Maeva was home in the London suburbs and she was quietly sitting typing away on her laptop. As usual, she kept an eye on the dogs. Her phone vibrated and she saw it was Sky. He was away on location in Slovenia. They had agreed she would remain home at this stage of her pregnancy. She was doing well and so was the baby. Her baby was now the size of a big grapefruit, and she was starting to tire out a little with a lot of walking. A long plane flight was not at all recommended for risk of blood cloths in her legs. She was also very content at home. This is what this place had become to her, her home. She remembered a saying “Home is where your heart is.”. It was entirely true. Sky was texting her much more frequently than usual. She knew his missed being home now. His life was not the same as when he was alone and free to travel to world for work. She answered that all was well and that they missed him immensely. She knew he was hard at work and would not be able to keep up the texting. She went back to work, knowing Yvonne would arrive after lunch to prepare some meals and do some cleaning. Her son’s family was coming to London for a week to see her and she wanted the house to be ready. She agreed to Sky’s proposition to keep Yvonne on an everyday basis as he didn’t want her to have to do tedious cooking or housecleaning. She agreed, as being pregnant in her fifties was surely quite different from her past pregnancy. It felt like the baby was a vampire sucking all the energy out of her. She went to sleep early, got up at nine and needed a nap in the afternoon. She was always tired but, she was so happy. She couldn’t believe she was having his baby. It was in her. Growing and kicking. Had they been able to plan this, Sky would be here, with her. Still, she had her memories of him and her hopes he was coming back soon. She was busy with her family for awhile. Her grandchildren were always wanting a story, or wanting to play with puzzles, mind games and modeling clay. Walking the mutts was also another great activity they enjoyed. She didn’t really notice that Sky didn’t call or text as much. When she did, she thought he must be somewhere off grid. The day came for their return to Northern Quebec. They promised each other they would see more of each other in the future. Her son made her promise to call and keep him updated on her health and pregnancy.

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Winter had fallen over London with a cold humid wind that ripped the colorful leaves from the trees. She was so glad that some coniferous trees were close to the house, encircling them to keep the green present. Yvonne and Victor got the fireplace ready, and she sat in front of it in the evening rocking away. Sky sent her a beautiful vintage rocking chair in heavy rosewood, engraved with curlicues and some inlayed gold. She usually wore her cashmere shawl and daydreamed about Sky, the baby or, continued her novels’ and scenarios’ storytelling in her head. She was now almost at 30 weeks of pregnancy and assumed Sky would be back. She looked at the time and called Jess. She answered on the first ring.

 

“Hello Maeva! How are you? Not having the baby yet, I hope.”, she asked hurriedly. She sounded like she was in the middle of something.

 

“No, no. It is way too early. I am calling just to know how Sky is doing.”, Maeva asked.

 

“Oh.”, Jess sounded surprised. “Well, I haven’t either, actually.”, said answered.

 

“Is he on an off-grid location?”

 

“Let me look up the last schedule that was sent to me.”, Maeva heard paper ruffling. “I guess I didn’t print it. I will need to check in my computer. Can I get back to you? I have some friends over and would do that later, ok?”, Jess didn’t seem to know. She usually was aware of everywhere he was and for how long, where he was staying and more. She was his assistant.

 

“What is happening Jess? You are his personal assistant. You always know his every move.”, Maeva was getting upset.

 

“I am under an NDA, you know that, right?”, said Jess, dryly.

 

“From me? I am his wife. We tell each other everything.”, Maeva couldn’t believe what she was hearing and Jess sounded so unfriendly suddenly.

 

“I am not talking about my NDA with Sky, but the one with the movie production. I can’t say anything right now. I will get back to you when I can.”, Jess hung up, leaving Maeva in utter dismay.

 

Maeva went back to her rocking chair and picked up her phone. She didn’t like to search the celebrities’ rumors but that is exactly what she felt might give her some clue of what was happening. Browsing the web, Maeva didn’t find much. Maybe she wasn’t searching for the right thing. She has typed the name of the movie, Sky’s name, the director’s. Nothing. She watched the news on the biggest channels, scrolled through the celebrity medias. Nothing. She then tried the specific location’s where Sky was filming. Still nothing. She decided to call Joe. He might have heard something she hadn’t. She called twice. She got the voicemail, both times. Nothing else she could do. Sky don’t start doing this to me now that I am pregnant please?, she thought. He had always been trustworthy, always on time, always kept in touch. What was happening?

 

 

She had gone to bed worried, but calm, trying to keep her trust in him as she always did. Something was happening but she would have to wait. The next day, she decided she would immerse herself in her writing. She asked Yvonne for a coffee carafe, fruits and some scones and went up in Sky’s office, hers when he wasn’t around. The window gave out on the gardens and some shrubs. She served herself coffee and started writing as if there was no tomorrow. As a writer for some years now, she understood that she needed to be immersed in the story and that you needed to feel compelled to want to write the story for it to be interesting. Without the protagonist being your replica, you had to become it, a little like character acting she assumed. You needed to be able to navigate between the fictional world you were creating and your reality, the life you were living. Writers needed emotional strength and a strange quality of inhabiting good or immoral characters without it changing their own being. Maeva thought about like living a dream, not in the sense of it being a wish but more so, of moving through another parallel world.

 

Telling a story that appeared in your mind with its colors and mysteries was quite enticing; writing a script from your novel made it more mechanical and less fluid. Writing a script for a novel you didn’t write, was pure hard work. That is exactly what she was doing right now. Working. She had read the book. A good story. She met with the director to better understand his vision. And, she had to meet with the actors about how they saw their characters. In this case, the proper process had not been followed. She had met with the director but was yet to meet with the actors. She had decided to start the work anyway and adjust once she could meet with them. She worked for a good part of the day, her thoughts straying to Sky too often. Yvonne brought her a sandwich as a late lunch and she was eating at her desk when the phone rang. She answered.

 

“Maeva. Joe. Sorry I didn’t return your call sooner. I did some calls.”, he was too apologetic. He had been hesitant to call, she was sure. He must know something about his brother’s whereabouts.

 

“Where is Sky?”, she asked calmly.

 

“The studio buildings and all the movies’ in production are in lockdown.”, Joe spurted out.

 

“What does that mean?”, she asked, suspicious.

 

“That’s all I could get Maeva, I swear.”, Joe sounded defeated. “I have never heard this terminology used in the movie business before. I do not know what to think.”, he continued. Maeva was confused. Lockdown? A lockdown is usually temporary.

 

“For how long?”, she asked.

 

“I have no idea. It is the strangest thing. I called Sky’s lawyer. He says he is under NDA. So is Jess. I told the lawyer I also had an NDS with Sky. He said he knew that but, his NDA was with…”. Maeva cut him off.

 

“With the studio!”, she said.

 

“Exactly. I am worried. Some kind of bad accident, a malevolent act, a very serious complaint, or something of the sort. But what? And does it implicate Sky? It must. They must have taken all communication modes from him. Otherwise, he would have called.”, Sky sounded anxious.

 

“His lawyer knew so, it probably does have to do with Sky.”, Maeva was always the logical thinker. “Did anything like this ever happen with Sky? I don’t know everything about him.”.

 

“Maeva, what do you want from? More search? Or what”, Joe asked exasperated.

 

“I thought my question was clear? Did anything like this ever happen?”, she repeated.

 

“I won’t discuss this on the phone.”, answered Joe. Maeva understood that it did. She stayed on the phone while trying to think of what to do next.

 

“Maeva, let’s wait this out. Sky will contact us as soon as he can, I am certain of that.”, he was now trying to calm the storm he felt coming.

 

“Joe, I am married to Sky. I have a right to know what is happening now and what has happened before.”, she said quite sternly.

 

“I understand that and I agree, but not now, not with your condition.”, he pleaded. Had he known Maeva better, he would have never said those words.

 

“What about my “condition”? What condition? Being pregnant is not “a” condition. I am not ill. And it certainly will not keep me from finding Sky.”, said Maeva, getting frustrated.

 

“OK, I think I better go to you. I promise we will have a talk. OK? Ask Yvonne to get a room ready for me, OK?”.

 

“OK.”, she hung up. “Yvonne? Can we have a room ready for Joe, please?”. Yvonne was right in front of her and had heard the last few words of the conversation.

 

 

“Yes, Mrs. Maeva.”, she hesitated as she didn’t want Maeva to think she was eavesdropping. “Is everything OK?”, she asked.

 

 

“No Yvonne, everything is not OK.”, Maeva looked at Yvonne and both women felt a storm was brewing.

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Joe was there by the end of the day. Maeva had time to decompress and felt calmer even though, there was still no news of Sky. Yvonne had prepared a late-night snack for them and left saying she would be back early morning the next day. They ate in silence. Maeva was waiting for him to start talking. The longer he took to start, the more anxious she got. She knew Sky was no alter boy but was afraid of what Joe would divulge.

 

“OK. Maeva, what do you wish to know?”, Joe got up and brought both hid plate and Maeva’s to the dishwasher.

 

“I want to know if Sky was ever in trouble before and if so, what happened.”, she walked over to the living room and sat comfortably on her couch with her legs stretched out. Joe took the side recliner.

 

“We never really brought this topic up but, you surely noticed Sky is special. I don’t mean in terms of his popularity or his talent, here. He is different.”, Joe stopped and looked at her.

 

“What do you mean? I am not grasping your thought here. Just be clear.”, Maeva wasn’t really getting what he was trying to say.

 

“Ok. This is going way back. My parents never said anything to my sister or I. I was the eldest and Sky was the middle child, always quiet, always seemed to play alone in a corner and always with the same toy; a yellow truck. Also, he didn’t talk until he was at least 4 years old. I do remember they took him to the doctor but we, children, never found out if anything was wrong with him. Let’s say, all children, including us, found him strange. No one wanted to interact with him. By the time, he entered elementary school, he was talking. I remember that well. Alle of us were in public school then. By second grade, my parents decided to send me to boarding school. Sky stayed behind as well as my sister. I clearly remember hearing my parents discuss during my return home for the summer break that Sky would also be joining the boarding school and that he had to undergo some testing first. I was old enough by then to assume he would not be accepted because of his developmental delays. I was wrong. In the fall, he was in my class, same grade as me. I didn’t ask any questions as in my family, those things were grown-up things. As the days went by, it became obvious my brother was far more intelligent than anyone of us in that class. He was quick to answer and seemed to know most of the academic teachings before they were taught. The only problem; he cried himself to sleep every night as he missed his mama and his home. I tried to help him. The only thing that got him to stop crying was food. Any kind of food. All through boarding school, up to the time he left, he never had any friends. Even more bizarre, he didn’t seem to need them. He had his nose in books or in the labs; computer and science. In the junior years, he jumped grade twice in one year. He ended up graduating before me. Can you grasp that? And I wasn’t a dumb kid. I was in the top 5 in terms of overall results.”, he stopped, got up to get some water. He signed towards Maeva and she nodded from side to side.

 

“I always suspected Sky was on the spectrum, but mostly that he was Asperger.”, she said calmly. “It showed in all his hobbies. The way he knew everything about everything. But he is also very childlike, very innocent on an emotional level.”.

 

“So, you knew. Pfff… You are absolutely right on. This lack of emotional maturity is the cause of most of the trouble he got into. And boy, did he ever get into trouble. For a public persona, it is even worse. The first sign of trouble was when he decided to pursue an acting career. He got the bite after doing a play in school. He left for Hollywood, California with a friend of his also wanting to become a movie star. My parents did everything they could think of to stop him, promised him a car, his own flat in London, a trip around the world for a gap year before continuing to Uni. Nothing deterred him. He was not yet 18 years old and he still wanted to leave to become famous in Hollywood. I always thought it was the influence of his friend who was chosen by a famous director to play in a movie. Sky thought it should have been him. He was so envious, he kept talking about it. It became compulsive with him. And so, he left.", Joe seemed frustrated by the story and Maeva did not fully understand why.

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"Well, he was determined to become a star. He made it.", she tried to show that there was nothing abnormal about this. He looked at her, lowered his eyes.

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"I know you love him. So do I. He is my brother. There are just things he does on impulse and, I had had to pick up the pieces more time than I care to.", he was rubbing his forehead.

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"What do you mean? Pick up what pieces?", she asked, curious.

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"Has he told you, everything?, he asked.

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"Everything?", she asked back perplexed.

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"Well, things that happened on movie sets, girlfriends, and so on.", he said.

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"I think he wanted to as he alluded there were certain things he wanted to tell me, but he never got around to it.", she was now wondering what this was about.

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"There are things you should know. Sky was always attracted by younger girls. Always had sex with his leading ladies. Whatever the age. So, yeah, I had to negotiate, I am Sky's fixer you see? Did you know I was a lawyer? Was...Still am but I am not practicing. Sky pays me well.", he breathed in sharply.

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"I did not know that.", Maeva said frowning. "So what happened with the women he slept with the you needed to intervene for?, she asked again.

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" Some, it was a question of paying them off and having them sign an NDA, others, I simply had to tell them the truth, that he didn't care about them and they had to leave. The biggest problem was with an underage girl who got pregnant.", Maeva reacted to that.

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"She had an abortion, don't worry. But the girl was distraught and fully in love with him. They both had their career to think of. The girl was on her way to becoming a huge star. I won't say more as you might recognize her.", he looked down.

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"Ok, Joe, I get your point. This was all before Sky and I. I would have preferred to hear it from him, but now I know. The outcome is the same.", she answered firmly.

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"Well, I am worried. He hasn't called me, Jess either. There is nothing being said through the grapevine and I can feel there is something bad going on.", He layed his head back on the recliner and put the footing up.

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"What is your grave vine?", she asked, curious.

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"I should have received phone calls from different specific people who are usually the first to find out these things.", just as he said this his phone rang. He answered quickly.

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"Joe here. OK. Who can I contact? When? I am close by, should I go meet with him? Yea, that's good. See you there.", he hung up with a smile. 'OK. We have some news. The location is in fact, in lockdown. No one in, no one out. All means of communications were confiscated. I have to meet someone and I will know more.", Joe took his coat from the entrance pegs, but his boots on. "I will call you as soon as I know more, OK?"., and he left without waiting for an answer. Maeva heard the door slam shut. She breathes out in relief and put a hand on her swollen belly. 'Your daddy will soon be here, I hope, little one.", she smiled hesitantly.

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