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| Contentious ex-lovers Mary & Jacob meet |
An afternoon chill filled the offices of the Lord Publishing House. There was a scattering of literary agents who worked busily at their desks sorting through various manuscripts and papers all searching for the next big novel and writer. Their nervous energy compounded by the fact that their boss Jacob Lord was there this morning and seemed to be in a particularly frustrated mood.
The agents, of course, read the latest gossip column from the local paper that their own company published, The Welshport Globe, where the Lords were often written about. Jacob loved a good moment in the sun of his own newspaper's society page especially when written by one of the paper’s top journalists, but when it came down to the fact his new long-lost half-brother was center of attention as it were this morning, he was fuming.
As Jacob worked through the various notes on his desk, he sipped from black coffee that his secretary nervously brought in. Her hands seemed to be shaking, and at first Jacob thought it was because of how cold it was inside the building, but she was covered in warm petticoats and skirts that would have warmed the fattest Eskimo on the Alaskan tundra.
Jacob adjusted his black best that had a golden chain leading from a hidden pocket watch and stood up at his oak desk to take the cup of coffee. He towered over the secretary. His hands cupped the saucer as she, again, nervously smiled.
"What is it?" He asked her as she stammered to reply. "Go on now, Sarah, I've got a lot of work to sort through, has something happened? You're more skittish than ever."
"Mr. Lord there's someone here to see you." Sarah the secretary replied.
"So soon? It's only 10 after 9. It's too early in the morning for any appointments, isn't it?" Jacob asked searching his messy desk for his diary.
"It's not someone that I scheduled for you sir." She replied.
"Oh! Then tell them to come back when they have an appointment." He replied.
"It's Mary Goode sir." Sarah shot back quickly.
Jacob's eyes widened.
His ex.
He hadn't seen Mary in over a year. Suddenly everything he had done to her over the years came flooding back. How he manipulated her to shoot Sebastian so long ago. How he had used their daughter Charlotte as a weapon against her, how he had tarnished her reputation around town before that. For a long time after Sebatian's shooting she'd been missing, people thought her dead. but she'd return when it was revealed the whole entire shooting was faked...of course that too was another lie of the Lords doing to cover up the scandal.
"Uh...please show her in." Jacob said softly as he sat back down with his coffee. "Bring her coffee." He added as Sarah nodded, she would.
Seconds passed that seemed to be never ending, as Mary entered the wooden paneled office of her ex-Jacob Lord. She stood there in front of him glowing as she was seven months pregnant. Her hair tied back in a blonde braid allowing the stunning blue of her eyes to shine in the low brightness of the office table lamps. Sarah reentered and handed Mary coffee. Mary thanked her and Jacob stood up forgetting his manners.
"Please, sit." He said to her.
Mary sat and placed the saucer of coffee on the desk in front of her near a stack of old books.
"These any good?" She asked of the booked as she picked one up and flipped through it's yellow dusty pages.
"Are you here to ask me about books, or for a free cup of coffee?" Jacob asked in jest.
Mary lifted a brow. "Obviously not, and I wouldn't have come at all if I didn't think it was important to see you in person." She said replacing the book.
"What is it? Something about Charlotte? I know you're eager to see her. I'm sure you'd like to share your happy news." Jacob replied referencing the pregnancy. "I've softened Mary, since my own new child came into this world. We can arrange for Charlotte to visit."
"Oh," Mary said shaking her head confused with his kindness "thank you but that's not it."
Jacob furrowed his brow "Then?"
"I don't know how to even say this to you but I'm just going to say it and let it sit with you: Sebastian is alive Jacob."
Jacob stared at her and smiled but did not reply.
"Did you hear what I said?" She asked seeing as he just sat there like the cat that ate the cannery and smiled.
"Have you ever known me to not know what happens on this island? I know everything Mary! Especially when it comes down to the ins and outs of my family. I know about Sebastian." Jacob said.
"You do? How?"
"I was at the lighthouse the night my mother kidnapped little Gabriel. Sebastian saved his son and then handed me the child to take back to his mother." Jacob revealed.
"And Evie?" Mary wondered.
"No, she doesn't know. Sebastian asked that I keep her in darkness on the matter. He said to allow her to continue to believe he died in the fire at Lockwood Thicket."
Mary seemed somewhat relieved that the devious Jacob already had Sebastian on his radar. But simply knowing the vampire was alive was still only part of the story. The rest of it might not go over as easy on her ex.
Jacob got up to light a cigarette near his office window. The light of the winter morning that was quickly slipping into a sun lit afternoon. The window light lit his hazel eyes a fresh greenish-brown color and his warm peach skin making him look younger than his 52 years.
"There's more." Mary said, shyly.
"More. There's always more." Jacob said through a puff of smoke. "What?"
"He's in a state, a state of uncontrolled anger right now and I don't know what he's capable of. It's about his son, Gabriel. The child has lost his hearing and the circumstances of how that happened, well, I... I wish I could explain it without sounding as if it were done on purpose but a mistake happened and...." She began to ramble, Jacob knowing her inside and out knew that she was trying to cover up something and interrupted.
"What did you do Mary." He said grinning strangely.
"It was an accident Jacqueline and I we... It was an accident!" She said shooting up from her seat.
"Jacqueline?" Jacob asked somewhat recognizing the name.
"She's a woman from Boston that Sebastian and I sought out. She's here now, in the islands, and she and I accidently did something that I think--- that I know-- hurt Gabriel. But I swear it was an accident. I would have never hurt the baby. Ever." Mary said, holding her own tummy.
"Grey, Jacqueline Grey? Evie's friend?" Jacob asked.
Mary's eyes widened; she knew that Jacqueline had been poking around Tirymor to be around Evie but had no idea it was to the point Jacob would have known the name.
"Have you met her?" Mary asked.
"No. Not officially," Jacob confirmed "but the staff at Tirymor have mentioned this visitor of Evie's often. I even had a request from the house for books on Art from our catalogue for some sort of tea party that Evie was throwing this new friend. What of her? Should we be worried about her?"
"Jacob listen to me. Jacqueline is a person which ..." Mary paused before revealing their duel powers under the coven of The Sisters of Highgrove. "She's a woman with great influence. Especially over Sebastian. They've grown close and she's made things worse for all of us by how she enables his worst attributes. Instead putting out the flames of his rage, Jacqueline pours gas on them. She's driven a wedge between my cousin and I and I fear for everyone now that he's allowing his darkest thoughts to control his motives."
Jacob grabbed a glass ashtray and snuffed out his cigarette. He skimmed his 12-shelf bookcase with his thick index finger and looked at the patch of dust that accumulated. He lifted a brow and sat back down at his desk, Mary followed him back too and sat to face him. Jacob sat back in his chair with his hands clasped over his stomach and realized that there was real fear in Mary's eyes and in her voice. She was truly frightened of what Sebastian was capable of. There was something in her words that sounded desperate and her willingness to come to him face to face showed the seriousness of her worry about Sebastian Lord.
"He came to Tirymor just the other night to see Garbriel. He indeed was in a dark state." Jacob revealed.
"You spoke with him?" Mary asked.
"Spoke, argued, fought. Everything. He became physical. My eager little brother walked in on us and there was a scuffle between them as well." He added, Mary gasped fearing Sebastian was revealed to Johnathon. "But don't worry, I was able to rush Sebastian out of the house and said there was an intruder. Aside from having poor Evie go into a fit over her child's room being invaded, things died down from there."
"Jacob listen, he won't stop. He's furious. He's on a war path to keeping his son safe and he doesn't trust anyone anymore, aside from Jacqueline, and as I said before they make a for a dangerous paid. An aliance I don't see being in anway healthy and good. Not for them, not for anyone." Mary explained.
"Sounds like something I heard before of two unlikely lovers." Jacob said hinting at his and Mary's past disastrous relationship.
Mary rolled her eyes. "I just need you to help me, Jacob. Keep Gabriel out of Sebastian's hands. The child has gone through enough at such a young age, I don't want him in any more danger. I'll handle Jacqueline." Mary said. "That's why I've come here."
Mary stood up to leave, her heart pounding in her chest hoping Jacob would do what she asked of him but knowing him as well as she did, she fully expected him to ask for something in return. Then, he did something she did not expect.
He surprised her.
"Mary, I'll have you escorted back to the docks and back to Goode Island safely, a woman in your state shouldn't be wondering the streets and seas alone. Go now, and keep in mind that I have all the intensions on keeping my little great-nephew safe and out of the hands of blood thirsty creatures of the night, no matter how related to me they are." Jacob answered.
Mary felt a lump in her throat. She was trusting a sweet young child to Jacob, a man whose diabolical schemes had taken her life into a direction of incredible pain and suffering. He'd done awful things to Sebastian, to Evie, to his own mother, to his brother and sister-in-law, even his own child Charlotte when he locked her in a Tirymor's turret.
But she had no choice, sometimes, the only way to keep someone safe was to entrust them to the most capable hands -- especially when those hands were controlled by a conniving and twisted mind like Jacob's.
She knew he'd insure the child's safety-- she had to trust him, there was no one else, Evie couldn't know Sebastian was alive---she'd suffered too much at his many deaths already. Rebecca was locked away in an asylum for almost killing Gabriel, Charlotte was only 13 years old, but Jacob was Jacob.... and he had a secret weapon that Mary hoped he'd use. The touch of his good wide Celeste.
"Tell Celeste, I appreciate it. I know she'll do what she can too." Mary said hinting at her hopes of Jacob bringing in his wife as support for Gabriel.
Jacob nodded and then added one more surprise to his ex's already full mind "And congratulations Mary. On the baby. I'm sure Filipe is ecstatic to be a father."
Mary smiled back but her face held suspicion over Jacob's sudden kindness. What she didn't know, as she made her way down the hall to the awaiting man Lord Publishing valet that would escort her safely back to Goode Island was that Jacob and Celeste were already two steps ahead of Mary in keeping their tabs on young Gabriel.
The baby was not only the heir to Sebastian's part of the family empire, but Jacob, Fabian, and Johnaton's direct competition for ruling it all once he turned 18. The one gift Rebecca had set up for any of her favorite grandchild Sebatian's heirs.
"He'll be just fine." Jacob whispered to himself coldly as Mary walked down the hall and turned back at the elevator to glance at Jacob slowly shutting his oak office door --then vanishing.
Her stomach knotted.
"Ma'am?" The valet said holding open the elevator door.
Mary smiled politely and entered the elevator, but her uneasiness was palpable. She felt like she had just given Jacob permission to commit murder.
****
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| Gregory’s plan for Aurora’a baby is set into motion |
Later that afternoon, at Gregory's second floor apartment above his Constable's office in the village Aurora woke from a nap on his warm bed with terrible cramps in her stomach. She tried get up from the bed, but the pain was too much, and she moved herself over to the edge of the bed with as much ease as she could.
The pain was intense. Her body felt like it was on fire.
She looked down and the light-colored dress she was wearing was stained.
Her water had broken, Aurora was in labor.
"GREGORY! GREGORY!!" She screamed as he burst into the room.
"What is it?!?!"
"It's too early, its too early!!" She shouted back showing him the wet spot on her skirt and on the bed.
Gregory swallowed hard as his mind flashed back to 5 hours earlier:
Aurora had come for a visit. They chatted, had a small lunch and then she took to his bedroom, as she often did in their visits, to nap. She was only 4 months pregnant, but the baby had grown so big that she looked to be full term. Her belly was large, heavy and Aurora worried the child was growing in at a strange and quick pace.
All her appointments with Dr. Ward had shown no abnormalities but nevertheless -- she worried.
In that vulnerable moment, while she napped away the small lunch, she shared with Gregory is when he injected her with the labor inducing medication that Asha had given him. Aurora had never felt the prick of the needle, her sleep was unbothered the whole time.
Now she was about to have the baby, and everything had turned topsy-turvy.
"We have to get to the hospital?" She said.
"Lay back, lay back." Gregory ordered.
"What? No, Gregory we have to get to the hospital," Aurora said through gritted teeth. "the baby is coming and it's too early. I'm not due for months!"
"It's too dangerous to move you now, especially since we don't know how long you've been in labor. Dr. Hoffman has a telephone. I'll go down to the office and call her and get her to come to us with a nurse." Gregory said.
"Hoffman? Dr. Ward is my doctor." Aurora said as her head began to spin. "Greogory. I ... I don't feel well. I'm dizzy." Auroa said.
"Just relax, relax. Lay back, I'll get Asha here..."--- But before Gregory could finish speaking and explain how fast Asha would get to the house he looked down and saw Aurora was bleeding.
"Hurr......rrryyy." Aurora murmured as she fainted in the bed.
"Jesus." Gregory whispered to himself.
He rushed through his house, knocking over tables and running into walls as he rushed down the steps that lead into the Constable's offices that had a few officers working that afternoon. They jumped to attention as their boss paid no attention to them and he got to the large boxy telephone attached to the wall. The phone lines in Welshport were few. Only The Constable's office, the Post Office, The Hospital, Village Townhall and scattering of wealthy islanders who could afford a telephone, had them.
He picked up the receiver and frantically pressed down the lever to get the operator to click on. She connected and he quickly told her to get him in touch with the North-West wing of Welshport Hope Hospital where Asha would be stationed.
Asha came to the phone from her rounds in a hospital room. The nurse pulled on Asha's hand so hard that her bracelet marked her arm in a half red circle around her wrist.
"I'm sorry Dr. Hoffman, Constable Reigns said it was an emergency." The nurse explained.
Asha didn't even go to the phone, she knew that it was time. She jumped into motion and quickly grabbed her medical bag from her small office down the hall and yelled back to the nurse "Tell him I'm on my way!!!"
The nurse stood at the large phone on the way, its black cord tangled around her nervous finger as she watched Dr. Hoffman run down the hallway and disappearing into a stairwell.
"Constable? Constable Reigns?" The nurse asked. "She'll be there any moment."
A quick taxi cab later down the main street of the village that curled into the shape of a question mark over a hill from Welshport Hope, to midtown where the constable’s office was and where Reigns’ apartment sat above, Asha had made good on her promise.
She bounded into the office and ran up the stairs to the confusion of the few police that were there who shrugged at watching Dr. Hoffman skip steps up the stairs to the apartment and once she got to the door, she didn't knock, Asha pushed her way in to find Reigns leaving the kitchen with warm rags for Aurora.
He turned to the door somewhat startled but the shock quickly evaporated
“HURRY!” He shouted.
"Don't panic, we have time, she's in labor but she's not in danger." Asha said.
"Isn't she?" Gregory said lifting a rag that was stained with blood.
"She's hemorrhaging?" Asha asked.
"Where's the nurse? You said you'd bring a nurse!?" Gregory added.
The two began to make their way into the bedroom where Aurora was out cold. "I thought it was better if we kept this between you and I, I don't want any one else to get tangled up in this." Asha replied as she pushed open the bedroom door to find Aurora slowly coming out of her fainting spell.
Asha began her examination of Aurora and saw that there was blood. lots of it, but there was no danger. There seemed to have been some kind of blockage or clot that had cleared but she was now no longer bleeding, but the shocking view of dark blood on the white sheets, so much that only the lower and upper parts of the bed were still white, was an obviously alarming scene to witness for Aurora and even more so Gregory.
"Are you sure she’s alright?" Gregory asked, his heart sinking worried for Aurora's life.
"What's happening?" A groggy Aurora aske.
"Mrs. Jordan, hello, it's me Asha. You're in labor Mrs. Jordan, you're going to have your baby." Asha explained.
"Asha? Nikky? Is Nikky here?" Aurora asked of her son's girlfriend.
"No ma'am. It's just me. Gregory called me to come help with the delivery. You're going to have the child very soon now, so I'm to ask you to begin pushing. Do you understand Mrs. Jordan? You'll need to push now." Asha instructed.
"I'm too early. I can't push. The baby isn't ready to be born." Aurora said. sweating profusely through her nightgown that the top over her chest and upper neck were so wet the skin could be seen through the white fabric.
"I understand, but the baby is coming, and we can't make it go back." Asha smiled, attempting to calm her patient. "Give us a push Mrs. Jordan, please push."
Aurora nodded, she was exhausted she had lost a good amount of blood but was pushing. She was fighting to keep her premature child alive. She pushed and she pushed. Gregory assisted as best he could and brought clean towels, fresh clean water and held Aurora's hand as she continued to feel the pains of labor and her mind swirling in and out of blackness. She wanted to sleep, her body was in immense pain and she was screaming from the top of her lungs. All she wanted to do was give birth to a healthy child and live, but the pain was like nothing she had ever felt. Both her other children were natural births and she delivered them awake, alert and in pain, but not like this. This child was almost ripping her insides out. She felt as if the pain was going to kill her, break her in half and then as the labor began to hit the hour mark....BIRTH.
Aurora heard the Asha yelp as the baby came out. A rush of energy swooped through Aurora's body like a waterfall drenching her whole body. And then she fell back into darkness and fainted again.
Gregory quickly tended to Aurora, Asha cleaned the baby and held it close. She could feel it's little heartbeat through the pulse it's fingers. It looked up at her as if Asha were his mother, it grabbed on to her finger tight and cried.
"What do I do?" Asha asked Gregory, he turned to her and saw her crying.
"Take it like we agreed." Gregory said, fanning Aurora who was unconscious.
"I... I don't know. I don't know where." Asha said, she began to feel like she was a monster for taking the baby from it's mother. How could she? She suddenly had these imaginary thoughts of her own birth when she was taken from her parents and given to her adopted family.
"We agreed Asha, we agreed this was the best thing for all of us. Take the child and give it to a home that can raise him well. Don't go back on me now. We've come so far." Gregory said.
Asha looked down at the baby. It was healthy, oddly. It was so many months premature but was completely to term. The baby had miraculously grown fast--- a first trimester baby was born to full term.
"How?" Asha asked herself.
"GO!" Gregory shouted and turned to Aurora to wipe her brow again of sweat. When he turned back to Asha, she was gone, and the bedroom door was left slightly open in the amount of space big enough for Asha and the baby to pass through.
Gregory had fallen asleep. It was now 4 hours after the birth. He had cleaned Aurora up, given her a bath, helped her dress, changed the sheets without even getting her out of the bed. He had done all of this while she slept, another side effect of the medication she was given to induce the labor.
He had done all the things a nurse would do for Aurora who slowly awoke from her daze after the birth.
She squinted. Everything was blurry. The room was cast in a haze of dark colors from the dim lights. She tried to sit up, and winced in pain.
Her moaning woke Gregory in the sitting chair across from the bed.
"Easy, easy." He said stumbling to her bed side.
"Gregory...I had the baby." She said in weak voice.
"Yes." She said sadly
"Where's the baby? I need to feed the baby." She asked.
Gregory sat down and held her hand. At this point the baby was long gone, now only a memory in his mind and he now had to set the rest in motion. The baby was gone. Which wasn't a lie, but she had to believe the baby had died.
"I'm sorry, love, the baby didn't make it. It was just too soon for it to live." Gregory said.
"What? Didn't make it? Gregory where is it? I WANT TO SEE MY CHILD!!" Aurora begged.
"Darling, listen to me, the baby didn't survive. You cannot see it, Asha took the child. She's going to make sure it is properly taken care of and given a good resting place. You did not want to see that baby. Not in the shape it was born in. I'm sorry, my love. It was better you didn't see it."
Lies.
"You let her take my baby?????" Aurora asked outraged.
"Let her? No, I had to. Medically she has to be sure that the baby is ... well, darling that it's body is taken care of correctly. It did not live." Gregory said, lying again.
"No, no! It can't be, please, please tell me where the baby is!" Aurora begged.
"Darling....." Gregory said softly as Aurora sat up and crumbled in his arms sobbing into his chest.
The pain was real. Aurora's awful experience with Caspian lead to a shocking pregnancy but the cause did not match the effect. Even though she was terrified of what was about to happen to her, having a child so late in life and by the monster Caspian, it didn't mean she didn't have an emotional attachment to the child. It was still apart of her, it was still apart of her children too. A part of her was gone -- vanishing into thin air. She neve even set yes on the baby. Aurora's heart was broken into a million peices.
"What was it?" Aurora asked thourgh her sobs.
Gregory looked at her oddly.
"A boy or a girl?" She added.
It dawned on him that he didn't even know. He forgot to ask Asha. Then he felt another lie coming to his lips. It was like bubbled pushing up from his stomach to his throat and then out of his lips: "A girl."
Aurora's eyes filled with tears and then she sobbed again.
The baby girl was gone. Dead.
Now at her own apartment across town, Asha lay the new born baby in a makeshift crib that was the top drawer of her dresser. It lay there crying with it's arms stretched up reaching for it's missing mother. Asha paced back and forth in her room in complete shock of what she had done. She couldn't believe she had helped Gregory, but she knew too much was at stake for her not to. So many secrets would spill out and then what would become of her.
She went to the child, so cute, so pink and crying. She picked it up and rocked it in her arms and it fell asleep. She'd give it milk as soon as she could get it warm enough for it to drink.
She looked at the baby and pulled back the little white blanket it was wrapped in that she took from Gregory's house to see the sex.
She smiled "Happy birthday baby boy."
Aurora and Caspian's child... was a baby boy.
****
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| The Lord Publishing House building |
Back at Lord Publishing, Jacob continued his work sorting through various editorial news articles that were sent to him from The Welshport Globe that needed his approval. Many of the stories written in the paper were free of any of the Lord's using a veto power to publish but in the case of Politics and several other more dubious stories regarding surrounding business and legal matters around the area that may affect the family's bottom line, the Lord's liked to check/edit/balance their way through.
It was a perk of being head of a publishing empire, after all.
As he worked through the afternoon and into the very early evening, his office filled with cigarette smoke trapped by the closed windows that held off the winter wind, but something did blow in: his wife Celeste.
Celeste's cheeks were pink from the cold she came in from. Her hands warmly secure in a mink muff that she quickly removed as Jacob happily stood up to greet his beautiful wife who didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood.
"I walked passed the secretary, don't be angry with her for letting me in. Nothing would stop me from getting in here." Celeste said sitting down in the far corner of the room on a leather sofa, her long dark dress fluffing up to her waist giving her the look of a large upside-down burgundy poppy.
"You're my wife, you don't need an appointment." Jacob smiled. "Are you here to meet me for an early dinner? I can have something brought over from Gramercy." Jacob asked.
"No," Celeste replied in a serious tone. "This is not a pleasure visit."
"Oh?"
"Earlier this morning, Evie and I went to mass at Saint Catherine's with the boys. After we met with Donavon Ryan, and she surprised me with what she said. No, surprised isn't exactly the best word, scared me half to death perhaps fits."
"What did she say?" Jacob wondered.
"I'm worried for here Jacob. She has this way of hiding things inside, her feelings, her thoughts, I don't really know how to explain it. Events happen to her, and she walks around the mansion like nothing is wrong and then we meet with Father Ryan, and she divulges strange things. She said she's been having this vivid dreams of Matthew Winterborn. Dreams that are terrifying her, dreams of him telling her to come find him, that he's still alive. She seems to be in two places at once. She has one foot clear headed here in the real world where she takes care of her child and then she has another foot distracted in a world of bizarre dreams that consume her mind without anyone even knowing."
"How did Ryan react?" Jocob wondered.
"Well, to her face he came off like a priest would: concerned, ready to help. He offered advice. But he didn't just offer advice to her, he spoke with me too when the two of us were alone." Celeste revealed.
"He said he was concerned for her and the amount of stress she's been under for the amount of time that she's been under it. Years really, since she moved here." Celeste said. "But that wasn't' all." She added.
"What else?" Jacob asked sitting on the edge of his desk facing his wife.
Celeste took a deep breath. She shuffled over her large burgundy skirt off of the sofa reveling a portfolio she had brought with her. The leatherbound portfolio with the initials of Jacob engraved on the cover flipped open on Celeste's lap. There several documents that she chose and pulled out and handed to Jacob to look over, never leaving her seat.
Jacob furrowed his brow, unsure of what she was handing him.
It didn't take long for Jacob to understand what the forms were, they were legal forms clear as day even for someone without a legal mind to read. Lifted a brow and reached down to his desk for his cigarette and placed it to his pouty lips.
"Is this what you really want?" Jacob asked Celeste as the cigarette dangled and bounced with this words.
Celeste shrugged. "She's been my best friend for years now and I adore her but maybe it would be best. It was sort of what Father Ryan alluded to." Celeste said without answering Jacob's question.
"But is it what you want?" Jacob asked again.
"We could be unofficial god parents." She said.
"Darling," Jacob chuckled, "these forms are much more than making you and I official god parents. We'd be his legal gradians. Effectively we'd be his parents. I'm not going to say I didn't think of this myself at some point. At least It was sort of a plan B in my head. But if it's your Plan A, then I think I'd agree to do it, if this is truly what you want." Jacob said.
"I want what's best for Evie and her son. And maybe giving her a break from all of this and getting some help, would be better for her." Celeste answered.
"And it would be better for us." Jacob said. "Controlling little Gabriel's financial future is in our best interest, and I'm sure you've realized it would most benefit Fabian. Our son. As Gabriel's gradians, he would be safe from the spiraling sanity of his parents and our child, well, would be put in a better position for his own future." Jacob explained further as he grabbed a pen from his desk.
"From his mother." Celeste said, correcting Jacob's use of the words parents.
Jacob sat back down on the edge of the desk, it's deep groan when he sat echoed the age of the oak it was made of. He put down the papers but looked Celeste directly in the eyes. There was another big shoe to drop on the issue of the Lord family tree getting bigger and smaller all at the same time.
"No, I mean parents. Celeste, this is going to be quite surprising, and I need you to stay calm, but Sebastian. He's alive." Jacob revealed.
Celeste stood up from the leather sofa. Her dress swishing down back to her feet in a crimson cascade that went all the way down to the ground. She cupped her hands at her stomach as if to hold back a deep scream that was pushing it's way out. Her eyes were like saucers, her heart felt as if it skipped a beat.
"No. He... he can't be alive. He died Sebastian, he died in that fire. Evie saw him die. She watched it happen in front of her very eyes." Celeste replied in a very tense tone of voice.
Jacob shook his head. "No, no, my love, he's alive. Evie must of been mistaken or maybe he survived somehow based on the creature that's he's become, I don't know, but I saw and spoke with him myself. Twice." Jacob said.
"TWICE!" She shouted back.
"Keep calm now, we have nothing to worry about. Sebastian isn't out to hurt any of us, although the second time we met he did have a bit of an issue but I can resolve that soon. What I need you to do, is understand that he is no threat to us at all. The world thinks he's dead and I am sure Sebastian wants to keep it that way."
"But if he's alive and Evie isn't able to care for her son like we are saying, no court in the world would keep Gabriel from his natural father!" Celeste replied, her logical explanation was missing one important bit of information that Jacob was very happy to fill her in on.
"There is absolutely nothing natural about Sebastian Lord. He for one would admit to that. Evie will have to deal with the fact that her crumbling mental state is in no way shape or form the mental state of a woman who can care for her son. As for Sebastian, well, he's as good as dead -- to us and the courts." Jacob said.
"I don't know, now I don't know about this." She worried.
"Celeste, this was your idea, you brought these papers up. And I think it's a brilliant idea. You've decided in the way of a woman who has set her mind on the future, her son's future. This company is his to take when he's ready and I want that. Having anyone else in that same position would put our son in jeopardy of losing it all if he had a rival. Gabriel is that rival. We can fix that by signing these papers." Jacob said.
Celeste began to feel some sort of guilt, Jacob knew exactly what her plan was, he had just revealed it to her out loud. To her she felt that maybe if she didn't say it herself that maybe she could ease her way out of it and not feel so bad for doing this to her friend. The papers in Jacob's hand were clear and very hard to fight. The two very powerful Lord, in a strong marriage had giant lawyers behind them. Evie was a single mother with a history of time in a mental asylum -- albeit fraudulently, by Jacob's hand as well. She had decided based on her conversation with Father Ryan to petition for Gabriel's rights --- to be removed from Evie's care and have her sent to a Churchill Green for her mental break again. This time, her mental state was even questioned by a very good witness: A priest.
Jacob looked at his wife who's nerves were on edge. She didn't know what to do now. Jacob slid the papers on his desk over to the corner closest to Celeste the pen strategically positioned and pointing to the line for her signature.
"Shall we?" he asked.
She wanted Fabian's life set.
She wanted Evie to find help.
She wanted Gabriel to be safe from whatever was going on with Evie and now his dangerous Father.
She wanted, too, her own sense of security through it all. Signing these papers becoming legal guardian o yet another heir of the Lord family would give her more and more power within the household and empire the Lord family built over decades and decades. And Rebecca was now gone, this would mean Celeste would unceremoniously become the matriarch and most powerful woman at Tirymor.
She dreamt of this kind of life as long as she could remember.
As she picked up the pen, she wondered how Evie would feel once the paperwork was filed with the court, the court that was highly paid under the table by the Lords themselves.
She took a breath, and reached down to sign. Jacob grabbed her wrist and pulled it off the paper before she could. His two large hands grabbed her wrists and he pulled her close and kissed her deeply and passionately on the lips. Their tongues touched, and she could taste his cigarette. Then, when they parted, she signed the forms and handed Jacob his pen.
He then signed and they'd soon officially petition to take Gabriel away from Evie based on her fragile mental state.
It was all for the growth of the Lord family empire, and... for Jacob and Celeste own gain, no one would be their direct competition and rival in the power play at home.
No one.
****
 |
| A physical altercation between Mary & Jacqueline |
After a long day on Welshport Island, Mary was finally settling in for the evening in her small family cottage on Goode Island, the island colloquially named after her father's family years and years before Mary was even born.
As she folded a few baskets of freshly dried sheets and towels that she had left near a warm fire holding back the cold winter air, she felt her baby roll in her tummy. She smiled at the feeling, she held her stomach and giggled, it tickled her. The baby was so full of life and she couldn't help but remember her fondness of being pregnant almost 14 years ago with Charlotte.
As Mary reminisced silently folding her laundry, the front door of the cabin opened and in walked Jacqueline Grey, her coven sister that had betrayed her turst to Sebastian.
They glared at each other with eyes as cold as the winter wind beating on the cottage walls outsdie.
"How dare you show your face here." Mary said.
Jacqueline scoffed. "Mary please, I'm not here to argue and fight with you, I'm just here to get my things." She said.
"Good. I'm glad, I think I can speak for Filipe when I say we don't want you here anymore. Never again." Mary replied.
"You could have saved us all from this pointiness war between us had you been honest with Sebastian in the first place, instead you and Filipe decided we lie to him. Of course he'd feel the way he does, Mary!" Jacqueline said attempting to build herself a defense.
"Jacqueline, we agreed to keep him in the dark because of his dangerous lack of control. We knew that he’d be angry for obvious reasons, and when Sebastian's anger roars the way we saw it, no one is safe. I'm talking about Life and Death. We wanted to help Gabriel and avoid all of this, but you decided to tell him and not only tell him but make it seem as if there was something nefarious about it. You now it was an accident." Mary replied angrily.
"Lies are nefarious Mary." Jacqueline replied as she walked a few steps closer to Mary so that their eyes were not locked.
"You're playing him, you're using what you know about what he has become and you're using him. I don't know why you came back with him if it was only to cause this kind of trouble for us all." Mary said.
"I came here to help you! Our mother's were coven-sisters! Sebastian said YOU sent for me, and here I am and now I'm being exiled. None of this is my fault." Jacqueline reminded Mary.
"We needed your help, and we got it, but we didn't need you to betray us and lie and try to maneuver yourself into Sebastian's good graces, not to mention sneak around his widow Evie, getting to know her, befriending her... at her home. Reading her favorite books." Mary said, surprising Jacqueline. "That's right, I know what you've been up to. What would Sebastian do if he knew that Jacqueline? How would Sebastian feel if the woman he loved was for some reason lurking around Evie and getting so close to her that they'd become such good friend. I can tell you what he'd feel, he'd be livid. He wants Evie to be safe and away from everything we are. She's suffered enough at the hands of people like us, people of the shadows. Maybe he should know. Maybe I can find a way to let him know just like you found a way to let him know about what I accidently did to Gabriel."
Jacqueline's eyes saw red. She could feel the blood in her veins boil like thick soup in a cauldron on fire. the feeling of being cornered was never good for a witch and now her own sister-witch seemed to be turning the tables and the threat of losing Sebastian was too much for Jacqueline to handle. She had never been happier with a man, and no one, not Mary or Evie, no one alive would stop her from happiness.
Jacqueline lunged at Mary. Her cold hands became wrapped around Mary's throat. Mary gasped for air and pulled at Jacqueline's fingers as they tightened around her neck. Jacqueline gritted her teeth but her eyes began to tear up, she couldn't believe what she was doing it was almost as if she were watching someone else strangle Mary right in front of her.
Mary continued to gasp for air and walk backwards towards the fireplace where she had iron pans that she used to warm things over the fire on hanging on the side on iron hooks bolted into the red bricks. With her eyes feeling like they were about to pop out of her head she some how reached backwards removed a pan from the hook and swung it up and into the air and landed it on Jacqueline's shoulder narrowly missing her head.
Jacqueline screamed in pain and released her hands from Mary's throat and fell over onto a chair. Mary, her heart beating, her lungs pumping air back into her body also fell onto a chair that faced Jacqueline's. Then like a lioness attacking a gazelle, Jacqueline leapt from her chair and on to Mary and pulled her down. The two women were rolling around on the ground, Mary slapped Jacqueline, Jacqueline's hand swung across Mary's face scratching her cheek marking three long wounds slice across her peach toned skin. Mary yanked at Jacqueline's hair causing Jacqueline to scream and get off Mary.
Mary got up, Jacqueline came at her again, and this time she used her powers. Jacqueline lifted her hand, and several kitchen knives came flying from the kitchen and into the living room. Mary ducked and the knives stabbed into the wooden walls of the cottage.
Mary then used her own powers and lifted her right arm, and she swung it as if she were pulling on a lever, the flames of the fire roared out of the hearth and into the room blinding Jacqueline with its heat. Jacqueline moved avoiding the flames and then lifted a fist -- out of Jacqueline's fist a giant ball of pink light zipped through the air and hit Mary in the chest. The ball of light burned her clothes and Mary screamed dabbing out the flames on her top with her hands.
While she did so, Jacqueline went at her again with her hands around her throat. Mary again gagged for air. She pulled at Jacqueline's hair to no avail, then Mary went for Jacqueline's eyes and put her two thumbs in her eyes blocking Jacqueline from seeing and pressed down hard. Jacqueline screamed-- and in response did something she never saw coming.
With all her might Jacqueline pulled Mary's neck slightly to the right then slammed her down to the floor so hard Mary fell unconscious.
Jacqueline, now, free of Mary's fighting back rubbed her pained eyes. She was gasping too, out of breath. But for a few seconds realized the room was too silent. She looked down when her eyes readjusted and saw that Mary was on the floor obscured in shadows of the room that had now been darkened with the fire in the hearth extinguished.
Carefully Jacqueline checked on Mary and when she knelt down, she saw that Mary had landed face down on her belly on the cold hard floor.
Mary was now, bleeding from her womb.
Jacqueline gasped. Mary's baby. Her stomach. The fight happened so fast she didn't even think of the danger to the child Mary was carrying. Jacqueline rolled Mary over and tapped her cheeks. Mary was white as a ghost. She kept tapping trying to wake her up. Jacqueline could see the bruising she had caused on Mary's neck.
"Oh please please please wake up. Mary. Please wake up. Wake up Mary. Wake up!!" Jacqueline said.
Filipe had been out in the woods of Goode Island hunting for dinner. He had killed a small pig that would feed he and Mary very well for at least two nights of this new bitter winter. As he made his way back to the cottage he passed the small dock-side and noticed a small boat had been latched on to one of the posts. His own boat had been locked up in the boat house, he wondered who was on the island and if what they were doing at the cabin with Mary.
There was so much blood. Jacqueline's own dress was now drenched in it.
The baby was dying. Jacqueline didn't know what to do. She tried to wake Mary, and then Filipe started to unlock the front door on his way back from an evening hunt for dinner.
Jacqueline panicked and got up off the floor. She looked around and grabbed a small bundle of clothes that wasn't' even hers and took it as she would need new clothes now that she lived with Sebastian and had no time to pack her own.
Then Jacqueline left the small cottage through a back door.
Filipe entered the room and saw it in disarray. He threw his catch and tools to the floor frantically searching for answers with his eyes.
"Mary? Mary where are you?" He asked slowly making his way through the messy room.
He then came across Mary slowly coming out of unconscious state. He saw the blood. She slowly awoke and saw the blood. She screamed and he fell to the floor to help her up. The blood was everywhere. He took her to the sofa, and she laid back, her body was forcing the child out, too early. She screamed in pain. He begged for God to help him deliver his own child alive and healthy still unknowing what had happened.
Mary was begging God too, she tossed her head bad, her face, neck chest was covered in sweat and blood and she screamed in birth pains.
"Breathe my love, BREATHE!!!" Filipe said as Mary's body pushed the baby out into his arms.
More blood. Everywhere.
Mary's head tossed back on the sofa fell limp as she fainted with the pain.
In Filipe's arms, a child, a little girl. Dead.
The baby did not survive Mary's fall. Her tummy and been bashed into the floor and crushed in a lethal blow.
He screamed a painful scream that echoed deep across Goode Island. His begged God to make him wake up from this horrid dream where his first child had died in his arms at birth.
Jacqueline, cowardly rushing towards Goode Island's boat dock fleeing the fight where she caused the death of a child, Filipe's screams hit her in the chest like a lightening bolt. She began to sob as she got in the little boat headed back to Lockwood Thicket where Sebastian was hiding.
Back at the cottage, Filipe rocked back and forth on the floor with the little baby girl in his arms. Mary awoke from her fainting spell and saw the scene of her poor baby and the man she had fallen in love with and screamed so painful a scream that Filipe could not bare it. He got up and took the child and placed her in another blanket.
"Give me my baby!" Mary screamed over and over agian.
"Mary, no. No Mary. No. No No." Filipe said in sobs.
"FILIPE NO!" Mary wailed when realizing the baby was gone.
He brought the baby back and sat with Mary on the blood-soaked sofa as they cuddled together with their little baby gone before she could live.
****
 |
| Jacob & Evie are spied on by Jacqueline |
After dinner at Tirymor, Evie sat next to Gabriel's crib and rocked it back and forth lulling the baby to sleep. She sang to him a sweet lullaby hoping that somehow her voice would flow into his ears and he could finally hear his mother's voice.
It was a prayer she had that hopefully some sort of miracle would occur and her darling son would regain his hearing.
As Evie rocked baby Gabriel to sleep, Jaqueline appeared in the shadows of the room. She watched her so-called new friend as Evie too began to slowly blink her way into a deep sleep.
Her eyes finally closed and her hand stopped rocking the crib. Both baby and mother was in dream world.
Jacqueline then entered Evie's mind again and began to set the stage for yet another encounter with “Matthew”.
In her dream, Evie walked along a road that she did not recognize. It was dark all around her. There were no sounds except for the crashing waves of a far off invisible ocean that Evie only guessed was somewhere in front of her through a thick fog. In that fog, a person apperead.
It was Jacqueline, as Matthew.
She called to him but he did not answer, he only pointed towards the fog from which he was coming from. She called to him and walked faster to meet him but he kept walking, faster too. She began to chanse him frantically begging him to stop as the two entered the thick fog of her dream.
"MATTHEW WHERE ARE YOU! TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE!" Evie screamed as Matthew vanished in the thick fog.
She was now totally consumed by the white clouds all around her. Her direction was confused, she wasn't sure how she got to the point where she was. Matthew's voice suddenly could be heard, begging Evie to find him, saying he was still alive and only she could find him whereever he was.
But Evie asked him to reveal his location he would only say again for her to find him. She tried to find where his voice was coming from. The fog in this dream was thicker than ever. Dark even. Clouds of black and white smoke that swirled all around her. She couldn't see. She couldn't find him or her way out of it. Then, as she made a step forward Evie fell off a cliff in her dream careening down into sharp rocks below, but just before she hit the bottom Evie awoke screaming in her child's room.
"MY GOD!" Jacob said, rushing in from the next room. He had been home from the office for only a little while before hearing Evie's screams. "What is it???" He asked her.
"I, I was dreaming. I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" She asked.
"No, I just got home." He said, looking at her strangely as Jaqueline continued to hide within the shadows of the corner of the baby's room unseen.
"I'm sorry Jacob, I've been having these very vivid dreams lately. Nightmares actually." Evie said.
"So I've heard." Jacob replied.
"Celeste told you?" Evie asked as Jacob nodded. "I wish she hadn't. I think it's silly really. We've all had nightmares, haven't we?"
"We have, but none quite so real as the ones you've been describing. The fact you spoke with Father Ryan about them makes me feel like there's more to these dreams than what you actually know." Jacob said.
"What do you mean? They're just dreams Jacob. Nothing more." She replied knowing how Jacob's mind worked and how he loved to twist reality into something much more sinister.
"I think I know why you're having these dreams. These nightmares. There's something I've been keeping from you." He revealed.
Jacqueline's eyes widened; she could sense what he was about to do.
"What is it?" Evie said standing up from the chair and putting herself between Jacob and the baby's crib almost as if she was preparing to protect the baby from the shrapnel of whatever Jacob was about to say.
"The night that my mother took Gabriel and did what she did at the top of the lighthouse, I was there to take the baby to safety. But I wasn't the only one there."
Evie furrowed her brow. Confused. Concerned. And suspicious of Jacob's history of lies.
Jacqueline's mind searched Jacob's for what he was about to say -- then Sebastian's face appeared.
"It was Sebastian, Evie. He's alive. He survived the fire." Jacob revealed rocking Evie to her core.
"What??? He... no, Jacob, stop this. I saw what I saw! I saw his body evaporate in front of my eyes into ashes. I saw it Jacob!!! He DIED!" She said.
"No, no. He survived it, Evie. I saw him and spoke to him and perhaps this is why you're dreaming the way are. It's not Matthew who's filling your mind, it must be Sebastian. He's trying something, I don't know, mind control or... I don't know. But he's been here too, to see Gabriel. That's who was in the nursery the other night. Not a stranger, it was him. Your vampire husband."
Evie's mind began to swell. She felt a surge of fear wash over her. She had been so sure he was gone, she was so sure that he died in the fire almost a year earlier. She begged for Jacob to tell her the truth, she begged him pulling at the collar of his shirt and pounding on his chest but the truth had already been said.
"I can't take back what I said, Evie. He is alive, perhaps, we could do something to keep you safe. Maybe have you go into hiding." Jacob suggested.
"Yes, yes, I can do that. The baby and I would...." She began to say before Jacob interrupted.
"No. Just you."
"What?" Evie asked.
Jacob walked over to the baby and looked down at the heir of almost half of the billions in the coffers of Lord Family assets. He was an adorable child, sleeping like an angel and one of his and his son Fabian's biggest rivals.
"You're not safe taking the child, and you're not safe if Sebastian is after you. I can see what it's doing to your mind. We all can." He told Evie.
Evie's eyes narrowed, Jaqueline's too, as she was still in the corner watching carefully.
"I don't believe you." Evie replied coldly. "Not get the hell out of this room and leave me and Garbriel alone." She said pulling him away from the crib and once again placing herself between child and great-uncle.
"I'll let you think about it, Evangeline. Because none of this will end well for anyone if you don't take my advice." Jacob replied.
Evie pursed her lips in anger, realizing what Jacob was trying to do-- coherence her to leave the Tirymor without her son, an asinine request, a clear reach for control. But Jacob was only giving her an option, he and Celeste had already set themselves up for much more with legal papers.
She lifted her hand up and pointed to the nursery door "OUT!"
Jacqueline fumed at this, she did NOT want Evie to know the man she loved and the man Evie once loved was alive and roaming the islands somewhere in the dark. What would this trigger in Evie, Jaqueline wondered, reclaimed love?
Jacob bowed his head and obliged --- she didn't take his vialed offer, her easy way out. His bait.
He went back into his room where Celeste was sitting at a vanity in her nightgown of white silk that shined in the glowing orange light of the newly installed electric lamps. She turned to the door and he put his finger to his lips shushing her.
"What?" She whispered.
He walked over to a desk, it's long four legs carved like the legs of a giraffe. He opened the drawer and pulled out the legal papers that they had both signed to take ward of baby Garbriel.
"Tomorrow, we file." He said. "Tomorrow, we solidify our future and our son's future. Forever."
Celeste uncomfortably smiled. And continued to brush her hair in the vanity.
****
 |
| Jacqueline visits Evie at Tirymôr |
The next morning, Evie sat in the breakfast nook of the kitchen at Tirymor sipping on hot coffee. She hadn't slept well all night. Her dreams had subsided, but her conversation with Jacob kept her mind alert, she only slept 3 hours before the sun came up.
She wondered about Sebastian and how it was possible for him to be alive. How was it possible for him to have survived the fire when she watched his body vanish into a pile of ashes.
She wished for it all to be a lie, but something deep in her heart told her Jacob was telling her the truth.
"Miss." A voice said from a doorway the lead out of the kitchen and into a larger sitting room.
Evie turned to see Jane O'Donnell, head of the housekeeping in the mansion standing there with Gabriel in her arms.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll take him." Evie said.
"No, No, that's ok. I just wanted to tell you someone is here to see you. She's out in the garden. Miss Jaqueline Gray." Jane revealed.
Evie smiled and inhaled with excitement to see her new friend. She quickly filled her coffee cup and a second one for Jaqueline and headed to the garden where Jacqueline was sitting under the gazebo bundled up in various furs and gloves.
"What are you doing out here? It's freezing!" Evie said handing her new friend the hot coffee.
"Fresh air is good for us." Jacqueline replied happily taking the coffee as Evie sat next to her.
"To what do I owe this very welcomed visit?" Evie asked incredibly happy to see a friendly face, despite Jacqueline's dark intentions.
"I just wanted to see how you were. You look tired, are you ok?" The witch asked.
Evie shook her head "Ive had a complicated night. I didn't sleep well again. I had another dream about Matthew and then I got into a bit of an argument with Sebastian's uncle Jacob." Evie revealed but Jacqueline already knew all of this.
"What was the argument about?" She asked.
"It doesn't matter, really. He's just being very...I don't even know how to describe him. Meddling? Yes, meddling." Evie said. "But I'm glad you're here, Its good to see a friendly face. My brother works so much and my mother has been spending time at Gregory's, I haven't really had anyone around."
"I'm always here for you Evie." Jaqueline smiled. "You mentioned you had another dream. Did Matthew ask you to follow him again?"
Evie sipped her coffee "Yes. And I fell off a cliff and almost into the sea, before I woke. I wish I could understand what it all meant but everyone I ask says it's probably just stress."
"Maybe you should go look for him." Jacqueline said to Evie's surprise. "I mean, I'm a big believer in what dreams tell us and maybe there is something to it."
"I don't understand. Why would you think that? Matthew isn't alive, he died. We all know he died. This isn't the same situation that Genevieve is going through." Evie said.
"Genevieve?"
"Oh, just one of our former house guests. She left town recently in search of David Lord, Sebastian's father...Rebecca's other son. He's been missing for over a decade, and I heard it through the grapevine that the reason she left without her son was because she was sure he was alive out there somewhere. These dreams I'm having, they are not the same. I don't know what Genevieve thinks she'll find but I for one know that poor Matthew is gone. It breaks my heart everyday time I think of it, but I have to let him go." Evie explained.
"But he hasn't let you go. Evie, listen to me, something tells me this is real." Jacqueline said trying to get Evie to listen to her and to agree to leave so that she could have Sebastian all to herself.
Evie looked at her new friend with new eyes. She didn't understand why she'd be so pressed to convince her to go on a wild goose chase for a man that was lost at sea. The storm that sunk Matthew's ship would have been impossible to service, even though one man did.
"I ... I don't know..." Evie said before Aaron Hamstead interrupted.
"Mrs. Lord, Jane needs you inside."
Evie nodded; she thanked Jacqueline for coming but had to excuse herself to tend to Gabriel.
"Of course." Jacqueline said to her new friend. "We'll catch up soon."
Evie quickly made her way out of the frozen garden and into the house, Aaron remained outside staring down Jacqueline. Something about her made his antennas perk up-- he didn't trust her.
Jacqueline handed Aaron the empty coffee cup and thanked him for bringing back into the house for her, then feeling slightly defeated she left Tirymor, but for her it was not over. Jacqueline would get what she wanted, the love her life Sebastian, even if it meant keeping Evie away from him for all eternity. She could not allow them to see each other and perhaps rekindle their passionate love...now that Evie knew he was alive, this was a fear Jacqueline had.
She couldn't lose him. Not to Evie.
Not now, not ever.
