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I hope you enjoy this chapter, because I loved writing it.


TEN YEARS AGO


When Miss Parker woke up a couple of hours later, she felt Jarod’s fingertips caressing the bare skin of her arm. While a huge smile appeared on her face, Jarod kissed her cheek and inhaled the scent of her skin. She turned around to face him and waited for a deeper kiss, just to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming.

“Mmm. You are definitely real”, she purred against his mouth.

“Afraid you’d been dreaming all time long?” he teased her.

Parker chuckled, “Ok, when did you learn to read my mind?”

“Probably the day you told me that you were a girl”, he quipped.

“Jarod, that was the day we first met!” she taunted him.

He leaned in to her, “Exactly.”

The pretender kissed her again with passion. But before feeling the urge of making love to her again, he stopped.

“Parker.”

“Mmm”, she murmured, stealing another kiss from his lips and starting to worship her last name said by Jarod’s sensual voice. 

“If we want this to last…if we want…” he pointed out to both of them using his finger, “Us…to work, really…it’s time to be honest with each other. I don’t want any other secrets between us.”

“What do you mean?” she asked him, urging him to answer clearly.

“We still have some time before our lives change completely. I want to tell you all the secrets I still keep. All the truth.”

Parker nodded in agreement, even if she couldn’t imagine what other secrets the pretender might have hidden from her.

Jarod sighed bitterly. He didn’t know where to start.

“I have to give you something. It’s not here with me, it’s in a safe place. We’re going to fetch it as soon as possible.”

“What?” she inquired.

“Your mother’s diary.”

Parker felt her heartbeat increasing rapidly. Jarod watched her expression changing from delighted to frustrated.

“How long have you kept it from me?”

“Four years.”

Parker raised up on her elbows to look better at him. She was furious.

“You gotta be kidding me!”

Jarod shook his head, “I’m so sorry, Parker. I read it years ago, but I never delivered it to you.”

“Why?” she yelled. She didn’t know if she was mad at him for the fact he hadn’t given her such a precious memento of her mother or because he had read it.

“I thought I could find information about my parents, about my family. I really hoped Catherine had written something about her old friend Margaret, I needed to understand how she had tried to save me.”

Parker shook her head in dismay. She tried to stand up from the bed, but Jarod stopped her, grabbing her arm gently.

“That diary contains your mother’s inner secrets and memories. The information I’ve passed on to you all these years came from Catherine’s diary. That’s how I found out about Timmy becoming Angelo, or about Edna Raines being her friend…”

“I don’t care, Jarod. What the hell were you thinking not to let me read my mother’s diary? And what else does it say?”

Jarod sighed deeply, afraid of losing Parker for his stupidity.

“She talks a lot about Faith. She really wanted you to meet her, but your father didn’t allow that to ever happen. She talked about the watch she gave you and that later helped you to survive. I found that watch with the diary, by the way.”

Parker stared at him in disbelief. Another secret finally revealed.  

“She also talks about her son. She really thought he died at birth, she never knew Lyle was still alive. She wrote that she never found the nerve to tell you the truth because she knew this would have caused you pain.”  

“So you knew about my brother even before finding the red files?” she scolded him.

Jarod nodded, “I knew about the twin, not that he was alive. When I found out that your brother wasn’t dead, I realized at once you had to know the truth. But believe me, I’ve never known it was Lyle. And surely I never rooted for him.”

“All these years, Jarod”, she shook her head again, “You used my mother to lead me towards the truth. You took advantage of her memory to manipulate me to do whatever you want me to. Why didn’t you give it to me, Jarod?”

The pretender noticed she felt disappointed and betrayed. He felt terrible and guilty.

“I’ve found another letter from your mother attached to this diary. It was a message written the day of her presumed death. She asked one thing very clearly: she didn’t want you to read her diary if anything happened to her. She didn’t want you to know the truth behind the Centre, particularly about your father and what kind of man he really was. She didn’t want her little daughter to know how sad her mother’s life had been.”

Parker was crying. Whenever she thought about Catherine and how much she’d suffered, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“Well, Boy Genius, you didn’t take her words literally, because you’ve been telling me all the things she said in her diary even if I never read it. You didn’t respect her will anyway.”

“I couldn’t do otherwise, Parker. We wouldn’t be here now, if I hadn’t. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned at the Centre is that everyone deserves the truth. I believe that now you are ready to read it, you have enough awareness. Not only of Catherine, but of yourself, too.”

Parker chuckeld ironically, she was still pissed off by Jarod’s behavior.        

“Please, forgive me Parker. I thought I was doing the right thing. Now I know I was totally wrong. If I had given the diary to you sooner, maybe you would have learned to trust me before.”

Jarod’s last words soothed Miss Parker. She was glad he hadn’t said something stupid like ‘I did it for your own good’. 

“Did my mother talk about Ethan?”

Parker’s question reminded Jarod about their little brother. He swallowed hard to hold back the tears, then he shook his head, “No, the last note in the diary goes back to the day of her presumed death, she doesn’t talk about Mirage. Maybe she thought it would be too dangerous.”

Jarod waited for her to ask something else, but she didn’t. Maybe she was thinking about Ethan, too.

“But she wrote a lot about you. She also liked talking about Angelo and…me.”

“Did she?” Parker smiled, her heart filled with joy.

Jarod traced his fingers down her face, pushing her hair behind her ear. He nodded slowly and then he kissed her, relieved when Parker didn’t resist.

“I’m still disappointed, Jarod. I’m sorry that you thought i wasn’t enough mature to have it.” She sighed deeply. “But I trust you completely and I know you gave me pieces of truth one step at a time. And then you gave me my mother’s ring and her letters…”

Jarod nodded in agreement. He was glad that Parker understood his point of view.

“Jarod…I want you to promise me that from now on you won’t hide ANYTHING from me. No more secrets, no more pranks, no more clues, no more twisted little games, no more dead ends…I mean it, Jarod!”

Jarod grinned again, satisfied and full of himself, “Miss Parker, you amaze me. I won’t need to do that anymore. Don’t you realize that you’re in big trouble?” he threatened laughingly.

“Why?”

“Because from now on I’m never letting you go. Ever. I’m never gonna lose sight of you, not even for a second. You’re stuck with me, Parker.”

“Mmm…A girl could get used to it.”

Parker gently stroked his cheek with her fingers, wondering why she had denied her feelings for so long. They kissed again.

“Your turn, now.” Jarod inquired politely.

Miss Parker laughed and thought about her secrets. She told Jarod about the first memory that came to her mind.

“When Sydney and I found out about Gemini, we felt disgusted. When I saw the boy, I noticed he was scared, I really wanted to help him.”

“Meaning?” Jarod asked her, inquiring.

“I would have saved him. I wanted to help him escape from the Centre, but you came first.”

Jarod smiled, impressed by her confession, “Why?”

She shrugged, “I visited him in his room because I needed to see him. He was you, Jarod. I suddenly felt like I was eleven years old again…”

“I know what you mean.”

“Do you?” Parker asked, “To you, Gemini was a clone, Jarod. But to me…it was like going back to the past and becoming that little girl again. When I looked at Gemini, I saw you. I saw the little boy who looked just like him. I told him that I cared for you, but I never let you know. And I realized that when we were kids I saw pain in your eyes, but I looked away. I couldn’t do the same mistake with that little boy. I had to help him.”

Jarod had been caressing her arms while listening to her. He’d always thought that Parker didn’t care about the boy, now he’d been proven wrong. She always surprised him.

“His name is Jeremy, by the way. Like the song. He likes Pearl Jam, you know. One thing we have in common.”

Parker smiled, “One thing we have in common. I guess the men of your family always have the same effect on me. I’m always distracted by their charm. I’ve never been able to put a bullet in your lovely brains.”

“Are you talking about my father?”

Parker nodded with a smile, “When I spoke to him I realized at once he hadn’t killed my mother, even before he told me the truth. He’s just like you, Jarod. He’s honest, humble and generous. I felt safe those few minutes, during our conversation. I only wish he knew how much he helped me.”

“You’ll tell him yourself, Parker.” Jarod told her, “And what about Kyle?”

“I asked him the same thing. I wanted to know if he had killed my mother and he denied it. But Kyle wasn’t like you, Jarod. He was weird, a tortured soul. And yet, I saw understanding in his eyes. There were love and fear in his gaze…I’m so sorry that I was the cause of his death.”

“You weren’t, Parker. I was so afraid for your life, that night. You were very brave to hit your brother like you did. But Kyle’s death…it was all Lyle’s fault.”

“It’s always his fault…” Parker commented bitterly.

Jarod tried to ease the emotions that were surfacing again, “Now I understand why Jeremy always asks about you! You might have stunned him pretty well, Miss Parker.”

“Must be genetic”, she prodded him.

“Enough talking for now”, Jarod hushed her with a passionate kiss.

“I thought…you wanted…to know…everything…” she said between the kisses.

God, they should outlaw his tongue’, Parker thought.

“Later”, Jarod purred in her ears.


That night they talked a lot. Jarod felt as if they had opened a Pandora’s box full of secrets, truth, memories and emotions. He’d never spoken so much in his entire life. And the pretender was the best, when it came to using words. But Parker turned out to be even better than him, maybe she just needed to get everything off her chest, once and for all.

Jarod asked her about his escape from the Centre, he wanted to know if Parker had something to do with it, seeing that she was in the SI department at that time. She hadn’t helped him, but sometimes, when she was alone, she liked watching his surveillance cameras, just to know what he was doing. When she’d come back from Corporate, she couldn’t muster up the courage to visit him. She confessed she’d been missing him since she’d come back from University, but she’d been feeling neglected because Jarod had never aswered her letters. Jarod explained that he did wrote to her, but her father had intercepted his mails before they could leave the Centre. As he’d found out only later, all the letters were stored in Mr. Parker’s office strongbox. Parker asked him if he’d found also hers. He had.

Then they shared a hard look, full of love. Jarod revealed that he’d actually read her letters, that’s why he had understood there was still hope for them. That’s why he’d never given up on her. Parker thanked him for his trust in them, and Jarod asked her if she wanted to read the letters he’d written for her and she’d never been able to receive. Parker nodded, delightfully.

Parker told Jarod that her favorite color was red, that she also loved to dress in red. Jarod answered that he knew, and that he loved the way she dressed. He admitted he’d spent many nights dreaming of her, and in his fantasy Miss Parker always wore a very short skirt and ran after him with those incredibly high stilettos of hers.

Parker inquired him about his favorite color, and he replied it was violet. When she wanted to know why, he told her about Tricia Holmes and the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. Even more beautiful than Parker’s.

Jarod asked her why she’d shot him after Fenigor’s fake revelation about Major Charles being Catherine’s killer. Parker sighed and admitted she’d run after Jarod and shot him in the certainty that she would never hit him. Jarod smiled.

Parker confessed that she was still anonymously financing Ronald Miller’s family. Jarod remembered very well how much Parker had felt guilty for the detective’s premature death. Miller had been the only one helping her to find Tommy’s murderer and he’d been killed by the Centre. So Miss Parker had established a scholarship for his four children and every month she transferred a huge sum of money to Miller’s wife bank account. Jarod asked her if she didn’t want to meet the woman to tell her the truth, but Parker was sure it was much better if Mrs. Miller believed that the money came from her husband’s life insurance.    

Then the pretender asked her about the rabbit. Parker chuckled and realized once again what an affectionate and loving man Jarod could be. She told him that the bunny was now in Debbie’s hands because she travelled too much to be a trustful owner. Jarod asked her what was its name and Parker replied that she’d called him Snowball, because no other name would fit a white and fluffy little ball of fur like him.

Parker also revealed that Sydney had showed her the DSA about Kenny’s death. She told him that she’d felt very sorry and that she hated Damon for what he did to him. When Jarod asked her if she hated Damon for killing his friend, Miss Parker replied that she hated Damon because he’d made Jarod believe he would be given his freedom and later he’d destroyed that hope. Jarod couldn’t believe Parker’s kindness and felt immediately the urgency to kiss her gently and slowly.  

Jarod chose that moment to confess that he’d taken her side when Broots thought she was responsible for the attack to the Data Annex. When a very smiling Miss Parker asked him what he had told Broots, Jarod replied he’d just said something to convince him, probably a compliment. Parker was curious and tickled Jarod until he remembered precisely his sentence.

Miss Parker is many things, but she would never do that, especially to you. She doesn’t have it in her heart or her eyes.

Needless to say that Parker jumped on him as soon as she heard those words.










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