She's No Beauty Queen

Mark didn't find her fourteen-year-old antics embarrassing at all. In his eyes, Lily had been a defender of justice. She didn't go around picking fights for no reason.

But he didn't get the chance to say any more because they had arrived in front of her house. It seemed a decent size though it was in one of the older and cheaper parts of town. She mentioned all of her siblings were adopted and couldn't help but be curious how many of them there were.

The moment they pulled up to the curb he didn't even get to say goodbye. When the door opened she was practically yanked out of the car into the arms of a short middle-aged Hispanic woman that had to be her mother.

"Mija! You look terrible! I thought you said they were taking good care of you?" she demanded.

"Mom, they thought I was someone else, remember? I was taking her medication and it kind of threw me off. I'm really fine but I have so much homework to do so please don't yell at me too much."

Her mother rolled her eyes. "You're getting the scolding of your life once your homework is done. Get inside! Everyone was worried sick about you. We still need to call the police station and let them know you're home safe and sound because a missing person report is out on you."

The woman didn't even acknowledge Mark's existence. She was too busy half-crushing her daughter to death as she dragged her inside. He barely managed to stifle a laugh.

With a dominant personality like that as her role model it was no wonder Lily turned out the way she had in high school. He didn't know enough about her now to tell what kind of person she had become.

He was surprised that he even wanted to. He had stayed away from women for a reason. It didn't matter though; he wouldn't be seeing her again now that their business had concluded. There was no reason to.

Mark texted his boss to ask if there was anything else he needed to do and was surprised to receive a summons back to the house. Normally he didn't make more than one trip out there a day but he was paid to do whatever Edward asked.

He looked every bit as soulless as he had when he left but at least the housekeeper had taken Aria out to play at a nearby park. There was no risk of being overheard as they discussed the problem of her missing mother.

"I called in pretending to be Angel's manager saying she was sick and in the hospital so she got out of her community service for the past few days," Edward began. "But that won't work forever. She has a full schedule of appearances next week.

"If she doesn't do her duties they might take her title back and she'll lose her chance to compete in Miss Americana. The oldest you can be to compete in it is 25. Considering if she misses her chance now she'll have to start all over from Miss Monterey County she'll only have one more shot at the big time.

"I promised that I would support her until she competed in Miss Americana. It's part of our deal. If she doesn't even make it to the competition that's another three years of her life and Aria's life gone.

"She wouldn't walk away from all of this. Something happened to her and I'm going to hire the best private investigators I can to figure out exactly what. But if they can't find her before next Tuesday she's going to be in trouble with the organizers," Edward finished dully.

He felt sorry for both of them for different reasons. Angel for getting roped into more than she bargained for and Edward for giving his rather guarded heart to someone that didn't return his feelings.

Romance never caused anything but trouble in his experience. Everyone who tried engaging in it always got hurt. In his eyes it wasn't worth it. Relationships always let you down. There were more concrete things to put your heart and soul into that wouldn't abandon you.

Mark's job was to fix his boss's problems but he didn't know how he could possibly fix this. They needed Angelica Dawson but she was missing.

A horrible, selfish thought struck him. They needed Angel and he had just dropped off a woman that they had previously thought was her. If even Edward could mistake Lily for the mother of his child there wasn't anyone on earth that wouldn't be fooled.

Lily was in school. She was obviously busy and had a lot to catch up on from the time she was missing. He doubted they could get her to cooperate based on that and the fact that she was far from the beauty queen type.

He had a hard time imagining her in a dress based on what he had seen in high school. She had been too rough and tumble to want to wear something that would restrict her in any way.

Even so…what if they could convince her? Mark knew she had a big heart and already felt sorry for Edward and Aria. There might be a way to talk her into it, especially if they offered some sort of incentive to make it worth her while.

She was a student living at home. She probably didn't have a lot of money. Maybe she had student loans that needed to be paid off. It was at least worth a shot to ask her, wasn't it?

"What about Lily?" Mark asked.

Edward's head snapped up. "Lily? You really think she would help us? She has no reason to. She was worried about how much homework she had to do, remember?"

"Yes but students also have student loans. Offering to pay them off for her might turn this in your favor. It isn't like it's a full-time job. She has a few things on nights and weekends but it isn't every day. This could work."