Page 12 of Hacker Betrayed

"Plastic surgery," Eric growled. "And she's not Mia. No, this bitch has been impersonating the woman I loved."

I winced. Before I could get out a word, Kat spoke. "There has to be more. The records Brock had Sophie pull from the CIA would've mentioned her ties to the Clark family. The reason the CIA recruited Mia out of the Navy was that she got close to that Calhoun family in Mexico," Kat paused. "Wait! Didn't the oldest Clark daughter marry someone in the Calhoun family?"

I held up my hand to stop the talking, or they would never stop. "How about we stop speculating about why I did anything and let me tell the story—I was born into the Clark family. I'm the eldest daughter, and have two younger sisters and a twin brother. My parents sent us to the best boarding school money could buy. Almost every kid that attended came from a wealthy family, but the school also handed out scholarships to families in need. My friend Tabitha and her sister Mia were on this scholarship."

"Impressive," Kat whistled. "At the age of eight, you started to figure out a plan to change your identity. I'm not sure how many third graders could think that way. But I'll have to keep it in mind in case my boys try this."

I shook my head. "No. We'd made a blood oath that I would always have their backs, and they would do the same for me. I hated the other rich kids. At a young age, I understood where my parents' money came from. I think I was five when I saw the first body carried out of our house. My parents hated that I was friends with Mia and Tabitha, so we kept our friendship a secret. In the long run, it ended up working out for me."

"The timeline doesn't add up. You would have had to die and immediately swap places with Mia. No way you could step into her life with nobody noticing. And you still haven't answered where the real Mia is."

Paxton tapped his hand on the table. "Plastic surgery takes months to heal. He does have a point."

"The ambush," Eric paled as he reached for the folder on the table and flipped through the file.

"Impossible. I talked to Mia almost weekly while she was in the hospital," Brock said.

"Eric is on the right track, and you did talk to her weekly," I confirmed. I was in the room every time she took one of those calls. She respected him so much. "Let me keep going, and everything will make sense. A week before I graduated high school, I turned eighteen. Dad had talked about marrying me off to help the family, but I didn't think he would go through with an arranged marriage, and if he actually did, I assumed the wedding would be at least a year later. I'd received a full ride scholarship to Harvard and planned to attend in the fall. The day after my graduation, Dad called me into his office, and Cyrus Calhoun was sitting in the chair. I was informed I would be going home with him and not to bother packing. That day, I left my childhood home with only the clothes on my back."

Kat pulled out a piece of paper and pen from her purse and wrote something down. I couldn't see what she scribbled from where I was sitting. She glanced up, and our eyes connected. "Who else agreed to this wedding?"

I shook my head. "Kat, I forbid you killing my parents."

"Is this like forbid, but a with a wink?" she asked, not dropping the pen.

"No wink." I took a deep breath to continue my story. "We were married for six years. I was just a trophy. And a blank canvas to mark up."

"The scars?" Wes asked.

Eric growled. "You said they were from the ambush. Everything is a game to you."

"None of this is a game. The scars on my body… I spent hours lying in my own blood because my husband enjoyed seeing me bleed. Sometimes I would pass out from the pain. I found it easier to say the scars were from Mia's accident than my own. Yes. Do you think it's easy to sit and talk about this?"

"I don't understand why you won't tell me where the real Mia is," Brock said.

"I'm getting there. My marriage was a nightmare. At first, he didn't demand kids out of me. He had seven sons and daughters from his previous weddings. Some older than me. All of them spoiled, and one day he decided he wanted another kid. Months passed, but I wasn't getting pregnant. The beatings increased. He found a new girlfriend and shipped me to his house in Mexico. That's where I learned about his human trafficking business. I'd gotten some information to Mia, and a raid happened, but somehow Cyrus and his men were tipped off. Cyrus showed up a few days later and accused me of ratting him out to the authorities. I didn't think I would live through that beating. He left me unconscious on the floor. Donovan, his son, had a doctor come take care of me after Cyrus left. That's when my relationship with Dr… I’m not giving up his name. I owe the doctor everything."

Paxton reached over and grabbed my hand. I couldn't face him as I spoke about the darkest point in my life. One I never even wanted the people I loved to know existed. I tried to pull my hand away, but Paxton tightened his grip. "I'm not sure why, but Donovan stayed in Mexico and didn't treat me like trash, and I fell for him. A couple of months later, I found out I was pregnant."

Brock got up from his chair and started to pace along the edge of the room. "So, you're telling me Lucas is Donovan's son. Jesus, Mia, is that who tried to take him?"

"They don't know about him. Before I could tell Donovan about our son Cyrus sent him on a job, and while he was gone, Cyrus showed up at the house in Mexico and told me he wanted to take me on a yachting trip. Word in the organization was that his new girlfriend wanted to get married. That couldn't happen unless we divorced, but Cyrus didn't believe in divorce. The only explanation for the trip was he planned to kill me." I closed my eyes and thought back to the night I tried to escape. "I'd stolen some pills from the medicine cabinet and crushed them in his favorite whisky when he wasn't looking. That night on the boat, he stopped breathing. I knew his staff were loyal and would blame me when he didn't wake up. I left the bed went up to the front of the boat and stared at the moon. Growing up, I would stare at the stars and wish for another family. I heard the buzz of a boat coming near I and figured Cyrus hired someone to come on the boat and kill me… It would be a perfect alibi."

Patty cleared her throat. "This is getting really good. I'm not going to feel guilty having Sam take the call with the prime minister of France." She rubbed her hands together. "I can't wait for the part where you finally tell us where the other Mia is located. My bet is on sipping mai tais on the beach."

"This story only has more death," I sighed. "That night on the boat, I had to decide to let whoever he hired kill me or change my future. The super-yacht had a motorboat attached to the side. I ran to it, jumped in, and lowered it. Except I couldn't get the damn thing to start. I was slowly floating away from the boat, but if his goons peered over the edge, they would spot me. It felt like an hour before I heard someone say they couldn't find me. Then they got back on jet skis and ten seconds later, the boat exploded. A piece of the boat hit the side of my head and I blacked out. I woke up on the beach, lying face down. To this day, I have no clue what happened. I pulled myself off the beach and limped to the nearest bar. That's where I saw the news playing a story about how Cyrus and his wife Dalia died. I knew that was my chance. I was dead. Luckily, for years I’d put money into a secret account."

"Wouldn't you have had access to his fortune if you claimed to live?" Jessica asked.

"No. The prenup only gave me a pittance, nothing worth exposing the fact I was pregnant. Donovan would want his son, and I wanted out of the world. I don't know why I went to my parents. Dad said the only way he would help is if I married another rival leader or I had to leave."

"I'm guessing you walked away, and your parents let everyone believe you were dead?" Wes asked.

"Yes," I sighed. "The night I left my parents' house, I drove to Tabitha's. We were trying to come up with a plan when we got a call from Mia. She'd been in an accident with the military and was being flown to the local hospital."

"She demanded a hospital in Ft. Lauderdale," Eric admitted. "I could never figure out why. She only said she didn't want to go to a hospital in DC. She had months of rehab to go through. I'm still not sure how she got a facility that was in Florida approved with the higher-ups."

"Mia had a little pull after all the intel I gave her over the years. Tabitha and I rushed to the hospital. She was more bruised than anything. We were discussing my options when the doctor came in with some lab results. Mia was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. The doctor gave her three months to live." I swiped the tears from my face. "After the doctor left the room, she smiled at me and said everything works for a reason. I didn't understand what she meant at first. My friend just got the worst news, she was dying, but she had a smile on her face."

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