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She had taken away his mother and father before Alex even had a chance to know them. She had taken away his uncle too, right at the time when Alex needed him the most, leaving him on the cusp of manhood with no one to show him the way.
Did he hate her for it? He had tried to kill her once in this very room -- the sitting room of the spacious ninth-floor penthouse apartment in Clerkenwell. But that was when he didn't know the full story.
Not only the full story of his father's life and his death, but also her own story. Alex had seen the old photo of the boy and girl on that very first visit to her flat, but he had not known the cause of the dark cloud that had always hung over her. (Had Ian Rider ever known? Had she told Ian about her stolen little ones, just as Ian had told her about Alex?)
As Alex's gaze moved from that same old photo on the shelf to the present-day incarnations of the photo's subjects, who were now snugly ensconced on either side of Alex, he felt pity, love, and gratitude like never before towards the woman who had changed his life forever. Alex put an arm round William on his right and squeezed him a little, and gently carded the fingers of his left hand through Sofia's jet-black hair. The girl immediately turned to him with a smile and gave him a soft peck on the cheek, as her brother passed him the bowl of popcorn and squeezed him back affectionately, filling him with a warmth that Alex's younger self would never have hoped to feel. The former Nightshade children had grown so close to Alex over the past year that they could tell at the slightest touch, the briefest word, when Alex had something on his mind.
On the TV screen in front of them, Tom Cruise was scaling the Burj Khalifa. Sitting on Sofia's other side, Freddy made a timely, witty remark about how lame the suction gloves were compared to the self-aligning portable pulley system he himself had once used to climb the very same skyscraper, which made all four of them burst out laughing. At the sound of their laughter, Q, the Jones' Siamese cat, leapt into Alex's lap from nowhere and purred happily. Alex stroked Q's soft fur and breathed an inaudible sigh of peace and contentment. He was with his family at last.
Thanks to Mrs Jones, Alex would never know the joy of a relaxing night with with his mother, father and uncle all together. Thanks to Mrs Jones, he would never hear his father and uncle jokingly argue about which spy movie had the most inaccurate depictions of the real thing. Thanks to Mrs Jones, his mother would never make him a cup of hot chocolate before tucking him into bed with a kiss.
But thanks to Mrs Jones, Alex would know the delight of listening to William's deep, reassuring voice as William taught him the most advanced jiu-jitsu moves, taking care not to hurt a hair on Alex's head, and always ending each lesson by enfolding Alex in an affectionate bear hug. Thanks to Mrs Jones, Alex would bask in the comfort of Sofia's gentle touch as they lay on a beach in South France, sipping lemonade through the same straw and jabbering away in French as though they were locals. Thanks to Mrs Jones, Alex would be rolling with laughter upon seeing the "Handbook for Aspiring Actors" that Freddy himself wrote as a gift for Tom Harris (who was now Freddy's best mate too), complete with anecdotes from Freddy's extensive real-world experience with impersonation and disguises.
She had stolen John, Helen and Ian from him...but she had given them back to him in the form of William, Sofia and Freddy. And for that he would always love her.