Greg woke with a wild headache. Yesterday he could not fall asleep, constantly returning his thoughts to the evening. Leaving the club, he was absolutely sure that he did the right thing. Seeing her there, in this outfit, dancing as if all her body was dissolved in music, he felt all his restraint disappear. She danced as if plaiting a complex pattern of passion and secret desires. And she danced not for him. Every admiring glance of the surrounding men made the blood boil. And when she noticed him, the first emotion to appear on her face was panic. And then she started teasing him, challenging, playing, beckoning.
He could not do otherwise. She had to understand that he was no longer the adolescent who followed her like a faithful dog. He will no longer wait in the hope of a passing encouragement. And he wanted her to regret that she left him then, that she did not look back and that she had not remembered him all these years, as he did ...
But something else made his heart ache. Anger didn't help anymore, it place took a longing. He even began to rummage in his contacts, in the hope that this is just an unrealized desire. But at the thought of another woman, he became disgusted. So he just got drunk ...
And now hangover was tiring his head into pieces.
The last hope was to quickly get to his office, lock himself there and pretend that he was terribly busy. But the plan failed miserably when he reached his destination and found Frank, the last person he wanted to see, sitting at his desk. They grew up together, and because of his maturity, Frank always played the role of an older brother to him. And judging by the expression on his face, he was now exactly in this role.
"Do you want to explain to me what is this?" - Frank began his inquiry, extending a pile of documents to Greg.
" How should I know?" - Greg hissed, ready for a long and exhausting defense, set in a guest chair by his desk. He did not have the strength to argue about who is sitting where.
" This is a purchase agreement for an apartment building." - Frank answered his own question and looked pointedly at Greg.
" And?"
"How about explaining, why you need a house in an emergency condition in the not-so-prosperous district of the city." - Frank stared at him, waiting.
"For charity," - Greg immediately exclaimed.
" The fact that Lana lives in this house does not imply anything, does it?" - Frank pointed. Greg had already opened his mouth to respond with some sharp comment, but his friend immediately interrupted.
"Greg, did you really think that I would not notice that you took half of my boys from me and I will not start asking questions? Let's not play this game. What's happening?"
"Look, Frank, don't go into this. This is my personal business, and it does not concern you."
" It's my business when my best friend begins to behave like a pig. I can not calmly look at what you are doing." - Frank almost yelled, jumping up from his chair and making Greg's head pulsate again.
" Bud, can you be not so loud. My head is going to explode."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Why don't you tell me what you did last night?"
"I repeat, it's none of your business!" snapped Greg.
" Oh, yea? Then let me refresh your memory. Yesterday you went to the club Howl, in which Lana works. Like a Neanderthal threw her over your shoulder and dragged her into the back room. Let me remind you that this is the second time that you have done this to her. And you put my boys to watch her and bought the house where she lives. Did I forget anything? Maybe you can at least buy some flowers for her next time before you drag her into the storeroom? Be I in her shoes I'll long bury you under a dozen lawsuits, from which even Paul will not dig you out. I can still understand if you both enjoyed such games. Only here on the recordings of the security cameras from the club, you can clearly see how she cried for an hour after your departure.
For some reason, this fact slashed Greg's heart, and there was no pleased at all. But Frank was not done yet.
"Greg, do you understand how you behave? Your relationship ended many years ago. Everyone has an unhappy teenage love. But no one, after 13 years, meeting his ex, starts to pursue her, stalk her and drag her here and there.
Greg wanted to interrupt his friend again, but Frank was full of rage and didn't let him add even a word.
" Maybe you broke up not in the best way, in a difficult time for you. Maybe she really was not worthy of the pedestal on which you put her. But this is not the reason now to take revenge on her. Especially since you never found out why she actually left you."
The last sentence made Frank tense. Something flashed in his's eyes as if he had said too much and had not had time to bite his tongue.
"Do you know something?" Greg asked, gazing intently at the old friend's face. Frank somehow immediately paled and looked away, confirming the guess.
" Speak!" - Greg ordered harshly, without waiting for excuses and tricks. Frank sighed, apparently giving up and started:
"That time for some reason I thought or rather sensed that something was not right. But you were in a terrible state, and I didn't go into it. Then, a few years ago, I was passing through the city where we studied, and I don't know what drove me to come to the house of Lana's aunt. Maybe nostalgia, maybe curiosity. This woman was just walking her dog, and she recognized me immediately. I've been hanging out with you at Lana's place all the time back then. So we talked. But when I started to ask questions about Lana, she somehow immediately turned pale and avoided to answer. But you know, I can charm people into talking, especially women of this age. In general, she admitted that Lana was not her niece. That she participated in the program, something like a network of refuges, safe houses for those in need of shelter for a while. Lana and her children were sent to her by one of the crisis centers in this program. "
The further Frank spoke, the stronger Greg's heart shrank. By the end, he could barely squeeze out a few words.
"You mean Lana was hiding from something there?"
"Or from someone," - Frank added. -"I couldn't find anything in the end. In the program, she was under an assumed name. I have not seen any other mention of her, either before or after."
"What do you mean?" - Greg frowned.
"In fact, Lana and the children disappeared on the same day as she broke up with you. They didn't even take anything with them. The owner was worried when they didn't return. Started to ask around. As a result, she found someone who saw them in front of the hospital. When Lana returned from you, some pickup was already waiting for her, the children were inside, and at the wheel was some middle-aged man. The one who saw them said that he paid attention to it because the children behaved strangely. The girl was crying, and the boy just hugged her and was silent, as if he was in a trance. The man did not pay any attention to this. Lana also came out with a face swollen from tears. She got into the car, and they left. No one saw them after this ever."
Greg clenched and unfolded his fists in powerless rage, and now he didn't even know with whom to be angry. With that passerby who didn't alert anyone that time.With Frank, who kept silence all this time. With the unknown man who took Lana from him. Or with himself, who all this time revealed in his misfortune and grief, and did not try to do anything. All assumptions, of what did really happen made the blood run cold. Seeing his condition, Frank attempted to soften the situation.
"Greg, it's still doesn't mean anything. Maybe she was taken in by a relative. Who knows what situation she was in? Maybe it was all good."
"Frank, Martin has already told you that Nicky and Vicki are not her brother and sister, but her children?" Greg said wearily. Frank winced. He remembered that Lana was his senior only by 2 years. The rest is pure mathematics. And the options that remained after that were not the rosiest.
"There's something else," - Frank finally exclaimed, forcing his friend to roll his eyes.
" Come on, hit me! Can't you just drop all the bombs at once?!" - Greg snarled. Frank paused a little, but still continued:
" After your meeting at the airport, I rechecked everything. And it looks bizarre."
In response, Greg gave him a dirty look, like - "stop pulling a cat by its balls already, would you."
"In short, Lana used fake documents everywhere. For airplane tickets and later here. The weird thing is that all those documents registered in all databases. The social number, insurance, and passport number all there, but it appeared only on the date of her departure. No fines, no checks, not even a credit card. At the same time, they were all registered at the same address and the children went to school there. Only the city does not exist. At all! Do you understand?"
" Maybe it's a system error? - completely confused, suggested Greg.
"All at once?"
"Then, what can it be?"
"I have two options left, and both are very freaky," Frank answered cheerfully. "Either they come from some sect, with their self-proclaimed city, which is not on any map. Or they escaped from the secret government lab." - he said with an absolutely serious face.
"Or the witness protection program was not very good at falsifying documents." - suggested Greg.
" Or they are aliens and wasn't so successful hacking our network to make a legend for themselves."
" Yeah, and now, in order to better understand humanity, she lives in a slum, working in a cafe with drug-muffins and in a nightclub as a dancer."
"And you, as the most respected representative of homo sapiens, are stalking her and constantly trying to drag and do some dirty deeds to her in the back room."
"Let's pray that their leader is Nicky."
"Amen, brother."
They exchanged ironical smiles, but the general mood has not changed for the better.
"So what are you going to do about all this?" - Frank finally asked the main question. Greg shrugged.
" The thing that I should have done 13 years ago. I'll ask her."
Greg woke with a wild headache. Yesterday he could not fall asleep, constantly returning his thoughts to the evening. Leaving the club, he was absolutely sure that he did the right thing. Seeing her there, in this outfit, dancing as if all her body was dissolved in music, he felt all his restraint disappear. She danced as if plaiting a complex pattern of passion and secret desires. And she danced not for him. Every admiring glance of the surrounding men made the blood boil. And when she noticed him, the first emotion to appear on her face was panic. And then she started teasing him, challenging, playing, beckoning.
He could not do otherwise. She had to understand that he was no longer the adolescent who followed her like a faithful dog. He will no longer wait in the hope of a passing encouragement. And he wanted her to regret that she left him then, that she did not look back and that she had not remembered him all these years, as he did ...
But something else made his heart ache. Anger didn't help anymore, it place took a longing. He even began to rummage in his contacts, in the hope that this is just an unrealized desire. But at the thought of another woman, he became disgusted. So he just got drunk ...
And now hangover was tiring his head into pieces.
The last hope was to quickly get to his office, lock himself there and pretend that he was terribly busy. But the plan failed miserably when he reached his destination and found Frank, the last person he wanted to see, sitting at his desk. They grew up together, and because of his maturity, Frank always played the role of an older brother to him. And judging by the expression on his face, he was now exactly in this role.
"Do you want to explain to me what is this?" - Frank began his inquiry, extending a pile of documents to Greg.
" How should I know?" - Greg hissed, ready for a long and exhausting defense, set in a guest chair by his desk. He did not have the strength to argue about who is sitting where.
" This is a purchase agreement for an apartment building." - Frank answered his own question and looked pointedly at Greg.
" And?"
"How about explaining, why you need a house in an emergency condition in the not-so-prosperous district of the city." - Frank stared at him, waiting.
"For charity," - Greg immediately exclaimed.
" The fact that Lana lives in this house does not imply anything, does it?" - Frank pointed. Greg had already opened his mouth to respond with some sharp comment, but his friend immediately interrupted.
"Greg, did you really think that I would not notice that you took half of my boys from me and I will not start asking questions? Let's not play this game. What's happening?"
"Look, Frank, don't go into this. This is my personal business, and it does not concern you."
" It's my business when my best friend begins to behave like a pig. I can not calmly look at what you are doing." - Frank almost yelled, jumping up from his chair and making Greg's head pulsate again.
" Bud, can you be not so loud. My head is going to explode."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Why don't you tell me what you did last night?"
"I repeat, it's none of your business!" snapped Greg.
" Oh, yea? Then let me refresh your memory. Yesterday you went to the club Howl, in which Lana works. Like a Neanderthal threw her over your shoulder and dragged her into the back room. Let me remind you that this is the second time that you have done this to her. And you put my boys to watch her and bought the house where she lives. Did I forget anything? Maybe you can at least buy some flowers for her next time before you drag her into the storeroom? Be I in her shoes I'll long bury you under a dozen lawsuits, from which even Paul will not dig you out. I can still understand if you both enjoyed such games. Only here on the recordings of the security cameras from the club, you can clearly see how she cried for an hour after your departure.
For some reason, this fact slashed Greg's heart, and there was no pleased at all. But Frank was not done yet.
"Greg, do you understand how you behave? Your relationship ended many years ago. Everyone has an unhappy teenage love. But no one, after 13 years, meeting his ex, starts to pursue her, stalk her and drag her here and there.
Greg wanted to interrupt his friend again, but Frank was full of rage and didn't let him add even a word.
" Maybe you broke up not in the best way, in a difficult time for you. Maybe she really was not worthy of the pedestal on which you put her. But this is not the reason now to take revenge on her. Especially since you never found out why she actually left you."
The last sentence made Frank tense. Something flashed in his's eyes as if he had said too much and had not had time to bite his tongue.
"Do you know something?" Greg asked, gazing intently at the old friend's face. Frank somehow immediately paled and looked away, confirming the guess.
" Speak!" - Greg ordered harshly, without waiting for excuses and tricks. Frank sighed, apparently giving up and started:
"That time for some reason I thought or rather sensed that something was not right. But you were in a terrible state, and I didn't go into it. Then, a few years ago, I was passing through the city where we studied, and I don't know what drove me to come to the house of Lana's aunt. Maybe nostalgia, maybe curiosity. This woman was just walking her dog, and she recognized me immediately. I've been hanging out with you at Lana's place all the time back then. So we talked. But when I started to ask questions about Lana, she somehow immediately turned pale and avoided to answer. But you know, I can charm people into talking, especially women of this age. In general, she admitted that Lana was not her niece. That she participated in the program, something like a network of refuges, safe houses for those in need of shelter for a while. Lana and her children were sent to her by one of the crisis centers in this program. "
The further Frank spoke, the stronger Greg's heart shrank. By the end, he could barely squeeze out a few words.
"You mean Lana was hiding from something there?"
"Or from someone," - Frank added. -"I couldn't find anything in the end. In the program, she was under an assumed name. I have not seen any other mention of her, either before or after."
"What do you mean?" - Greg frowned.
"In fact, Lana and the children disappeared on the same day as she broke up with you. They didn't even take anything with them. The owner was worried when they didn't return. Started to ask around. As a result, she found someone who saw them in front of the hospital. When Lana returned from you, some pickup was already waiting for her, the children were inside, and at the wheel was some middle-aged man. The one who saw them said that he paid attention to it because the children behaved strangely. The girl was crying, and the boy just hugged her and was silent, as if he was in a trance. The man did not pay any attention to this. Lana also came out with a face swollen from tears. She got into the car, and they left. No one saw them after this ever."
Greg clenched and unfolded his fists in powerless rage, and now he didn't even know with whom to be angry. With that passerby who didn't alert anyone that time.With Frank, who kept silence all this time. With the unknown man who took Lana from him. Or with himself, who all this time revealed in his misfortune and grief, and did not try to do anything. All assumptions, of what did really happen made the blood run cold. Seeing his condition, Frank attempted to soften the situation.
"Greg, it's still doesn't mean anything. Maybe she was taken in by a relative. Who knows what situation she was in? Maybe it was all good."
"Frank, Martin has already told you that Nicky and Vicki are not her brother and sister, but her children?" Greg said wearily. Frank winced. He remembered that Lana was his senior only by 2 years. The rest is pure mathematics. And the options that remained after that were not the rosiest.
"There's something else," - Frank finally exclaimed, forcing his friend to roll his eyes.
" Come on, hit me! Can't you just drop all the bombs at once?!" - Greg snarled. Frank paused a little, but still continued:
" After your meeting at the airport, I rechecked everything. And it looks bizarre."
In response, Greg gave him a dirty look, like - "stop pulling a cat by its balls already, would you."
"In short, Lana used fake documents everywhere. For airplane tickets and later here. The weird thing is that all those documents registered in all databases. The social number, insurance, and passport number all there, but it appeared only on the date of her departure. No fines, no checks, not even a credit card. At the same time, they were all registered at the same address and the children went to school there. Only the city does not exist. At all! Do you understand?"
" Maybe it's a system error? - completely confused, suggested Greg.
"All at once?"
"Then, what can it be?"
"I have two options left, and both are very freaky," Frank answered cheerfully. "Either they come from some sect, with their self-proclaimed city, which is not on any map. Or they escaped from the secret government lab." - he said with an absolutely serious face.
"Or the witness protection program was not very good at falsifying documents." - suggested Greg.
" Or they are aliens and wasn't so successful hacking our network to make a legend for themselves."
" Yeah, and now, in order to better understand humanity, she lives in a slum, working in a cafe with drug-muffins and in a nightclub as a dancer."
"And you, as the most respected representative of homo sapiens, are stalking her and constantly trying to drag and do some dirty deeds to her in the back room."
"Let's pray that their leader is Nicky."
"Amen, brother."
They exchanged ironical smiles, but the general mood has not changed for the better.
"So what are you going to do about all this?" - Frank finally asked the main question. Greg shrugged.
" The thing that I should have done 13 years ago. I'll ask her."
