[The final five sentences in the preceding chapter were crafted by my AI editor, and I opted to retain them because they are quite enjoyable. This is a practice I engaged in with my group of reviewer friends, where they would introduce an idea, and I would then continue from that point.]
"Oh, he's very handsome. And so thoughtful too..."
Yet she didn't plan to tell them who her new boyfriend was. She won't present him to them. Her mind instantly drafted a plan to just play a prank on them - she would show up in front of them with the man they wanted to see her with.
"...he brought me the loveliest bouquet of roses last night..."
Indeed, after leaving the maternity ward, she went straight to Anne's. Apparently there had been a meeting going on there in her absence.
Although Marie-Rose's jesting spirit remained intact, surfacing in the facade she presented to her inner circle, ominous thoughts lingered in the depths of her being.
This eye-opening realization prompted Anne to suggest a unique purification ritual, aimed at liberating her emotions through a healing purgation.
What the culprits had colluded about remained unknown to Marie-Rose. The result was that Anne handed her a note from Jayden requesting to meet her again that evening.
"I will marry him soon," she told her co-workers, since her host was going to marry Daniel soon anyway. But she doubted the bride's bouquet at their wedding would be as beautiful as the one Jayden had brought her.
In a secluded area of her dearest park, she recognized him by the bouquet of roses he held in his hands, as he had each of the few times they'd met after an absence. He paced around impatiently, stirring the cool air with his warm breath.
Just after she tried plotting her own scenario in her mind for how events would unfold, she met a dilemma. She wouldn't let Jayden go ever again, but how? She was bound to this new body.
She couldn't just leave Daniel - he would start searching for his soon-to-be wife if she didn't come home tonight. And he would immediately disavow Marie-Rose. So disappearing to stay with Jayden as she wished wasn't safe. She hated her fate, ending up in bed with the enemy.
"Marie... I'm so glad to see you." His eyes brightened at her sight, the amber flecks in them glowing like embers. He meant it, as his subsequent tenderness fully demonstrated. Though as soon as the following reuniting moment finally drew to a close, her thoughts distracted her in another direction. She didn't dare tell him she'd been pregnant when she lost her life. Better a secret for now - she couldn't crush his heart. Yet she forgot her body was in his father's custody.
"My father told me you were two months pregnant," he found his words, each one heavy with sorrow. "Why didn't you tell me sooner, Marie?"
"I had no idea, I only found out that very day..." To brighten his mood, she let him know: "I am pregnant now as well..."
"Anne told me everything." Except the doppelganger's pregnancy didn't matter much. Fury still simmered within over what happened. If only he could have returned sooner, on wings as swift as thought itself.
"Jayden, I have to return to Daniel's place tonight." She still had two hours before her absence would raise suspicious ripples.
"Oh, I thought we'd have this whole time together." His regret echoed her own that their reunion was so fleeting. But she cringed at being intimate with Jayden while inhabiting another's form. It was unfair for this foreign body to receive his delightful affections meant for her.
"I...I was thinking we should wait, in case we can recover my original body..." She wanted to be honest, even as the words stuck like burrs in her throat.
"Ooooh," he whined like a child denied a sweet. "But I can't wait anymore. I don't think I can endure it. I never want to let you go again. It was my mistake to do so before." Unfortunately, they each had their own way regarding life's trials. Neither would insist when told "no" outright. He'd simply respected her boundaries rather than press for reconciliation. But now, memories of her spilled from him like golden sand through a broken hourglass.
Once she'd told him they should separate, he hadn't questioned her further. Instead he chose to hurt in his own way - a destructive path straight into war's maw, seeking to numb his pain with death's cold kiss. Such had been her strategy too when heartbreak struck its mournful chord within her. Never looking back, just coming to terms. But no more. She'd never again fail to let Jayden know he held her love. Better to have her heart crushed than make that mistake anew.
"Baby, I don't feel comfortable with you loving this new body. I hate it! I want to be the one who receives your love." She complained as her new flesh felt foreign, more ill-fitting garment than part of her. Yet there was no disconnect - his touches landed just the same. Maybe it was only her mind getting in the way, whispering this form wasn't hers.
"Really? Can nothing be done by magic?" Perhaps a spell from arcane arts could unlock the puzzle that was her displacement.
She knew it was vain to postpone joy whenever disaster fell like ravens from the sky. Better to slalom between troubles as they arose. She must ignore the strange dissociation she felt. Marie-Rose was here with her love, and that alone held meaning.
"I have two hours before I must return to my new home. Let's make the best of them." The shy girl she'd been was gone for good - something had died inside her alongside her former flesh. A death sweeping away old traits, both boons and banes that had caused such harm.
She was someone else entirely - not just this foreign body but a psyche reforged.
The hours spun away until four had passed, not two. Only when the clock's hands dragged them back to reality did Marie-Rose broach a delicate subject. Perhaps it tied to the fate awaiting her in Daniel's company...
"Jayden, I wondered...when you mentioned a special project...could it have been Daniel's?" His manner with her suggested this might be so.
"I don't know, babe. I was part of something, but its leader is a mystery." He tried to recall any telling details. He would ask Cedric too since they had trained together. Perhaps he knew more.
"Curious...were you taught to use your powers?" She probed further.
"Yes, to push our limits. Control our bodies. Endure deprivation...only by thought, no substances." He summarized the obtuse project.
"And denying intimacy too, right?" She seemed versed in obscure doctrine.
"True - it's known even among athletes. Taming those urges preserves power for the fight." He clarified the mundane notion.
"Oh? So they turned metaphysics to mere physics..." Doubt clouded her face.
"You mean...?" Curiosity mixed with his astonishment.
"I mean they lost their way." Worry lined her features. "This transcended body, dwelled in spirit - belonged to metaphysics, not base science." How could she explain it now? Another time, not this fleeting day. She was late - had to go.
"Will you explain later, my love?" He sensed profound wisdom within her words.
"I only asked because I feared war might lead you to darker doors than these." Her shoulders relaxed as understanding dawned. "But you align with my beliefs..." She wondered - did he grasp what a sorceress held as creed?
"Marie, my mother imparted ancient ways - great respect for women, avoiding those who sell illusion."
Marie-Rose's new body tensed, nerves thrumming. His mother a sorceress too? He knew more than expected then. Was it safe to ask outright?
"Did your mother share her occult wisdom?" The question lingered on her tongue before spilling forth.
"Yes, she was a sorceress, Marie!" Uttering it aloud carried power, yet restraint still lined his words.
"As you are too, right babe?" He pierced veils at last.
She nodded. They should know such soul-truths of the other.
"And your son - was he part of some secret project?" Further explanations were owed.
"Yes, the plan was to create psychic soldiers. He's not alone, but I'm the only mother to defect." A chill went through her. Had Jayden been altered too? Dangerous, yet it changed nothing. Just child souls forged into weapons.
"And for leaving they'd seize him from you - so you joined Child Protection!" His deduction startled her.
"Yes, to foil their aims. They said I couldn't raise him, speciously citing laws." Her lip curled with anger at the memories. "I had to hide his gifts from their greedy reach."
Jayden watched the steel enter her eyes when discussing her child. Though the father was surely just a surrogate, her love burned bright.
"I took the position to shield vulnerable mothers, help them keep their babies." The law could seize children for poverty alone - injustice she railed against. In secret she'd help some escape official rules, defying ruthless state decrees.
"So brave, my babe..." He held her close, "yet you've turned devilish forces against you now."
Considering the aftermath of their union, dire warnings made sense. Powers thought petty ruled worlds seen and unseen.
Alexandre had contacted him post-breakup, explaining why she set him free. Jayden thought time might sway her back by soul's magnetism. But he too needed some release - violence often stirred his restless spirit.
As they prepared to part, Marie-Rose unfolded her dangerous plan:
"I'll stay with Daniel, learn plans from those who took my life."
"I'm with you, babe - call anytime. We'll weather whatever witchery hunts us now." They steeled selves for coming storms, grasping at phantoms of safety - how many days ahead? Both wondered as dusk embraced their lone forms.
***
Everything went smoothly the first night in Daniel's lair.
He was absent when she crossed the threshold into unfamiliar rooms. She skipped dinner, going straight to the imposing bed. A little fearfully she awaited this strange man who supposedly shared his home with her. But she felt no sense of belonging here.
Over days, pieces of Zoe's memories emerged in fits and starts. But her emotions and past with Daniel remained locked behind an impenetrable vault in the other woman's mind. Try as she might, the knowledge was barred away from her psychic grasp.
Until this quiet night, still as a statue amid luxurious sheets, revelations flooded her inner eye unbidden:
Daniel had confessed the scope of his occult projects - cold-blooded discussions of her transgressions and monitoring thereafter. Certainty crystallized within her - the intuitive dread hadn't lied.
But curiously, equal time focused upon the cryptic Vadim from her work. There was a slippery quality to the man no straight descriptor could capture. Some aptitude or charm, yet she'd sensed a lurking darkness beneath the genial façade. Zoe's recollection of suspicious talks confirmed the lurking rot.
Before she could delve deeper, a noise sounded - the monster was home. Her hands trembled beneath the blankets, though she forced icy calm.
Later he came to her, after eating the meal she'd willingly left for him on the kitchen table. She must get close, gain his trust, though it revolted her soul.
Knock-knock.
"You're already abed?" Surprise colored his tone.
"Yes, feeling ill..." She fake-coughed, noting how he readily joined her there. An opportunity - she could raise Vadim again, pull this loose thread. Amidst their small talk, she mentioned their earlier discussions.
"Why such hatred toward Vadim?" She asked with faux innocence.
"Zoe, he's a scammer - banking frauds, tax schemes, crazy notions." Daniel's words held disdain.
"It seems a minor offense..." She tried Zoe's sympathetic stance.
"He pretends honor he lacks. I know his true soul - darker than you grasp."
"Then reveal his sins to me." Her demand held power, eyes flashing.
"Not just his vile ways with women - too disturbing to voice - but ties to that innocent girl, Marie-Rose herself..."
Should she feign jealousy? Why did he even care about her?
"What?" The woman pressed him to continue, hungry for intel she lacked.
"Vadim pursues mothers - no kids to demand then." Daniel revealed the slithering darkness in the man's mind.
She knew too well his ploys. Wielding a borrowed child, he'd pressed her to abandon true love - insinuating Alexandre shunned fatherhood's call.
But only with Jayden had she envisioned cradling children of her spirit's mingled lineage. Without him, she'd live bereft of motherhood's jewel. No other could plant his seed in her fertile soil.
Rumors claimed Vadim was partially impotent, or hindered by dysfunction... yet he spat accusations against Alexandre instead - taunts of impotence and deviance. As if rationality could flourish after their intimacy was gutted, flayed bare before vultures picking scraps clean. A violation akin to the darkest misdeeds, no less. Perhaps some sickness only found pleasure demolishing others' sacred trusts.
Vadim called his failures merely lost attraction. Small wonder when he fixated outside his marriage bed instead of tending that delicate flame.
They'd pushed children upon her - as if birthing would eclipse all desire for passion's song. Cruel voices whispering the act itself mattered not, only its fertile fruit...
Madness indeed when so far from truth! Even Cezar approached with lies - "In youth I shunned fathering too..." Painting her love as barren-spirited.
These self-appointed arbiters of normalcy particularly despised older women with younger lovers, resentful that they couldn't relish the same pleasure. Concealing their envy behind ostensible accomplishments, they propagated the notion that after having children, a woman should relinquish thoughts of enjoying intimacy. Yet, they seethed with rage at the prospect of women finding pleasure while they grappled to maintain their own sex lives through artificial means.
But the reality held ancient rhythms few could fathom now, steeped in sorcery's covenant ways. For her soul already envisioned children sprouting from only one man's blessed seed - Jayden, familiar with the old pacts binding flesh to purpose.
It was too late for advocacy when her die was long cast. With him awaited fruitful soil; without, a harvestless eternity even as seasons wheeled relentlessly onward. They drove her toward cold furrows welcoming no verdant shoots.
"Foolish girl said she'd risk prison for loved ones. That stupid woman, Barbara took it literally - now all three of them seem tied up in some scheme." Scandal filled his tone. As a result, he was now working with the fraud department, investigating the trio for supposed embezzlement of funds.
In their unwavering determination, the spies dispatched by the org pretended allegiance to Marie-Rose. They seized upon her rhetorical questions as unassailable truths, their minds oblivious to the realization that she was merely scrutinizing their purported assistance and intelligence.
Their endless talk of her finally ceased when baser needs consumed him. Repulsed, she blocked his advances.
Fear lined her veins as she fell into uneasy dreams, wrapped tightly in blankets. A voice whispered warnings in her mind - "Pray he respects your slumbering form this night..."