Unspoken

Chapter 21

November 1, 1992

Tony's hand shook as he stared at the new list his brother had provided. The real estate alone was four pages long. Did he have to question Peter about everything? Was he going to have to continue to force his brother's hand at every turn? Looking up at Peter, he nearly growled when he asked, "And you thought I wouldn't find out about this?"

Peter felt like he'd betrayed his father by handing over that list. It was complete. He hadn't left anything out, but placing it in Tony's hands had been a true test of his trust. His voice faltered, as he started to say, "Father said–"

"Father is dead, Peter! He's fucking dead!" Tony glanced down to see Anna's cool hand on his arm, and he met her soft blue gaze. He needed to calm down. There were so many names, so many, and he felt absolutely sick over it. Taking a deep breath, he tried to sound calmer, but his gut was on fire as he stared at the words on the paper. Pointing to the list, he asked, "This compound in San Crisotal... it says there are two children here with a nanny. Who's children are they?"

"Marlena Evans," Peter replied. "Father had Rolf erase her memories from those five years, and he–"

"Marlena?" Tony felt his vision go black for a split second with fury. His father had kidnapped Marlena's children. He saw the look of horror in Anna's eyes, and then he turned to ask his brother, "Are they twins?"

Peter hesitated as guilt washed over him. He closed his eyes, willing himself to answer, but nothing came out.

"Answer me, G-d dammit!" Tony roared. He watched Peter flinch.

Opening his eyes, Peter took a deep breath. His father was dead. He was gone, and nothing would bring him back. He said, "She was pregnant when father retrieved her from Orpheus. He'd tracked down Milo Harp almost as soon as he'd sent John to Salem. It was all part of his plan. John, believing he was Roman, would be haunted by his past."

"Only it wasn't his past," Tony muttered.

"He believed it was." Peter ran his fingers absently through his hair, and went to stand near the fireplace. "Father convinced Milo Harp to go after Roman. He found the games humorous. John being tortured with someone else's past, all the while believing it was his own."

"Your father was mad," Anna said.

He shrugged. Whether his father was mad or not, he was dead. "Our father was the one who orchestrated the explosion that had John initially believing that Marlena was dead. He wanted to watch John mourn and suffer real grief..." He looked up to find Tony watching him with a look of utter disgust. Perhaps he deserved that. "Once John started to move on with his life, father had Orpheus show John the video of Marlena alive. It was a ploy to pull him back in, and it worked. John became obsessed with finding her, and by then, Orpheus already had what he'd wanted - Roman's pain. He was none the wiser about who he was really hurting. Father paid him handsomely, and then he faked Marlena's plane crash. She was already several months pregnant, and father used the child to control her. She wouldn't fight him to leave when the child was very young, but as her daughter got older Marlena grew more defiant. The guards he had watching over her here at Maison Blanche caught her trying to escape with the child in the middle of the night. He had Rolf, um, inseminate her in November of 1990, and move her to San Cristobal. She became pregnant again using frozen samples from John when he was a mercenary." Peter sighed. Saying it aloud made him realize how insane the whole thing sounded, but his childhood had been filled with his father's rhetoric. He'd grown up being told how dangerous John Black was to their whole family – to their very survival.

"Oh, G-d!" Anna gasped. She felt her eyes well up with tears. Marlena loved her children with a fierceness that could not be matched. Anna knew that from personal experience. She could still recall her argument with Marlena after Roman died – the argument over Carrie. She glanced between Peter and Tony, crying, "No! He–he stole her children? He stole her babies to control her?"