Unforeseen Circumstances
A sequel to Mistaken Identity
Parts 1-2
"Alex Perez speaking" Danny answered, the name flowing from his mouth as freely as if it were truly his given, Christian name.
Danny listened as his client voiced his concerns about the unpredictability of the stock market and the security of his investments. After reassuring the customer for what seemed like the tenth time this week, Danny bade him farewell and went back to the portfolio he was attempting to study.
The truth of the matter was, he had only been half listening to Mr. Tanner who had called and he was making no progress whatsoever coming up with ideas for this new client that he had spent the last two months pursuing.
This new client would be a huge feather in his cap but for the life of him, making money for this client and his firm was the furthest thing from his mind.
His mind was on Michelle again. Truth told, it never was very far away, but for some reason she stayed in his thoughts constantly today. He had even called his secretary Michelle and she in turn gave him a look that could not be mistaken for anything other than the fact that she thought he had completely lost his mind.
This feeling was so eerily close to the one that he had that afternoon this past December when he had begun to enter his favorite donut shop for his daily cup of coffee and powdered cake donut. There was no way he could have known what awaited him on the other side of that door.
Somehow, some way, Michelle was in the same donut shop that he frequented, just as if he had conjured her up with his constant thoughts of her. When he discovered her there in the shop, he tried to make a retreat but she saw him before he made it safely out of the door.
She had pulled on both his sleeve and his heartstrings that afternoon when she looked into his eyes, and asking with a pleading voice if he was Danny.
The lie that came out of his mouth then was the same one that came out of his mouth every single day of his life for the last three years. No, he was not Danny. His name was Alex Perez and it was merely a case of Mistaken Identity.
But that wasn't how it had ended. Against his better judgment, he asked her if he could take her some place and she had said yes. What happened after that could only be described as a dream. They had spent the night in each other arms, making love and when the morning came, she was gone, and he had let her go.
The feeling began to get stronger and he got up and began to pace around his office. He poured himself a cup of coffee and drank it in one swallow, ignoring the searing pain in his throat brought on by the hot liquid.
What was it? Was Michelle back in town? Was that it? Was she looking for him?
He doubted she even remembered this little town and the man she had met that night but the feeling just would not go away. He didn't recall telling her what he did here in West Bridgewater so if she were to come looking for him, she probably wouldn't know where to begin.
He was chasing after a pipe dream anyway, he thought as he plunked himself back down into his chair and massaged his temples. Michelle was lost to him forever.
Letting her go that morning had been the second hardest thing he had ever had to do. Staging his death and leaving her forever for her own protection was still the hardest by far but there were some days, like today, when that morning ran a very close second.
He regretted every day since that morning not going after her when she got out of the bed they had shared for the night. He had pretended to sleep while she left his bed to get dressed and then called her friend to come and collect her.
It was just a matter of seconds after he heard the car drive into the street, that he jumped out of his bed and went after her. He was, of course, too late and he realized then what he still knew today, that is was for the best that way. Michelle's safety was still at the top of his list of priorities and it would forever remain so.
The magic that they created that night went far beyond the physical pleasure their bodies had shared and he was still able to call on that memory to get him through the lonely nights without her. It was during that special night, while they spent time sharing, that he learned what his and Frank's plan had done to Michelle.
She had cried in his arms as she poured out her heart to what she perceived as a stranger and told of her great love for her husband and the agony she had felt at not getting to properly tell him good-bye before he died.
He had become teary himself as she confided her misery at being separated permanently from her love and he could not offer any hope or comfort, but rather, he held her and witnessed the result of what, he had at first believed to be, a selfless act.
Wasn't there any other way? Couldn't he have just taken her with him and disappeared? He had never considered any other possibility at the time. Keeping Michelle out of the hands of the rival families was his objective and his faked assassination accomplished that Herculean task, but at what price? At what price to either of them?
But now, he questioned the wisdom of his plan. Clearly it had worked like the proverbial charm, but here it was years later and Michelle had not yet moved on with her life romantically. Neither had he, but that was beside the point.
He had to remember that she was the only reason he had resided himself to live this lonely existence and no matter how much he wanted to reunite with her, he didn't see any other way. What kind of life would Michelle have if she were with him under the Witness Protection Program? Any chance she had of finishing school and realizing her dream of becoming a doctor would surely be ended and he couldn't do that to her.
No, his decision, no matter how many times he reweighed it in his mind, had been the right one and he would hold on to the fact that at least Michelle would realize her potential and her life would go on.
He just wished that his wouldn't was all.
Pink.
Michelle stared at the colored stick a moment longer before angrily throwing it into the bathroom trash along with the other two home pregnancy tests which bore a plus sign and two circles respectively.
It didn't matter how many of these damned tests she took or how unique their portraying of the result was, she knew the final answer would be the same.
She was pregnant.
She was pregnant with a man, who looked so much like her dead husband that he could be his identical twin's baby.
A man she had met only one time.
She kicked the wastebasket in frustration, and then bent down to retrieve the contents that had spilled onto the floor.
What on earth was she going to do? Why was this happening to her now?
How in the world was she going to raise a baby on her own? She wasn't entirely finished with her schooling yet and the responsibilities of a child would no doubt set her back tremendously in her career.
How could this have happened? They had been so careful.
All of the strength seemed to leave her body as she realized that they had made love that first time without any protection, so desperate had they been for the other and her face felt hot at the recollection of feeling Alex's semen inside her when she washed the next day. They hadn't been as careful as she first imagined.
She sighed aloud and mentally added making an appointment with Dr. Sedwick to her list of things to do. She wondered if she should put it before or after telling Alex Perez, a man she had known only one night, that he was going to be a father.
Would he even want to know? He certainly had every right to know. There was no question regarding whether or not she would keep this baby but telling a man she didn't know that he had fathered a child could possibly upset his world more than it had hers.
How would he take the news? Would he get angry? Happy? She honestly didn't know.
Oh God, she thought, what if he were married? She had not asked anything about his personal life and even though it appeared, from the looks of his apartment, that he lived alone, he could still be involved with someone else.
It wouldn't be the first time that a man had a one-night stand with someone while involved with another. Most men today, thought that the word monogamy referred to a board game where one collected $200 for passing go.
She had no other choice though. She had to tell him. She would make it very clear that she didn't want or expect anything from him and that she was prepared to raise and love this child that she was already beginning to develop feelings for, even if she had to do it alone.
Was her child a boy or a girl? Would it look like her or Alex? Chills ran through her body as she realized her baby was conceived with a man who was a veritable clone of her late husband and surely the child that was fathered by Danny's look-alike would in turn look like Danny.
She looked in the mirror and felt the disgust pool in the pit of her stomach. "That just plain sick Michelle' she uttered to her reflection staring back at her.
She would not allow her mind to entertain such unnatural thoughts again. It was bad enough that she had used Alex shamelessly the night they spent together; she would not dishonor him by trying to make him a substitute for Danny.
She recalled making love to Alex and remembering Danny. She had even called out Danny's name as the first orgasm had ripped through her, threatening to tear her entire body apart.
He hadn't complained one bit as she recalled, but then again why would he when he had a more than willing female in his bed screwing his brains out. Most men wouldn't care what they were called just as long as they got laid.
But not Alex, she thought. Instinctively she knew that he was not like that but still, she knew so little about him.
Oh well, she thought. Time to face the music. She called in to the hospital to tell Rick she would be gone for a few days and then called the airport and made reservations for Logan Airport, leaving tonight.
Before the day was through, she would know for sure what Alex Perez thought of becoming a daddy.
___________________________________________
Michelle had only been in her rental car for a few minutes when she began to have second thoughts and question the wisdom of her impromptu decision to come looking for Alex. She should have taken more time to think about things instead of going off halfcocked across the country to tell Alex about her pregnancy.
Nothing had gone right since this morning when she made the decision to drop everything and come to Massachusetts. The flight she had been hoping for tonight was full but they did have a seat on one leaving for Boston that morning, if she could get there within the hour.
She hadn't even had time to call Rick and tell him of her plans, rather she left a message on his voice mail from her cell phone on the way to the airport.
And now, here she was, in a strange rental car, driving down an unfamiliar highway towards a small town that she vaguely remembered, looking for a man she didn't have the first clue how to find, and report to him that their night had produced an unforeseen circumstance.
Unforeseen, yes, but not unwelcome, she realized. Her biggest regret had always been that she and Danny had never had a child during their all too brief time together and now fate had intervened and she was ironically pregnant by a man who for all intents and purposes, had been Danny when they had made love. She would finally get to be a mother even if it had not played out like she had always imagined it would.
She wished she had taken the time to get to know Alex Perez a little better. She had bolted out of that bed and run out of his bedroom like a scared rabbit the morning after they had made love. It wasn't because she feared Alex, but rather she feared the shame she had felt at how selfishly she had used him.
She also ran because she didn't want to address the attachment she was beginning to feel for this kind stranger. Alex not only looked like Danny, he had many of the same mannerisms that Danny had, or perhaps she was just imagining it.
Wasn't it said that everyone had a double somewhere in this world? If that were the case, then Alex Perez proved that theory perfectly.
She refocused herself on the interstate she was driving down and cursed her lack of foresight to even buy a map to aid in her journey.
She hoped she could remember the name of the town that Alex lived in. It was West something or other and she hoped she would recognize it when she saw it on a traffic sign.
Then what? Where would she continue from there? She didn't even know what he did for a living much less where to begin her search. Even if she did know what he did, how would she find out where he worked?
She recalled that he had been wearing a business suit under his dark, wool coat the first time she had seen him in the donut shop.
That wasn't much of a clue she realized. That only narrowed him down to a white-collar profession. He could be employed as almost anything from a lawyer to a used car salesman.
No, he seemed to kind to be in either line of work, but she felt sure that he was involved in the business world somehow.
She could try and find his phone number when she reached her destination, she realized. That was a good start and she was suddenly feeling a little better about her foolhardy plan.
She continued down the highway without seeing any sign that bore the word West anywhere. How much further was this town from Boston again? Did she pass it when she was trying to formulate a plan to find Alex?
Damn it, this was a bad idea. She should have just waited. She was so exhausted from the day's events that she had no business trying to solve this problem in one day.
She had thrown a few things in her bag and raced out of her house to make the plane on time and had not been able to rest once she boarded. She had rented the car a scant ten minutes after she departed the plane and now she was paying for it and it was barely 2:30 in the afternoon.
Wait. Wasn't Massachusetts two hours ahead of Springfield? That meant that it was 4:30 here. She sighed in defeat. She was so tired already and she still had the hardest obstacle ahead of her to face.
She felt like something the cat had dragged in from the mud. Perhaps she should try to find a hotel where she could freshen up before she attempted to find Alex and lay this news on him.
The trouble was, she couldn't remember seeing a hotel the last time she was here, nor did she see anything that closely resembled one in that town, what was it's name again?
West Bridgewater. That was it and the sign she just read indicated that the next exit would lead her straight to it.
Man it was hot for mid March, Danny thought, shrugging out of his jacket and flinging it over his shoulder as he walked.
The cramped office had become too much for him a little over an hour ago and he had been walking around town since then. He ended up at one of his favorite places here in West Bridgewater, the pond on Belmont Street.
The pond would usually freeze over in the winter and become populated with skaters of all ages, twirling around on the ice and enjoying themselves. He loved to watch the children as they took their first steps on their skates, never leaving the safety of their mother or father's hands.
He always got a lump in his throat and an ache in his gut when he watched those children but he couldn't help himself. It was so beautiful to see the love shared between parent and child and he usually left with mixed feelings. Happy to see such a heartwarming sight but sad for what he would never have.
He had ironically been thinking of Michelle while watching the skaters that day that he had seen her in the donut shop. Now, the pond was adorned with plants and trees, springing forth from the earth in new promise and life.
He watched as a mother duck and her ducklings paddled across the pond squawking in a language that only they understood. The croaking of bullfrogs nearby pierced the air along with an occasional splash signaling their arrival into the water.
He walked around the pond twice, letting the familiar sounds soothe his unsettled soul. His thoughts of Michelle had grown stronger and he had not found a way to combat them. Try as he might, she was there, her sweet smile calling his name, telling him that she loved him.
Her ghost had literally chased him out of his own office and he was going to go insane if he didn't do something about it and quick.
He briefly considered going back to the office, but he told Ruth he would be gone for the day and it was wise for him to be as far away from the scrutinizing eyes of his well meaning, mothering secretary.
He wasn't hungry and he didn't have the energy to ward off Linda's subtle advances, so going to the donut shop was out.
He walked back to his Maxima and began to drive home to his apartment. There he would do what he usually did when he missed Michelle so much that he felt like shoving his pistol in his mouth and ending this pain forever.
He would take out his safety deposit box that had the pictures of her that Frank had managed to secure before he left Springfield forever. He would take them out and once again become lost in his dream world where Michelle was not in any danger and he was still Danny Santos and they could be together like it should have been.
Damn it. He was not listed in the phone book. Just her rotten luck. Now what? Think Michelle.
Okay, she thought, as she tried to play out their first meeting in her head. She had seen him at the donut shop and then they had gone outside and had to walk to get to his car. That meant that he worked somewhere near the donut shop.
She remembered it was just turning dark so she couldn't read any of the business signs that they passed on the way but in the broad daylight, she should be able to figure it out.
All she had to do was find that donut shop and she could go from there. Now she had a starting point.
She maneuvered her rental car in and out of the streets of West Bridgewater, trying desperately to find the Honey Dew donut shop.
She turned a corner that looked vaguely familiar and began to travel down it looking for the elusive donut shop when she came upon a strip mall that caught her attention.
There were several businesses occupying the center but one in particular caught her eye. The red sign the bore the name A-1 Investments caught her eye and she realized why. A-1 Investments had a name under the title that caused her to suck in her breath. The name simply read, Alex Perez, Investment Broker.
So shocked was she to stumble across his workplace was she, that she accidentally passed the strip mall and had to turn around and come back.
She parked the car and after checking her hair and make up and deciding that her appearance wouldn't win her any beauty contests but it wouldn't make anyone run away screaming either, she exited the car and began to walk to the door that bore the sign A-1 Investments.