“Leila, truly, I did not mean…”
“It doesn’t matter what you mean or not, does it? It’s what you do!” She glared at him. There were tears of anger in her eyes.
She shook her head and instantly regained her resolve. “Promise me one thing,” she told him. “I want you to look me in the eyes and swear, Sylvain. Swear on your life, or on your sister’s, but certainly not on mine, because it’s obvious I’m not that important to you. But swear, Sylvain, swear that you will never lay a hand on our daughter the same way!”
Sylvain staggered back. The thought that he ever would… the mere fact that Leila would consider it…
He stepped to her. He picked her hand up and went to his knees.
“I swear it, Leila,” he said. He brought her hand, and his, to her stomach. “I swear it on everything that has or ever will be important to me. I swear it on my mother’s memory, on Bianca’s life, on my own. I will never, not ever, repeat the mistakes of my father. I will never hurt our child.”
She softened under his oath. She gave a tremulous smile.
“Good,” she whispered. “Because you… you scared me, just now.”
“Leila, I am so, so sorry.” He stood up. He brought her close. He held her to him, and, for the first time, he thought he could feel the presence of their child between them.
A little tendril of love flared up for the woman. An enormous, overpowering one flared for their child.
Sylvain framed Leila’s face. She really was beautiful. And could he begrudge her for spending extra time with his father? It’s not like Sylvain had been doing anything with her lately.
Leila was all alone. All alone, in an enormous, cold castle owned for generations by the Alastair men. Of course she would think of marriage. That would give her stability, at least, of a kind.
So he could not blame her for it. He understood.
He brushed her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. She smiled. He so wanted to kiss her. But…
No. There were no buts. There was no hesitation.
He moved his head down. He sealed his lips to hers.
She remained rigid, for a moment… but then melted into him.
They made love on the grand piano in the room.
Chapter Nineteen
The issue of marriage wasn’t brought up again in the days leading to Bianca’s return.
Leila set to preparing the castle—Bianca’s old rooms, in particular—for her arrival. Sylvain was determined to have his security system fully operational before she came. He spent every waking hour on it and worked well into the night, forgoing sleep to make sure everything was ready.
In the end, he’d made it with only hours to spare. The system came online around noon the same day Doctor Patterson was bringing Bianca home.
Sylvain had invited them both to a welcoming formal dinner. As a way for everybody to come together and understand what was happening and hopefully come to grips with the situation.
Sylvain also wanted his father and Leila to hear first-hand about Bianca’s progress. From the doctor himself. So they could all know what to expect.
Bianca and Doctor Patterson came to the door at seven. Sylvain, his father, and Leila had been sitting, waiting at the table in an uncomfortable, anticipatory silence for nearly an hour.
Sylvain went to open the door alone. He was taken aback when he saw Bianca.
She had filled out. Her cheeks were no longer so hollow. Her eyes weren’t haunted. She wore a beautiful navy dress and had her hair tied back with a ribbon that Sylvain had never seen her wear before.
She smiled and greeted him cordially. “Hello, Sylvain,” she said. Even her voice sounded different. She sounded… mature. More secure in herself. “It’s nice to see you.” She looked briefly to the doctor standing by her side.
He gave an almost imperceptible, affirmatory nod.
“I’ve missed you,” she told her brother.
Sylvain thought she would hug him… but instead, she put out her hand. His eyebrows went up, but he clasped it and shook.
She appeared delighted by that.
“Come in, then,” he said. “We’re all waiting for you.”
Bianca put her hands together in front of her waist. She gave a small smile and walked confidently inside.
Sylvain looked at the doctor. For the first time, he noticed his clothes. The man was wearing a formal suit of the highest cut.
Sylvain offered his hand. “She seems improved,” he noted.
Doctor Patterson agreed. “As I’ve said, we’ve made tremendous progress.”
Sylvain nodded and stepped aside to welcome the other man in.
They returned to the dining hall. Bianca was whispering excitedly with Leila. Another first: the two girls looked like they could be friends. Sylvain had never seen them interacting that way before.
Only his father had a dissatisfied expression on his face. He cast a suspicious look at Doctor Patterson but said not a word.
Sylvain and the Doctor sat down.
“So you bring my daughter back,” the old man suddenly spat. “What, I didn’t pay you enough to keep her at the institution? Did she cause too much trouble for you? You had to kick her out?”
Leila gasped, but Sylvain was not surprised. He looked straight away at Bianca.
Before, he was sure, something like that would quickly set her off.
But she astounded him by maintaining an utterly cool composure. She didn’t even flinch!
Fascinating.
Doctor Patterson cleared his throat. “Actually,” he began, “Bianca has made absolutely spectacular progress. Her recovery is almost complete. The woman you see before you now is sharp. She’s bright. And she’s absolutely stable.”
Bianca beamed under the praise.
“Not only that,” the doctor continued, “but she’s been an absolutely exemplary patient the entire time.” He looked at Sylvain. “The one quiet room treatment was the only lapse.”
Sylvain felt a sort of pride growing within him for his sister. He’d always hoped she had it in her… but so soon, and this fast?
It was astonishing.
“What drugs are you feeding her?” Sylvain’s father demanded. “Mood stabilizers, benzos, out with it, what is it? Because I will not have my only daughter a zombified, numb version of herself.”
“No drugs,” the doctor said plainly. “No ills, nothing to alter her mind or her brain chemistry in any way. Bianca truly is, for the first time ever, perhaps, her own independent woman.”
“And…” Sylvain lowered his voice. “What about the…” he looked at his sister, who had a curious expression on her face, “…the demons?”
“Gone,” Doctor Patterson announced. “Completely eliminated. Her return here was the final test. And…” he turned his head to her and took her hand. Sylvain tensed—that was an unusual gesture.
The doctor squeezed it, then let go. Sylvain relaxed.
“She is perfect so far.”
“Father,” Bianca addressed him directly. “If I may speak?”
Sylvain’s eyebrows went up. He’d never heard his sister adopt such a formal tone before.
Their father appeared equally surprised. He gestured in a circular motion with his hand for her to go on.
“Thank you,” she said. She looked around the table and made eye contact with everybody once. Sylvain had never seen her manner so direct.
“I know,” she began, “that you were just doing what you considered good for me. Everything that I’ve—” she hesitated for a brief moment, “—everything that I’ve suffered through, at your hands, I believe there was a direct reason for. And because of that, I do not hold it against you. I forgive you, but I will not allow it to happen again.”
Sylvain nearly gaped.
“Sylvain,” Bianca continued. Was this truly his sister speaking? “I know that you care for me. And I am deeply, deeply sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.” This felt like a rehearsed speech. “I hope that in tim
e, you will be able to forgive me.”
Sylvain shook his head. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
The words came almost in a daze.
Bianca turned to Leila. “And Leila,” she said, “For a very long time, I’ve considered you a friend. I did not know how to express that feeling at first. And I still don’t, not really, but I hope that you will realize that our friendship was always there… and hope that we might rekindle it in the future.”
Leila was just as taken aback as Sylvain and his father. Doctor Patterson was the only one at the table who did not look surprised.
“Of course, sweetie,” Leila said.
Bianca smiled. “Thank you all. Now, the doctor and I have an announcement to make.”
Sylvain’s hackles rose.
Bianca reached over and took the doctor’s hand. She smiled at him. He smiled back.
“We,” she said grandly, “have fallen in love.”
Sylvain choked on his food.
Chapter Twenty
The room exploded in a chorus of noise.
Sylvain’s father started yelling. “Preposterous, preposterous, an outrage!” he repeated. Over and over, on and on and on…
Sylvain surged up. His body trembled with rage. “Connor,” he addressed the doctor by his first name. He kept his voice calm and steady. It did not reflect the torrent of emotions raging underneath. “Is this true?”
Doctor Patterson looked Sylvain straight in the eyes and had the nerve to look pleased.
“It is,” he told him.
Sylvain lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “Get out.”
“What?”
“Get,” Sylvain repeated. The tenor of his voice made even his father stop and take notice. “Out of my home. Now.”
The doctor started to speak…
“I SAID NOW!” Sylvain yelled.
Bianca gasped. Doctor Patterson bolted up. “This isn’t how I anticipated this unfolding…”
Sylvain strode around the table and was on the man faster than he thought possible. “You’re a monster,” he snarled in his face. “Preying on the innocent. Turning my sister into your fucking fantasy. You—” he stabbed a finger into the other man’s chest. It was much better than the alternative, that Sylvain only just managed to fight down: a full-out haymaker, breaking the guy’s jaw, “—are sick.”
“Sylvain,” Bianca said. “No—”
“Don’t touch me!” Sylvain roared, when her hand went to his forearm.
She jumped back.
“Well?” Sylvain glared at the doctor. “What are you still doing here? I told you to get the fuck out.”
“I’m going to get my shotgun,” Sylvain’s father announced.
For once, the two Alastair men were on the same page.
“This—this is just a misunderstanding,” the doctor began. “Bianca and I—”
“Are through,” Sylvain said. He could not believe he’d abandoned his sister to such a psychopath. “You will never see her again. And have no doubt: you will pay for what you’ve done. Now get out!”
The doctor jumped at the final command. “This isn’t over,” he promised. He looked at Bianca. “I’ll come back for you.”
“No,” Sylvain said. “You will not.”
Bianca had tears in her eyes.
Sylvain pointed to the door. “Go. Now.”
Doctor Patterson took one more look around and left the room.
Only when he was gone did Sylvain consider the others present. He looked at his sister. He softened his tone, reigned in his rage, bade down his intensity…
“Did he ever hurt you?” he asked.
Bianca looked at him in complete disbelief.
Then she flung her napkin in his face.
“I hate you!” she screamed, and ran out the room.
Leila started to follow. Sylvain put a hand on her shoulder. “No,” he said. “Wait. Let her go.” He realized his father was missing. “Where—”
The elder Alastair waltzed in, cocking his shotgun over one shoulder.
“Oh Christ,” Sylvain muttered. “Father, we don’t need that.”
“Hah!” the old man barked. “If that scum ever shows his face on my property again…”
Leila was staring, wide-eyed. Her gaze went from Sylvain to his father and back.
“Put that away,” Sylvain said. He looked at the future mother of his child. “You’re frightening her.”
His father grumbled, but consented. The gun disappeared beneath the table.
For a time the room remained eerily quiet. The only sound Sylvain could hear was the beating of his heart.
“I’m going for a drive,” he announced suddenly. “I need to clear my head.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Sylvain drove through the winding roads leading away from the castle. He drove fast; he dared not think.
Thinking could get him in trouble. When his rage was uncontained, it could get people hurt.
And now, he had only the thinnest tendril of control over it. He’d left his sister in the hands of a monster—why didn’t he see it before? All the fucking signs were there. All the—
Sylvain cut off with a growl. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t consider, he couldn’t reflect.
Not now. Not so soon. The emotions were too fresh. They were too strong.
So he continued driving, speeding along the tiny back-country roads. He did not care where he was going so long as it wasn’t there.
He could not stand to be in the castle.
At some point he saw lights up ahead. He realized he was nearing the village. Of course—the roads led nowhere else.
He could not see himself spending the night at the estate. So he turned into town and parked outside the inn.
He walked inside. Unlike his initial visit, the bartender made no pretense at congeniality. The two men had already met and resolved the issues between them, when Sylvain had Leila’s family over for dinner.
He saw Sylvain was in no mood to talk.
“A room,” Sylvain said curtly. “And a bottle of Johnny Walker. I’ll be gone by the morning.”
The bartender frowned but made no comment. He took a key from the wall, pulled out the liquor bottle Sylvain asked for, and laid both onto the bar.
“I know you’re credit’s good,” he said.
Sylvain snorted, amused. He carelessly took a wad of bills from his wallet and threw them down.
“For this night, for before, and for anything in the future,” he said. “That should more than cover it.”
Without waiting for a reply, Sylvain picked up his belongings and went upstairs.
There, for the first time since before his prison sentence, he drank until he blacked out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sylvain woke the next morning with a blistering headache.
He groaned and looked about the room. He could hardly remember what brought him there…
Oh. He saw the empty liquor bottle at his bedside table. Right.
He pushed himself up. He ran a hand through his hair. He cupped that hand in front of his mouth and breathed into it, then sniffed to judge his breath.
Oh yeah. It still smelled of booze.
He squinted through the sunlight. The room swam, ever-so-slightly. He was not yet fit to drive.
But he went back to his car anyway, ignoring the stares, and retrieved his laptop from the back.
He opened it and set up in his room.
He pulled up the portal that gave him remote access to the security system that had come online yesterday.
One by one, in little square boxes all over his screen, the camera feed came to life.
That earned a grin. This was all live, and he was seeing it for the first time.
But he wasn’t there just to snoop for the hell of it. What, and who, would he see? His father, doing whatever he does with his time, in one of the castle main rooms? No, that didn’t matter. Besides, the bulk of the cameras were in public locations. There we
re none in Sylvain’s bedchamber, in his father’s tower, in the private study, for example.
He could install them later, if need be. But the cameras were the least important part of the system.
The scramblers and interceptors held that honor.
Still, Sylvain rewound the tape to the previous night. He started to play it right after Bianca’s little announcement.
He watched proceedings impassively. He’d been there, he’d lived it. He had little interest in repeating them now.
What did interest him, however, was making sure that Doctor Patterson had actually left the castle without any detours.
Sylvain played the recording and watched the doctor walk out the dining room. In the hall, where he must have been certain he was alone, he started shaking his head, muttering to himself, making flamboyant, angry gestures with his hands…
But he did walk straight out. He got in the car he’d come in and drove away.
Sylvain was sure that was not the last he would see of the man.
But he was equally certain that it was the last Bianca would see of him. If he had any say in it, at least.
He turned the cameras off and steepled his hands in front of his face. Doctor Patterson had betrayed his trust. Worse, he’d preyed on his sister. To make her believe that she had fallen in love?
It was, as his father had said, preposterous.
Sylvain would get back at him. The scheme he’d set up to frame the accountant who landed him in prison would pale in comparison to his vengeance here.
A sudden intercepted text message popped up on the screen.
Sylvain bent closer. He frowned. It came from Leila’s number. It was sent to his father. It said:
Just found out Sylvain’s at my uncle’s. We need to talk. About—you know.
What the hell? Sylvain wondered.
He pulled up the data logs, but that was the first message his system had caught since becoming operational.
He went back to the cameras. He found Leila soon enough.
She was pacing the entrance hall, casting anxious looks around her, keeping one eye on the door leading out to the front….
Looking for me? He wondered.
That nasty, dark, ink blot of a suspicion started to rise up again.
The Alastair Affair 4: Sylvain Page 7
