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| Trouble brews in the Tirymor Green Drawing room |
The Green painted drawing room was brightly lit with the long similarly colored drapes drawn to let in the late morning sun. The scent of white roses filled the room. Eight large bouquets had been brought in from the village for Aurora's return after she gave birth and supposedly lost the child two nights before at Gregory's house in town in a still birth.
At least that's what Gregory wanted Aurora and her family to believe.
In reality, he and Asha had the child taken and adopted out to Filipe and Mary so that Aurora could have a clean slate, erasing her devastating connection to Caspian Casador — the villainous father of the child.
For her part, Aurora was still heartbroken no matter how many times Gregroy tried to tell her it was some sort of blessing in disguise -- a child's life had been lost, and Aurora still felt the sting any mother would feel after a baby's passing -- no matter who the father was.
Aurora sat regally on the olive-green sofa in a flowing dark dress that came up to her neck. Her daughter Evie sat closest to her, equally dressed in dark colors, holding her hand tightly. Aurora's son Nik also in the room stood near two large bouquets of white roses nervously fiddling with the button on his vest.
"It all happened so fast. I was just out of it and when I came to, she was gone." Aurora explained of the birth.
"We're just glad you're ok." Evie said squeezing her mother's hand. "And I'm glad Gregory was with you. He's been really kind in letting you stay there with him while you recuperated."
"He's been my savior." Aurora answered.
"Dr. Ward and Dr. Hoffman both have said you've experienced no complications, that's also good news. I guess in times like these we need to reach for any kind of good news we can." Nik replied now moving closer to his mother and sister by the sofa.
"We've certainly had our share of bad news, haven't we." Aurora said.
"I think enough for 10 lifetimes. But we're together, and I don't think any other family besides our own could get through what we have. We're resilient and I'm grateful for it." Evie added. "You've been here for us, mummy, and we'll be there for you."
Aurora squeezed her daughter's hand and smiled; a small tear came to her eye.
"I just wish we were with you for the funeral. Why didn't Greg tells us?" Nik wondered.
"He said it would have been too traumatic for me, Asha took the baby and she was able to give the child a proper burial. in truth, I don't know if I could have gone through something like that, not for a child." Aurora explained.
"She didn't tell me anything." Nik answered wondering why his girlfriend would have kept this from him.
"Maybe she wasn't able to? She's a doctor too she and mummy was her patient. She's not allowed to discuss patients is she? Especially if the patient is her boyfriend's mum?" Evie wondered.
"Maybe, but she could have at least given me some kind of clue. I don't know." Nik answered.
Nik, still spurn by Asha's past indiscretions of keeping things from him had always kept a suspicious eye on her, even though he loved her he would never allow himself to fall into blindness again. Asha kept the truth about the possibility that his former girlfriend was possibly alive somewhere and that reality that Asha was capable of being deceptive with what she said and did, never left him.
"It's all water under the bridge." Aurora said. "I want to just try and regroup and get us back on track. I have to do it, for me for the two of you... its important to me. The three of us have had too much to cry over, it's time for that part to end."
"I agree, too many shadows, its time for some light." Evie expressed.
As the Jordans discussed a happier future, Jacob, Celeste, Dr. Ward and Lear Lockwood entered the drawing room together. Celeste's face almost seemed as if she was about to throw up. She was pale, sweat drops formed on the tip of her button nose. She was a bundle of nerves.
"Dr. Ward, I didn't think we had an appointment." Aurora said, misunderstanding Dr. Ward's appearance at Tirymor.
But before he could speak, Jacob answered.
"Peter isn't here for you Aurora."
"Oh?" Aurora said annoyed with Jacob already--- as they both used Dr. Ward's first name. "Then what is Peter doing here?"
Then Gregory walked into the room, his face matched Celeste's. He was also dressed in his full constable uniform. Official duty only called for that.
"What's going on here?" Nik asked standing between the larger group and his mother and sister.
"We've come to hand these documents to Evie. It's official legal business." Lear said.
"And who are you?" Evie asked reaching for the documents but being intercepted by Nikolas.
"Lear Lockwood, Mrs. Lord, I'm the Lord family lawyer, my father was Rebecca's brother. I've been asked to come to Welshport on official business representing the family in this legal matter that affects you and your son." Lear explained.
"Jacob, what the hell is this?" Nik asked as he read through the forms in shock.
"It's time we take control of the situation at hand, Evie, this is for your own good." Jacob said.
"My own good? What are you talking about?" Evie asked taking the forms from Nik.
"Evangeline, we know that you've been struggling. We know that after Sebastian's death and then Matthew's death and of course your sons hearing loss that there have been times you've not been yourself and after the incident that Mr. Lord reported to us, well, we've all consulted each other and decided that this is perhaps the best thing for everyone. For the child's safety of course." Dr. Ward said.
"What incident? What is he talking about?" Aurora asked.
Evie read the papers, they were court orders for her to sign and turn over custody of Gabriel to Jacob and Celeste. They were also court order forcing into Churchill Green for medical observation because of her sleep walking spells, her powerful and dangerous waking dreams.
Evie did not answer Dr. Ward or Aurora.
"Evie? What's going on? Gregory?" Aurora asked again, both did not reply.
"Would you like to tell your mother what I found on the balcony of your room the other night Evangeline?" Jacob asked sinisterly.
"This is outrageous." Evie replied in a calm voice.
"It certainly is, my sister is not mad, Dr. Ward. You know this!" Nik exclaimed.
"Dr. Jordan," Dr. Ward began. "I am not here to make any assumptions on anyone. We just want everyone involved to get the help they need without any one getting hurt in the process."
"But Churchill Green?!" Nik exclaimed. "We know the type of patients that need care there and its not someone like Evie.”
"Really?" Jacob asked. "For months now your sister has been having these horrible dreams. These dreams that are tormenting her and having her do things that no one in their right mind would do.” Jacob turned. “Evie? I’ll ask you one more time: would you like to tell them about the balcony or should I?"
Evie rolled the documents into a tube and walked over to the very quiet Celeste, her one-time best friend.
"You can't do this, you know this is wrong Celeste. Say something! Tell them you know me and that I'm not insane and that my child does not belong to any one else but me." Evie said.
"Evie you almost jumped off of your balcony, you're not in the right mind space raise a child in need like Gabriel. We can get you help and we can take care of Gabriel while that happens." Celeste said as Aurora gasped at the revelation of what occurred on the balcony.
"Oh, Really Mrs. Lord? Is that what you really want, friend?!" Evie shouted back with a sarcastic chuckle. "For how long will you care for my baby? Huh? How long is this fraud going to last?"
"This is not fraud." Jacob answered.
"Gregory, say something, tell me you're here to stop this." Aurora asked of the man she loved.
"I'm here not as a friend to the family, I'm sorry, I'm here to make sure the papers are served to the parties involved in a legal and proper manner." He said sadly.
“Gregory.” Aurora said again, her voice stern with intent for him to see her surprise at his hesitation. “You know this is wrong, don’t do this.” She added.
Gregory sighed deeply. “I—I’m sorry, it’s my job.”
"Your job? To Take my sister away like she's some kind of criminal? She's not! She's been under terrible stress over the last few months, but she's fine!" Nik shouted. "Dr. Ward, stop this, you know Evie, you know she’s just dealing with things in her life and the dreams won’t last. She’ll get better!"
"I'm sorry." Dr. Ward replied. "I too have to comply with what the documents from the judge, I couldn't lie when they asked me my opinion."
“Opinion???” Evie explained.
“They asked me about your dreams. Celeste testified about something you told Father Ryan. I was asked my medical opinion about a situation like yours when presented with what Jacob saw and what Celeste heard. And— yes, psychologically you might be in personal danger which would then put your son in danger. Especially, Evie, if you’re sleeping walking dangerously on the ledge of a balcony.” Dr. Ward explained, his tone sounding deeply concerned with the new mother.
"No, this is... this is insane, I'm not insane, this whole thing is! I’ve had some bad dreams, I’ve sleepwalked but I would never ever ever put Gabriel in danger. He is my child and I love him. I would protect him with my life." Evie replied. "Neither of you are taking my child, is that understood? No one is." Evie said as she began to dark for the door.
As she did, Celeste grabbed her arm to pull her back, Evie's body swung back towards her friend Celeste.
There they were: two mother's staring at each other eye to eye and in a split second, like a reflect to protect herself, Evie raised her hand and landed it across Celeste's right cheek.
The sound of the flesh-on-flesh slap went out like a thunderclap in the quiet of the room to audible gasps.
Celeste's hand went up immediately holding her slapped cheek. Her Heart was beating in her chest so fast it felt like it was going to rip straight out of her body and on to the wood floor at the hem of her bronze dress.
"Sign the papers Evie." Jacob said stepping between his wife and Evie blocking any one else from getting slapped.
"You were supposed to be my friend, but this..." Evie said lifted the rolled-up documents in her hand. "This is betrayal. You've been going behind my back all this time to do this? To take my child? Why? Why would you do that?"
"Evie you don't understand, you're not well." Celeste said deflecting.
“I’d expect this from Jacob. But you? Never you.” Evie added.
Celeste shot Jacob a look, his eyes never left Evie. He stood there in his dark suit watching her crumble in his proverbial clutches. Slowly he was rebuilding his empire by snatching up family member by member; entrapping them in a legal web that would suffocate them legally the more that attempt to wiggle out.
He watched like a spider waiting out the last breath of the trapped fly waiting to strike and sink his fangs.
"Enough, everybody, enough!" Aurora said from the sofa. "Gregory, I demand you call this off. You know I as well as I do that all of this is ridiculous. Evie is not what these ... these... forms, these documents say she is. Enough already!"
Gregory didn't respond only looked over at the woman he loved with sadness knowing he had no power in the matter.
"Unfortunately, Mrs. Jordan, this is what is going to happen. The court has found that Evangeline is not well enough mentally to care for her child and even if she doesn't sign the forms, she will still be taken to Churchill Green for care and the child will remain under the protective custody of his great-uncle and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Lord." Lear explained. "It would be better that she signs the forms agreeing to the temporary custody so that when she does seek the child’s return, it will be seen that she complied with everything asked of her and that she worked on her part to better herself. It’s very simple, comply Evie and things will be better for you in the long run, resists and — well you’ll just make things worse."
"So this is temporary?" Nik asked.
"IT IS NOT HAPPENING!" Evie shouted again lunging towards Celeste who backed away. Gregory quickly grabbed Evie and pulled her back.
"It is." Jacob said.
"Evie..." Nik began but soon, the papers were thrown at Celeste's face by Evie.
Evie began to shout at her, rightly angry, and fight for her rights as a mother. But the deed was done. Jacob and Celeste had paid off a judge to sign off on the order to take Evie to the asylum and allow for the adoption. They had set themselves up as the caregivers of the child so that no one else would or could be in control of the child's shares of the company when he came of age.
The paperwork said "Temporary Custody" but the plan was written well enough and complicated enough for Evie that Temporary would never end.
Lear had created a legal web so tangled that Evie would almost certainly never be able to get her child back, and thus, never be able to claim any rights to the company Jacob was so callously taking control away from one family member at a time. First Rebecca, now Evie and Gabriel.
"Let's go, lets go." Greg said removing Evie as she got more and more aggressive.
"GREGORY!! Stop this!!!!" Aurora shouted.
But it was too late. the trap was laid out and Evie was a fly stuck to the spider's web.
As the room cleared and the chaos slowly but surly quieted, only Nik and Aurora were left in the wake of the whirlwind of what had happened. They could hear Evie arguing the whole way out of the house. Nik quickly snapped out of his trance and shock and rushed to follow Evie, as did Aurora even as Jacob blocked them from exiting the drawing room.
"You can't do this, Jacob you have to stop!" Nik said as they all stood at the door and watched Evie get placed into an awaiting ambulance headed for Churchill Green by two orderlies from the hospital.
"You'll do yourself a favor and stay out of this, and perhaps now is a good time for you and your mother to leave Tirymor. For Good." Jacob snarled back.
Evie stared out of the window of the ambulance and put both hands on the glass and pounded on it imagining herself bursting through and escaping. Celeste watched her old friend being taken away from the front steps.
Their eyes locked. Evie was furious at her. Celeste felt a twinge of guilt, but she had to do it. She had to secure her future and Fabian's future. Celeste mouthed "I'm sorry" to Evie as the ambulance rolled along the circle drive way.
But Evie only sent her daggers with her eyes.
She'd been there before, in a wagon headed for an asylum, but this felt different. This felt more dire. This felt more frightening because Evie did in reality feel a bit off, her dreams were frightening, the moment on the balcony was real, was dangerous, was deadly.
But she never felt in her wildest most horrifying dreams that Celeste would be part of something like this.
Now... the trap closed.
The spider had it's prey.
Evie was gone.
"Come." Jacob said as he looped Celeste's arm into his and they went back into the house with Lear.
Aurora and Nik were left stunned on the front steps at how everything happened; so fast, so devastating.
"How could let this happen?" Aurora asked Gregory as he emerged from the group going back into the house.
"There was nothing I could do, they had legal papers. As constable I had to comply and make sure that Evie was taken in safely and securely." The constable said.
Nik scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Jacob's been trying to rid himself of Evie since the day she came to this place, and you've just aided and abetted him."
"That's not true." Gregory told Nik. "I have a job to do. I can't allow my personal feelings intervene." he said, knowing full well he had done the exact opposite in the situation with Aurora and the baby he hid away.
"You have a duty to make sure the law is interpreted correctly; what Celeste and Jacob did here was not that!" Nik shouted back.
"Nikolas, listen to me, you read those documents. A judge signed off on them, they are legally binding, no matter what I feel and what I know about Evie is irrelevant. I had to be here to make sure she was taken in safely. You saw her reaction to Celeste; it could have gotten much uglier and that would have been worse for Evie." Gregory explained.
Aurora was silent. The cold air of the winter morning frosted over them all. She shivered; her hands trebled.
Gregory took off his coat and went to place it around Aurora's shoulders, but she shrugged it off, visibly angry at him.
"Aurora?" He said, not reading her emotions. correctly.
"You took one child from me, and now you take another." She replied. "Come Nikolas, we have to figure out a way to get our Evie free."
Nik bumped Gregory’s shoulder as he passed the Constable and re-entered Tirymor house.
As Aurora passed Gregory, her dark dress soaked up the melting snow on the slippery marble front stoop of the mansion.
“Aurora, please.” Gregory said reaching for Aurora’s elbow that jetted as she lifted the hem of her dress to keep from dragging in the icy snow.
She glared ant the man she thought she loved the man that supposedly helped her deliver a still born baby girl… her eyes a cold blue.
Gregory quickly released Aurora slowing her to go into the house silently. Gregory quickly realized that nothing in nature could out in the freeze Aurora’s angry eyes.
****
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| Churchill Green Asylum |
That afternoon, as the Lord family braced themselves for the fallout in the press of yet another family member's admission into Churchill Green Asylum, that very place on the grounds of the Welshport Hope Hospital seemed almost serene and calm.
The separate three-story building of the Asylum on the hospital campus was awash in the white fresh snow that feel earlier that morning and inside, the three long hallways on each floor were booked ended by two fireplaces with raging fire warming the white walls and bleached white tile floors that echoed the steps of busy burses.
It was a busy place.
In a room on the second floor with windows facing the sea, Rebecca and Caspian continued to reassess their friendship rekindling. They had, over the course of their time at Churchill Green, decided to end their war. It was a discussion they had over and over again, and what would it even matter if they were foes. They were both trapped where they were, in the same place and had nothing more to do than perhaps forgive their past indiscretions.
Forgive, yes.
Forget, no.
As the two sipped tea and traded stories on each other's recuperation: Mind/Body then Soul, Caspian discussed his ongoing sessions with Dr. Asha Hoffman in hopes that his skin graphs would soon look like normal skin and that he'd be able to walk more without the use of the wheelchair.
The exorcism was now long in his rear-view mirror and Caspian was setting his new life on track. Forgetting the fact that he was once trapped under the darkest most evil veil of the devil's control and power that anyone could ever experience was not something Caspian wanted to do, but he wanted to free himself of the stigma—and also get back to whomever he was before the devil usurped his life.
Rebecca too knew that feeling. She too had the stigma of what occurred when Caspian's possessed body controlled her mind body and soul.
This is where their worlds once again collided: in the healing process.
“Do you ever wonder about — the what ifs?” He asked.
“The what ifs?” She replied as if he lapsed into a different language.
“What if Albert had never died, what if you never had met me? Those things. Would we be here if… what if?”
“Caspian, there’s absolutely no need to play those games with your own mind, if you do, then maybe people will start to think you really belong here.” She explained poignantly.
He paused “what if my name wasn’t Caspian?”
She turned to him and tilted her hear unsure of how to reply… “I….”
“I was someone before all of this. I was someone.” Caspian said, finally showing a hint of the human that lived under the devil that took him over. “What happened to me?” Asked again to her silence.
As they spoke, loud voices, commotion came from under the window of Rebecca's room.
Rebecca shot Caspian a look, then she got up and peeped down through the glass.
"What is it?" Caspian asked.
Rebecca gasped, her old hand covered her mouth in shock.
"It's Evie. They've brought Evie here." Rebecca said.
Caspian sat back in his wheelchair, they were both frozen in shock.
"This, this is odd. Why would Evie be dragged into this place?" Caspian asked.
"I don't know, she...." Rebecca stopped herself before she spoke when the memories of what she and Jacob did to Evie after Sebastian's death. The lies they told, working together in tandem to make sure Evie stay at Windcliff Sanitarium on the mainland. For Rebecca it was a punishment of sorts for Evie moving on so quickly with Christian Evans. Jacob's motives were, of course, related to money and power.
"What is it?" Caspian asked, noticing Rebecca lost in those memories.
"It's just that, this has happened before, and I feel as if I'm watching history repeat itself. History that should have been avoided." She confessed.
"I see." Caspian said, swiveling his chair. "Has Evie always been unstable?" he added assuming Evie's history in asylums meant she needed to be there.
Rebecca inhaled deeply with guilt.
"Not exactly."
Caspian cocked his head confused.
"This has all the markings of my son Jacob. Evie..." Rebecca said pausing again to think "is a fine woman who's had a lot of challenges put upon her since the day she arrived here, really. And if you ask me she's met every single one of them and survived. Not many people could have survived what she has. I admire that. And, I admit that I didn't make things easy for her either when he first arrived and looking back, I should have done things differently. Evie doesn't belong here. At all." Rebecca explained.
"So why would Jacob do this?" Caspian wondered.
Rebecca sat back down, took a gulp from her tea. "Jacob's motives are always very much related to what he can and cannot control thats tied to the name Lord. He's always had this obsession with being the one and only, the most powerful of us all; to the point where he destroys relationships with his own family. I don't know where it comes from. He's just always been this way, always been different. David, my middle child, he was a giver. He'd give and give and give, and Jacob? Jacob was the taker."
"Where do you fit in all this?" Caspian replied.
Rebecca shook her head and shrugged. "I placated to Jacob. Allowed him to be this way. I enabled him, often and things got worse. They always get worse."
"You're a mother who’s experienced great loss." Caspian said attempting to sooth Rebecca's guilt. "Mother's like you try all kinds of various ways to help the children that are left behind in every way, it couldn’t have been easy for you either. It’s not all your fault."
Rebecca's brows went up. She was surprised to hear such clarity from a man who once lived with the devil inside him who only wanted to seek out and destroy rather than reach out and comfort. She was suddenly seeing the true side of the real Caspian, the man who became overtaken by the dark shadow spirit summoned by the witch Eliza Goode. Now that Caspian was free of the darkness, in turn so was Rebecca.
Together they were facing their inner demons there at Churchill Green with various forms of experimental psychotherapy forcing them to admit their awful mistakes born through the wickedness that over took them.
Together, in this asylum, a new friendship was brewing.
"Regardless of whose fault it was," Rebecca answered standing up now and going to her hospital room door. Her long pale dress shifting along the small furniture as she peeked out of the door to see if Evie was coming up to her floor. "It happened and I allowed it. But now… this …Evie here. It doesn’t make sense. There has to be more to this."
Caspian rolled his chair close to where Rebecca was, he noticed an untouched stack of unmarked documents in a leather-bound folder that was tied up with a leather strap. Rebecca continued to look out of her hospital door for any sign of Evie while Caspian unraveled the strap and looked through the forms.
"Did you read these?" Caspian asked his eyes darting back and fourth over what he saw.
Rebecca shrugged him off, still peeking down the hall for Evie "No, they were sent here a few weeks ago by the company lawyers. Its nothing. They always send me forms to just keep me abreast of what is going on in the day to day."
Caspian's voice lowered. "Rebecca, you need to read these."
She turned to him and saw his face was a still as stone. He had read what was couriered over to Rebecca for her to sign, although what was in the forms was already taking place without the need for her signature. The signature was a courtesy, to show that they were at east attempting to get her to see what was happening.
The papers were from the courts, from Lear Lockwood, her own nephew. They were the papers pulling all control from Rebecca of Lord Publishing. She was no longer the queen of her kingdom.
Jacob had usurped her weeks and weeks ago, and she was none the wiser.
Rebecca took the documents. She saw the letterhead of the Lear's law firm. Her stomach dropped. Lear hadn't contacted her at all in person but there it was all in black and white---written in the finest of legal jargon that Rebecca understood perfectly.
"That...that.... bastard!!" Rebecca shouted. "This is why I'm here! This is why Evie is here! How could he do this to me? How Celeste do this?? This can't be legal!"
"It's from your own legal counsel." Caspian said.
"I pay them good money to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen. Not to me. My brother's son knows better than to cross me and if his father taught him right he was smart enough to lay in a loop-hole here for his Aunt Rebecca to jump right through and catch Jacob at his own game." She said.
"But it's done! The dates on the forms are from weeks ago." Caspian said.
Rebecca smiled knowing that Jacob may have thought she was out for the count but as she stated before, that was always a mistake.
"Lear would never do this to me." She said again. "I'm going to read these over and over and over again and by the time I'm done, I'll find a way to get this company back in my hands. My son has underestimated me for the very last time." Rebecca said.
Caspian watched her go back to her chair with the stack of papers. She flipped the folder open and made sure not a word of anything in the forms wouldn't pass her eyes without her knowing exactly what it meant.
He then rolled over to her and grabbed her hand. He held it and their eyes locked.
"I think its' time we go back to Tirymor." Caspian said.
"Back to Tirymor?" She asked, he nodded. "Together?"
He nodded again.
They stared at each other like two teenagers suddenly in love. She felt his kindness, his true real kindness beam out from his heart. They were once adversaries, they were once affectionate friends.
And now he wanted to be her partner.
"Together." He said.
He slowly got up from his chair, shaking in his shoes. He helped her up from the chair where she read the forms and slowly placed a kiss with his burned lips on hers.
She stared at him after their lips parted. His eyes were the same but his skin, scarred from the flames he almost died in caused his to look grotesque, frightening. But in her mind, the burns scars, the frightening remnants of the exorcism melted away and once again his handsome face reappeared.
She could see his tan skin without scars. His warm brown eyes. His thick black hair just as it was when they first met.
Together, they'd find a way to make Jacob rue the day he ever thought it was a good idea to cross his mother Rebecca Lockwood-Lord.
****
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| The happy new foster parents, Filipe & Mary |
A new mother sat on a rocking chair in a quiet candle lit room staring down at the angelic looking baby boy in front of her. How she longed for the birth, her hopes and dreams had been so engrossed in the excitement of the coming new life that, when real life got in the way of those hopes and dreams, there was nothing left.
That's because this new mother rocking a baby to sleep was Mary Goode, and the child in her arms was a child she was given to foster and adopt because her own baby--a girl--died during birth after a vicious physical confrontation with the witch Jacqueline Gray.
Mary was happy that she was able to give the new child a home, a home that was already prepared to welcome a small little life like his, but it was bitter sweet for Mary. The child, although very adorable, didn't look like her, he didn't look like Filipe, her baby's father.
The child was sweet and looked up at Mary and her golden hair that shined in the candle light almost given her the look of having a halo. He looked up at her and seemed to not even notice that she wasn't his biologica mother. After all, even to this new born child, biology meant nothing when compared to who could give him love and protection.
Filipe and Mary, two very kind and hardworking people with human faults could do this for the little boy. Mary would do this too. Every minute she held him in her arms she felt closer to her own child that died. Her mind flashed back to Filipe telling her that as awful as it was to lose a child perhaps it was never meant to be, that it was meant for them to lose their baby girl and welcome home this new boy who needed a home.
"Are you alright?" Filipe asked as he quietly entered the baby's tiny room in the cottage. "Asha is here with the paperwork for the judge in Augusta." He added
Without lifting her eyes to meet Filipe Mary nodded her head. "I would hate for him to think he was taken in like lost puppy. I want him to feel loved forever. Always. Ours."
"He is ours. Not only because he came into our lives at the right moment but because these papers will make it so Mary, he'll be our son."
Mary smiled. "He needs a name."
"That he does. Did you have one in mind?" He asked stepping closer to Mary and the child.
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to name him after my father. I didn't have a long time with him, he died when I was very young. It was hard growing up with a mother like mine and without my father. All of the stories I heard of him before my parents moved to Welshport paint him as a good man, a kind man. My mother really loved him." Mary said.
"Of course." Filipe smiled.
Mary got up from the rocking chair, her body slowly folding up and allowing her dark tweed skirt to fall back down to the floor. Her wool shawl, a pale green, slipped from one shoulder as she walked over to Filipe who replaced the shawl and kissed her forehead.
"Caleb Zachary. That's what we'll call you. Our dear Caleb Zachary Braga." She said.
"Braga?” Filipe asked. “We're not married yet, you’re going to give him my last name?"
"You’re his father,” Mary said with a sparkle in her eye with assertion. “of course." She smiled back.
Filipe’s heart warmed.
In the front room, Ahsa Hoffman paced back and forth nervously. She worried that somehow Mary would figure out the baby was Aurora and Caspian's. She worried the man she loved, Nik, would discover that she helped Gregory with taking the baby, telling Aurora it was a girl, and that the girl didn't survive birth.
Asha's heart was beating faster and faster as she paced and as the anxiety built in her body. She could feel her pours open. She could feel tiny beads of sweat drip down her neck and down the collar of her dress.
"Asha, we've signed and named the baby." Filipe said, entering the room with his new little family.
Asha almost leaped out of her skin.
"OH! Oh, this is wonderful, congratulations! I'll take this to the courthouse right away so that a lawyer can look it over and once they sign on off on it they'll mail it out to the court in Augusta tomorrow morning. But I wouldn't worry about anything. You're both the new proud parents of a new baby boy.... baby..." Asha explained before looking at the baby's name on the documents "Caleb. Welcome home Caleb."
"He already looks at home." Mary said.
"This was truly the best thing for him. I can tell you right now, that the alternative would have been disastrous for him." Asha said.
"The alternative? What do you mean? You said his mother died and that he had no father, what was the alternative?" Mary asked.
"Oh! I just mean that, well, of course the alternative was being left a ward of the state and to live in an orphanage. You both came into Caleb's life at the perfect time." Asha said quickly recovering.
"And you're sure there is no father?" Mary asked again.
"No." Asha replied lying.
"No other family members?" Mary quizzed one more time.
Asha paused. Caleb's half siblings Evie and Nik popped into her mind. His birth-mother Aurora's face too, and even Caspian's face. But she lied again. "Not one."
Mary smiled and turned her head down to the baby "Welcome home, then indeed."
Asha felt the swift cooling effect of relief. Filipe held his family close and tried as best he could to focus on them and not the swirling words of his Aunt Fatima in his mind.
"Disaster." Fatima's voice said. "Dangerous." Filipe heard her again. "Darkness!!!!" Fatima's voice echoed again.
"Filipe." Mary said.
"DANGER" Fatima's voice echoed.
"Filipe?"
"DARKNESS!!!" The echo continued.
"FILIPE!" Mary shouted.
Filipe snapped out of his trans, "I'm sorry, I was just daydreaming of our new son." He said.
"Asha is leaving, would you walk her to the dock?" Mary said seeing Filipe slightly out of sorts after hearing his aunt's warnings over again in his mind.
"Of course, of course."
Filipe grabbed his winter coat and helped Asha Hoffman out into the windy snowing outdoors leaving Mary and baby Caleb alone together. She placed him in a small bassinette near the warm fire as she walked into the adjoining kitchen where she'd start to make some tea for herself and Filipe who'd need to warm his body after walking Asha outside.
As Mary made her tea, the little baby wiggled in his bassinette. He struggled to get comfortable, a chill swirled into with him making him cry. "I'll be right there!" Mary said to him.
As Mary fussed with the kettle of tea in the kitchen, baby Caleb's eyes flashed from his natural brown to a wicked red with a cat-eye pupil.
But before Mary could see this, the baby's eyes had returned to normal.
His supernatural side, inherited from the creature that fathered him and inhabited Caspian at the time of his conception, was already peeking through in a powerful debut.
And no one was the wiser.
****
 |
| Evie & her unwelcome visitor Celeste |
The following day, Celeste entered Churchill Green in a luxurious black and gold dress covered by a thick mink coat that shined in the lights that hung to golden fixtures on the marble hospital walls.
Her deep brown eyes peeked out from under a thin hat with the longest feather off a peacock's back as she scanned the lobby of the Asylum's ward for a nurse. Various patients that had been transferred from Windcliff Sanitarium on the mainland were scattered about the corners of the hospital. Most seemed coherent but there were a few that walked over to the well-dressed Celeste and petted her coat.
"Bunny." One woman in a purple dress said, her hair tattered from lack of sleep, her eyes sunken and dark. "Dead." She then said with a sick green that showed the decay of her teeth.
Celeste nervously smiled and removed the patient's hand from her arm and quickly rushed over to a nurse who came out of a patient's room.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a patient, Evangeline Jordan-Lord."
"This way."
The two made a quick walk down the hall passing open rooms where patients talked to themselves and sang to themselelves. There were some who were even tied to their beds, locked in their minds and in the bodies in world they could never describe to the doctor's that were treating their mental illnesses.
Celeste shuttered as she walked, the chill of the hospital air warmer than the frightening looks the various patients she passed in the halls shot her as she walked with the nurse.
"She's in there, third door on the left. It should be unlocked, we haven't noticed her being any way violent." The nurse pointed.
Celeste grabbed the nurse's arm before she could leave "I'm sorry, violent? Are you expecting her to be?"
"Oh, well, on her chart," the nurse said skimming the files on her clipboard. "it says she attacked someone. So we have here in this ward; this part of the building houses the people who are or could act in ways that are violent. So far she's been fine, so you should be ok."
The nurse smiled and yanked her arm out of Celeste's grasp then carried with her duties not knowing Celeste was the one who Evie was supposedly was violent with.
Celeste then slowly walked down the hall to Evie's room. It was quiet, even in the violent patient part of the asylum's ward. Celeste had imagined anger flowing all over the place. Riotous patients. Screaming. Awful smells from people and rooms, but the decay of Churchill Green was no where in sight, after all this was a new, revamped part of Welshport Hope, a refurbished building that still had the scent of wet paint in the halls.
Inside her room, Evie struggled to read a book that was given to her the night before by a kind nurse when she arrived. It wasn't the type of books she often read, no art, all story. Evie was a creative person, she enjoyed reading but when it was just pages and pages of letters and sentences squished together her mind would wander and imagine the great museums of Paris and Munich. She imagined herself strolling across the bridges of Antwerp and Copenhagen searching for the finest art Europe had to offer.
She missed those days, the days when she lived in Europe and could travel to see art and experience the finest pieces the world had to offer.
A knock on her door broke her concentration on the book and her dreams of art.
Evie stood up, expecting a nurse to barge in with more tests and new meds sort of what happened to her at Windcliff but she was shocked to see the elegantly dressed Celeste enter.
Her former best friend.
"Get out." Evie said with hiss in her voice.
"Evie, please, we need to talk. I need to tell you why this is happening and explain things. We need to come to an understanding and when you see where Jacob and I coming from then maybe you can forgive me."
"Forgive you? How do you expect me to do that? Celeste, you and Jacob went behind my back and convinced a court to that I was somehow unable to care for my child because of dreams that I was having and you had me placed here. And what's worse, you know me, you know that I would never ever put Gabriel in any danger. I love him, he's my baby!"
Celeste gulped "Evie, Jacob saw you on the ledge. You almost jumped."
The words coming from Celeste's mouth were like bullets from a gun. Evie knew what she had done, she knew that the night of her last dark dream could have killed her but she never would have put Gabriel in any danger. She was sure of it.
Maybe.
"You still betrayed me. I don't know maybe we could have figured something out, something less covert, something less conniving. We could have helped each other. You didn't help me. Instead you went along with this whole idea that Jacob put in your head, the same Jacob that did all the terrible things to me before and to Sebastian, and to Mary and to Rebecca. My god! Rebecca! She's here too! He put her here too. What is he going to do Celeste? Get the whole family committed so that he can take control of Lord Publishing? Maybe you should watch your back too. You wouldn't be the first woman he's slept with that he didn't dispose of."
Celeste stepped closer to Evie who was fuming. She could see the veins Evie's neck bulging; anger was strewn all over Evie's face and she was set to make Celeste feel the worst she possibly could. Evie had no plans on letting Celeste leave the hospital feeling she had done the right thing.
"I know you're angry---"
Evie cut her off. "OF COURSE I AM!"
"Then this is the place for you to find out how to deal with that anger and the depression and all of what's been hurting you and when you're better, when your doctor says you're better you'll be back wirh Garbiel." Celeste said, knowing it was a lie and not part of her plan with Jacob.
Evie smiled and shook her head "My god, you are really beliving this horseshit, aren't you? Jacob has really changed you. When we first met you were always the first to warm me of the dangers of this family and how falling in line with them could burn me faster than the heat of a thousand suns and now you stand in front of me looking like a queen or something trying to convine me that you're being autentic and real. You're not Celeste! You're not real! You're not who I thought you were! You are not the friend that I thought you were." Evie shouted.
"Behaving like this will never get you your son back." Celeste said.
Evie's eyes narrowed. Her heart felt like it stopped beating in her chest. She only saw black. The words swimming in her mind from Celeste dangling the fact little Gabriel has been taken from her by Celeste & Jacob made her body heat up. Her mind furious. Evie reached back and slapped Celeste again across the face.
Celeste’s face stung red hot but this time, Celeste returned the slap.
Evie lunged at Celeste. She pulled the peacock hat off Celeste's head. Celeste yelped like a puppy getting his foot stepped on and she reached back and pulled Evie's hair so that it hanked her head back violently.
Evie too screamed and started scratching at Celeste's face trying to force her to let go.
In the blink of an eye, Nik Jordan entered the room as he had just gotten to work to being his shift in the Ward.
He dropped his folders and pen and rushed over to separate the women.
"ENOUGH ENOUGH!!!" Nik shouted pulling Celeste off of Evie.
The separation yanked Evie from one side of the room to the other and she fell to the floor.
"Are you alright?" Nik asked Celeste. She said nothing and nodded her head yes.
From the ground, the beleaguered Evie jumped up with the pen in her fist and lunged at Celeste as if she were going to stab her. Nik intervened and pulled her backwards until he locked her in place between him and the hospital room wall.
Evie, incredibly hurt and scarred by the betrayal of her friend Celeste screamed words that no one understood and burst into tears. She dropped the pen.
"Evie, calm down. Calm down Evie. Please just calm down." Nik said as Evie began to hyperventilate.
The pain was immense. The betrayal was potent. Evie felt desperate, she had lost everything. She had lost the men she loved. The child she adored and now her freedom. She was trapped in the Asylum with no way out. She couldn't see herself out of this place, it was different this time, not like her time at Windcliff. There, she had Alice who helped her. Pulled her through the darkest and most awful treatments Dr. Kim put Evie through.
Perhaps Nik would help her at Churchill, but something was different. The entire situation felt hopeless and it all came to a head right there in the room with Celeste.
"I think you should go." Nik said, as Evie began to calm down.
"Evie... I---" Celeste said before Nik interrupted.
"GO CELESTE!"
Celeste nodded. Nik slowly slid Evie along the wall and away from the door of her room so that Celeste could pass safely.
Celeste picked up her had, fixed the feather and made her way past Evie whose eyes watched Celeste's ever step.
Now alone with his sister Nik walked her over to her bed. He sat her down and she took a deep breath and lay back on the bed with her eyes staring up at the ceiling. Nik fixed up the somewhat messy room after the fight and gathered his things. He picked up his doctor bag that was on a chair and took out a syringe and filled with with medication.
"What are you doing?" Evie asked her brother.
"I'm going to give you something to help you sleep." Nik said.
"No, Nik, please I don't want to sleep. I'm just ... I need to think about what's going to happen." She said.
"Evie I need you to listen to me." Nik ordered as he grabbed her arm, lifted her sleeve and stuck her with he need injecting the medication as Evie looked on in horror. "You're not getting out of here, do you understand me? You're not. The Lords are very powerful. They have this whole damn thing tied up in courts and for now we can't get you out on any kind of injunction. Do you understand me? You have to behave yourself and act appropriately or it'll only get worse. Go to sleep, Evie. Just go to sleep. Tomorrow is a different day, and we'll figure things out there. Do you understand me? Sleep now. Sleep."
Nik's voice started to sound warped, his warmings slowly faded off into blackness as Evie fell into a deep sleep from the medication.
She began to see flashing lights like she was in a tunnel and the end of the tunnel was breaking through. Something in the distance, there was something in the distance. She felt the cold air of winter all around her and when she opened her eyes, she realized she was not at all really awake.
She was in another dream, and the cold air wasn't the fresh Welshport breeze she had become accustomed to. It was the cold air of a Dr. Andrew Kim's laboratory at Windcliff.
There he was, dressed in all white, his hair thick and black combed back, he was the doctor that had tormented her for months and months on the mainland.
He smiled at her evilly. She was tied to bed naked and only covered by a white sheet.
The room was all white. Kim's tools shiny and medal.
Everything felt sterile and cold.
"Are you awake now?" Dr. Kim asked.
Evie shook her head no.
"Ahh, yes you are. Don't be afraid Evangeline. This won't hurt a bit."
Evie tried to get out of the bed, but she struggled with the ties around her wrists and ankles. She moved and moved but she could not get up.
Dr. Kim moved over a machine, Evie was very familiar with. It was the shock-therpy machine. He flicked it on, it buzzed with the sound of a million bees swirling around her. He brought it closer to her and looked down. He smiled, an attempt to calm her.
She knew what was happening next.
"Nurse." Dr. Kim said. "The guard."
A nurse, dressed in white entered the all white room. Evie tilted her head up as the nurse approached and it was Celeste.
"Open wide." Celeste said forcing a rubber mouth guard into Evie's mouth.
"Alright, let's begin." Dr. Kim said.
Dr, Kim then placed the halo around Evie's head that had four wires attached to it. The halo was then plugged into the machine that sounded like the bees.
"Ready? .... 1..... 2.......3...."
The countdown led to Kim twisting the knobs on the machine and zapping electronic currents into Evie's body shocking her. She bit down on the rubber mouth guard and screamed so loud that it woke her up in the middle of the night her bed at Churchill Green.
Evie lay in her bed sweating profusely.
Her scream didn't just wake her up.
In the thick brush of the Tirymor forest, the night had come too. And Evie's scream all the way from Churchill Green woke the vampire, Sebastian.
"Evie!"
Jacqueline, who was standing near the door of the bedroom had come to see what all the commotion was. She heard his first words as he awoke.
The name of the woman he loved more than anything in the world.
He lay there, panting and worried for Evie. And Jacqueline stood in the room and stared blankly at him seeing all her work to keep him for herself slowly erode away with one little breathy word: EVIE.
