Chapter 94

“Okay, okay. Sheesh,” Rose cried as she shook her arm.

“Please continue, Rose,” Zeke told her.

“Yeah, okay. Anyway, I found my old spells still worked on Frank and he soon changed his mind. He was doing pretty good for himself, and I was sick of being Sharon’s spy. So, I went back to Luna to quit.”

“Sharon offered to retain me to keep an eye on the kid. If I wanted Frank, that was up to me. I often used Penny’s identity in my job so that is who I became. Sharon had someone on Earth disappear her death certificate.”

“So, I came to Mars to reclaim the man I loved. The biggest hurdle I faced was Frank himself. He refused to divorce Patricia. Something about being Catholic. His mum was very religious and ingrained that belief in him.”

“Plus, he had three kids. He had always wanted kids. When Penny lost theirs, he was devastated. Having three boys was the ultimate to Frank, even I couldn’t compete with that. He would skite in the pub about how smart his oldest boy was.”

“It wasn’t until I did the maths that I realised Zeke wasn’t his kid. One day, I said something snide about Zeke being a bastard, and Frank went off his rocker. I had to apologise. He threatened to leave and not come back. He was deadly serious, too.”

“You were a very touchy subject, Zeke, and if I said anything against you, my control on Frank slipped. So, I had to use coercion spells to break the hold you had on Frank. I also tried to get pregnant to him to draw him closer to me.”

“After a year, I got his sperm tested. For some reason, he had become infertile. The doctor told me, it was surprisingly common for men in their forties, especially if they had or were borderline diabetics. Either that or someone played up.”

She looked at Blake and smiled nastily, “Sorry, Blake, but you were convenient. You even look like Frank did when I first met him. He is your five-year-older cousin, I believe?”

“No, I’ve never had sex with you!” Blake exclaimed and slapped the table with his hands.

Zeke noticed the shocked and stricken look on his Mother’s face. They would deal with that problem later.

Rose chuckled, as she did love pissing people off. That wasn’t a lie. She gloated, “I was very good at glamours. I can even make a potion that makes it semi-permanent. I used to use it all the time when I was a spy.”

“Anyway, it worked after a fashion. Francis looks enough like Frank’s mother and Paul, that Frank believed she was his. He was more loving and like my old Frank for a while. He even bought a house for me.”

Just to goad Blake and because she had worked out, she was safe from the cuff as long as she told the truth, she said, “It was handy that your mothers were twins, Blake. It did annoy me that I couldn’t coerce you. You didn’t stick around after I tried to push you.”

“Probably my fault,” Zeke smiled. “By then, I had fixed my magical items and put protection spells on my family. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware you had spelled Frank first.”

“I just thought he had a natural resistance. I was also unaware that the spells wore off if I was separated from my family for too long. You seemed to have come across the same problem.”

“Yeah, It nearly got me killed on one of my spying gigs. I prefer to make charms. Bangles worked well for quick contacts or simple rings given to women. For men, I resorted to discs that I slipped into the cover of their minders.”

“I lost some of my best items on Luna when I got into a sticky situation. Part of why Sharon sent me here to spy on you, Zeke.”

“I couldn’t give Frank a charm because you were around. So, I bribed a dentist to put a fake gold tooth in his upper jaw where he was missing a tooth. It would hold the spells for a couple of months before I had to renew them.”

“Being in his head, made it hard for a magical person to detect unless they kissed him.” She chuckled, “Did you enjoy the sour taste, Patricia?”

Pat just tightened her lips in response.

Zeke said, “One question, Frank wrote in his letter that you were poisoning him, Rose. Is that true?”

Rose sighed, “Not intentionally. The teeth I made were plated with a mix of gold and copper with a lead filling. As you know, Frank would grind his teeth. He had to get it refilled and capped twice, as it only lasted about two years with his grinding.”

“At one of his check-ups, the doctor was very worried about his high blood pressure. I did some research and found lead poisoning would cause it. The spell Sharon gave me never mentioned that lead was a problem. I assume that as long as the gold coating was good, it wasn’t.”

Lina asked, “So, what did you do to Rita?”

Rose shrugged, “After I made the complaint, I bugged the Senior Detective’s office. I hung around until he called Lina in and gave her the warrant. They discussed who was going with her. I have dealt with Rita before, so I went and found her, and I convinced her to change clothes and go home.”