SECRETS OF THE PAST
Chapter Two

Frank awoke near his beautiful Angelina. He had heard the alarm go off, and he went to take a shower. Angelina awoke when he got out. He loved his wife more than he ever had any of the other girls that he had met during his travels.

"Frank William Abagnale, how dare you not wake me up." She punched him in the shoulder.

"Angelina, please. Angel, you needed the sleep." He rubbed his arm.

"Thank you, darling." She stepped up to him and kissed him on the lips. Then, she went to get her clothes and shower as well.

By 7:30, they were out the door and on their way to the company.

F.W. Abagnale Stationers was very successful. It had the best quality products, and there was a chain of them around the world. They had gotten their biggest deal when Frank had invented a special watermark paper invisible to the eye on checks. Frank had called them security checks. Not even the smartest thief would be able to reproduce them. They had a special dye that was very rare. Not many companies used it, but Frank knew it was the only way to make the best checks around.

With his expertise and his experience, he had thought about it for many years. He had wondered if any of the tellers had ever noticed that the checks were phony. Surprisingly not. He had always had their attention on him and not the check, and that was his trademark. Razzle and dazzle them with his appearance and never the phony, worthless paper they held in their hands.

Frank had never finished high school. During his free time, he studied for his GED. He went to adult school at night after doing his duty in the office--kiss his wife good-bye and go to school.

Angelina was surprised that a man like Frank had never graduated from high school. He was the smartest man she had ever known. Not many men in her life had the talent he had. He had always dealt with the other heads of the companies they had been in contact with. With his style and his knowledge of things, he was the greatest asset to the business.

Frank parked the car and they headed to their office, preparing to get ready for the meeting they had with Atlantic. Atlantic was a new company that was in Canada, coming out with new ideas and new, quality stock paper that was the best, and Frank wanted to get his hands on something like that, so he would buy them out if the product was worthy before anyone else did.

Frank and Angelina walked into their office.

"Ah…Mr. and Mrs. Abagnale. I have some messages for you, and Atlantic called. Their flight was delayed one hour, so they should be here by nine o‘clock." The receptionist handed over the messages to Mrs. Abagnale.

"Thank you, Anita," Angie said.

Frank and Angelina walked into their office. They had an adjoining office, so they went over the itinerary for the meeting--questions they were prepared to ask, and what prices they were willing to pay.

Frank sat there, reading the reports and charts that the company had sent him. Angelina was busy studying her husband, and she wondered what he was thinking, other than the obvious.

"Angelina?" he called.

She had been so mesmerized by the thought of him that she hadn't heard him calling her.

She broke out of the trance.

"Yes?" She looked at him.

"Where were you just then?" he called over to her.

"Somewhere else, I guess." She wasn't ready to tell him what she had found out this morning.

"Uh-huh." He smiled at her.

She walked over to his desk and sat upon it.

"Frank, I wanna ask you a question." She was curious.

"All right. What do you have on that beautiful mind of yours?" He put one leg over the other and slouched in his chair.

"Well, you know, I don't know if you know this, but I was thinking--since you have had that dream of becoming a pilot, why don't you learn how to fly?" She wanted to tell him her secret, but decided to wait.

"Well, I guess I could. The only thing is, I hate heights." He really did.

"Little Frank scared of heights?" She toyed with his hair.

"Yes, Angelina, and you are afraid of spiders." He got up off the chair, taking her into a passionate embrace.

"Yes, I am." She kissed him.

"So, now that we have cleared up what we fear, why don't we talk about something else?" Frank asked, deciding this was the right time to tell her his secret.

"Sure. Let's talk about secrets," Angelina said.

"Secrets?" He thought it was a coincidence that she mentioned that.

"I will tell you one of mine, and you tell me one of yours." She let him go.

Frank knew that this was the right time to tell her. If he didn't say anything now, he never would.

"I will go first," he told her. "Angie, what I am about to tell you has been kept a secret as long as…well…since forever. But I need to tell you this. Despite all that you know about me, please understand," he pleaded with her.

"All right." She nodded her head.

"I, Frank William Abagnale, was also known as Frank Williams, Frank Taylor, Robert Conrad, and Robert Monjo. I was an impersonator, Angelina. After about seven years of portraying a doctor, a lawyer, an airline pilot, and other people, I was a fraud. I cashed over two point one million dollars in check fraud. I was also known as what they called the James Bond of the Sky," he revealed wondering if she was taking it all in.

"You're that Frank?" Angelina remembered that name in a newspaper a few years ago.

"Yes, Angelina." He looked into her eyes.

"So, Frank William Abagnale is your real name, and when I saw you on the plane when we first met, you were playing a pilot." She couldn't believe she had been so dumb.

"Yes, I was. Do you hate me, Angie?" he asked her.

"No, Frank, I don't. It's just shocking, but not surprising. So, how come you're not in jail?" She walked over and sat in his chair.

"Because I helped the FBI. To this day, I still am under national security. They gave me a reduced sentence if I helped them. They helped me." He stood up and paced the room.

"So I married a fraud? A con man?" Things didn't settle well in Angelina's mind. She had thought she had married the perfect man, but now she knew there was no such thing.

"Angie, I didn't mean to keep this from you. I really didn't." He realized that she had the same look as Rosalie.

"It's okay. Frank, that was your past. Now your future is with me, and that's all that counts." She decided to let everything in the past stay in the past. He was different now.

He hugged her.

Anita came into the office.

"Excuse me, but Atlantic is here," she announced.

"All right, Anita," Frank told her.

"We will talk more at home, Frank." Angelina let him go and went to the conference room.

"Yes, Angie, we will," he whispered.

Frank went about his business, wondering how she felt about what he had just told her. Sometimes things have a way of coming up when you least expect it, he thought to himself.

Frank went to the conference room. He saw a familiar face.

"Frank Abagnale. Long time no see," said a pretty blond.

"Rosalie?" He was in shock. He hadn't seen her in years.

"Yes, Frank. It is me." She went up to him.

"But how?" He wondered how she had found him.

"Frank, we have all the time to catch up. I would like you to meet your son, Frank, Jr." She grabbed the little boy by his hand.

This was all coming out to be a bad dream for Frank. Never had it occurred to him that he would meet someone from his past, especially Rosalie Connors.

"Oh, Rosalie, this is my wife, Angelina." He took Angie's hand, bringing her over.

"Nice to meet you." She shook Angelina's hand.

"Angelina, this is Rosalie Connors, the girl who wasn't faithful to me," he said, sitting down.

"You're talking about being faithful, Frank? When you lied to me, I had no idea what to do. When you told me your secret…that's why I called the cops. I was scared." She remembered it all like yesterday.

"You betrayed me, Rosalie. We were going to get married, for Christ's sake!" He was angry.

Angelina left during their little conversation. Frank followed.

"Angie, are you okay?" He turned her around to face him.

"Yes, Frank. I am okay. I just need some air. I will be at home when you are done talking with her." Angelina could not believe any of this.

"All right. I will see you, Angie. I love you." She walked out, and didn't respond.

He went back to the office.

"What's this about, Rosalie?" He stormed into the office and closed the door behind him.

"It's about your son, Frank. I can't take care of him any longer." Rosalie looked at Frank. He was still as handsome as ever.

"What? Do you need money?" He thought she wanted that.

"No. I want you to take your son, Frank." She wanted to leave him with his son so he could get acquainted with him.

The little boy went over to his father.

"Okay, Frank, Mommy is gonna leave. You're gonna stay with Daddy for a while," Rosalie told Frank Jr.

"All right, Mom. See you." Little Frank was glad to finally be with his father. He hated his mother. She had married a rotten man who never played with him, and she never paid any attention to him at all.

Rosalie left, and Frank was all alone with little Frankie.

"Well, Frank, I am Frank, your father. You can come home with me." Frank felt totally weird. He had never expected to have a son.

"Sure," said Frankie.

*****

He took the little boy home with him. They walked inside. Angelina was nowhere to be seen.

Frankie took his game out of the little backpack he held and started playing.

"Will you be all right here?" Frank asked.

"Just peachy, Dad," Frank said, not taking his eyes off his game.

He went to find Angie. She was lying in bed, crying.

"Angelina?" He got her up and held her. "You know I love you more than anything. That’s the truth."

"Yes, I do know that, Frank. It was all just way too much." She got up, wiping her tears.

"I understand. Um…Angie, we have a guest. Remember Frank? He's gonna be staying with us," he told her, hoping she would be all right with that.

"All right. I will make us dinner and we can all be like a family." She got up to prepare dinner.

Angelina couldn't bear to tell Frank that she was pregnant with his baby. That was why she was crying. She had taken the pregnancy test and it had came out positive this morning.

She started to cook, and then went to the bathroom to throw up.

A few minutes later, she came in to tell Frank to order dinner.

They ordered pizza.

Frank gave his son a slice.

"Thank you, Dad." Frank was happy.

Frank wasn't use to being called Dad now that he was a dad.

Angie start watching the movie Kate and Leopold.

She started crying.

"Angie, what's wrong?" Frank asked.

"She loves him and he loves her. They belong together." She wiped her nose.

"Aw, honey, don't cry. It's only a movie," he comforted her.

"I know, but darling, I have something to tell you." She decided it was now or never.

"Well, what is it?" Nothing would astonish him now.

"I'm pregnant," she said, looking for a response from him.

"We are gonna have a baby?" he asked.

"Yes. Frank, you're a father." She smiled at him.

Frank thought about being a father. Now he was the father of two children, Frankie, Jr. and Angelina's unborn child. He had learned that he had made a mess of things by leaving Rosalie with a baby he had no idea about. He thought about what had happened over the past, and wondered if there were anymore surprises that awaited him in the future. Were there any more Franks out there that were possibly his?

He had been with a lot of women, and he had slept with a few of them. Only time would tell if there were more or not.

*****

He researched over the following weeks through the hall of records to see if there were any more Frank Abagnales around the world. He had found five out of the fifty states, and called each one.

"Hello, this is Frank Williams. Is there a Miss Molly Saunders there?" Frank asked.

"Yes. I am Molly Saunders," the lady answered on the phone.

"Do you know a Frank Williams who was an airline pilot for Pan Am?" he asked.

"No, sorry. No, I don't." The lady was confused.

"All right. Thanks, Molly. Sorry to bother you," Frank said, hanging up.

"Quite all right, sir." She hung up.

He called the next four, and none of them knew who he was.

He gave a sigh a relief that he did not have anymore secret children around.

"Daddy?" Frank came into his office.

"Yes, Frank? What is it?" He turned around, startled.

"Can we go to Disneyland?" He had seen the commercial on television.

"Sure. Maybe tomorrow." Frank didn't have any meetings, since Atlantic was a phony company.

"Cool! Thanks, Dad!" Frank was happy.

Frank checked on Angelina.

"Angie, where are you?" he called out.

"Here, Frank, watching One Life to Live. Frank, do you think you could make me some popcorn?" she asked him.

"Sure, Angie." He went to get a pan and made it the old-fashioned way.

Frank Abagnale's life had changed in seconds, and Christmas was coming in less than a week. At the Abagnale residence, he had his share of surprises, and Frank had been given enough gifts to last a lifetime.

Chapter Three
Stories