“That’s impossible!” Derek exclaimed for the hundredth time since they’d left the resort mall where he’d come face-to-face with the woman who claimed to be his dead mother.
They were back in their suite after Derek bolted away from the mall like an escaping fugitive, with Rachel and the bodyguards chasing after him. It was as if he had seen a ghost and he had been badly shaken ever since.
“There has to be a logical explanation for what just happened,” said Rachel.
“How is it possible that she has been alive for nearly nine years and nobody found out about it? Has she been in Bermuda the whole time or does she come here from time to time to commemorate her death?”
“How would I know?” Derek snapped. “I’m just as confused as you are. This is insane! My mother is supposed to be dead, not alive, and walking around in Bermuda looking like Ariel the little mermaid!”
“I agree. She does look hot for a dead woman,” Rachel joked, trying to ease the tension in the air.
Derek chuckled. “Sounds like a great title for a Netflix series. Hot Dead Woman on the Move!”
“I like that,” Rachel laughed. “How about The Hot Undead Woman?”
He laughed. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe we are making a joke about this. My brain is still spinning.”
“But seriously, we should have asked her some important questions before running out of there like criminals. We need answers.”
“We don’t,” he said with a straight face.
“What do you mean? Don’t you want to know what happened to her?”
“I don’t. If she wanted me to know that she was alive, she would have contacted me all these years to tell me. I mean, my dad died of a broken heart because of her!”
Rachel sighed. Derek’s passionate reaction showed her that his emotional wounds ran deep. Was this the guy she was expecting to fall in love with her?
He was a guy who had been burned by love just by witnessing his parents’ volatile relationship? How could she expect him to give what he didn’t have?
“I know you are upset, Derek, and that’s very understandable. But now that you know that she is alive, your conscience would never let you rest if you don’t find out the truth of what happened to your mother. You cannot go through life not knowing the truth.”
“There is no truth anywhere. If that woman is truly my mother, then it means that she faked her own death and made me and my father mourn her for nothing. How could she live with herself knowing that I had believed all this while that she was dead? If we had never come to Bermuda, I wouldn’t have known this.”
“I know this might sound wild, but I have a feeling that she didn’t just bump into us at the mall,” said Rachel, ominously.
“Why do you say so?” Derek asked curiously.
“Because the other day we went to the beach, she was sitting right beside me and asking me questions about you and Zoe.”
Derek stared at her in awe. “What? You’ve met her before?”
“Yes. She was in the lounge chair next to me and was complimenting your looks and gushing over Zoe. I felt uncomfortable with how familiar she was getting with me and I stopped talking to her.
“Then I fell asleep and you came over to wake me up, but by then she was gone. I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t know who she was but I remember thinking that her eyes looked familiar but I was dead sure that I didn’t know her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“As I said, I wrote her off as a random stranger who was just trying to have a friendly conversation with me but it sort of came off like she was interested in you. I mean, I literally thought she was a cougar.”
Derek groaned. “Ew…”
“Sorry,” Rachel giggled. “Anyway, she saw me first at the mall today and asked about Zoe, and that was when I started to feel weird about running into the same tourist twice in two different locations. It seemed too… deliberate to be a coincidence.”
“This situation is becoming creepier by the minute. Does that mean she was following us? How did she know that we would be here? How did she even find us in the first place?”
It was indeed disturbing how this was going. How did Yolanda Fraser know where to find her estranged son and his family in a country that they chose randomly and traveled to? How did she know to find them at the beach and again at the mall, which was several miles away from their first place of contact? Something just wasn’t adding up with this story.
“The math isn’t mathing at all,” Rachel mused. “I know you are totally freaked out but I still think we need to find her and ask her to fill in the gaps for us. There must be a reason why she tracked us down. I think she wanted you to see her and she succeeded. Now we need to find out why.”
Derek sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He’d never been so freaked out in his entire life. He’d heard tons of ghost stories all his life but he’d always brushed them off as fiction, but here he was barely minutes after seeing the ghost of his dead mother! How had she been able to pull that off?
If she didn’t die in that plane crash nearly nine years ago, how did she manage to fly under the radar and avoid being discovered by at least one person? The only change she had done to her appearance was to change her blonde hair to an orange-red color, get some nips and tucks, and botox injections to keep her body and face looking taut and youthful.
Other than those aesthetic improvements, she was still recognizable. How come nobody ever found her out? The news of her death alongside her Russian lover was a hot topic for months in the U.S.
The paparazzi had followed him and his father about in the following days after the tragedy, trying to get a comment from the mourning family.
“Was her body ever found?” Rachel asked.
“No, but we still had a funeral in her honor because my father insisted on it,” said Derek bitterly. “We buried a casket with her favorite Valentino gown and Louboutin shoes inside it.”
“I guess that solves part of the mystery then. If her body wasn’t found, then she wasn’t dead. What about her companion? Was his body found?”
“No. They said their bodies were incinerated in the crash fire. Gosh! He played us all for fools!”
Someone knocked on their suite door and they both jumped at the unexpected sound.
Rachel laughed. “Now we are a couple of jumpy cats. This is crazy.”
They heard Mark talking with the person at the door before another round of knocks hit the door.
“Who is it?” Derek asked.
“The resort manager,” replied Mark. “She says she’d like to speak to you.”
“Let her in.”
Mark opened the door from outside and a petite Asian woman walked in with a smile on her beautiful face.
“Hello Mr. Fraser, Miss Lane. My name is Sierra Ma, and I am the manager of this prestigious resort,” she said smoothly.
“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Ma,” said Derek. “How may we help you?”
“Allow me to first apologize for interrupting your relaxation,” she said apologetically.
“I was sent here by one of the owners of this resort to request your presence at the presidential wing. She would like to host you for lunch in the next one hour if you do not mind.”
Rachel’s eyebrows climbed higher on her face. “Wait…”
“Let me guess, the owner in question is named Yolanda Fraser, right?” Asked Derek.
Sierra Ma’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “No, sir, that is not her name. Her name is Yasmin James and she is very eager to meet you two.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea, sir. What shall I tell her?”
Derek turned to face Rachel with a questioning expression. Maybe this Yasmin James person was someone else and not his resurrected mother, or maybe that was her new alias.
Rachel shrugged. “Why not? Let’s see her and find out why she is so eager to meet us.”
“Does your boss make it a habit to invite random guests at the resort for lunch at the presidential suite?” Derek asked the manager.
“I wouldn’t call it a habit,” Sierra said with a short laugh. “It’s just that sometimes, she likes to host guests whom she considers to be outstanding.”
“Outstanding? We’ve only been here for like what? Two or three hours?” Derek argued, attempting to poke a hole into the manager’s explanation.
“Well… I – I don’t know,” Sierra said, feeling awkward.
“It’s ok, Ms. Ma. We will be delighted to have lunch with your boss,” said Rachel with a warm smile to put the other woman at ease.
Sierra sighed. “Great. Here is your pass to the presidential suite,” she said and handed Rachel a thin white card with the resort’s emblem on it.
The word ‘Presidential’ was written on the other side of the card. “One of our staff will be here to take you there by 2 p.m. Is that ok?”
“Yes,” said Rachel. “Thank you.”
After Sierra left, Derek turned to face Rachel with a raised eyebrow. “Why?”
“Why not?” She replied defensively. “Would you rather sit here all day wondering whether the woman we met at the mall is truly your mother or just an imposter who is messing with your mind? We will never be able to focus on anything else if we don’t solve that puzzle now.”
Derek exhaled tiredly. “You’re probably right. Our plans for the day are already ruined anyway, so we might as well add the cherry on top by having lunch with a ghost.”
“Or not,” Rachel chuckled. “We could look up the name on the internet and see what turns up.”
It was as if a light bulb went off in his head. “You’re right. Let’s look her up and see what we can find on her.”
“But first, let’s check in on our baby,” said Rachel. She picked up her iPad and video called Elaine at the villa. To her relief, the call was answered almost immediately.
“Hi, Elaine. How’s it going over there?” She asked cheerfully.
“Hi. Everything is great here. Zoe has had her lunch and she’s taking a nap now.”
“Can we see her?” Derek asked.
“Sure,” said Elaine and she got up and walked over to Zoe’s bed where she was sleeping with Binky tucked under her chin.
“Aww…” Rachel sighed. “she looks so peaceful in her sleep.”
“Yep. That’s my adorable firecracker,” said Derek softly.
“Ok, Elaine. Thanks a bunch,” said Rachel, satisfied that everything was fine. “Don’t hesitate to call us if you need anything. We’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Is Shane there?” Asked Derek.
“Yes, Boss,” said Shane, coming to the camera.
“How are things over there?”
“Smooth, but mostly boring now that my pal is asleep.”
Derek grinned. “Well, stay bored and let my daughter sleep. We’ll be back soon. Tell Frank I said hey.”
“Will do, Boss.”
They ended the call and both of them felt reassured after getting to see their daughter. They may not be on the same wavelength emotionally but when it came to Zoe, they both spoke the same language.
“Ok, now let’s go back to the business at hand,” said Rachel, swiping a finger across the iPad screen. “Time to figure out who this Yasmin James woman is.”
They sat beside each other on the comfy king-sized bed in the room to do the Google search. It turns out that there were several people by that name but none of them were Derek’s mom.
They then went to the resort’s official website to find out the identity of the owners but only their names and positions were displayed without pictures.
“How convenient,” said Derek. “So, this means that if that woman is indeed my mother, she basically reinvented herself and gave herself a new name.”
“What happened to all of her money after she died?” Rachel asked.
“All of her money and shares reverted to my father when she died, and then when he died, everything became mine.”
“If she no longer had any money due to her death, how was she able to become a part-owner of a huge resort like this one?”
“Don’t forget that she was hooking up with a billionaire before she faked her death. The man was probably richer than my father, so that would explain why she still has money.”
“You know what, I’m done speculating. Come on, let’s get dressed and honor Yasmin James’ lunch invitation,” said Rachel. She stood up and dumped the iPad on the bed.
Derek groaned. “I don’t feel good about this lunch thing. Maybe you should go alone, I’ll wait for you here.”
Rachel knew that he was feeling apprehensive about meeting Yasmin James and discovering that she was actually his mother who the world believed to be dead. She knew she would be upset too if she found herself in a similar situation and she felt sympathetic toward him.
“It’s ok, Derek, everything is going to be fine. I’m here for you and I will be beside you every step of the way.”
“I don’t want to find out,” he whispered.
His vulnerability touched her and Rachel returned to sit beside him on the bed. “I know, but we have to. I know this is very difficult for you and I can’t even imagine just how distressed you are feeling inside right now,” she said softly. “What can I do to make you feel better?”
He leaned forward and rested his forehead on her shoulder. “I feel as if my world has been flipped upside down. What else am I going to discover to be a lie about my life?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that Zoe and I are real, and I am here for you.”
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
“For what?”
“For being you. You’re amazing, Rachel.”
She smiled. “So are you, Derek. Now, let’s get dressed and solve this mystery once and for all.”
“I didn’t bring any change of clothes,” he said. “I didn’t envisage that we would be meeting a mystery hostess for lunch. There goes our romantic getaway!”
“Stop whining,” she laughed. “We’ll have many other opportunities to have romantic getaways.”
“If you say so. I think I’ll ring up the boutique and have them send me a rack of suits for me to choose from.”
“A suit for lunch? Can you be any more boujee?”
“What do you suggest then? I was hoping to make an impression on our hostess.”
“Trust me, I am sure she knows your pedigree already. There’s no need for you to impress her. A casual look should do it. I’ll wear my new jumpsuit with my sandals.”
“Fine,” he said and sighed. “I still can’t believe this is happening. It feels like a crazy dream, you know.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it too much. In less than one hour, we are going to find out for sure and stop speculating.”
She drew him close and embraced him tightly. “Everything is going to be all right,” she whispered to him.
Meanwhile, she prayed silently that she was right and that they were not about to walk into a minefield full of explosive secrets and revelations.