Ford's Rise - L. Ann Marie Page 0,20
even moving. When Cort says good job, I’m up.
He nods. “Go, Brother. Télia isn’t getting through. The chopper is waiting.”
I run getting that he was watching that on top of everything else going on. It’s not as comforting as it should be. Alexia looks like she’s in shock.
~*~*~
Alexia
My brain isn’t slowing down. My father is the Director? He’s never talked to me. How do you do that? I lived at the dorms. His office was right there. I worked right there and he never talked to me? Does he know I’m his daughter? How do you work with your kid and not talk to her? Is my real name Price? I’ve had three names since I left school. Who the hell is the woman I lived with?
Web lifts me talking. I hold on needing something real. Nothing else is real. “Alexia.”
“Is that my real name?”
I feel him nodding. “Yeah. Alexia Ford will be your name. Alder said it’s always Alexia. I don’t know your last name. We didn’t give you one.”
Alexia Ford. Télia will be my sister. Garren and Michael my brothers-in-laws. I’ll have a family. A nephew. I’ll be part of a family. A real one. “The Director is Price. I’ve never had that name. Does he know?” I hope he says no. It would be really good right now for him to say no.
“Yeah, he knows. He wasn’t happy Ben moved you here. I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened or how Alder found out.” Alder knew?
“Did Alder give me a job because I’m his kid? Did Ben make Alder give me a job? Did I get the FBI job because I’m his kid? Is everything fake?”
He sits and holds me so he can see my face. I must look awful. He doesn’t answer right away. That makes me nervous. More nervous than not being real. “You always think the worst of yourself. What I know is you were second to Waite in the FBI. Here you’re the best trainer I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of trainers, I train them. You know more about how the government works than I do. You’re beautiful and fucking smart, Alexia. Stop putting yourself down and look at what you’ve accomplished in your twenty-seven years. You don’t get to be as good as you are without putting in the work. Télia paints, she’s fucking awesome at it, you wouldn’t put her down.”
Never. “No, she’s a great painter.”
“You’re great at IT. You’re just different. You got the job because you’re that good. Alder is brilliant. He wouldn’t have offered it if you weren’t. He’s too smart to let you get snatched up by anyone else. The government is crazy. They would have stuck you somewhere else working for them in one of their fucked-up agencies.”
I nod. They probably would have. “Thank you. So, I’m really Alexia?”
He smiles. “Yeah, Alexia Ford. I haven’t had a last name in so long, I’m proud to share my new name with you.” He’s as crazy as Ford.
“You still want to marry me when I don’t even know who I am? My brain has been racing for too long.” We talked about claiming last night.
“I know who you are. Alexia Ford loves the Alpha-Bits, her friends, her job, watching stars as they turn brighter and sits on my lap like she owns the spot. You aren’t your name, Alexia, you’re the experiences you’ve lived through and choices you made. I love who you are.”
I hold him tighter while tears make seeing him hard. “I want to be Alexia Ford. That’s real. I want a family and you, Web. I love you too.”
His kiss is gentle on my lips. “You need to know my real name was David. I’m Web Ford now. I don’t know what my last name really was. I was told Sanders. Blood tests show Ford and Garren are my real brothers so I took their name.”
“So many fake names. How do so many people live being fake? I like Web better than David. It fits you.”
He smiles. “I’m so fucking proud of my brothers. I love my new name and am proud to own it. Cort got the lawyer to change it so it’s even legal. What other people do isn’t on us or even about us. People do shit for themselves. Don’t take their need to be bad or not honest, personally. It’s their problems and choices and we don’t get the reasons for what they choose. For me,