Plan B

"I fell in love with this part of Costa Rica and decided to stay."

Steven piped up, "Papa, really had it all planned. We never missed home in those first few months. Everything was so new, exciting and exotic. And then later when he sat us down to explain what had really happened, it was just before school started as I remember, we were caught up in our new lives so much we never really looked back."

Albert was still in awe of the two young men, Scott and Steven; he really couldn't tell which one had been Jared or Jason. And Estrella, on her way to becoming a doctor!

"But didn't you miss your mother?" Caroline had been wanting to ask that since they first sat down.

"That was mostly my doing", Estrella said in all seriousness. "My summer before college was going to be epic, my friends and I had made so many plans. And then I was going off to college, the thought of being on my own was so exciting. And then it all came crashing down on that Thursday."

"I really, really hated Mother in those days. Her fucking around had ruined everything, suddenly I didn't even have a home. So as those early months stretched into years I got angry any time the boys even mentioned our old life or our mother."

"Yeah, she trained us really well to not bring up our former lives. It's only been in the last couple of years that she's mellowed at all. Maybe Carlos has something to do with that." This from Scott.

"Yes, I have to admit that having a serious relationship has taken some of the edge off my anger. You will meet Carlos tomorrow, he's an Engineer."

And so the rest of the week we literally spent every waking moment with my brother and his children.

In a quiet moment when my brother and I were alone I asked another unasked question, "and you my brother, how have you managed. It there no one for you, someone to bring joy into your life?"

"No Al, nobody special. At least no one permanent or exclusive. You see up until a couple of years ago I was totally focused on the kids. Once the boys went off to college and Estrella on to Medical school I allowed myself a few indulgences. Being the owner of my winery comes with a certain, I don't know, flair or attraction. And being so closely tied with the Tamarindo there are always those who come for a vacation and find me worthy of some attention.

"So I have enjoyed a few brief trysts, they have helped keep me from becoming bitter at Susanna's betrayal. I have learned that not all women are as selfish as she was, that there is still sweetness in the world."

"Plus running my cyber business and a winery has kept me quite busy. Although I do find the time now for dinner and dancing, I have worked hard and am now enjoying letting Steven take some of the workload off my shoulders. And the winery practically runs itself, so you see, I am quite content."

And so the week the week went, and all too soon it was time to be heading home to the Bay Area.

"How will we stay in touch, when will we see you again?"

"Albert, now that we have re-established contact we can talk on the phone, email, or facetime whenever you want. And any time you want to come for a visit, just let me know. I am quite well off now so would be happy to make accommodations for you here at the Tamarindo whenever you want to visit. And next time I expect you to bring your children."

And so for the next three years I brought my family to visit Costa Rica twice per year, and I travelled there for brief visits a couple of other times in those years.

= = =

Susanna was home on the Saturday after Thanksgiving getting her laundry done when she stopped in the hallway, the laundry basket forgotten for a moment. 10 pictures, of Alan and her children. She ran her fingers over the latest one, with Julia seated and a handsome man standing behind her - the wedding ring on her finger prominent on the hand in her lap. Her brothers, handsome men both, smiling those easy smiles into the camera. And Alan, beaming like any proud Papa over his brood. Just then the doorbell rang and she called out, "I'll get it." Diane was puttering in her home office.

"Mam, can I get a signature please." It was a medium FedEx box, and when shook didn't make any sound. Hmm, I don't remember ordering anything she thought.

And then a few moments later she screamed and Diane came running to find Susanna sitting on the floor just inside the front door. Holding a bed sheet and an open envelop in her lap. "My babies, my babies." Susanna was rocking back and forth sobbing with big tears running down her face.

"Suze, what is it. What the hell is this all about?"

Susanna held out the card she'd been clutching. It was a one of those birth announcement cards with a picture of a baby; inside was written in an elegant hand, "Please come. Your granddaughter would like to meet you."

Diane picked up the envelop and fished out the rest of the contents - a hotel reservation and two airline tickets, one in Suze's name and one in hers.

"Oh my god! This is the sheet they've been taking the pictures in front of all these years! These reservations, and the airline tickets, it's for Christmas week! We have to call Alfred, we gotta call the FBI!"

Alfred and Caroline arrived shortly thereafter and looked over the card and the travel documents.

"Finally, we'll all be together at Christmas." But the way he said it, the tone he used, caused Susanna and Diane to stop in their tracks.

"You don't sound surprised, you sound relieved. What's going on Alfred, did you know about this?" Susanna's voice took on an angry tone.

"I've been trying to get Alan to show some forgiveness for some time, and trying even harder since the wedding."

"Wedding! You were at Julia's wedding!!!? OHMY GOD! All that travelling you've been doing, you've been going to see my babies! "

"It's been ten years since your betrayal. I have hoped that the sting of that had faded enough for some forgiveness. I didn't think I had made much progress, but I guess Julia has. And with the new baby, perhaps she has forced Alan's hand or he's finally had a change of heart."

= = =

"Greetings Señioras to the Tamarindo, I am Arturo the manager of our fine hotel. It will be my pleasure to ensure that your stay is most pleasant. Your room is ready, and anything you desire, you only need ask and me and my staff will do our best."

"La Señora Morales has asked that you join her on the terrace as soon as you've freshened up."

The room wasn't palatial but it was crisp and clean, just what you'd expect from a seaside resort. The water pressure was good in the shower, and the towels were very fluffy.

On the walk back downstairs to the terrace Susanna had to admit she was very nervous. Her daughter was Señora Morales, with a daughter of her own. The last month had been a whirlwind of emotions, getting used to the fact that she would be spending Christmas with her children, and dealing with what little information Alfred and Caroline would dole out. Not their secret to reveal indeed!

After going back to the front desk Arturo himself ushered Diane and Susanna to a table overlooking the pool. They didn't have to wait very long as just five minutes later.

"Hello mother, Diane. It's good to finally see you again." And then there was much hugging and happy tears, the three women having lost whatever composure they'd tried to maintain. Susanna didn't want to let go, but eventually they regained their composure.

"You must have a million questions, all of which I'm prepared to answer. But first, I want to present your granddaughter, Josefina Morales. We named her after Papa's mother. Please, I'd like you to hold her."

Susanna was overcome; she had never seen such a beautiful baby. Only months old but so tiny, so precious. She was lost in instant love for her granddaughter. In that moment she didn't feel anger, no harsh feelings of any kind. The rest of the world didn't exist. Tears of absolute joy spilled down her cheeks; she didn't want to let go of the sleeping bundle to wipe them away.

After a good long time in that bliss, "She's so beautiful; I can't believe I'm holding her. This is such a gift. Here Diane, you wanna hold her?"

"You bet your sweet ass, hand her over."

"Julia, where are your brothers, and Alan?"

"They are keeping themselves busy this afternoon; we agreed to meet them at dinner so we could have the afternoon to ourselves to talk, to catch up. And especially to answer those million questions."

Just then a waiter brought a fruit and cheese platter and a bottle and three glasses. "Algo mas Doña Estrella?"

"Gracias Pepe, tres basos de aqua pura."

"Immediatamente, Doña."

"Have a couple of sips, it will fortify you. This bottle is one of our best vintages."

"What did that waiter call you, Estrella?"

"Diane, that is my name, I am Estrella Morales. The Doña part is an honorific. We've been doing business with Arturo here at the Tamarindo for many years. We're familiar with most of the staff, and they with us."

"You mean your father, you and your brothers? What is going on here anyway, why have you brought me here after all these years? Haven't I suffered enough? What's going to happen now?"

Estrealla/Julia studied the older women before answering. Diane looked good, a bit older certainly but she still had that fire in her eyes. Susanna, she couldn't quite call her mother in her mind yet, looked careworn. The last ten years had not been kind to her. From her father's reports she knew that Susanna hadn't quite become a recluse, but she existed in a very limited world. The reports said that she had continued her professional success, but didn't seem to have much of a life outside her office.

"To put it bluntly, we have decided to pardon you from your sentence. We have decided that ten years is enough punishment for your betrayal and killing our family. You were not imprisoned in a jail for murdering me, my brothers, and especially my father. But nevertheless, we have decided that enough time has passed that we can try to put your crimes behind us. And now with my marriage, and Josefina's arrival has put us all in a more generous state of mind."

Susanna was gob smacked; never in her wildest nightmares could she have imagined what she'd just heard. They had decided that she was worthy of pity, they had decided she was worthy of a pardon, like some criminal.

"You put me thru ten years of hell, not knowing where you were, whether you were alive or dead. And then those Christmas pictures reminding me of everything I'd been missing. And of course the second picture of me and Colin every time. I got the message, no forgiveness. And now I'm supposed to be happy that you've decided that I've been punished enough!"

"So Papa wins the ten bucks then; he bet me that the first words out of your mouth would be to try and tough it out. I bet that you would be full of remorse."

Susanna sat back in her chair deflated, her earlier anger and ire gone like a popped soap bubble.

But Diane was not to be left out, "Julia, um Estrella, you gotta allow for the shock to wear off. We've been on pins and needles since Thanksgiving when we got the package. And then flying down here, and arriving at this swanky resort and being treated like royalty. Holding this wonderful baby. I know I'm a bit overwhelmed, you've got to give you mother some time to adjust." Josefina continued to sleep soundly in Diane's arms.

"You're right of course Aunt Diane. Which is why we arranged for this week at Tamarindo. To give us all a chance to get reacquainted, to adjust to the new reality. So let me tell you a bit about how this all came about. I will try not to be harsh, but some of this will be new and hard to hear for you both. We've had years of therapy and hard work to get where we are. Living here in paradise has helped a great deal; but the road to this day has had its difficulties."

"I'll leave the details of our escape and travels that brought us here to Papa, he's better at telling that part of our story. So, that fateful Thursday I had really bad cramps so came home from school to get something for the pain and to get comforted by my mother. Imagine my surprise when I found you with your lover on your marital bed. I pulled out my phone and took a few minutes of video, and then snuck back out of the house without you even noticing. You were quite distracted as I remember."

"You found me with Colin!? We thought your father had the house bugged and that's how my, um, that's how I was found out."

"No mother, Papa never bugged the house. He trusted you completely; he loved you with all his heart. He took your betrayal extremely hard. He was strong for us in the beginning, but it took a heavy toll on him. Anyway, it was me; I'm the one that discovered your cheating. Papa mentioned during our escape that he had noticed you had become more distant over that previous year, but his suspicions hadn't blossomed into realizing you were cheating on him. On all of us actually."

"But it wasn't an affair, I didn't love Colin. He was just a bit of fun on the side. I truly have regretted my actions in the years afterwards; I have my own years of therapy to help me come to that realization."

"Come on Suze, we're all adults in the room. Even after all these years you refuse to call your bonking your tennis coach for over a year behind your husband's back an affair." Yup, Diane still had the fire.

"Mother, Aunt Diane, I'm not retrying you for your crimes here. I'm just filling you in on what happened. To try to help you understand what we were thinking at that time, what motivated our actions. I think it's ultimately healthy for us to clear the air so we can have a chance at a more normal relationship going forward."

"I called Papa from a coffee shop and showed him the video when he finally came to get me. He sprang into action immediately; it was as if some starting gun had gone off and he knew exactly what to do. We began our escape immediately and dropped off the face of the earth."

"It was actually me in those early years that helped keep us in hiding. Mother I hated you fiercely for ruining my life. You had betrayed my father; you had destroyed our home life, and wrecked all my plans for a cool summer before I headed off to college. Here I was in a foreign country, knowing only a little of the language and nothing of the customs. I felt justified in putting all my teenage rage into hating you."

"But you didn't have to take the nuclear option, couples get divorced all the time and people just move on. Why couldn't your father had taken that route? Why did he have to keep you from me all this time?"

"It was Plan B mother. Plan A was for Papa and you to retire in luxury in some villa overlooking a winery that you could run to keep you busy. Papa had been taking side jobs and had a bunch of money salted away for your golden years. It was quite a tidy sum actually; you would have had a life of luxury and ease. Instead it funded our escape, Plan B."

"You see, all those years in cybersecurity had made Papa a very suspicious man. And being his mother's son he planned ahead. If everything stayed as it was, you two would sail off into the sunset together. If not, then some form of Plan B. He didn't know what might go wrong, but he was prepared for anything. He had fake passports for all of us, fake school records with our new names. He even had ID and credit cards for himself, all his preparations made for a clean getaway. Our old identities simply stopped on that Thursday, and we assumed our new one's going forward. Papa even had vaccination records with our new names so he could get my brothers into school and me into college."

"I never knew, I just didn't think, think that your father would be so suspicious and prepared for something to go wrong between us. But it does make sense; he made his reputation in the Valley as one of those guys you could count on in an emergency. He was always so prepared."

"Julia, I need to put Josefina down. My arms are getting tired and I could use some of that wine." Diane put the still sleeping infant back in the pram and grabbed her glass. "So why am I along for this little trip down memory lane? I didn't do anything to deserve all this luxury."

"Sure you do, you were betrayed by my mother just like the rest of us. You've also been serving a sentence, you've been deprived of seeing your sister's children grow up and prosper. Your life was also thrown into turmoil. My mother's betrayal extended to you too, even though you might not think of it that way. Who knows where you'd be right now if she hadn't cheated. Furthermore you deserve some reward for standing by her all these years, lending her your support. I shudder to think what might have become of her if you hadn't been there for her."

Diane was uncharacteristically silent; she was touched by Julia's attitude. She hadn't come to Susanna's side looking for a reward; heck moving in with her worked out so well for the two of them that it was no trouble at all. It was such a welcome surprise to be acknowledged this way that she started to tear up.

"Papa told my brothers that he was going on a field assignment and that since it was going to be in an exotic locale, he wanted to bring us along. He distracted them by buying us all new phones, at that time the latest and greatest. My brothers we're so distracted by the new hardware that they didn't ask any questions for the first month. I helped with the cover story by being excited to being taken on an adventure."

"We never made it to the villa Papa had bought for your retirement in the old country. He fell in love with this part of Costa Rica, and we never left. Papa sold the villa and bought a winery near here. With some of the Plan money he bought us a nice house and over the summer he got my brothers enrolled in school and me into the University. It's amazing what you can accomplish with American dollars and a winning smile."

"But we never found you! The FBI did an investigation, they sent out bulletins to all the countries that are members of the Child Kidnapping network! How did you escape detection?"

"I guess some of it was luck, the rest of it was the money Papa was spreading around. And finally we had very good credentials, or at least good enough. We've literally never been bothered by the authorities. In fact, because of Papa's work he has become friends with the local Police, and has done some work for the Fuerza Publica, the national police, over the years. I guess you could say we were hiding in plain sight."

"This is all too much; I spend years trying to find you and you're down here living in paradise." Susanna took a big swallow from her wine. "And what do you mean work, what does your father do?"

"Still the same - although he has taken to working in the winery more and more, and is spending less time behind the keyboard. You see all those years doing side jobs for Plan A, he had used his alternate identity. So really, his moving us here didn't slow him down a bit. He continued to work cybersecurity jobs to make a living, only touching the Plan money for major purchases."

"But as I said he's started to pull back and let Steven, err Jason, handle more and more the cybersecurity work. His degree is in Computer Science with an emphasis on cybersecurity. We're very proud of him, Papa especially."

"And Jared, what about him? What do I call him when I finally see him later?"

"Jared goes by Scott; but you can call him whatever you like. He studied the Law like Tio Albert; he's working for a big firm in San Jose. Um, the San Jose here in Costa Rica."

"Your lives are complete, where do I fit in? Is there even a place for me in the lives you've built here?"

"Our arms are open to you and Aunt Diane. We want you to know that any negative feelings we might have had have faded with time and distance. You can be as much a part of our lives as you want, or as little. We realize this is a lot for you to absorb all at once."