Butterfly and Flame - Alina and Evan

Unravelling the Darkness

Alina stood outside the small room looking through the window. On the other side sat her nightmare. From what James had explained to her they were trying to confirm wether he was Michael or Kyle. She felt a whirring in her ears and suddenly things seemed to disappear into a foggy darkness. She held her hands out and two strong hands on either side of her held her steady. Christian asked her multiple times to accompany him out of the room, apologizing for bringing her there in the first place.  "I'm sorry Alina, I was wrong, and this isn't right. It's not gonna happen. I won't put you through this." He tried to pull her out of the room but after a moment of following him she soon pulled back out of his embrace and turned back to the double mirror, to look at the body on the gurney in the other room. "No. This has to stop. It has to stop now. I'm alright. I'll be alright. I can't live like this anymore Christian" she said while pleading with her eyes as well. "I've been looking over my shoulder for so long. I just can't take it anymore. Facing him won't be the hardest thing I ever do. The hardest thing will be finding a reason not to shoot his brains out". She realized she had shocked Christian by the expression on his face but she was done hiding, done running and done putting her life on hold. The man she loved desperately had put his own life in danger since they met in order to protect her and he had almost died doing it. Now, as abhorrent as it seemed to her and everyone else, she needed to confront the animal that lay bound hand and foot in a bed in the room, just on the other side of the two way mirror. He looked like Michael and yet it could be Kyle as they were identical. Suddenly a insidious thought occurred to her that seemed more and more plausible as it became more concrete in her brain. Could it be possible that it had been Kyle the whole time. That she had dated him and not Michael and that Michael was dead and buried. She shook her head because she remembered that during the court proceeding they were both present. Her mind raced to find the answers. Then everything seemed to slow down and come to a stop. The air seemed to still and for just one moment the Michael she remembered was now sitting up.  His head was turned toward her, looking right at her as if he knew she was there. She stepped closer to the mirror and concentrated on his face as she slowly became certain as the seconds ticked by. This was Michael. This wasn't Kyle. This was Michael ... and if she was right it had been Michael all along. Michael who had blamed his brother. Michael who had used his brothers social anxiety and slower ways as a scapegoat for his crimes. This was Michael. The one who had comforted her after it was he who had tried to rape her. This was Michael who was pretending to be Kyle and who most likely had killed Kyle sometime in the recent past. She felt her stomach lurch forward and the nausea hit her doubly now. She reached out to hold onto the wall as Christian put his arm around her reassuringly. "We can do this later Alina. You're distraught and Evan would never forgive me for not caring for your health". Alina nodded her head saying "Please just let me get my composure together and sit for a bit and have some water. I'll be alright. I can do this Christian. I must do this". James walked toward them as he observed them before clearing his throat, deciding that it would be better for everyone concerned to share with them what he had been thinking about, "Alina, I have a theory. I believe that one brother pretended to be the other brother, and in reality has been pretending to be both predator and protector. I think we should go back to the compound and do a little digging and maybe talk with you about how you first met Michael and let me share with you what I have learned so far about the brothers. Perhaps the answers we are looking for are in your memory and in my files. A DNA has already been done but we will never know which brother it belongs to because he may have switched the data along time ago. What he has done to you, I'm quite sure wasn't his first time. That man in that room across from us is not just insane but rotten to the core. Before you speak to him we need to make sure we have you prepared". Alina nodded and they all walked out.

Ashley set her tea cup down and put the documents she had been reading inside the envelope. They were already signed and notarized earlier in the day. Elliot had been kind enough to be her witness and had gone one step further by accompanying her to her office where she had asked for a meeting with the foundation members. She had been trying to devise a way to bring her family back together and have Evan join the company. Even she had not been able to persuade him and Christian had not agreed with her plan about forcing Evan into such a position. She then decided that the only thing for her to do was to right a wrong that she had been the author of years before. If she was right it would be accepted for what it was and then, knowing her grandson the way she did, he would step up. If not for himself, for the woman he loved. In the end she would get what she wanted before she left this earth. It was all that mattered to her. She signed two more documents that took care of the hospital whose roots stemmed back to her childhood and then to those members of her family whom she had distanced herself from out of necessity and shame. Once that was done she did what her heart had yearned for all these years.