 |
| Matthew & Filipe in Gregory’s office |
Early morning sunshine glistened on the sea reflecting into the sky like diamonds gathering in clusters on the white caps of the ocean’s surface. The sky was clear blue in tone and had clusters of rouge autumn rain clouds floating above the village of Welshport village that was bustling.
In town, Constable Gregory Reigns went over the Lord/Evans case with his new deputy Filipe Braga who came into the office looking tired and warn out.
“Long night?” Reigns asked pouring him a cup of coffee.
Filipe shook his head and took the coffee into his thick hand gripping it as if it held a rejuvenating elixir that would bring him back to life. “Too long.” Filipe said still uncertain of what happened between Sebastian and himself.
“I’ve looked at the files and I’ve come to two possible suspects that may have taken it upon themselves to take out Jacob Lord.” Reigns said plopping a file on the desk in front of Filipe.
“Down to two so soon?” Filipe asked.
“I work fast, Deputy Braga, I don’t have time for a murderess to roam free on this island.” Reigns said.
As Filipe reached for the file Mathew Winterborn entered the office.
“Constable?”
“Mr. Winterborn good morning, what can I do for you?” Reigns asked.
“I have this slip for you to sign off on. Hope Hospital and the coroner’s office requested my fleet’s assistance in transporting a coffin to Philadelphia but they won’t let me go unless you’re ok with it but…” Matthew explained before finishing his sentence when being interrupted by a surprised Filipe.
“Coffin?”
Matthew looked over to Gregory Reigns to answer.
“It’s Evans, he was killed last night in the park. The same person who shot Jacob shot Evans."
"My god!" Filipe exclaimed.
"We’ve released the body to his family in Philadelphia and It’s to be accompanied by a nurse to meet them at the docks for a proper burial.” Reigns replied.
“That’s what I was getting at.” Matthew began again. “This nurse that was to accompany my fleet; never showed. We were told she took the body herself to the family and the hospital let her. So I wont be needing your signature.” Matthew explained.
“She just took Christian? Just like that?” Filipe wondered.
“The coroner said she was qualified, I don’t know. I didn’t ask questions.” Matthew replied.
“Well it doesn’t matter now as long as he's in the right hands and that he gets to is family." Reigns answered negligently. "Im pretty sure I have enough evidence to at least whittle it down to just those two people in the file as the killers. I wont need Christian’s body any longer.” Reigns said.
“You’re already that close?” Matthew asked as Reigns nodded his head yes.
Filipe turned his focus back to the file and opened it. The words on the page made his stomach drop and his heart seemed to stop for a second when he reread the second name on the page CELESTE DeVIANA.
“This is wrong. You can’t really believe Celeste is responsible for this? Why? Why would she?” Filipe asked.
“My First instinct was Rebecca. From what I've heard they've had a contentious history even if they are mother and son, she has seemed quite frustrated with his antics for years. Other witnesses say they saw a woman matching Celeste’s leaving Tirymôr around 11pm soon after Jacob’s outburst and attack on Evie. She also had motive.” Reigns said.
“Witnesses? What witnesses? And what motive?” Filipe wondered.
“Mr. Winterborn, thank you for letting me know about the transport but we’ll be discussing this case and its all quite classified, Ill have to ask you to leave.” Reigns said even though one of his suspects had already been divulged.
Matthew nodded and smiled then looked over at Filipe who’s face had fear all over it.
“For what its worth, Filipe, I think she was trying do us all a favor with Jacob.” Matthew said before leaving.
Filipe waited for Matthew to leave then threw the file at his new boss Reigns.
“I took this job as your deputy Gregory because I thought I could help you get to know the town and have people begin go trust this department again, but now you’re just going after red herrings.” Filipe scolded.
“There's more to Celeste than you know! I told you she had motive.” Reigns said.
“What motive could she possible have? She was with me last night." Filipe replied.
"All night?" Reigns asked.
Filipe knew there was the window of time before she came home from Tirymor but said nothing.
"Well, what about the second person? Rebecca. Why have you decided she isnt the real culprit?” Filipe asked angrily.
“Because when I compiled the list of suspects I got all their alibis and they were all accounted for including Rebecca.” Reigns said.
"This just doesn't seem real." Filipe said putting his hand to his forehead.
“Rebecca spent the better part of the night with Charlotte in Tirymôr’s chapel praying, you know as well as anyone hoe devout she is. Practically a nun. And if you think Charlotte could have done it you’re crazier that Christian ended up.” He added.
“This makes no sense. Why! Why would Celeste do this? Filipe wondered. “What possible motive could she have? He gave her a job and Christian was her friend from childhood.”
“Again son, there's a lot to your love Celeste and her family’s ties to the Lords that you should ask her before we arrest her.” Reigns said.
“Arrest???” Filipe exclaimed. Gregory only lifter a brow unemotionally.
Filipe felt like someone had gut punched him. The woman he loved more than anything was now in the crosshairs of the village law department and it wasn’t a simple crime: a murder and an attempted murder would put Celeste in prison for life.
“She would never hurt anyone. Definitely not Christian and not even Jacob. She just wouldn’t. This is wrong Gregory, all wrong. I would put my own life on it that this is a mistake.” Filipe said.
“There were witnesses who saw her leave the mansion at 11. Timed out she would have had plenty of time to find Jacob in the park, shoot him, then shoot Christian for witnessing. Witnesses saw a figure they believe was a woman in dark clothes leaving the scene. She could have easily committed the crime and made it back to your house right after being that Village Park is on the way to your home. She had a lot riding on Jacob not surviving. He knew something about her family that he was most likely holding over her head. We have records that show this. Records that Jacob has taken from the hall of justice just weeks before that I assume he showed her to give her an idea of what he knew and how much he knew.” Reigns explained.
“What could he know that was so horrible that would make her do it this?” Filipe asked.
“Her mother’s past with Albert Lord may be something to look into.” Reigns hinted.
Reigns patted Filipe on the back to comfort him and excused himself to a different room where a secretary had called him into to discuss something a citizen had come in to complain about in town.
It could not be true. Filipe did not want to believe the woman he loved so much was capable of killing anyone much less her friend Christian; and the attempted murder or her boss Jacob was just even more out of the question. But her behavior had been strange since the killings happened. He noticed how off she seemed especially when he found her writing to her brother John in the middle of the night.
He thought of the baby inside of her. He thought perhaps she was somehow protecting the coming baby some how, if indeed she did this crime.
Filipe sat in the office alone and poured over the evidence file again and again. The mysterious circumstance of Albert Lord & Celeste’s mother Cristina had been redacted in the tike. Gregory, for his part, had already investigated the missing part of the redactions. But still most of the so called proof was circumstantial, in Filipe’s opinion, with vague witness accounts and no hard locked in pieces to pin the crime on Celeste.
Never the less Gregory Reigns was out to arrest her and put this crime behind him to show the community he was harder that his predecessor on crime.
And what of the child? She could not go to jail, Filipe thought, while pregnant, and no one even knew she was having a child--from what Filipe thought.
Celeste's loving partner then got up from the desk and left the file open on the table and snuck out of the constable’s office without being seen. If anyone was going to confront Celeste as the criminal Filipe knew her not to be, it was going to br him.
He was going to be the one to get to the truth.
When Reigns came back in he saw Filipe gone. He smiled to himself seeing his little trap had worker. He grabbed his keys and shackles and headed out to follow Filipe— the trap was to hand Celeste confess to the man she loved and trusted and who she’d thought would protect him only for Reigns to suddenly appear and take her away after the confession.
Reigns had tricked Filipe to get to Celeste, a wolf in sleep’s clothing.
****
 |
| Aurora Ashby-Jordan |
A large passenger cruiser on route from Liverpool, England had docked in the middle of the Atlantic for a cargo pick up in the Azores Islands. There, they not only pick up extra passengers but also exchange precious cargo that would be going from the island to mainland US.
One specific passenger on board who came from England stood on the bow of the ship. She listened to the other smaller ships whale their foghorns in the distance as they embarked on their own journeys into the great blue mysterious sea. She watched as the busy port of the small Portuguese island bustled with activity as her ship's crew moved large crates on and off the ship.
She removed her soft hat and let her long light brown hair flow in the salty air. She could taste the salt on her lips, she could feel the cool breeze kiss her skin. She felt free. She felt, finally, a sense of relief that she had made it this far.
A few hours later, as the large English carrier finally raised anchor and set off for the rest of the journey to America, the woman once again made it to the edge of the bow and stood there with her hair flowing in the wild wind over the Atlantic. She smiled and smelled the wet air as it once again whistled breathy sea-shanties into her ears.
The sun was beginning to set over the horizon. The orange and pink sky glowed in her green eyes. She reached down into a small brown satchel that she had brought with her to the bow from her cabin and removed a silver and gold urn. On the urn were the initials R.C.J. for Robert Calvin Jordan, Evie and Nikolas' father.
The woman was their mother Aurora Mason-Jordan, freshly widowed and headed to meet up with her two children.
Aurora took a deep breath, the wild wind still spinning all around her getting more and more powerful as the ship got further and further away from their last stop.
Once she felt safe enough, Aurora opened the lid of the urn and tipped it over, emptying all of Robert's ashes into the sea.
"There my sweet. You're free too." Aurora said. As she watched the ashes fly into the wind and land scattered on the ocean's surface. "And one day," Aurora added "you can forgive me for what I did."
Aurora was headed to Welshport to reunite with her children alone in hopes that all her secrets and skeletons would say in London forever.
****
 |
| Sebastian & Evie at Lockwood Thicket |
The crows circled a large patch of birch trees mixed with thick giant noble fir trees in the Westernridge Woods within the Tirymôr Forest. Lockwood thicket, the former cabin owned by Rebecca's family the Lockwoods, was a warm cozy place where Sebastian and Evie could be alone away from the prying eyes of the Lord family.
The cabin soon became a place for Sebastian’s solitude and safety; he wanted to be nowhere else but in the small secluded cabin where he and Evie finally reconnected after he freed her from Windcliff Sanitarium.
On this night, the two were together again, locked arm in arm embracing on the small bed by a roaring fire just after they had shared dinner. They were so much in love. Their souls tied together at their wedding despite the tragedy that had unfolded when Mary shot Sebastian and despite Evie having a brief relationship with Christian while Sebastian was presumed dead.
All of that history finally had seemed like a long terrible dream they had woken up from. But in truth it was just a precursor to dramas and nightmares to come.
"Dr. Kim came to the mansion the other day. He was on his way out of town, off the island and off to places he wouldn't come back from." Evie said as her head lay on Sebastian's bare chest.
"Kim? He came to see you?" Sebastian asked somewhat surprised.
"Well, not to see me specifically, to see your grandmother. But she wasn't home so I took his call. He came to give her flowers. He thought Jacob had been killed." Evie explained.
Sebastian seemed annoyed.
"He was only there for a moment, really." Evie continued. "He's a very tortured individual. He told me about his past and all of the things that made him who he was. It was quite sad."
"Tortured? How can a torturer be tortured? His callousness was what kept you locked away in that hospital!" Sebastian reminded her.
"But he didn't want to keep me there." Evie replied.
Sebastian turned his head downward to look at Evie. Something inside of him suddenly began to burn just as hot as the fire in the fireplace. It was as if he was hearing Evie's voice for the first time, and what she was saying was shocking to him.
"You're not saying that you don't blame Andrew Kim for what he did to you, do you?" Sebastian asked, his voice clearly expressing irritation with her quick way of forgiveness.
She lifted her head from his chest and looked him in the eyes "I'm saying that I see now why he did what he did. He didn't have a choice." Evie explained to Sebastian as his face became frozen with frustration and visible anger.
"BUT HE DID!" Sebastian replied in a loud voice. "He did have a choice, Evie, and that choice was to help Jacob keep us apart!"
"Sebastian--" Evie began to say just as Sebastian interrupted her and lifted her off of him and he got up from the bed to look at her directly in the eyes.
"Evie, he's a cruel person. He only wanted to keep you there so that he could continue to get paid by uncle Jacob! Jacob was paying him to keep you there, I though you understood this!" Sebastian shouted.
"I did Sebastian, and I do, but that doesn't mean that his story and his life should have been used against him the way Jacob did. Andrew was just as much a victim of Jacob's as you and I were! He was a pawn in the whole scheme and what's worse is Andrew felt he had no choice but to do what he did." Evie said, revealing in words that she had basically forgiven the doctor for his twisted deeds.
"He should have been destroyed. I should have ripped his throat out just like I did that orderly." Sebastian said in a growl.
"Orderly??" Evie asked not knowing Sebastian had killed a man in the hospital who had caught him entering the night he saved her
Sebastian didn't say a word.
"Did you hurt someone at Windcliff?"
He said nothing again.
"Answer me!!" She shouted.
"I had to. He saw me and Georgina in the halls and was about to call security. I had to make sure he didn't ruin my plan to get you back." Sebastian replied.
"So you killed him? There was no other way? You just decided that ending his life was the best action to take??" Evie replied outraged.
"You don't understand..." Sebastian began as Evie got off the bed and grabbed her clothes.
"Oh! I don't understand why you would kill a man instead of just, I don't know, locking him in a closet perhaps, but YOU don't understand how I can forgive a person for their misgivings. Tell me Sebastian, should the same rule of thought be granted to you? Should I not forgive you for killing someone just as I shouldn't forgive Andrew Kim for being forced to keep me in that same hospital? Its hypocrisy!" She replied as she put on her coat and began to make her way to the door just as Sebastian grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Evie!" Sebastian shouted, she screamed with pain as her arm was locked in his grip.
When she turned back around, his fangs were out, his eyes were black, his mouth was watering. His anger towards her, this argument they were having caused him to switch to his dark side holding her in his super-human grip.
She gasped at his appearance. "You're.. you're hurting me." she said softly.
"You are NOT leaving!" She growled.
"Let go of me Sebastian!" She scolded.
Her voice, angry and strong pierced his mind. He suddenly saw what he was doing with the eyes and mind of his non-monster side. He quickly released her from his tight grasp. She began to rub her arm hoping the pain would subside.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" He said falling back on to the bed sitting and facing her, his glistening bare torso sweaty with anxiety sparkled in the fire.
"I don't know what that was, but I never want to see it again. You have to promise me you will never be like that again." She said sitting on a chair directly across from where sat on the bed.
"I don't know how it happens. Sometimes when I feel angry or when I'm scared my mind goes black and all I can think of is hurting someone or ... I don't know, I don't know where it comes from." He said.
She thought about his words. They stung. They felt like he was not able to control himself even with her in the room. He frightened her to her core. She took a deep breath and slowly got up from the chair and came closer to him one step and at time almost as if she were afraid he'd lunge at her.
She knelt down next to him, she put her hands on his knees and looked at him with an innocence that made him begin to weep. He started to run his fingers through her long light brown hair that went all the way down her back. He was shaking. The fire still burned and brightened the sweat droplets on his body.
"Even with me, you can get that way? Even with me, someone who loves you so much unconditionally, you can become like that? How? What can we do to fix it?" She asked as she rested her head on his knees.
"I don't know." He said through sniffles.
"We have to find out because I don't see how I can make it through with you if .... if you try and hurt me." She replied.
He moved her head from his knees and knelt own on the floor with her. He enter-clasped his hands with hers and pulled her close and kissed her passionately on the lips after gazing into her sweet eyes for a split second. "I would never hurt, I swear to god almighty, that I Sebastian Lord would never ever hurt you." He said with true sincerity.
"But you already did. You grabbed my arm and hurt me. Had I fought you back, what would have happened? Would you have killed me?" She asked worried about the answer.
"NO! Never! I wouldn't even think of that." He replied.
Evie smiled but she wasn't sure if that was true. On a small conversation about a person he did not like, Sebastian exploded and let his darkness overtake him. He became a creature that she did not recognize as the man she love. Inside her heart she knew what he was, she understood all the dangers that could come along taking him in as her husband again no matter what he really was, but at the same time she always thought there would be never a chance he would do something to her, the woman he loved just as much, the woman he found trapped in a mental hospital and saved her---she believed with all her heart he would not do it.
Before he actually did.
Her arm was still throbbing from Sebastian's powerful grab. His eyes, even though they had returned to their typical look of two pools of ocean blue, still had a streak of sadness and darkness that were abnormal for a person his age. A person who had nothing to hide a person who lived in both day and night.
Sebastian was not that person. Although young in looks, his heart had aged to match the centuries of history he was now apart of, his face although handsome yet, had also twinges a man who lived a life no one could ever imagine.
"I want you to think about tonight." Evie said. "Think about what could have happened had you not come out of that trans and released me. Think about that." She added.
"I know, I know what it seemed like and how awful that must of felt, but I promise you my love, I will never ever do it again." Sebastian said placing his hands around her beautiful head.
In that moment, although her stomach was still in knots and her arm was still sore, she believed him. Not because love was blind, not because she was naïve, not because she wanted to think the best of him just as she thought the best of Andrew Kim--- but because she felt it in her heart that had he wanted to hurt her, he would have done so weeks ago.
She looked at him and smiled, this time a real smile. She leaned in and they kissed and let the fire in the fireplace warm their two bodies as they began to make love again.
As they lay there, at the foot of the bed, naked after making love once more and the fur blankets kept their skin warm from the cold night air, Evie stared at the ceiling while Sebastian slept.
She thought about what had happened. She ran it over and over in her mind: Sebastian's monstrous face that looked as if he were about to kill her, his large hand wrapped around her upper arm so tight it left a red mark for a second. She thought about how he was two people now, this beautiful kind person who adored her and would protect her forever, and the monster that lived inside of him thanks to Eliza's spell.
Then she thought about what her brother Nikolas said to her just a few days before, how something on this island of Welshport just wasn't right. Something, made Nik think there was some kind of strange evil living on the island and that it felt as if to Nik that it was growing out of control.
Then Evie turned to the sleeping Sebastian and wondered, Was he the evil Nik was feeling growing out of control? He had certainly showed it.
And it scared her to her core.
****
 |
| Welshport Hope Hospital |
As the evening went on, Welshport Hope Hospital had quieted after another day of healing and helping those from the village in need. Holding vigil next to Jacob Lord's ailing body that had been pierced by two red hot bullets from an assailant's gun was his mother Rebecca, daughter Charlotte, and Rebecca's personal maid Georgina.
Rebecca skillfully knitted a thick black scarf as Jacob's sleeping body lay in the bed. Charlotte quietly read from a little prayer book that she was given at her first communion, and Georgina sat in her chair nervously fidgeting with her fingers.
After all, Georgina was really Jacob's ex Mary Goode hiding in Georgina's body that kept her safe from prosecution for the shooting of Sebastian Lord.
Mary's clever disguise, thanks to a spell by her Eliz's spell, had kept her safe from the law and Jacob's continued wrath but he still made her nervous.
Georgina's stomach was in knots being so close to Jacob this way. If he awoke, would he know who she really was after all this time. So far she felt that he didn't know she was really Mary--but stranger things had happened.
"You're all still here?" Dr. Peter Ward said entering Jacob's room to check on him.
"I wouldn't leave him." Rebecca said, her material words not matching her cold tone. "Why hasn't he woken up yet Peter, it's been almost a week?"
Dr. Ward shrugged, "He lost a lot of blood Rebecca. The body needs to recoup and regenerate a lot of the blood that he lost. I am confident that in a few more days as the medicine we've given him wears off and the wounds we worked on in the operating room continue to heal he'll be alert and back to his regular self."
 |
| Rebecca & Dr. Ward |
His regular self was what the three women worried about.
They all flashed back to his drunk outburst the night he attacked Evie with a knife and attempted to leave with her when Sebastian arrived shocking everyone and they all remembered how he jumped through the French doors of the drawing room; bursting through glass and wood, all to get away from the truths that were being told about his evil ways. That "regular self" was what they feared, worried about and why all their stomachs now were all twisting and turning with anxiety.
"Is there something that we can give him, medicine of some sort, that will keep him relaxed even after he leaves the hospital?" Rebecca wondered.
"You want to sedate him?" Dr. Ward asked in surprise.
"I don't know the exact word, but I think we all know how unruly Jacob can be and if he needs something to take to keep him calm while he heals at home, I think it would be a good idea." Rebecca added as Georgina and Charlotte looked on.
"That's sedation." Dr. Ward shot back slightly irritated by her request. "I can't imagine you want to keep him drugged do you? I wouldn't recommend that. Its not a natural way for the body to hear. I can give him something for the pain in moderation but that's as far as I think we should go."
"I don't know if that would suffice." Rebecca replied with an eye brow lift realizing Jacob was better off asleep than awake, at least until they could figure out what other deeds of his were yet to uncover.
"Why would you want to keep him in this state?" Ward wondered. "You know we found glass and shards of wood in his wounds. There was no glass in the park where he was shot, Constable Reigns told me that much, so I wonder, did something happen at him at home before he got to the park?"
"A family matter that got out of hand." Rebecca replied as she replaced her knitting materials into a small leather back next to her then handed it over to her maid Georgina.
"Rebecca, whatever happened at Tirymôr isn't actually my business--" Ward began before being interrupted by Rebecca who agreed, it wasn't his business "but, if we should be worried about anyone's safety at the mansion, now is the time we should know."
"We? Who is we?" Rebecca asked.
"Me, as chief medical here at the hospital and in the village I have an obligation to make sure all our patients and all their needs are taken care of. That goes for their physical well being... and their mental well being." Ward said, hinting that perhaps Jacob's mental state should also be looked at.
"Peter, thank you but right now all I want to know is if there is something you can give him to keep him...." Rebecca said before Jacob suddenly started to stir.
"Daddy?" Charlotte said out loud causing Rebecca and Peter to notice him awakening too.
"Jacob? Jacob... this is Dr. Ward....can you hear me?" Ward asked checking the man's vitals. "Jacob, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand."
Charlotte got up from her chair dropped her book and rushed over to her father's bedside. Inside of her Sabrina Lord's spirt hoped Jacob, the man who killed her, would not wake up --- ever. It was a true battle inside of Charlotte who wanted her father to pay for his sins but also was a little 10 year old girl who just wanted a father -- period.
"Daddy, wake up! Wake up daddy!" Charlotte said softly petting the back of Jacob's hand.
"Charlotte, honey, come away from there. Let Dr. Ward check him over." Georgina said pulling her daughter back from Jacob's bed side.
Peter Ward continued to check over Jacob, listening to his heart beat that felt strong. Listening to his breathing that also felt strong. None of those vitals had changed. He lifted the lid of his right eye then his life eye and the pupils were working correctly contracting and expanding with the entrance of the dim light of the hospital bed.
Then, he started to mumble and opened his eyes on his own.
"Jacob...." Rebecca said softy.
He mumbled a word that resembled mother as Ward called for a nurse to telephone over to the Constable's home and call him up to Hope Hospital.
"Jacob, you were shot. You've been in the hospital for a while now, try to stir too much because your wounds are healing." Ward explained to Jacob.
Jacob continued to attempt to speak.
"Save that now," Ward said as he looked over to the three women who seemed nervous and uncomfortable with Jacob's sudden revival. "Save what you have to say for Constable Reigns."
"Do you think he wants to tell us who shot him?" Georgina asked.
"I want him to save whatever he wants to tell us for Reigns." Ward repeated sternly as it was clearly evidence for the crime of Jacob's attempted murder and the murder of Christian Evans.
"I think we should see what he knows." Rebecca said surprising Peter Ward.
"Rebecca!" Peter exclaimed. " We have to wait for Reigns. Jacob is a witness to his own crime, we have to preserve that knowledge."
Then Jacob, rebuffing everything that was happening around him opened his mouth.
"W h a a t..... happ.... ened? What Happened?" He asked to everyone's shock.
"Jacob--- stop." Ward replied.
"You don't remember????" Rebecca asked in shock.
Jacob shook his head no.
"I don't know." Jacob replied. "What ... happ----ened?" He asked again.
"You were shot. You were shot Jacob, do you remember who did it?" Georgina asked to Peter and now Rebecca's furious facial expressions.
"Shot?" Jacob murmured. "I --shot?"
"That's right. You were shot. If you remember anything Jacob, please wait for Constable Reigns to come so you can tell him what you know and they can arrest the person that did this to you and Christian." Ward replied.
"I.... don.... I don't remember. Anything." Jacob said stunning everyone in the room.
The memory of that night, the shooter's identity--- was gone.
Frustrated with the women for pushing Jacob into that mind space so soon after waking from his brief coma, Dr. Peter Ward cleared the hospital room so that he could examine Jacob in private. The three women were ushered into a small waiting room painted light green with plenty of plants setting a calming mood for families. The two large windows overlooked the village below the hill that the hospital stood on.
Rebecca stared out of the window into the dark village of Welshport with her arms crossed wondering what was going to happen next and if Jacob's lack of memory would be temporary or perhaps better for everyone permanent.
Sitting alone while Georgina went for coffee, Charlotte's mind was a buzz with Sabrina's ghostly thoughts.
"This could be a blessing, my sweet Charlotte. This could change everything." Sabrina's voice said echoing in Charlotte's mind.
"How?" Charlotte replied in her mind back to the ghost living inside of her.
"If your father is truly lacking the memory of what happened to him, perhaps he's forgotten much more. Perhaps, now, we can retrain his evil mind to good.... we wouldn't have to hurt him. We could actually save him!" Sabrina said enthusiastically.
"And maybe even he will be a better daddy!! To me and to the baby Celeste will have!" Charlotte said noting she was aware of Celeste's so far secret baby.
"That's right! This is a window of opportunity that we should not miss--- we can make him a better person, much better now that he's a clean slate." Sabrina said again.
Charlotte smiled at the idea that her father was finally going to be a good man, or at least that was her hope. It was the silver lining she had always wished would come from such a dark part of her life.
Dr. Ward finished his examination and went off into another room where he'd gather a few things to finish up cleaning Jacob's healing bullet wounds.
As he lay there, staring out of the window of his hospital room into the dark night, Georgina walked in.
She looked him, seemingly in a peaceful quiet mindset. It was as if Jacob had been saved from all the evil he had done. But inside of her, her mind being Mary's, she did not believe it. He had caused so much pain in her life, had forced her to find a way to live in another person's body to hide from him and the crime she committed for him.
She wanted him dead.
Georgina walked over to him and he turned to her and smiled.
"Thank you for being here." He said kindly.
She did not say a word.
"Thank you for watching over my child. I only wish I could be there for her instead being in this bed. I'm sure she was scared." He added.
She just stared at him. He had no idea she was really his Ex Mary. He had no idea of what he had done to her. To his daughter. To Sabrina. To Evie. To Sebastian. He had no idea. None.
He was truly a clean slate.
Georgina then forced a smile at him and un-balled her fists and said "Of course sir."
He smiled at her and reached for her hand and squeezed it.
"Everything is going to be ok, I really hope so." He said to her feeling happy that he could speak again.
Georgina felt the warmth of his hand and she felt a twinge of sadness pop up in her. Why couldn't this handsome man, a man she fell in love with when she was in her own body, a man she had a child with, why did he have to go, why did he have to turn so cruel.
Was this truly a new page for Jacob? Was he now going to live his life out the best way possible?
Georgina excused herself as she had yet to bring back the coffee for Rebecca leaving Jacob in his bed alone. He stared out the window again ---
and smiled at his own reflection. Evilly.
