Page 28 of Set In Stone

What about the building he tore down? Did he really do it to cover up moreevidence?

And then my eyes zeroed in on the last thing I read. I felt my stomachpitch.

Russo.

I looked up at the man before me. He was the man I loved with every fiber of my being, but there were so many layers. Just when I thought I had reached the core, there was another layer to get through. I wondered if I would ever truly come to know the central reality that made up the man I wanted to marry. It was an unsettling sort of feeling and I couldn’t stop the troubling question from leaving mylips.

“Who areyou?”

* * *

alexander

Ihatedto see so much hurt and confusion in Krystina’s eyes. A shocked silence filled the room and made the air feel stifling. I repeated her question again in myhead.

“Who areyou?”

A part of me didn’t know the answer to that anymore. The man I thought I was, the man I created, was free falling into an abyss. Past and present melded and blurred the lines I had drawn long ago. The only thing I was certain of anymore was Krystina. She was my constant. She knew me like nobody else did. It was up to me to make sure she never doubtedthat.

“My birth name was Alexander Russo. I have not spoken the name in years. That person no longerexists.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t exist? He’s you!” she exclaimed, her voice rising to a near deafeninglevel.

“Krystina, stop yelling. There are things you don’tunderstand.”

“I’m all ears, Stone. Or Russo. Or whatever the hell your name is,” she spat out accusingly. She was on the verge of hysteria. Her eyes flashed angrily. I couldn’t blame her. As far as she knew, I told her everything about my past. Except for myidentity.

“I legally changed my name after I turned eighteen years old. I am AlexanderStone. NotRusso.”

“What aboutJustine?”

“Hers was legally changed as well. It was Stone until she married CharlieAndrews.”

“No, I didn’t mean her name. It’s all this other stuff. You told me you didn’t know,” she said, her voice cracking over the last sentence. She no longer sounded hysterical, but more like she was fighting off tears. I also sensed a hint of betrayal, a feeling I understood all toowell.

“I didn’t know,” I responded flatly. “Justine never told me. It’s hard to believe she would hide something like this from me. I haven’t been able to reach her to confirm it either. For all I know, Charlie made it allup.”

She sat back, folded her arms, and seemed to be considering thepossibility.

“Do you think he did?” she eventuallyasked.

“I don’t know, angel. I just don’tknow.”

I raked a hand through my hair in frustration and stood up to pace the room. My sister’s deception mixed with my own self-doubt weighed heavily in my chest. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but my instincts were telling me that what Charlie said was true. Every word of it. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to will away the headache that was starting toform.

If only Justine would answer my damncalls!

“I’m trying not to be upset with you about this. Just listening to you, seeing how shaken you are.” She paused momentarily and shook her head. When she spoke again, her voice was hushed, almost as if she were afraid to voice the words. “I think you know Charlie didn’t make thisup.”

I turned to look at her. One glance at her expression and I could tell she was exercising restraint. With our gazes locked, I could almost see the pleading in her beautiful brown eyes. Like she was begging me to make herunderstand.

“My gut says that Charlie’s story is the truth. When I think back on things, certain behaviors and actions…” I trailed off, struggling to find the words to explain something that I should have seen a long time ago. “Justine has always been the jittery, nervous type. It wasn’t until about five years ago that she began her obsession with the media, the police, and that rundown shitty apartment building. I blamed the shrink she was seeing. I thought he was making her nuts. She became obsessed over a past that we successfully buried. That Iburied.”

“Is that where your aversion for our sessions with Dr. Tumblin comesfrom?”

“That’s part of it,” I admitted. “She pushed me to rip down the old abandoned projects. I didn’t argue with her rationale. It was another memory that I could erase. Besides, the projects were condemned, full of rats. They became a home for the homeless and a paradise for the heroine junkies. When I proposed that the Stoneworks Foundation clean it up, the city was more than happy to oblige. Neighboring streets had been advocating for the demolition for years. Fundraisers were held and federal grants came easily. Justine headed up the entire project. The rotten buildings were torn down and new ones went up in less than two years. Once that happened, she stopped seeing the shrink and was calmagain.”

“It could just be a coincidence. Maybe she was just trying to erase the memory like you said,” Krystinasuggested.

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