The Black Swan

"It's true, I haven't seen Marco since we were in college, but I've always known where he was. I've kept tabs on his whereabouts all this time. He bought THE BLACK SWAN quite a few years ago."

"THE BLACK SWAN?" Her incomprehension was evident.

"That's the boat he took you sailing on?"

"You knew about that? How did you know? Were you two in touch all this time? Is this some trick or something both of you are in on together?" Lola was sitting up now. Her head no longer rested on her husband's chest.

"I knew he had the boat, and I knew he bought the lighthouse. When I returned and you weren't around it didn't take a genius to figure out he invited you sailing as a ruse to get you to the lighthouse."

Mario sounded and by all appearances was calm. Never even looking back once to see if they were being followed. His calm was permeating to Lola and she felt safe. The night was dark with only a sliver of a moon but Leo steered with the skill of a man used to being on the water.

"What do you mean, 'you always knew where he was?' If you didn't have any contact with him, how could you? Did you hire someone to find him?"

"I didn't need to. It was quite easy, really. You see, I look like him and sound like him so it's easy to convince anybody I am him and I can find out whatever I want to know about him."

Lola was stunned. It made sense though. She was speechless.

"That was why I was initially hesitant about buying the property here. I know I said it was because of the run-down condition of the house. Actually, it was because I knew the proximity to Marco. It didn't feel comfortable, but you had your heart set on this place and there was no reason to think we would cross paths with Marco. He never needed to know we were this close. We're almost there." He held her close, putting her head against his chest and snuggling close with her under the blanket.

"We'll find a room to spend the night and fly home in the morning. There's no reason to think he will discover you missing before morning. With a big enough head start, he won't find us. Sure, he found this place but it's in his backyard. That doesn't mean he knows where we live. We didn't talk about where we're from with anyone here."

In the back of his mind, he must have thought there was a chance Marco would find him and something like this would happen. Lola could never get him to admit why he was so close mouthed about where they were from.