Conclave...Interlude-Part 2

“Yeah, I guess I am.” I wasn’t sure if I should extend my hand and formally introduce myself, the situation was rather awkward.

She was looking me up and down, her experienced eyes taking my measure in ways I could only guess at. “Well, it’s a good thing they didn’t show your picture, you wouldn’t have been my first choice.”

“Excuse me?” How could I respond to that? “Why not?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’re not disgusting to look at, but I would have chosen someone taller, darker, and more handsome, if I been given the choice.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I let the silence stretch for a bit. I had some flashes of memory fragments from Daniel’s stolen memories, but I was still curious. “So, do you mind telling me why you worked with these guys in the first place?”

It was her turn to look uncomfortable now. She shifted in her seat a bit, cast a searching glance on the ground by her feet, and then looked up, pensive. “Well, that’s kind of a long story. At first, the money was an attraction. You see, I was dancing in Vegas...not at some trashy club mind you, but as part of a good show. The money was good for that, but I wanted to make more out my life than to dance, especially in that place. I wanted to go back to school, to become a doctor, like my mama wanted me to in the first place, but I needed to save up some money first, so that’s why I was dancing.

“I saw an ad in the paper that this couple, a Dr. Daniel Bernstein and his wife, Amelia, were looking for a surrogate mother. I really don’t know why I responded to the ad, exc ept maybe that I was looking for a way to get myself out of dancing, since you can’t do that while pregnant. When I met with them, they seemed like such a nice couple. Amelia told me that she was barren, that she had no eggs of her own to fertilize, but they really wanted to have a baby of their own. They were willing to pay me a monthly salary and pay for all of the expenses of my pregnancy just to have a baby for them. I had my doubts, even then, but I was really looking for a way to get out of the grind of performing and for a chance to do some studying. My mama had 8 children herself, so I knew I could do it.

“So, I agreed to have a baby for them, and signed a whole bunch of papers. They began paying my expenses for the first two trimesters in advance, once they verified that I was pregnant after the procedure. I should have seen that there was some funny business going on, but once I was pregnant, all I really cared about was making sure that the baby, Alexa, was healthy and safe.

“Sometime in March of 2005, I think, things changed. The third trimester was approaching, and I hadn’t received any new payments. I tried to contact Mrs. Bernstein, but the number they had given me was disconnected. I was getting concerned on one hand, but I was also thinking that I might have a chance to keep the baby that was growing inside me. I was forming a deep attachment with her.

“After a couple of weeks of trying every way I could think of, including sending letters that ended up getting returned, I came to the conclusion that I was on my own, so I returned to back home to stay with my mama in New Orleans. She helped me get settled and to look at going back to school. I also began planning to have Alexa and keep her, since the Bernsteins had disappeared. What i didn’t have any way of knowing, however, was how expensive it was going to be to have a baby, especially since Alexa came a little premature. That’s when I began trying to get a hold of Dr. Bernstein again, after she was born. There was no way I could give up my baby girl, and I didn’t want to face any legal problems later on. But when I did find him, not very long ago, he seemed very different, like he was hiding from someone.”

“Yes, well, there is certainly a whole lot more to THAT story,” I interjected. “I doubt you’d want to hear it all, but you should know some of it. First, Daniel Bernstein was never married to a woman called Amelia. That woman who claimed to be his wife was one of his researchers. You and I were part of a very strange genetic experiment, Bernstein and his bosses felt that certain of our genes matched up really well and could bring about a child who could be a step closer to some sort of superhuman race they were trying to create.”

She sat in silence as she digested this for a moment before responding. “So, it was a trick all along. I knew something was fishy going on, but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Outrage flashed across her face as she was speaking, but then she quickly composed herself again. “It’s too late for me to do anything about, but I do want to know this-what are you going to do with my...our child?”