 |
| Cyfrinach burns |
The morning had finally broken. The sun was set low in the eastern sky lifting slowly over Goodwick, Scotland as Cyfrinach burned with fire that matched the tones of a dawning world.
Down at the bottom of the trail that led from the castle to the village, Sister Anna had fallen asleep in the grass awaiting the friends she had made and sent into the castle. She prayed all night for their return. The morning dew stuck to her black and white habit like honeycomb.
She stirred when she heard yelling from up the hill. Her senses waking her too with the smell of fire.
She sat up, soaked to her skin from the moisture in the air, and saw a group of people rushing down the dirt path with a ferocity that made her stomach knot.
As they approached, Sister Anna saw Matthew and Hope, her heart began to race. They'd made it!
"WE HAVE TO GO!" Matthew shouted to her as the others finally crowded around the nun.
"What happened??? Is it fire? I see smoke!" Anna said, her mind in a tailspin.
"We have to GO! NOW!" Matthew shouted at her.
"The church, we can kind in the church, all of you, quickly!" Anna replied.
The group continued to rush through the brush and grass down through small paths made by from the night before. They got to a cobblestone street that led into the village. Early rises in town watched in wonder as the sky above filled with smoke. They watched but did nothing. There was a sense of liberation about their frozen nature as the group quickly flickered through the village streets.
Anna felt the difference instantly. It was as if a fog had lifted and revealed a joyous, bright new day. As her mind raced unsure of what had happened, the nun ushered the group to safety. She pushed the heavy church door open and everyone rushed in except Jean Marc.
"Hurry, child!" She said to him. "Take shelter."
Looking in through the door of the church, the young daywalker had many gifts from Dominique but stepping into a holy place was not one of them. The sight of a crucifix was stuff of folklore and did nothing to his darkened soul, any vampire knew the crucifix no danger to them, but the power of spirit, the power of truth, the power of hope and love within the walls of a shrined place like a church was deadly in ways no one, no story, no gothic book had ever told.
The holy world that continued to reign amongst the believers that drew in goodness was a deterrence and could withered any creature of the shadows after a prolonged exposure. The crucifix was as dangerous as kitten to a shark, but the power and energy of the spirit was an unbearable veil the curse of Jean-Marc's kind would not survive.
"I -- I can't." Jean Marc said.
"He, he's one of them." Roman said at the door of the church. "We can't abandon him now, he's helped us escape. What should we do?"
Anna's heart went from racing to practically stopping when she realized the child was vampire. She could not comprehend how he was out in the light. She stared at him, his beautiful pale face almost made him look like a porcailan doll. He's eyes were dark and haunting yet not frightening. His dark hair was perfectly combed even in the frantic state they were all in after the escape. She walked up to him and reached to cup his chin in her hand. He turned from her, a nun could not touch him.
"Is he full?" She wondered, pulling her hand back. "He's in the light."
"He's what they call a daywalker. A special gift the countess gave him when she created him. But this place is still off limits." Roman explained.
"Is there a basement? Or anything where we can hide him?" Matthew added returning to the church door.
"No." Jean Marc said. "I can't be here, nothing at the church." His face softening with worry and abandonment.
"I don't know where to take him." Anna confessed, sounding hurt she could not help the poor boy.
"I'll take him to the Inn." Hope replied. "I'll stay with him."
"It's too dangerous, what if they come for you?" Matthew added.
"Don't worry about me, I can take care of us." She said with a smirk. "Come, today we'll hide together."
Jean Marc's 14-year-old face lit up. He felt finally apart of a group that loved him, no matter what. Someone, Hope, was about to risk her own life to be with him and hide away. He hoped that they'd be safe but in his young heart he knew for her kindness to be with him he would do everything to keep her just as safe.
Hope looped her arm into his and the two carefully rushed off into town while Anna ushered the others into the church and locked the large, wood doors behind her with a large wooden slab that fell from one wall to the other in a large thud that echoed throughout the church.
Now, the escapees stared at the freshly locked church door and wondered had they escaped the dark, dingy prison of Cyfrinach and replaced it for the more beautiful, magnificent prison of the Goodwick village church.
****
 |
| Sister Anna at the docks |
Later, down at the shipyard in Goodwick village, the sky in the distance that was once black with smoke from the castle now blurred with a blue undertone. The gray smolders still lifted into the air but the fire, at least from this distance, seemed to be weakening inside the Castle Walls.
Sister Anna, in a fresh habit, walked along the dock with a basket of food. She could see the faces of villagers were different, their skin almost brighter with the gleam of a new hope that came as the castle and it's court of supposed Saints lost their power over this tiny little fishing place.
She came to a sailor and his crew who were tying ropes around giant steel cleats mooring their beautiful ship. The sails were being carefully lowered and folded away for another day out at sea.
"Excuse me," Anna shouted over the crashing of waves off out to the beach. "I was hoping you could help me."
The sailor looked down at the nun and smirked "I don't think there be anything here for a good sister of the church, now ma'am. But I can try."
"I Need help, you see a group of my friends need safe passage to America." She said.
"America! A bit further than we've sailed in a while. Whereabout?"
"Maine." She said.
"Main...." He thought, scratching his sun scorched face. "America, eh? Close to Nova Scotia. How many?"
Anna thought for a second she counted six then wondered if she should add herself. She looked around the little village, her whole. A place she'd lived all her life. A place she once believed she'd never leave. A place that still needed her now that a new dawn had come.
"Six. Maybe seven." She said. "Six adults and a child."
"It won't be cheap." The sailor smirked with the dark teeth and long dingy beard tied in a knot at the bottom. The winkles around his eyes and forehead made of leathery sun browned skin gave him an older look, but his little grin showed his relative youth.
Anna looked in her basket and placed it on the dock's withered wood floor. She could see through the slats the water below washing it's blue jewel toned beauty over the black rocks. She removed items that she was taking back to the church for the escapees to eat and under was items of solid gold, money, and jewelry from the church's coffers sparked in the sun.
"Will this be enough?" She asked stepping aside so the sailor could see.
"Aye!" He replied happily, the items glittering in his eyes. "Where'd a sister like you get all this?" He asked coming down off the boat to inspect his new treasures.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that this is enough to get my friends in need back to America. They have to be out of Scotland by tonight." She said.
"Aye, my mates and me-self can handle that. None of this is stolen now, is it? We be sailors of the big blue but pirates we're not!" He warned.
"It's for you and your ship-mates sir, if you're willing. That's what you need to know." she replied.
"Sister, the likes of you can't be a liar, can ya?" He smirked. "Alright. Tonight then. Have'em here at seven in the evening. We'll be ready to ship out then."
The sailor reached for the basket of items, but Anna slapped his hand away. He bounced back and looked at her crossly.
"Seven it is. They'll be here." She then grabbed half of the treasure and handed it to him. "The rest of this is yours at 7pm."
"A businesswoman, are ya!?" The sailor chuckled. "Seven pm sharp."
Sister Anna nodded and grabbed her basket and walked off stockily back towards the village happy with her deal.
 |
| Matthew & Evie at the Church |
Back at the church while Anna bargained for a safe travel back to America for her friends, Evie covered Roman with a blanket she found in the cupboards. He had fallen asleep in the pews under the glowing light of one of the large candle chandeliers that glowed dimmer as the night drew near.
She smiled at the little boy’s sleeping face. He looked so quiet and innocent, his whole past vanquishing like a ghost as he slept there like a child. She wondered how her cousin could have gotten into such a mess, how he'd found himself in this debt to the Doshalls, but she also remembered it didn't matter now. They were gone and he was there with her. Reunited.
Evie then turned and saw Matthew cradling Gabriel to sleep. Another smile broke across her tired face. It warmed her heart to see her son safe in arms she trusted. A rush of love came over her.
Matthew had risked his life to come for her and her son. She no doubt believed he never thought twice about it.
She walked over quietly to Matthew and sat down next to him. They were on the one step of the that led up to the white walled alter under the ivory faced statute of the Virgin and child.
"How'd did we get here, huh?" She whispered as he handed her the sleeping boy.
"How far should we go back?" He joked.
"Matthew, I don't know how I could ever repay you for doing what you've done. You and your sister could have been killed, and you both chose to come here, all the way here to help us. You risked both your lives. Thank you."
Matthew put his large hand on her cheek; she nuzzled it warmly. He gave her a half smile and leaned in and kissed her. "How could I not come?"
She shrugged “If you didn’t come, Gabriel would have been…” Evie chocked up at the thought of the diabolical plot on her son, his life being snuffed out for the sake of a vampire’s.
“Shh— don’t think of it. It didn’t happened. You stopped it from happening and any minute now we’ll be out of here heading home.” Matthew noted.
“Home.” She repeated. Then she sighed, melting into the thought of her own bed, her own home. Her own life.
She scooted closer to him on the step as the statute stared down at them. She melted into his arms, their heartbeats seeming to beat as one.
There were so many unanswered questions remained, so much yet unsaid.
But finally, for the first time in what felt like a century Evie truly felt safe — there in Matthew’s arms. She wondered too if they actually did make it out of their sacred prison could she truly find herself with Matthew again— permanently?
 |
| Cyfrinach in ruin |
For his part, Sebastian's eyes turned the other way towards the sea and down towards the village. He wondered where Evie and Gabriel went. He wanted to sense them, to use his every going telepathic strength to locate them --- but he felt a block. There was something not allowing him to take his mind to find them. He turned and saw Dominique staring at him.
"You feeling ok madame?" Kildare asked of Dominique who was recovering from blast in the garden.
Dominique turned to Kildare from Sebastian and nodded. Then she put her gloved hand to her facial wounds from the explostion. She knew they'd heal quickly. After a good nights sleep, she'd be good as new.
"We should be going." Kildare said.
Dominique now saw Kildare as her most trusted confidant now that Roman was gone, he could see her eyes, gray in the light of day, looking towards the furthest part of the castle where there was a basement where the last of her clan had been destroyed.
Kildare knew instantly what she was wondering. How did it get to this?
Her new loyal husband grabbed her leather gloved hand and helped her down the final few steps to the pebbled driveway. She entered the car, slid across and Sebastian followed. She could tell his mind was somewhere else. As his new wife she was already adept at his idiosyncrasies, and she was sure to scramble any thoughts of Evie. Dominique was to be the only female his mind occupied.
"I fear for my son." he sighed. "Our son." He corrected, although in his heart the "our" belonged to Evie and himself. "I don't know what she'll tell him of me."
"Although I see nothing special about Evangeline as a woman, I will admit her devotion to our Gabriel is admirable. I won't take that from her. That being said I don't see her poisoning him against you." Dominique replied.
"I can only hope you're right." Sebastian replied.
Dominique could sense a sting of regret from her new husband. The power she held over him was strong but it seemed to thin as the days went on. The new countess wondered now just how long she could hold on to him and more importantly how his guilt would affect the path to their future.
She slithered over the black leather seat of the car and lifted her veil almost like a bride at the altar. She tilted her head and kissed him on the lips, her hand with it's cold leather clove, caressed his jaw and his face to hers. He kissed her back, the sweet taste of her lips on his tongue made his heart skip a beat.
"We've given each other a new lease." She repeated. "What you had before, your life in America was limited. Together we have the world at our fingertips, and I intend for you to see it and live the way you should have lived all your life all this time. Like royalty. I promise you Sebastian, this is just the beginning."
"I won't let that happen." Dominique replied as the car turned down into the village. "He's our son and he belongs with us. Maybe not now, but he'll be with us. I promise you that."
This was a matter of time, not conscience. She would get what she needed for her life to last forever, but in due time. The flames of the destruction of Cyfrinach had barely cooled, it was too soon to rip the curtain back and take the mixling for herself.
"Evie will see the light at some point. She has to. She can't imagine herself as the mother of this child, a child that is so important of our way of life, and pretend his father was never you. We are his rightful parents. He belongs to us, and when the time comes, my darling Sebastian, we'll be reunited with him. I have many, many ways of getting what I --- " she paused "what we deserve."
"I won't allow you to hurt anyone." Sebastian said, as the car turned a corner in the village passing the church where his son was being held.
In the end, his life took a different path. Could he ever find a way back to them? Could he ever find a way to a future where he could live amongst them after all he had done. Flashes of his time with Evie went through his tortured mind: How they met, their first walk in the lush gardens of Tirymor House, their first kiss and the first time they made love. Even the bad things swept in, like his murder, their disastrous time at Lockwood Thicket as they tried to rebuild their relationship only for it to blow up in their faces with Alice Winterborn's exposure of his darkness. Even his frantic digging up a frozen over grave to find Evie buried alive thanks to the obsessed with Jacqueline's games.
The daywalkers escaped but the night dwellers faded into the fire of the blast.
 |
| The long way home |
Evie, Matthew, Hope, Roman, Jean Marc and Gabriel, carefully walked up a long wooden plank with ropes along the side to the mid-sized ship that would take them back to America.
"Thank you for all you've done." Hope said, hugging Anna. "I wish you'd come with us."
"Home?" Gabriel signed.
"To Grandmother and Uncle Nik" the mother signed back.
Evie grabbed his little fingers and kissed them; they were cold as the cool autumn air took the warmth from all their exposed skin. She did not answer him this time. She didn't want to keep saying that Sebastian was fine, or that he would come soon, or any kind of cover-up as to not upset the child. His green eyes were so loving and caring, and she could tell by his quivering lower lip that he missed his father already but, this had to be done. Their freedom from the shackles of Sebastian's darkness and deep seeded sinister side was bound to happen sooner or later.
Fate had other plans and Evie found herself on the bow of a ship escaping a kidnapping by the very man she believed would never hurt her again.
"Are you alright?" Matthew asked as Evie turned back to the village as the castle in the distance burned away.
"It?" Matthew asked.
"There is so much I've been wanting to tell you and there has been so much we've been through — together. I want you to know that nothing will change how I feel about you. I will always, always, be there for you. I will always protect you and Gabriel, no matter what. I love you." He said.
Roman smiled then shrugged clearly uncomfortable with the idea. He wasn't sure about anything except that he was now on a ship headed for a place he had never lived in for more than summer visits and had not seen in over 2 decades. There was a small thorn of fear sticking in his side, it stung, it burned but it also made him excited to feel it.
 |
| Return to Welshport |
At the very same time as the ship coming from Scotland sliced through the icy waters of the North Atlantic, life in Welshport had not become frozen in time as many would have hoped.
The world continued to turn, the days and nights shifted like alliances between friends and foes, lovers and enemies. Secrets on branches of the Lord family tree snapped devastating the lives of neighbors and friends who continued to live amongst havoc in the village.
Dr. Nikolas Jordan stepped out of a taxi cab and walked a few steps around the black shiny car to open the other passenger side door. He extended his hand and Danielle Holten grabbed hold of it.
She reached back into the taxi and grabbed a bouquet of flowers. Fresh white roses they marched the pale color of her coat.
"Would you stay for a bit? You can keep your count." Nik asked the driver.
"Yes sir."
Nik and Danielle grabbed each other's hands and began their way down a sloped hill of St. Thomas' cemetery. They walked passed crumbling tombstones of old names forgotten by time. Danielle felt a chill up her spine as they came to the freshly dug grave they came to see.
She teared up and knelt down placing the flowers down.
"The headstone is almost done." Nik said. "It'll look nicer once it's placed."
"Yes." Danielle sniffed. "I feel so responsible."
"No," Nik said taking her into his arms. "You did nothing wrong. What happened was -- wasn't your fault Danni. You know that don't know? Deep inside you have to know that."
Danielle shook her head and wiped her tears with a pink handkerchief she pulled from her coat pocket.
"If I didn't come back here to settle my mother’s estate maybe none of this would have happened." She said.
"But you did come back and it did happen. That doesn’t make what happened your fault, because you did nothing wrong. Do you hear me? I promise you; it's not your fault." Nik said.
A cold wind blew across the cemetery and Nik pulled Danielle into a hug. He held her in his arms as she shivered in the wind. "We should go."
She agreed and the two went back up the hill to the awaiting cab.
Leaving the grave and the white roses of their loved one alone again in the autumn sun.
"GRUB!!!" A Police guard shouted as he rolled a cart with several food trays loaded on to it.
"Back away from the cell doors, you lot, and get ready to eat." Another, more strapping guard said as they walked along with the guard with the food card.
"BARNS, step back!" The food guard announced as he opened the jail cell to slip the inmate’s food in.
"RAFFERTY, step back!" The same guard shouted as he went to the next cell.
"ANDREWS, step back." Another inmate in the Welshport jail was called to receive his food.
"LORD!" The food guard called. But the person did not move from the front of the cage.
"LORD! You were asked to step back." The bigger guard repeated.
The person, named Lord, did not move.
The second guard's eyes narrowed, he slapped his nightstick on the bars causing a loud clang to echo into the hall of the jail. Ironically, the same jail cell that held Evie, Matthew and Mary only half a year earlier during the witch trial.
"BACK UP! Or you don't eat." The food guard shouted.
The person, named Lord, finally listened and backed away from the bars allowing the food guard to open the gate and slip in the food tray.
The bars slid closed and Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador grabbed the food tray in her jail cell and threw it across her tiny room smashing the food against the hard concrete walls.
The other three inmates all began to laugh and cheer her on.
The food guard rolled his eyes, the other walked back up to the bars and snarled at her.
"You'll have to eat it off the floor then." he said.
Rebecca sat down on her bed and folded her arms across her chest and said nothing.
**
Further off towards Bellmore Beach, Evie's beach house gifted to her by Rebecca herself, Aurora hurried around searching for a small little blanket she knew she had left on the sofa in the front room. She scurried around searching under chairs, behind pillows, near a baby's crib and finally found it in a toy box.
"Oh!" She scoffed.
Aurora then went back into a Gabriel's nursery and picked up a teddy bear. She cuddled it like a child and worried about Evie and Gabriel and where they were.
"You found it!" A male's voice said.
"Of course it wasn't in the toy box, it was in the crib." Aurora chuckled.
"AH!" the man smiled. "I knew it wasn't lost." The man said of the bear.
"I just wish I could hold him just as I'm holding the bear." Aurora said tightly squeezing the teddy.
"I know imagining Gabriel out there somewhere hurts, but does some of that hurt go deeper. Are you also think of..." Aurora interrupted him.
"Our son?" She said of the child taken from her. "Yes. I think of him too every day. He's out there. Somewhere. Just as My daughter and grandson are. I just want them all home. I want everyone single one of my children here with me." She said with tears in her eyes.
The man smiled sweetly and reached over for Aurora's hand. They held hands and realized they'd gone through hell to get where they were. So many lives had been changed so many worlds had been destroyed but they were together.
"I love you Aurora." the man said.
"I love you too Viktor." Aurora replied to the man once known as Caspian Casador, now going by his true name, Viktor Holten and staying with her at Bellmore Beach.
Off in the distance, passed the sea on the mainland in Maine, a train pulled out of its station in a town called Collinsport. The train was headed south, far away from Maine and the secretive and dangerous world that was Welshport Island.
"Papa, can I read that?" A young boy asked his father who was going over paperwork for work.
"This is not for you to read." The father answered. "Not yet. One day this business will be all yours son, and then you can read over these manuscripts and contracts all you want."
"When is one day?" The boy asked curiously.
The father lowered his work file revealing the face of Jacob Lord smiling at his son Fabian. "Not for a long time. Once we get where we're going maybe I'll give you a little idea, but now, just read your storybook, ok?"
Fabian agreed and picked up his book and started reading it as if he were working like his father was. The two Lords were leaving town without Celeste. The trouble of their family following them every step of the way.
Jacob looked out of the window as the train curled along the crooked main shoreline. He could see Welshport and Goode Islands off in the distance. He noted to himself how small that place was and yet when he was on the island it felt so much like the biggest place on earth. He had bigger plans for himself now, however. The world he had built for his family had seemingly crumbled down a pulp -- his exile from the "land of the Lords" was a long time coming and the empire his father and his father's father and his father's, father's father built was now in someone else's hands.
Temporarily, in Jacob's mind.
The two Lord men were now on a train trip to parts unknown after what occurred while Evie was away.
It would not be forever.
As the smoke from a train's smokestack lifted into the sky above a winding track that hugged the side of an evergreen cliff, Celeste stood at a large window in the mansion of Tirymor now alone. She could see the smoke in the sky from the train but did not know where it came from.
She held herself, tears falling down her face. She had been abandoned by the family she married into. But it wasn't her fault. None of it was. What had happened was all beyond her control and now she was left to pick up the pieces, all the shards of a world blasting apart in front of her face.
"Ma'am, someone is here to see you. A doctor." Jane said from the doorway.
"Alright." Celeste answered.
"Mrs. Lord, how are you?" A doctor said entering into the glittering drawing room of the mansion.
"I'm fine Doctor, thank you. How's my brother." She asked, identifying the doctor as Johnathon's new psychiatrist at Churchill Green.
"He's doing better. The last time you I chatted, last week, he was getting better but now I do believe we've made much more headway into his treatment."
"I'm pleased." Celeste said pouring the doctor tea that Jane brought for them.
Now that they were alone, the doctor slipped over to Celeste's side of the sofa. He reached for her face and they kissed passionately on the sofa.
"I've been waiting for this all day." He said.
Celeste smiled and wiped her lipstick off his lips. She felt guilty for it, she was still married to Jacob although months and months of turmoil had destroyed their marriage, but she needed this new man. He was strong and he felt so good to her.
She reached for his face and kissed him again just feet away from the large painting of Albert Lord, the man who built this life she was now living in.
**
On the other side of town, a woman closed the door to Dr. Peter Ward's office. She read again the paper he had given with excitement.
She was pregnant. She was having a baby with the man she loved: Aaron. Cora couldn't wait to tell.
Across the garden courtyard between Welshport Hope Hospital and Churchill Green Asylum a nurse made her way up a path and into the Asylum. She was there for her shift. She slowly made her way up a flight of stairs and into second story hallway and into a ward for the lower risk patience.
She grabbed a tray of medication and followed the corridor into a bedroom where Johnathon DeViana was sitting in a chair staring at a table with an unopened letter that had just arrived.
"I've been waiting for you all day." he said to the slender blond haired, blue eyes nurse.
He came over and took his medication and tossed it into the waste basket in front of him.
The nurse smiled and went into his arms. They kissed.
In the refection of the hospital room's window, the nurse blond nurse showed her true face, that of Jaqueline Gray-DeViana.
Back in the village a man and a woman held hands in a small private ceremony.
The bride's dark hair hid under a white veil; the groom watched over her with tears in his eyes feeling that he was having a Deja vu.
The 14-year-old maid of honor and the 14-year-old best man looked across the aisle to each other on their respective sides and smiled.
It finally felt good for them too.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife." Father Ryan announced.
The mayor looked down at the forms and smiled. They were his inauguration paperwork affirming his place in history.
"Thank you." The mayor said as he signed his name "Nathan Cramer."
He handed the papers back to the woman, a secretary, and put down his glasses on to an old paper with the obituary of TIMOTHY CHURCHILL.
**
Over two blocks, in a small house where Filipe and his mother Fatima lived Mary Goode stood watching over a pot of boiling water, she was heating to make dinner with. Her mind was somewhere else. She thought about everything that had happened to her since the witch trials and wondered had it all been a giant case of karmic whiplash for the sin she'd kept secret for more months than she could count.
"Is dinner almost ready? This little one is getting hungrier and hungrier." Filipe said stepping into the kitchen holding their little adopted son Caleb.
She looked at the beautiful child and the tears could not be held back, she burst into tears and sat Filipe down.
"What is it honey? What's the matter?" Filipe asked, his heart pounding in his chest.
"I have to tell you something." She said in a whimper.
Filipe adjusted Caleb in his arms holding him tighter. He looked at Mary and waited almost holding his breath for what she had to say.
She reached over, eyes bloodshot and puffy, and grabbed little Caleb's fingers and squeezed them.
"Mary, what's the matter?" Filipe asked, his worry turning to panic.
She stared at them both as the water boiled over the pot and splashed over the burning range. She jumped out of the chair at the table and stared into the water that bubbled and burned. Her reflection in the water showed a woman on the verge of losing everything if she confessed the realization that came to her during the witch trials about Caleb.
He was not legally adopted. He was kidnapped from his birth parents Aurora and Caspian.
But aside from that, there was something much, much worse that happened. Something Filipe had not known and something that would change his life forever.
In her reflection of the cooling water saw her finger come up to her lips and shushing her to secrecy. The vision startled Mary and she screamed and jetted backwards towards the other side of the kitchen.
"My god Mary! WHATS GOING ON!!" Filipe shouted as Caleb screamed with the noise.
Hearing the commotion, Charlotte entered and grabbed hold of her mother. "It's ok. It's ok." She whispered. "I'll take her upstairs, she's burning up." Charlotte added.
Filipe watched as Charlotte hurried out of the kitchen with her mother and went upstairs with her. His heart sinking with despair not knowing what to do.
Charlotte helped her broken mother Mary onto the bed. She lay back as Charlotte helped her feet up.
"Don't tell him what's happening." Charlotte said. "Not yet. First we deal with the child, then we tell him."
The time since Evie, Matthew and Hope were in Scotland had not stopped the lives of Weslportonians for carrying on just as they did before. Secrets continued to build, worlds continued to crumble. Rivalries continued to ruin relationships and devastating betrayals continued to destroy lives.
Evie and Matthew were about to return to family in friends in turmoil. This was only the beginning.
