birthmarks were little touches from God as He sent each of us out into the world.

President Stevenson rose from his plush high-backed leather seat. He extended his hand to Ashley and Elliot. “Please, have a seat.” He waited for them to get settled.
“Ms. Temple, Mr. Morgan this is Simone McDonald. Simone, these are the people that I told you about.” He cleared his throat. “My secretary can get you anything you need. I have a meeting.” He walked past Simone and squeezed her shoulder before walking out and closing the door softly behind them.

After several awkward moments of silence, Ashley angled her chair toward Simone.

“You don't know me from the man in the moon,” Ashley began, speaking softly and deliberately. She looked Simone directly in her eyes. “But I know you.”

Over the next hour, Ashley held Simone's hand as she told her about the months leading up to her birth, her arrival and the agony when she disappeared. She told her about the toll that it took on their parents and on her.

“We've never forgotten you,” Ashley said as she wiped away Simone's tears and then her own. “Never stopped wanting to find you and believing that you were out there somewhere.”

“What's my real name?” Simone finally asked.

“Layla. Your name is Layla.”

 

Bernard, Ashley, Jasmine, Jean and Elliot were gathered in Jean's office a week later for a debriefing.

“According to all the documents that have been confiscated there are more than eight hundred children that have been abducted by this network alone over the past twenty years,” Jean said, the disgust that she felt
evident in her tone. “I hope those S.O.B.s rot in jail. The devastation they've caused is incalculable. Unraveling this mess is going to take a while. And reconnecting the stolen children with their biological families…that is an even bigger nightmare.” She took a long breath. “But the birth families deserve to know, they deserve some closure.” She turned to Ashley. “How is Layla handling the news?”

“The DNA results came back.” She turned to Elliot and smiled. He'd worked magic to push it through quickly. “She's definitely my sister. She wants to meet our parents. She's pretty much taken care of herself since she was eighteen. Her adoptive parents divorced when she was twelve and her mother died four years ago. Our road will be rough but certainly not as rough as other families. I'm planning to take her out to see them as soon as she finishes her thesis.”

“Ettinger, or rather Herman Lester, had a smooth operation going,” Elliot said. “He and his wife were not the only ones involved. We have indictments coming down for nearly a dozen more individuals. But I have to take my hat off to Jasmine for putting a lot of the pieces together.”

Jasmine lowered her head. “Once I saw so many similarities between Dr. Ettinger and Dr. Lester, the time period and location and how one person ceased to exist and the other started, everything kinda fell into place from there.”

“Excellent job, Jasmine,” Jean said.

“I'll need everyone's final report in ten days. Try to do it as soon as possible as details tend to dim.” She took off her glasses, a clear indication that the meeting was over.

Everyone stood and began to file out. Ashley was the last to leave. She waited until she was the only one in the room besides Jean.

“Forget something, Ashley?” Jean asked without looking up.

Ashley walked back over to Jean's desk. “I need to ask you something.”

Jean glanced up.

“Did you know about my family situation? Is that why you assigned me to this case?”

“What's important is that the right people were chosen and the job was done.” She waited a beat. “Anything else?”

Ashley pressed her lips together. “No. I guess not. Thank you.” She walked toward the door and opened it.

“Oh, and Ashley…”

She turned partly around. “Yes.”

“If you tell him how you feel, it will change your life.”

Ashley's stomach did a three-sixty as she stared into Jean's all-knowing eyes, an instant before she slipped on her red-framed glasses and looked away.

A
shley checked and rechecked the food. She'd looked in the mirror more in the past hour than she had in her entire lifetime. It had taken her nearly a week to get up the nerve and now she wished she had more time.

What if she was wrong? What if Jean was wrong? What if it was too late?

The bell rang and goose bumps ran up and down her arms. She took a long, deep, cleansing breath, squeezed her eyes shut for a moment then walked to the door.

When she saw Elliot standing on the other side, tall, dark, handsome, edible and looking at her as if he missed her as much as she missed him, she wondered why it had taken her so long.

She took his hand and gently pulled him inside. “Thanks for coming.”

“I've never been one to turn down a free meal. And from what I can remember…from our time together, you're a pretty good cook.”

She stopped short and turned to him. The muscles in her throat worked up and down. “Do you think about us at all?”

His finger reached out and stroked her cheek. “All the time.” The deep timbre of his voice reached inside to that empty place in her soul and filled it.

Her eyes glided over his face, recommitting every inch of it to memory.

“I love you, Ashley. I love you with all my heart. You gave me a reason to want to live again, really live life. To feel again, to want someone in my life that matters, who was there out of desire and not necessity. I've been going crazy these past weeks. I never knew how empty my life was until you weren't in it.”

“I love you, Elliot Morgan,” she said with all the eagerness and passion that had lived within her for months. “And I don't care if you want to travel to the moon. I want to be with you.” There, she'd said it and she was certain that she'd never said anything more true.

He kissed her then—long, deep and sweet and she willingly gave of herself to him. The explosion of their need for each other made them dizzy with desire.

Elliot slowly broke the kiss, leaving Ashley trembling in his embrace. “Marry me, Ashley,” he said in an almost
urgent whisper. “Travel with me, wake with me, sleep with me, be my friend, my lover, my reflection.” He dug in the front pocket of his jeans and took out a diamond ring set in white gold. He held it in front of her. “I didn't come for the free meal. I came to claim my woman.”

Ashley's eyes filled with tears of absolute joy. “Yes, yes, yes.”

She knew that the road ahead wouldn't be easy, but it would be full of excitement and adventure. With Elliot by her side, and her family united, there wasn't any challenge that she couldn't face.

As she rested in the warmth and security of Elliot's arms, she smiled and silently thanked Jean for knowing just what she needed.