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| Asha watches a nun from her hospital bedroom |
Within the sterile walls of Welshport Hope Hospital there is a long rectangle shaped room reserved for patients who are recovering from a long convalescence in a much more inviting atmosphere rather than just in regular hospital room. There are couches and plants, paintings on the wall, two small dressers and a private lavatory. A hospital hotel room in all its ways.
In that room, Dr. Asha Hoffman sat in a wheelchair staring out onto a small garden just outside the window where a nun from St. Catherine's Church had volunteered to cheer up the flower beds by planting late spring lavender hyacinths. The nun had an apron stained from the smudged flower petals of reds and deep purples, proof of her hard work. Asha stared at the crimson stains on the apron like they were a famous artist’s design.
She was practically transfixed.
Dr. Nikolas Jordan, Asha’s one time paramour, entered the room all the way at the end and spotted Asha. He hadn't had a conversation with her since she had awoken from her coma and there was a lot to talk about.
He was desperate to question her about where she and Gregory placed his little brother, the baby Aurora gave birth to. Asha and Gregory conspired and gave the child to Mary and Filipe to raise before the trial started.
Nik discovered the secret betrayal just when Gregory kidnapped Asha who was close to backing out of their plot. When Nik found her, she was tied up in a secret room at Gregory's apartment and the building caught on fire; Asha coma came from burning debris that almost crushed her to death.
The time had come, in the long rectangular room at Welshport Hope, for the truth to finally come out.
"Asha, good morning. So good to see you up and around!" Nik said pulling a chair up close to her.
“Nik! Hi!” She said spinning her chair around to see him.
“How does it feel?”
"It feels good." She said with a smile. "I feel like I've been out of it for years."
"Just a few months." He smiled; his cheek dimples deeper than she remembered.
"So, what have you been up to?" She asked, her question odd and pregnant with suspicion.
"Up to?" Nik asked, slightly confused. "I've been working 'round the clock hoping you'd come to, for one!"
"Well, I'm here. I've come to." She replied almost as if to say now take me home and never speak of what happened again.
Nik could tell something was different about Asha. She didn't seem to be happy to see him and in a way that hurt his feelings even though she was the one who had done something terrible to his family. He took a beat to reply but decided enough was enough. He loved her, he deeply cared for his but the truth of what she did overshadowed those feelings now. He wanted to know everything and no set of romantic intentions, whether they were new or from the past, would stop him.
"Ash, I need to clear somethings with you. Important things…I really need to ask you a few questions." he said.
"But Dr. Ward already assessed me. He thinks I could go home soon." She replied, avoiding his inquisition.
"That's wonderful news." he answered. "But, I wasn’t going to asses you. I need to ask you a few questions about the night you delivered my mother's child." He added, finally ripping the Band-Aid off.
Asha’s head made a quick jerk to the left to face Nik, their eyes locked — she instantly knew, he knew. His questioning of that night, of that incident, being the first thing he wanted to discuss so soon after her revival was telling.
"Why?" She shot back.
"It would help us to know what really happened and to finally understand why Gregory had you in that room tied up." He answered.
"What has Gregory said?" She wondered.
He took a breath and lifted a brow, "Asha, I’m sorry to say this but Gregory is dead. He was mauled to death by an animal the night I came and found you in his apartment. That's why I need to know from you. I need you to tell me what happened the night you delivered my mother's baby, you’re the only one who knows the truth."
Asha's heart sank. It was the first she had heard of Gregory's death. There was a moment she felt she was going to tell Nik everything right there and then. She was free, Gregory's death unlocked her freedom from their pact and she could tell the man she loved what she had done and why, how she was blackmailed into doing it, how Gregory found out she wanted to tell the truth and he kidnapped and then her mind quickly switched position. She remembered waking up from her coma and seeing Nik kissing Danielle. She saw them in a romantic way, enjoying themselves in a passion while she lay sleeping in a coma.
This hurt Asha. She felt as if he had been playing her for a fool, but in truth her own betrayal of him and his mother was where his love became a ghost that haunted him the whole time she lay in a coma. He loved her, but the passion had now been transferred to the new nurse in town -- Danielle Holten. His love for Asha was the type of friendship.
"Ummm..” she stammered. “I don't know, I can't really remember much. It's all very blurry. When I think about what happened I think about how wonderful you and I were together and how much fun we were having and then suddenly, I can't remember anything. It just all goes dark. I would like to just got back to those happy times…together." She said, lying.
Nik smiled uncomfortably knowing they could not.
"Asha, what's the last full thing you remember?" Nik asked.
Asha thought for a second pretended only to remember things that happened just before she was kidnapped and few months before. She said she didn't remember the birth, she didn't remember the baby dying, she couldn't recall why Gregory kidnapped her or the fire. All of it lies. She knew exactly what had happened, but the risk of telling Nik the truth meant losing him forever.
"Are you sure? Are you sure you don’t remember?" He asked, hoping she'd finally spark the truth.
"I can’t." She replied quickly. “I’m sorry.”
It was a giant disappointment. He wanted the truth from her without telling her he already knew small details from what he had overheard her say to Gregory, but most of all he wanted to know where the boy was especially for his mother Aurora. For his family.
But his hopes didn't die.
"Alright, well it's very early yet. We could always try and refresh your memory another time. I think that maybe once the new psychiatrist begins work here at Churchill Green, we could get you an appointment and perhaps they could finally help jog those memories." Nik said.
"I don't know. Maybe. I think I just want to get home. Soon." Asha replied.
"I know you do." Nik replied with a grin.
As he got up from the chair she grabbed his hand and pulled him clos. "Will you come with me?"
He didn't want to say No, it felt too harsh to break up with her so soon after she came out of her coma, but at the same time he didn't want to lead her on.
On the other hand, he felt that if she did stick around her maybe he could jog her memory before the physiatrist could. If he were with her more hours in the day he could finally crack her lost memories and finally find his baby brother.
"Let's see what we can arrange. I've been staying with my sister at her new house, but I think I can manage something." He answered.
"Evie's house?" She asked.
"Alot has changed since you've been asleep, Ash. Alot!" He smiled then began to pull away.
She pulled him back, pulled him close to see if he'd kiss her. Nik, unsure what to do thought quickly and kissed her on the forehead leaving Asha with her lips puckered and cool to the touch.
"I'll see you soon, ok?" Nik said.
Asha nodded with disappointedly expressing a sad wilting face and watched Nik walk out of the rectangular room. Once she was alone she turned back to watch the nun in the garden that she had been admiring before Nik came in.
Asha noticed the her ripping the lush flowers out of the ground and tossing them into a pail.
Shocked, Asha rolled her wheelchair to a side door that opened out to the garden and called to the nun, horrified that she’d rake out the plants she loved seeing her plant.
“Excuse me! Sister! Why are you doing that? They looked so pretty!” Asha shouted.
“Oh!!” The nun exclaimed, startled by Asha’s sudden appearance. “I made such a huge mistake, Dr. Hoffman. I brought the wrong plant to be placed here. I say, if my head wasn’t attached I’d surly lose it, lord love me. This is nightshade, can you believe that!! Nightshade!”
Asha sat back in her chair “Nightshade?”
The nun confirmed in her Welsh accent “I don’t know what I was thinking. It grows in these wonderful full bushes but placed in the wrong hands it can be deadly poisonous.”
Asha’s mind raced for a split second.
“Poisonous.” She thought to herself as Danielle’s face appeared in her mind.
“I have to start fresh.” The nun added.
“Start fresh. Yes.” Asha said as her mind floated to her first waking moment of Nik kissing Asha.
The nun would do anything to make sure patients enjoying the garden were protected from a poisonous plant even after enduring days of back bending work of planting, pulling up and replanting bushes. Just like she would do anything to keep Nikolas from the poison of the truth.
She loved him more than anything and would never let him go.
Not without a fight. And as she stood there, the word nightshade flowed in her mind giving her an idea. A potentially deadly idea.
****
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| Cora, Lucas & Lear at Gramercy Café |
At Gramercy Cafe, Lucas Mural and Cora Taylor sat at a three top table outside in the wonderful spring air. They were there waiting for Lear who was running late from an appointment at his office. Cora nervously wrung a pale yellow cloth napkin run her hands remembering the night before when she and Lucas snuck into Lear's office and found her adoption papers. Although Lear and Baxter had kept so many secrets from her she still felt bad about going behind Lear's back.
Lucas, who was incredibly smitten with Lear, also felt a twinge of guilt for planting the idea in Cora's head and then helping her in to Lear's office.
"I don't want him to hate me for this." Lucas said. "But you deserved to know. It's your life."
"I'm nervous about how he'll react and ... what he might do." She said lifting a frosted glass of ice water to her lips.
As she sipped the cold liquid, Lucas motioned with his chin that Lear had arrived.
"Sorry, I'm late."
"Hi!" Lucas said, hugging his partner tightly. "We haven't been here long."
"Coraline." Lear said with a smile has he reached over and kissed his biological sister on the cheek. "I'm glad you're here."
"Thank you." She said sitting back down in her crush of what taffeta.
"So what is on the menu for today?" Lear wondered innocently.
Lucas and Cora shot each other a look that Lear noticed.
"What?" He said.
"We have something to tell you." Lucas revealed.
"What is it?"
Cora took another sip of water as Lucas looked to her to fill in her brother.
"You've been so busy with the trial and there were a lot of unanswered questions about things. Uh... Lear...umm, Lucas and I, well...." Cora couldn't say it, She couldn't tell him they broke into his office and took files.
To help ease the confession along, Lucas removed the key to Lear's office from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table. Lear recognized it right away. Ever the keen lawyer he put two-and-two together in no time but played dumb. He wanted a clear confession to what they did and why. Lucas slowly slid the key over to Lear on the white table cloth.
"We had to find answers." Cora said.
Lear didn't reply, he only looked over at Lucas.
"She deserved to know! Everything! It was so hard for you to find a moment because you were so busy and, well, I had a key and I went with her to find what she needed to find." Lucas added
"And did you?" Lear wondered.
Cora nodded. "There are still a lot of questions." She said.
"Like?"
Cora reached down under the table where she had the file hidden in a satchel. She pulled it out and opened it to the page where a strange signature had been written down that no one could read.
"This signature." Cora said. "I can’t quite make it out, do you know who it was? How were they involved?" She asked.
"It could be anybody." Lear said. "People involved in this type of activity, selling babies to families who couldn’t legally adopt them, used any kind of name. All I know is that there was someone who helped our father connect with a family, the Murphys, who were desperate for a child."
"Someone who worked at an orphanage or something?" Lucas wondered.
"Perhaps." Lear answered. "Are you thinking of finding this person?"
Cora sighed, "I think I'd like to know more about Father in the moment he reached out to them. I want to know what Mother thought. I want to know every detail possible. This person, if they're alive, may be the only person who can answer that for me. You and Baxter were too little to know all the details."
"Coraline, in my line of work I've learned that sometimes knowing everything in all the minute details isn't always the best strategy. You should let it go -- get back into your life and live it. You know who you really are now and now you have control. You can decided if you want to connect with your Lockwood Family, like me and Rebecca or not. I wouldn't go digging into something like this if you're not prepared to hear things that may upset you." Lear warned.
"I think I'm ready though." She said.
"Are you sure?" He asked. “Sometimes it’s better to let sleeping dogs sleep.”
Before Cora could answer a seagull swung over their table screeching and calling to his friends on other rooftops. She looked up and saw the gull staring back at her. His white feathers almost seemed to glow in the afternoon sun. For her it was a sign, she was going off into the right direction.
"I am, yes." She said.
Lear sighed and took the paperwork they stole back into his hands and read it over. He stared at the signatures and over the years he had seen many strange ways of writing. People, it turns out, have a way of scribbling their signature something terrible when they want to conceal something. He always knew when his clients were guilty of something because their signatures were usually an inky mess on the paper. The less guilty of something someone was the clearer and more confident their signature.
This talent Lear had also made him an expert at being able to read these shrouded signatures, just like the one on the paper before him.
"Well the first name here is quite hard to read because it's been smudged. The ink must of been wet when they wrote their name and when they passed over to write their last name smudged their first name. The last name however is simple: RIDGEWAY."
"Ridgeway." Lucas replied.
"It's a start." Lear said.
Cora thought about the rest of the day. Ridgeway. She'd heard it before.
But where?
****
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| Aurora & Caspian |
Down the street from Gramercy Cafe at The Welshport Inn, Caspian poured himself a small drink while a guest of his flipped through a magazine on a sofa just in front of a large window.
The guest, Aurora Ashby-Jordan.
Caspian had stayed at the hotel that night in protest to his wife Rebecca's attempt to keep his daughter Danielle from revealing to him he was really Viktor Holten. Rebecca saw Danielle's hopes of reuniting with Viktor as a threat to their marriage but in reality it only proved to Caspian that Rebecca was as devious as Lord family member.
"You haven't said much since I got here." Aurora said, putting down the magazine on her lap.
"There is a lot on my mind." He replied.
"Caspian," She began before he interrupted her.
"Shouldn't it be Viktor?" He asked.
Aurora lifted a brow, it was the first time he had acknowledged his real name. "Should it??" She asked.
He took a sip of his drink.
"If you really want to find out who you really were then go to Danielle. You have the right to do that. Rebecca didn't have the right to hide the truth from you. She was wrong." Aurora said.
"What happens when Danielle discovers what happened to me? At this point I don't know if she knows. But she will. What will happen then?" Caspian said referring to the time he was possessed by a demon that called itself THE HUNTER.
"I can't answer that, Caspian. I can't tell you what she'll say or do and what she'll think. All you can do, really, is give it a chance and be honest with her." Aurora replied.
Caspian turned to her, and smiled. She was being so kind to him despite their awful past. When he was possessed he had come to Aurora's room at Tirymor House but the creature was able to shape-shift into the face and body of Aurora's then-partner Gregory Reins -- they made love and conceived a child. Aurora did not know it was Caspian when they made love, it felt like a rape, a strange odd rape. But She had forgiven Caspian not too long ago privately, he-- she understood-- was under the power of something grater than she could even imagine.
His mind was not in his control. His actions too were done why the creature that took over his body the entire time they knew each other.
The fact remained, that Caspian (or Viktor) had a past with Aurora and a past with Danielle. The middle point was a single mad who had two lives that he had to somehow consolidate and refine. On his own terms not have it curated by his current wife, Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador.
"You've been so kind to me during all of this. You don't have to be." He said. "Thank you."
"I think that what we've been through has been something that I couldn’t have imagine ever happening, and we have survived." She replied. "Which brings me to the issue at hand. Caspian, somewhere out there is our child. Our little boy. Once you find your footing with Danielle, your daughter, I hope that we can do the same for our missing son." She said.
"Of course!" Caspian said. "I want that so much too."
"Asha Hoffman is the key. I think once we get her to tell us what happened that night, the night I gave birth things will move so much faster, and finally, in our direction." She said.
"Our direction." He smiled. "I do like the sound of that."
Aurora blushed. She saw him so differently now that he was more himself than how she met him. The mistrust she felt of him for so long had vanished, she felt a calmness inside of him, his voice soothing even like a soft rain pitter pattering on leaves of spring.
He put down his drink and walked over to her and sat next to her on the sofa. He grabbed her hand and slowly leaned in.
They hugged and then after a silent staring into each other’s eyes a long awaited kiss.
When they came to a hug again, over her shoulder on the room wall was an ornately decorated mirror and when Caspian saw his reflection he smiled, but it was a smile that he did not have on his actual face. The refection was looking back at him but with a totally different facial expression than Caspian actually had. It was as if it were someone totally different in the refection not really him.
He gasped and quickly released Aurora from the hug.
"What is it?" She exclaimed. "Are you ok? What happened?"
"I.... I don't know." He said.
Then, in a split second he suddenly got one of his headaches. The headaches that had been plaguing him for weeks now since his fall in the caves.
He winced with pain and placed both his pointer fingers and middle fingers on his temples massaging the pain in his head. The mirror, the face in the mirror was his and yet it was not his. The headache scorched his mind like a wildfire consuming all his thoughts.
"Sit back down!" She said quickly bring him some water.
He grabbed the cup and drank from it then dropped it to hardwood floor breaking it in half.
Aurora yelped and stepped back as he lay down on the sofa with his feet up.
"Should I call Dr. Ward?" She asked.
"JUST GO!!!!" he shouted at her. "GET OUT!!!"
"Caspian?"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!!" He screamed at her.
Aurora, frightened and panicked grabbed her coat and left Caspian roaring with pain from his head on the sofa. He couldn't control his anger. There was a throbbing in his mind like a beating drum that would not stop and then, like the flick of a light switch he fell into a sweaty heap and slept.
****
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| Rebecca confronts Christopher |
That evening, back at Welshport Hope, Rebecca had plenty to worry about. She sat vigil at Jacob's bedside as Celeste went home to be with her son Fabian. But she had other worries. Her min was on Caspian. She hadn't seen him in the days since he left Tirymor House angry with the truth of how she tried to keep Danielle from him.
In the dimly lit private room where Jacob was recovering from his heart-attack, something else crossed her path to worry about. In the hospital room window looking in, was Christopher Wesley. The man with her son David's face, body and voice.
Rebecca's eyes locked on who she thought was her son...she had heard that this Christopher person looked like David and was the cause of the heart attack but she hadn't quite realized just how uncanny his appearance was. The stoic Rebecca stood up from her chair in the room and made a slight half turn, Jacob was still asleep.
She went out into the hallway and faced him.
"Go on." She said to him. He didn't know how to respond. "Tell me why you've lied to us all these years." She added.
"I don't know how to explain any of it, aside from only telling you that David died that night at the lighthouse. I’ve left him behind — he’s gone and I’ve found a new life away from my past."
“So you thought.” His mother replied.
“Im sorry you can’t accept it. I really am.”
“Don’t you think I deserve better than that?” She asked.
Christopher took a breath as memories of his Lord childhood flashed across his mind and how his own mother didn’t come to his defense about Sabrina’s death.
“No.” He said softly.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes and slapped Christopher across the face.
"You have been gone for over 20 years. We thought you were dead. Twenty years, David, TWENTY! I prayed for you every single day. I cried, I mourned, I dreamed of you -- my son. My beautiful, beautiful son." Rebecca said, the anger slowly melting away her hardened exterior.
"I know you want to think that things are the same but they're not. David did die that night at the lighthouse and Christopher was born. My old life was painful, and I suffered and I don't want to go back to it. I had to move on to a new life and free myself. Do you know how horrible it was to know that the entire world thought I killed my wife? Most of all my own mother?”
“David it wasn’t like that!” She countered. “We had no idea what happened, but Jacob…”
“Yes, yes… but Jacob. I know about Jacob. He had even I me thinking that I took poor Sabrina’s life! But not for long. I began to remember, and all those years in London showed me no one came to my defense. You all just believed the worst lie Jacob ever told, and so I let myself die. Why not let the Lord family murderer vanish into the myth and let you all go one with your million dollar balls, fancy dinners and masquerades.” Chris said.
"So why are you here then? Why have you returned to us?"
Chris sighed then shrugged.”
"Ive been asking myself that same question since I’ve come him but in truth there was something in me that always knew I'd come back one way or another but when Genevieve found me it felt like a sign. I took one look at her and it all came back to me. How could it not? She looks exactly like Sabrina. I had to come home." He said.
"Is that the only reason?"
Chris remembered how keen his mother was at telling when he was lying.
"Maybe some of it was to give it back to Jacob, all of the terrible things he did to me. I wanted to make him hurt too but... suffer as I did, but the plan just didn't come together. I think that was for the best." He explained.
Rebecca turned and looked into the small window into Jacob's room. Her two sons. Finally back in the same world together. Again. She had wanted this for so many years but thought it would never happen in this world. She'd have to wait until they were all on the other side to have their ghostly family reunion but now, there he was, they she was and there they were. The three of them together again after more than 20 years.
"Have you seen Sebastian?" She asked quietly, her soft green eyes painfully aware of her grandson’s dark history.
Chris nodded.
"He's so different." Chris said.
"He is." She replied. "But he's still your son. Never forget that, he is still you son no matter what."
"What happened to him?" He asked, hoping for the truth.
Rebecca wasn't sure how far into the truth she'd go, and perhaps it wasn't the time to. She shook her head and placed her hand on his shoulder telling him that would have to wait. She would tell her son, Christopher, everything —someday soon.
"I'm glad you're back." She said softly. "Our family is almost intact again."
Chris smiled and hugged his mother. Soon, they'd both tell each other the truth: about Sebastian, about his time in London, about where their worlds would meet again, what he'd do in the future. She hoped too that this was a sign that maybe they could all three put the past behind them and finally connect.
It would take time — and it would be a battle — it would take a miracle.
****
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| Sebastian and Evie in Gabriel’s room |
As night arrived, Evie was putting Gabriel to sleep in his crib. She looked down at his beautiful face and his creamy peachy skin thanked God for having the little boy back in her life. She had been though so much and felt worth it all to finally be with her little boy again.
As she watched her son, she felt a cool breeze bush across the back of her neck. She turned to see that the little boy's window was open. She could see the crashing waves far off in the distance. As she reached over to pull in the window and close it she felt a hand touch hers.
Startled, she turned back and it was Sebastian, her former husband and Gabriel's father.
"What are you doing here?" She whispered.
Sebastian smiled and turned to Gabriel in the crib. "I came to see him." Sebastian whispered.
Evie moved her arms around her body hugging herself. She wished Sebastian had told her he was coming. Matthew was in the other room. She had invited him for tea.
As the two parents went into the other room, Matthew stood up at the sight of Sebastian.
"You should have told me." She whispered.
"Why?" He asked.
"Listen, Sebastian, I think it's' time you know that Matthew and I are not seeing each other, but we are still friends. I care for him and he's in the other room. I don't think the two of you should be around each other. Not yet." Evie said pulling Sebastian into another room where they could speak louder.
"I don't have anything against Matthew." Sebastian replied. "Does he have something against me?"
Evie rolled her eyes. "This is not about you and him, it's about me. I want to take some time to raise Gabriel and be on my own. We've all been through so much that I don't know where or who I am right now. Matthew understands, I hope you can too."
"I don't understand. Why would you say this to me? I feel like you're telling me you don't want me to come around here." Sebastian replied.
"No, not at all. But are you able to see us as just Gabriel's parents and not husband and wife?"
Sebastian thought for a second. "I want us to be together. We deserve it. Jacqueline is gone and we deserve that, don't we?" He asked.
"I need to find myself Sebastian."
Sebastian stood there in the small quaint library she had created in her new home. He realized the downfall a life in the shadows finally meant. Everyone in the world would move on with their lives. Grow up. Grow Old. Find Friends. New Loves. New Enemies, but for Sebastian his world was frozen in time. He'd never age. He'd never die -- naturally. Sebastian was seeing his world erode right in front of his eyes. And it hurt his heart.
"Evie please, we should go away -- away together and never come back to this place. I could keep you safe! I would! We'll take Gabriel and everything will be fine, can't you see? It can work. We can be a family somewhere far, far away from here."
"What? No! I already told you I can't do that. My family is here now. I can't just leave that's not what I want." She said.
"And Matthew is here." Sebastian said suddenly suspecting Evie might not be telling him the truth about her relationship. "At night."
Evie lifted a brow "We're friends Sebastian. We just went through a horrible ordeal locked away fearing for our lives. That's all. Now you should go. Go back into Gabriel's room and say good night. You can come back tomorrow."
"No." Sebastian said right off.
"Sebastian, please -- " She said before he interrupted.
"If this is about me -- and what I am. I can tell you that I've been good! I can now control myself and I don't want to take the lives of people. I swear to you Evie, if we leave Welshport - together - we'll all be so happy. Together!"
"Sebastian, stop, please." She said.
Sebastian's heart broke. He felt as if she only saw what she had been through. She hadn't thought about what he had been through. He had saved Filipe, he had helped save Johnathon from Jacqueline and even though there was so many things that had happened that were awful, he knew that he could still provide for her and save her and their beautiful boy.
"I'll come back tomorrow night." He said.
She smiled politely and once again, her body language showed something else, she was completely over Sebastian, the way they were. She loved Sebastian, but only as the father of her son, not as a romantic partner.
She wanted to be independent. She wanted to find herself again; the woman she was supposed have become before she became the wife of infamous Sebastian Lord.
As Sebastian moved into Gabriel's room and said goodnight, Matthew stood in a hidden area in the shadows. He had heard the entire conversation.
The worry was slashed all over his face.
Evie went back into the living room only to find just the two cooling tea-cups.
Matthew had gone, without saying a thing. He'd followed Sebastian to finally confront him and end their strange back and forth tug-of-war with Evie as their rope.
