10 Trial 10: There’s No Other Way?

"You got a very high fever, so I had you confined in a hospital. Hours later, I was told that you need to be in the ICU for close monitoring since they said that you were showing signs that they had never seen before. Meanwhile, I went out to pay for our utility bills and do the groceries. Back to the situation in that hospital, it wasn't until Mario's intervention when I discovered that there was really nothing wrong with you. It turned out that Mario had secretly spied on the hospital after I informed him about what happened to you. He said he pretended as an applicant who is getting lost inside the facility because of its size and he purposely bumped onto a hospital staff and stole the said staff's ID. As a result, he got access to sneak into a room. In that room, he was able to get some confidential information. Mario immediately left the hospital afterward and when he was one street away from the hospital, he called me and told me to immediately discharge you out of the hospital. He detailed what he had done to get the information that he got. When he was about to share the information he got, his call was cut. I tried returning the call but he appeared to not have picked it up so I bolted out of where I was and rushed to the location of the hospital. When I was close to the hospital, I found a group of people gathering around something but my priority at that time was to get you out of the hospital. I had to make a scene for them to let me through. It took some time but I successfully got you out of the hospital. Once we were out, I tried to get us to the spot where I saw the people who were gathered at something but nobody's there anymore so I asked around about what happened and I was told that they found a dead body…"

I immediately voice out, "The dead body was Mario's, right mama?"

Mama nodded in confirmation, "Anyway, I dialed Mario's number again and somebody picked up his phone. The person on the other line said that his body was there for an autopsy to see if there was a foul play, but once the report was out, it said that there was nothing of that sort. The report said that he had a heart attack. I got his phone and checked on the files but I didn't see anything new on the device. His death served as a cue for me to get back to work. Worried that there will be no one to take care of you, I tried hiring a nanny for you but your papa objected. He said he will request shorter working hours from his company and will ask his friend, Bob, to do the babysitting instead. Luckily, his request was permitted so instead of him working for 14 hours a day, it was reduced to 7 hours a day with the consequence of earning only half of his usual salary though. Not to mention, Bob, who was a computer and technology expert had agreed to your papa's request. We actually had offered to pay him for it but he declined as he said he didn't need more money because he is already earning a lot from his job. About his job, he provides cybersecurity to a wealthy corporation, and because he's excellent he always gets preferential treatment…"

Mama, introducing another person, made me throw a question again, "Mama, where is uncle Bob now? How come he agreed to papa's request?"

After heaving a sigh, mama spoke again, "Unfortunately, Bob's also dead. This time though, his death was mostly due to an illness. He had Lupus which is why he didn't hesitate to agree to your papa's request. Besides, he had been friends with your papa since they were kids; they're basically like brothers. Mind you, your papa revealed to me that Bob already knew the gist of everything that is involved around us. He told us that since he's meant to die at a young age, he wanted to do something good for the people he cares for, and above all, he wanted to experience the feeling of raising a child without marrying for he couldn't bear the thought of leaving behind a fatherless child and a widowed woman when he dies. Anyway, you two were really close; you used to call him uncle papa."

I couldn't think of anything to reply to that except for, "I see."

Mama carried on, "Your uncle Bob was a huge help to us. Before dying, he saved you and left valuable information that helped us connect all the pieces of the case's puzzle. It was after your first piano recital in the prep school when your Uncle Bob arranged a celebratory get together for us. We all agreed to take you to an amusement park and have dinner after. We all had a wonderful time then, and you, you fell asleep as soon as you got inside the car. On our trip home, some unknown people attempted to ambush us. Your papa and I alighted the car and asked Bob to take you to the nearest safe place. Bob did as was asked but there was a man on the motorcycle who went after you two. Bob didn't want to wake you up so he pulled over to a corner and alighted the car to face the man on the motorcycle, head-on. Bob won against the man, thanks to his taser gun. Before long, your papa and I finally caught up with you two. You were still sound asleep. As for Bob, he looked exhausted and was breathing heavily. I readied myself to call the medics but Bob just shook his head, saying that it's no use since he's way past his limits. He said he didn't take any of his medicines for the day because he's tired of living with Lupus, so instead, he just used his remaining strength to tell all the information he got from his investigations as well as from the man he just fought with. Bob said that the man revealed that Dr. Foley's new hideout is not that far away and that he has a lot of accomplices. One of them is from my office; someone who is 'closest' to me. Bob said that Mario was killed by one of Dr. Foley's men and his autopsy report was faked because he was close to finding out Dr. Foley's hideout and the identity of the conspirator from our office. Dr. Foley's activities' objective is to create a world where clones of the 'superior ones' will live on and rule over everything while the ones they deem weak and unneeded will be exterminated. To accomplish that, he would need to do reproductive and therapeutic human cloning. To ensure the clones' absolute nourishment, they will kidnap healthy females who will serve as their surrogate mothers. And they named that operation, "The Trial of Eden." Bob apologized to us for not being able to track Dr. Foley's location down and to know his conspirator from our office. He advised me to not trust any of my colleagues especially the higher-ups. He admitted that had he not have Lupus, he would have married the woman he had liked back in college, and have a daughter like you. His last request in his final breath was to take him to you so he can have a look at your peaceful sleeping face. We did it as requested. With a smile, his last words were, "It was only short but thank you, Alaine, for letting me experience being a dad; it was the happiest feeling I've had. Please tell Alaine that I went somewhere far away. I want her to live a childhood that is void of tragic stories such as this." Bob didn't have an ounce of strength left in him so he couldn't tell anything more than what he wanted to that's why he gave us an address of an attorney's office and ordered us to go there. Soon, Bob closed his eyes and fell into an endless sleep, wearing a gratified face."

I could only gasp while shedding tears. I thought that this couldn't get any more shocking until Mama added, "Alaine, you were chosen by Dr. Foley to be a future surrogate mother as early as that time. That time when I brought you to the hospital, the tests they ran on you probably gave him the idea that you fit into whatever qualifications he had. They took blood samples from you that they must have experimented on."

I couldn't hold it anymore so I squealed in disgust, "What? That sordid asshole!"

Dashiell spoke, "That's the reason why I took you here so you should be thankful. Who knows what that shit fuck doctor will do if he gets you!"

The thought terrified me that my breathing became uneven. The tears I am shedding aren't just out of sadness but also of rage.

Mama gently rubbed my back to soothe me, "It's okay Alaine. You're here with us now. We're not going to let anything bad happen to you so pull yourself together. I still have something more to tell you."

I slowly got my breathing back to normal but my tears are still flowing. Still, I thought mama should continue talking so I assured her that I am okay and that she can resume.

"We brought Bob's remains to a crematorium. We immediately buried him after that. We also kept away all of his belongings as respect to his wishes back when he was still alive. He didn't want to leave a sad memory for you. However, the following day after his interment, you were crying and asking us where Bob is. You weren't convinced that Bob went somewhere far away. You nagged us to tell you what really happened to Bob because you saw in your dream that Bob is wearing white clothes and is waving at you. We didn't want to break our promise to Bob, but we thought that it's best to tell you the truth so we told you about it. The next thing we knew, you suddenly fainted. The following days came by and you seemed to have come back to your usual self. When we showed you Bob's photo and asked you if know who he is, you shook your head and said you never met him. We asked you the same question every day and you answered the same thing, and that went on for a month so we took you to a clinical psychologist. After several visits, the clinical psychologist said that you might have developed Retrograde Amnesia due to a traumatic event. It might have been your way of coping with the stress of losing someone you hold dear. On the other hand, nothing out of the ordinary occurred following those incidents.

"Some days after you turned seven, we brought you to Bob's mausoleum. We thought that your memory about him may have returned but to our surprise, you still don't remember anything about him which brought us to a conclusion that your mind must have unconsciously erased a memory that you don't want to remember or maybe, it was Bob's soul's doing; he must have requested that from God. Not so long after, incidents of female children's disappearance became highly prevalent that's why…"

I wanted to get this over with so I questioned, "I am guessing that led you to make it appear that you're dead."

Mama neither denied nor confirmed it she just said, "On the time that I disappeared, our task force was tasked to raid a place that was confirmed as a hiding place for the kidnapped female children. But when we got there, the division head and some men in black were the ones who greeted us. Our division head appeared to be Dr. Foley's conspirator. His name is Rafael Sanchez. The true location that we were supposed to raid was changed; our division head had manipulated our database. He planned to get our whole task force wiped out and make it appear that we died on duty. Fate was neither on our side nor their side because nobody won the skirmish. Both of our comrades had fallen or so I thought... Anyway, I played dead to cause a feeling of superiority to Rafael so he will let his guard down. He grabbed me by the collar and was about to land a punch on my face when I hit his groin quickly. Once he lost his grip on me, I hit his brachial plexus, then his sciatic nerve, and lastly his tibialis anterior muscle before I shot him dead. My wounds were bleeding so I could only move at a slow pace. I pressed some spare pieces of cloth on my wounds to stop their bleeding and headed to our company car. I thought that I could be at ease then, but I was wrong because there was still a survivor from Rafael's force. He chased after me. I drove really fast to make him lose track of me. I wanted to call for a backup and report everything that happened but I had no time for that; I had to focus on my driving to survive. It must be God's help that the next turn I made, there was a procession going on. I used that opportunity to distract my pursuer. I blew my horns sharply, causing, the people to halt. I bellowed, "Please let me pass, or I'll run over you all." The people cleared the path for me out of scare. I felt bad doing that but that was what saved me. I was able to distance myself from my pursuer quite significantly, but the pain of my wounds was hitting me that I didn't realize sooner that my car had gone onto another lane and almost collided with another vehicle had it not blew its horns sharply. I immediately released the gas pedal and hit the brakes.

"The driver of the vehicle I almost collided with was…"