Chapter 205: Testing Luisa

Friday, July 9, 1971

“Are you awake?” Ileana asked me softly.

“Yeah,” I replied.

We were in a very comfortable bed in a suite just down the hall from the Princess of Monaco, and I was busy scanning the hotel. It was slow going, simply because of the vast number of people staying there, not to mention all the employees and the extra security.

“There’s coffee in here,” Anna called from the sitting room between the two bedrooms. Anna and Luisa had shared the other bedroom last night after Anna had finally convinced the FBI agent that she didn’t have to stay up on guard duty.

“I ordered five breakfasts from room service,” Anna announced when we stumbled out of the bedroom in search of the coffee.

“Five?” asked Luisa.

“Michael would just eat ours if I hadn’t,” Anna replied. “He is a teenaged boy, after all.”

“I still can’t believe the Princess gave you this suite, right next to hers,” Luisa said.

“Well, Michael can be pretty persuasive when he wants to be,” Ileana told her with a smile.

“Still, it’s hard to believe that you convinced her to keep you this close. And how did you know all those things you told Brigit? She seemed pretty spooked last night.”

“Luisa, you do understand that you have to keep everything you heard last night confidential. You cannot tell your partner or your boss, or even put it into your report,” Anna told her.

“Withholding information could cost me my job,” she said.

“And not withholding it could cost Michael and his family their lives,” Anna rebutted.

“Luisa, I have the ability to feel what those around me are feeling. For instance, I know that you love your sister. Very much. And that you’re worried that her husband may be abusing her. If I could meet your sister, I could tell you for sure,” I told her.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah. And if I wanted, I could dig deeper into your memory and discover all the things you’ve ever worried about, or regretted, or things that made you happy. Such as that neighbor boy when you were growing up in Brooklyn.”

“Oh, no!” she cried.

“You see, given enough time, Michael could know every detail of your life,” Anna told her. “That’s another reason you need to keep everything to yourself. You don’t want to give him any reason to come after you.”

Luisa looked at me in fear.

“Please don’t be afraid. Anna was just trying to impress on you the necessity of keeping our secrets,” I said. “I haven’t bothered scanning you yet, except to see that you are basically an honest person. If you feel that keeping this to yourself will cause you problems, then you’re welcome to leave.”

Luisa studied me for a moment, then she moved her stare to Ileana. Finally her eyes settled on Anna.

“You love him, don’t you?” she asked Anna.

“I’d better. He’s going to be the father of my daughters,” she quickly replied.

Luisa’s eyes grew wide and she quickly looked, not at me, but at Ileana.

“You know about this?” she asked my wife.

“Of course,” Ileana replied softly. “We’re used to the fact that we can’t keep secrets from Michael. But, he can’t keep secrets from all of us either. Because of our connections.”

“Your connections?”

“Yes. Those of us that have this special connection with Michael, have the ability to sense his feelings as well. We don’t know how it works, but I don’t have to. All I want to know is that he loves me,” Ileana explained.

“And me,” Anna added.

“And Michael has discovered that our love for him gives him strength. And the more we love him, the more strength he has,” Ileana told her.

“I’ve also discovered that the more I love them, the more they love me,” I told Luisa.

“Them? Just how many people are we talking about here?” Luisa asked.

“As of yesterday, there are twenty-seven girls and women who have a special connection with Michael, counting Trealyn,” Ileana supplied. “Of course, that doesn’t include his step-daughter who’s only four.”

“There’s no way one teenager can love so many women!” Luisa declared.

“Luisa, tell me, who did your mother love the most? You or your sister?” I asked.

“Why, she loved both of us.”

“And what if there had been other siblings?”

“I guess she’d have loved all of them.”

“So ... you’re saying it’s possible to love more than one person at the same time?”

“Yeah, but...” Luisa stammered. She had started to add, “ ... that’s different.” But she couldn’t figure out how it was different.

“So you’re telling me that you’re married to twenty-seven women? At the same time?”

“No. He’s only married to me and my sister,” Ileana told her. “So far!”

Then turning to Anna, “But you said he was going to be the father of your children?”

“He is. Next March,” Anna told her. “It’s sort of a race between Mikeya and me to see which one of us delivers first. Her due date is three days before mine, but the women in my family always deliver early, especially since it’s twins.”

“But you’re not married?” Luisa asked, as her confusion mounted. “How can you...” she started, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Hold that thought!” I said as I jumped up to let in room service with our breakfast.

“Now, what was your question?” I asked Luisa after we got everything arranged.

“I think that you all are just pulling my leg,” Luisa said after swallowing a bite. “I mean, on one hand, this all sounds so ideal. But on the other hand, it goes against everything I have ever believed about love and marriage.”