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| The Lord brothers discuss their future |
The grounds of Tirymor House were always a sight to see when the summer began to chill and colors of the leaves of the fortifying forest began to change from their bright hues of green to the muted oranges and yellows. The evergreen pines, however, continued their lock on what felt like a forever summer never changing-- never fading off into a sleep before the first snow fell.
This was not unlike Tirymor House itself. The stone walls with their intricately carved gargoyles and parapets, the stone pillars chiseled by ancient hands -- these things lasted like the pines, they never changed. The faces of the inhabitants of the mansion paralleled the lifecycle of the changing leaves: fading away then reviving again with a new face; a life.
In a lush bedroom on the third floor of the mansion facing west and the mainland, one such face was convalescing in his bed after a heart attack almost took his life.
Jacob Lord, surrounded by the coziness of his room and paperwork from The Publishing House lay distracted from work and healing as he cuddled with his 5-year-old son Fabian who had come to visit from his own playtime. It was such a departure for Jacob to enjoy time with someone other than himself. He'd always felt alone in the world, alone and angry. His cold jealousies and ruthlessness eased the day his son was born, but despite Fabian's ability to change his father's demeanor with only the smile on his face, Jacob would not altogether abandon who he was at his core.
A leopard never changes his spots.
As Jacob and his heir cuddled his wife and Fabian's mother Celeste walked in. Her hair tied up in a curly chignon, her dress bright almost silver, like the moon reflected off her caramel skin.
She had a look on her face that seemed pleased to see her beautiful boy so happy with his recovering father, but she was not there to witness a sweet moment between them, she had brought something -- actually someone with her, who was waiting in the hall.
"I hate to interrupt my two favorite men, but I invited someone here to come see you." She said, sitting on the cover of the bed.
"CHARLOTTE!?" Fabian jumped up excitedly hoping it was his big sister.
Celeste smirked and shook her head. "No, not Charlotte, not today amorzinho." She replied, using her pet name in Portuguese. "Someone for papa is here."
Jacob's brow furrowed "Who can it be?" He asked trying to keep himself calm but knowing almost intuitively exactly who it had to be.
Celeste stood up, her eyes never leaving the gaze of her husband's and asked for the person to enter the room. Then, from around the corner of the shadowy hall Jacob's intuitions proved right: It was Christopher Wesley, once known as the former David Lord.
"David." Jacob whispered, his heart skipping a beat at the sight of his long lost and believed dead younger brother.
"Christopher." Celeste corrected. "What's happened between the two of you must be put into the past for any of us to move on." She added.
"How? How can we do that?" Jacob asked. "What happened between us is some of my darkest moments on this earth."
Celeste looked over at Fabian who seemed confused and uncomfortable in the sudden dip in temperature of the room. He sat on the bed, his knees to his little chin while his arms around his legs locking them in place.
"Amorzinho, why don't you run along and play outside. Ask Jane to get you a light coat, will you? It's getting chilly out there." Celeste ordered.
Fabian didn't move. He turned to his father who was sitting up no in bed. "Go on." Jacob ordered. This time Fabian listened, but just before he diapered into the hall, he turned back one last time to meet Christopher's eyes. Then the littlest Lord vanished like a seagull into the fog.
"He is quite beautiful." Chris noted. "You must be so proud, just as I was when Sebastian was born."
"Why are you here?" Jacob asked, swatting away Chris' complements.
"I asked him to come." Celeste repeated.
"What? WHY?" Jacob shouted. "Hasn't he done enough to me already?"
Celeste arched a brow and crossed her arms "Really? Who did WHAT do whom Jacob?" recalling Jacob's hand in his brother's belief that he, not Jacob, killed Sabrina.
"The very idea that you're alive and no one knew is one thing but to suddenly show up out of the blue in town and on the arm of that woman who looks so much like Sabrina! You're trying to taunt me, I know you are, you're trying to bring up what I did. I know what I did, David! I think about it every single day of my life and every single time I run into that woman!" Jacob added, ignoring Celeste.
"You're right." Chris replied. "I did come back to taunt you, torment you, to make you suffer like you made me. That was the plan, I confess it to you both here and now, but when we arrived, Welshport was in shambles. The entire place was overrun with this talk of the witch trial. We quickly decided against any plans to make you suffer even more than you say you already have."
"We?" Celeste enquired. "Genevieve was in on a plan of revenge?"
Chris nodded, "She went to find me in London."
Celeste and Jacob shot each other looks, not realizing just how deeply intrenched Geneveive was in the David Vs. Jacob saga.
"Isn't that curious." Jacob replied suspiciously.
"We decided against it, Jacob, that is what I am telling you. After what we saw when we arrived, Morgan's wellbeing became paramount to Genevieve, and I realized that perhaps coming home and dealing with my past and reconnecting with Sebastian and mother, meant more to me than coming home and creating more trauma for the family. I never intended for you to see me the day you did, not like that." Chris said as Jacob rolled his eyes.
"So now what?" Jacob wondered. "I've survived the shock of seeing you--as flesh and blood--should I expect a visit from whoever the hell is our new Constable is? Have my chickens come home to roost for what I did to Sabrina?"
Celeste turned to Christopher and worried that she'd made a big mistake bringing him here. Her face, soft, her eyes a bright brown that almost looked amber in the light took Chris by his own heart. Sabrina was gone, even Daivd was gone. Their future needed to be set on the idea that the past was too far back for anyone to fix now and despite Chris wanting Jacob to suffer the consequences for what he'd done he'd found it in his heart to let it all go and hope forgiveness would finally heal the broken Lord family once and for all.
"David Lord is dead." Chris said. "He died that night when he dived off the lighthouse ledge and with him went the truth of ---" Chris paused.
"Go on." Celeste said, Jacob sat up higher in his bed.
"--- and with him the truth of who killed his dear wife Sabrina."
"Are you saying that you'll keep the secret then?" Celeste wondered.
"My name is Christopher Wesley. I know nothing of Daivd or Sabrina."
Celeste took in a sigh of relief, Jacob, for his part, felt his stomach tighten. His eyes narrowed on his brother but he said nothing in return.
"Did you hear that Jacob? He's not going to say anything. We can move on now." Celeste replied.
"Yes, and for how long? And at what cost? I won't live life pretending that I can just move about the world without looking over my shoulder. It will forever be a stain on my heart what I did, the tragedy I caused. I cannot just forget so easily." Jacob replied.
Chris' brow raised, he was surprised to hear Jacob so honest in his words. He'd never thought the day would come when Jacob Lord would admit to feeling guilty for what he'd done. But there it was.
"I never said I'd forget Jacob. I never will. I also never said my trust in you or anyone in this family is restored, because I also know what you did to Sebastian." Chris replied. "My son." He whispered.
Celeste blinked slow. She hoped this would not come up.
"Another one of my sins, I knew would haunt me."
"As it should." Chris said. "What you've done to my family; my wife and child, will and should haunt you forever and ever but I will not, retaliate and continue this cycle of sick abuse on your son. I would never attempt to take little Fabian's life --- although mother did raise us on an eye for an eye."
"How dare you...." Celeste said, her heart now racing at the thought of Chris harming even the tiniest curl on Fabian's head.
"I wouldn't touch him." Chris replied.
"No you wouldn't." Jacob said almost as a warning.
"Like I said, and it is the truth, I want this cycle of ours to die now, just as 'David' did in the sea. It's over. Summer is coming to an end and the autumn comes -- so should our rivalry Jacob. Let the change of the leaves be the way of our relationship. No longer brothers -- acquaintances at least." Chris suggested.
Jacob looked at Celeste who'd hoped they could all come to a deal, a truce -- and end. She nodded signaling to him this is what she wanted too.
"Alright." Jacob said in a hushed tone. "Let it be."
Christopher nodded and turned to Celeste and bowed his head. She smirked kindly as he began to make his way out of the room and as he did he saw Fabian still standing in the hallway all alone. He'd stayed to listen to the conversation albeit confused about what they were even talking about being 5 years old.
Chris smiled and knelt down on one knee so he'd be eye to eye with this little nephew.
"Now, didn't your mother say for you to seek out Jane?"
Fabian shrugged "Who are you?"
Chris waited a beat before answering "I am -- your uncle. Uncle Christopher."
"I only have one uncle -- Johnny. He's away." Fabian answered speaking of Johnathon DiViana who was his uncle: Half brother Jacob, Half brother of Celeste.
"Well, I am your uncle too. I'm your papa's brother, Uncle Johnny is your mama’s brother. You see? You can have two!" Chris explained without adding more confusion on what his birth name was.
Fabian seemed to accept the answer and smirked.
“I can have two?” The boy glowed, Chris nodded.
Fabian then reached up and touched Chris' face as if feeling his skin, the bridge of his nose, his cheek bones would give him a better idea of who the man was. He smiled again and asked if Chris wanted to see his room.
"Maybe next time." the uncle said patting the boy on the shoulder.
"When is next time?" Fabian innocent wondered.
Chris did not answer, only patted the boy on the head and asked the little boy to walk him out. Fabian gladly agreed and followed his uncle down the hall towards the main entrance of Tirymor.
Just before he left, Chris turned to look back into the mansion he grew up in for just one last glance and thought about what he was giving up. The power. The money. The prestige. The company. Was he really ready to let it all be in his past? Including what Jacob did?
“See you soon uncle!!” Fabian shouted from the main door.
Chris waved back and whispered to himself. “You bet you will!”
Back inside the bedroom, a side private door that lead down a private staircase opened and the Lord family valet and Jacob's personal henchman Aaron Hamstead entered.
"You called?" He said.
Celeste crossed her arms over her chest knowing exactly why Jacob has pressed the newly electric button that buzzed a small bell downstairs alerting for Aaron.
"I need you to get our new recruit on something for me." Jacob asked.
"New recruit?" Celeste wondered.
"I need you to have Chris watched. Just for a bit. I need to be sure my dear brother is sincere with what he just told us." Jacob answered.
"Sir?" Aaron wondered. "Why our new recruit?" he asked feeling snubbed.
"Aaron, David was your best friend, I can't exactly have you go off and watch him even though he's got a new name, now, can I?"
"You shouldn't ask him or anyone at all, Jacob, Christopher is sincere. I can tell he is." Celeste replied.
"You can trust me sir." Aaron said.
"I know. But give this one to Cee." Jacob replied using his code name for Cora, his new spy in town without using her name.
Aaron, ever the faithful servant, agreed to pass the information on to his girlfriend and fellow spy and left through the secret passage.
Celeste's eyes never left Jacob, she pursed her lips and wondered if Jacob was setting himself and everyone in the family, up for more drama setting some new spy on Chris.
The answer, She hoped, would be in the negative and that everything would be fine. Chris would keep his word and leave the past be, and Jacob could find his way out of the misery he put himself in.
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| The Bragas hear shocking news from Mary |
Just in front of one such streetlight was the home of Fatima Braga; a place where her front parlor where a round table with two chair around it held court to a large crystal ball. These days were filled more with Braga family matter than the wayward worrying of a local Welshportonian seeking guidance from the town card reader.
In kitchen, Mary stared out the back window as she watched her daughter Charlotte and young Morgan Thorne play with the almost 2 year old Caleb. The child Mary and Filipe adopted. Mary's face shone a deep worry as she watched the kids play. Her heart ached with the reality of the baby's true parents and how he came to the family -- a truth she learned by accident while she was on trial for witchcraft when she overheard a conversation that clarified the baby's true parentage.
This knowledge weighed on her more than could bare and her face hid nothing.
"You ok?" Filipe asked as he entered the kitchen. He was dressed ready to start his new job in the ship-yard for Matthew's fleet. A job he took while Matthew was away in Scottland.
"What?" Mary asked, her attention still on Caleb.
"Mary, what is it?" Filipe asked as Fatima walked in and felt a sudden tension in the room.
"I just have something on my mind that's all." Mary answered.
"Honey, I know when something is bothering you, and we agreed that we'd never keep secrets from each other. I can't go out to sea today with the idea that something is that matter here at home, not after everything we've been through." Filipe replied.
"O que é que-se passa Maria?" Fatima asked in her native Portuguese.
Mary sighed deeply and turned to her husband and mother-in-law. Her face still hiding nothing. The worry of Caleb being Caspian and Aurora's stolen child was slowly killing her inside.
"It's about the baby." Mary said
"O menino?" Fatima asked quickly turning to the window to see the boy outside with Charlotte and Morgan. "He's fine. He's playing outside. You see him too."
"He's not ill is he?" Filipe asked.
"No, it's nothing like that. I guess it’s time I tell you, tell you both. When I was on trial, during one of the court proceedings I overheard something that made me realize the truth about Caleb that I couldn't say out loud." Mary confessed.
Fatima sat down on at the kitchen table bracing herself.
“Mary — what is it?” Filipe asked.
"I didn't know what to make of it!" Mary replied. "I -- I was shocked. I was worried. I couldn't put it together in my mind how we got roped into this. Innocently!"
"But what?!" Filipe shouted. "What is it about our son? Is he in danger?"
"It's about his family and where he came from. Filipe, we didn't just adopt a child that had lost his parents like Asha told us. We adopted a child that was taken from his parents and given to us. Illegally." Mary confessed.
Fatima gasped. "No! Who are his parents?"
Mary sighed and took a long blink. She didn't want to tell them. She didn't want to say it out loud and make the universe hear the names that would come out of her mouth and suddenly have it there in front of everyone making the horrible reality be truth in all their eyes.
Charlotte suddenly entered the kitchen. Her senses feeling the tension all the way from outside in the garden with the boy. She rushed to Mary's side and grabbed her mother's hand.
"You've told them." Charlotte replied.
"Charlotte knows?" Filipe asked.
"I confided in her. I didn't know who else to tell." Mary answered.
Filipe threw his seabag on to the floor. The medal clasps and buckles clanged as they kit the legs of the kitchen table chairs. He was frustrated to the point where anger took over. Mary's realization of Calbe's paternity had haunted her for weeks since the trial and she'd never come to him with the news. Not once. Instead she chose her teenage daughter.
"Me." Filipe yelp back. "Your husband. The man who's gone through incredible dangers and survived with you. You should have come to me with anything like this before Charlotte. She's a child!"
"She didn't know how to tell you." Charotte replied. Filipe looked passed her.
"Alright, alright. That's enough." Mary said attempting to close a possible rift between step-father and step-daughter before it even opened up. "Filipe you're right, I should have come to you to tell you what I'd learned during the trial and I am very sorry. You're my husband and my partner and you deserved to know too."
"What is it that we need to know?" Fatima replied, still unsure of what exactly Mary knew.
"Caleb was taken from his parents." Charlotte said. "The adoption was built on fraudulent terms." She continued as Morgan and the baby walked in.
Charlotte turned to Morgan "We should take him to his room."
"What's happened?" Morgan asked.
"Mary... damn it, tell me what you know." Filipe ordered.
"Asha Hoffman took Caleb from Aurora and Caspian on the day he was born -- she and Gregory had plotted this kidnapping and for some reason she decided it was better to give him to us and make up this whole story of his parents being dead than allow Aurora and Caspian to raise him." Mary confessed.
Morgan's eyes were as wide as saucers as the baby giggled in his arms.
Fatima gasped, her hand clamped over her mouth in shock. "You've been holding on to this since the trial Maria?" Fatima replied almost outraged. Her royal blue dress overflowed the seat like a cupcake with too much frosting.
"Caspian?" Filipe asked skipping over the length of time his wife took to reveal this.
"Yes, Caspian." Charlotte replied.
"Now you know my dilemma." Mary answered.
"He's...he was the..." Fatima began but her words were interrupted by the baby's laugh.
They all turned to the child they loved who's biological father was once possessed by an earthly creature from the depths of someplace dark and evil. A creature that wanted only to kill and murder and was hungry for souls. Caspian was no longer this demonic creature, but the fear that floating in that room knowing this truth shook the Braga household to it's core.
"He raped Aurora. He violated her. He tricked her. She didn't even know who he was at the time." Filipe replied, almost to himself.
"But from what I've understood, she wanted to keep the child, but Gregory didn't allow it. He wanted no trace of her connection to Caspian." Mary explained.
"So what now?" Morgan asked, still holding the giggling child.
"I don't know." Mary replied, sitting now across from Fatima and reaching for Filipe's hand. "I truly don't know."
As the family spoke, someone slowly walked into the garden from an open back gate that led to a small path from behind that house. The person walked in a way that was unseen, beneath long branches of shadows trees that hid their identity. Then, they made a small turn where they could hide in a small outdoor vestibule where they could hear what was happening inside through the back kitchen door.
"Calbe cannot be given back to that...monster, that man!" Fatima said.
"But he's not a monster anymore, he's been saved from that." Mary replied.
"Has he? I wouldn't know it." Fatima replied flippantly.
"Mãe," Filipe said to Fatima, using the Portuguese word for mother, "we can't assume anything. We all have dark histories."
"But we can't just give him back, can we?" Morgan asked as Charlotte took the baby from him.
"We can't keep him from his truth family. He was given to us under false pretense. Aurora deserves to have her child."
"No." Filipe said after a silent beat in the kitchen.
"What do you mean no?" Mary asked.
"He's our son. His last name is Braga. He goes no where." Filipe said as he grabbed his fallen seabag.
"But, Filipe," Mary began before he interrupted.
"Mary, listen to me: our child Louise was taken from us, she was practically killed because of all the sick and horrible things we were surrounded by. Caleb was a god send. He was a little angel that's come into this family and now he's apart of this family. I won't give him back. I won't. And I don't want you to try. He's your boy -- yours. No one else's. He came to us for a reason and I for one will be move heaven and hell to make sure he stays here."
"Hell, huh." Fatima chimed in. "That's what I am afraid of. His father would do the same. His real father."
"I am his real father, is that understood? All of you. Is that understood? Mary and I are his parents and that's where we leave it. No one, and I mean no one will take Caleb from us or give him back. He stays with us." Filipe replied.
Filipe grabbed his seabag and leaned down to his Mary goodbye. His body eclipsed hers from Charotte's view who was trying to read her mother's expression. When Filipe finally moved upward, she could see Mary seemed almost relieved at Filipe's reaction.
"I have to go, I'll be back in a few days from sea and I expect we all will be here when I get back." Filipe replied.
As he the front door closed behind him, Mary asked Charlotte to take the baby upstairs to his room for a nap. Morgan followed leaving Mary and Fatima alone in the kitchen.
Fatima stared at Mary dying for them to continue the conversation.
"No." Mary said, predicting what the card reader was going to say. "I won't do it. I won't give the child back, you heard your son, he's ours."
"Ours, yes. But how long will he be ours before that creature Caspian wants him back. Maria, I tell you this now as a warning, keeping the boy will be no good thing. Not for you, not for my son and not for this whole family; a family you both have fought for to make and keep. That monster will come, he'll come for what is his and god help us all if we're in his way." Fatima said storming out of the kitchen leaving Mary to stew in her words.
Just beyond the kitchen door still hiding was the person who's snuck into the garden and passed the gate under the shadows of the trees. They'd heard every word of this family meeting --- soaking in every bit of information like a sea sponge absorbing the salty ocean.
As the shadows of the tree branches shifted with the breeze the leafy pattern on the a wall revealed the cloaked face of Verity Spencer.
She'd come to listen. She'd come to learn. She'd come for ammunition.
And she got what she wanted -- in spades.
****
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| Filipe & Father Donavon |
As his heart pounded deep in his chest with hurt and worry, Filipe made his way down through the village streets towards the docks where he'd embark with Matthew's crew on a fishing expedition out in the middle of the Atlantic.
The news of Caleb's biological family hit him hard. He had no living children of his own after Mary's stillbirth of their daughter Louise, and now this secret threatened to take away his adopted son, a child he adored.
As Filipe walked down the cobble stone streets at a heft pace with this seabag slung over his shoulder, Father Donavon Ryan was speaking with a parishioner on the corner and noticed his friend pass him with a heavy expression. Donavon smiled and waved as Filipe passed but it was as if the priest was invisible. Concerned over this strange interaction, the parish priest excused himself from the conversation with the lady and quickly chased down Filipe.
"Filipe! Filipe, hey!" Donavon said reaching for his friend's shoulder from behind.
Filipe stopped cold and turned with a seething cold look in his eye that made Donavon step back.
"My god, what is it?" Donavon asked.
Filipe's hard heart quickly melted realizing he must of looked a fright, perhaps a lingering glare of his lycanthropy.
"Father Donavon! Sorry -- I -- I was just headed down to the docks. A lot on my mind, how are you?" Filipe said, his normal kind face quickly returning.
"I'm fine, fine, but I can see you've had better afternoons. You passed me just now and it was as if you were in a different world. What's the matter?"
Filipe sighed knowing the one person he could probably confide in was the priest, his friend, but in truth there was no way he could do it without hearing the man tell him to send his son back to his birth parents. The obvious and righteous thing to do, so Filipe lied.
"Nothing to worry about -- just one of those days where you can't get your mind right."
Donavon furrowed his brow; he sensed Filipe's diversion "You know if there's anything I can do, I'm happy to lend an ear or a hand to help."
Filipe's face warmed to his kindness but in his heart, still pounding with anxiety in his chest, he new there was nothing anyone could do.
"Thank you." Filipe replied. "I have to get going, I'm a bit late for my first day on the ship. Why don't I come and see you when I get back in a few days."
Donavon nodded, happy to see that glimmer of his friend shining again, but still worried something else was a miss.
As they parted ways, Donavon made his way back up the street towards Saint Catherine's rectory a roaming cloaked figure floated along the street somewhat in the same direction as Filipe was going, oposite of Donavon. The blond hair peeking out from under the cloak's hood made Donavon do a double-take and suddenly the face, a woman's, shown half way out too.
It was Mary's face, but this wasn't Mary, it was Verity Goode still exploring her new home of Welshport.
"Mary! MARY!" Donavon shouted. Verity froze in her tracks. Her stomach dropped and she slowly turned back to see the Priest coming towards her. "What a coincidence, I just saw Filipe! He was on his way to the ship, you must be so happy Matthew gave him the job. How are you?"
Verity gulped. unsure the voice that was about to come out of her mouth would match Mary's but then she muttered a hush "I'm well thank you."
Donavon's face did change, she detected no sudden confusion on his part to her voice.
"That's good. So you're getting back into the normal swing of life in the village, eh?" He asked, she nodded. "And the children?"
"The children?" Verity replied.
"Yes. Charlotte, Caleb. How are they doing now that you're back from that awful trial."
"OH! The children, yes -- well, they're well too. Father, I should be going. I'm sorry to cut this short." Verity explained, hoping to make a quick get away back to Goode Island.
"Oh! Yes, please don't let me keep you. Give my love to Fatima and the children, I'm sure I'll see them Sunday." he replied.
"Sunday?" She said, not really connecting the dots to the priest and Sunday's mass.
"Sunday." He answered. "For Mass."
"MASS! Right, at the church. Of course. Sunday then." She replied, and now Donavon's face showed a twinge of confusion.
He reached over and grabbed Verity then pulled her into a hug, something he always did to his closest friends. He could feel her stiffen. She stood there, a frozen statue with her arms at her side, the cloak still covering most of her face. No emotion. No warmth.
It was off for Mary. But Donavon realized that Filipe too had a bit of a strange reaction to him and the priest realized marital life wasn't always so bright and rosy. Perhaps there was more to both of their strange behavior that was easily explained by a strained argument between two partners.
"Bye now." He said, still showing a worried face.
Verity only lifted a hand and waved back then she turned and began her decent down the street towards the small boat that brought her to the village from Goode Island. Her mind, a fresh playground of new information, new expression, new feelings, new emotions was overflowing. She was a new created being now living in a world where her face matched another, where she was a twin, albeit not by natural birth but created by magic to thwart an execution, of a person who had a whole life ahead of them.
It made Verity think back to what she overheard in Mary and Filipe's garden. The family dynamic. The love. The arguments. The connection.
Something she suddenly realized she craved, like the desert does the rain.
She wanted Mary's life. She wanted it -- no NEEDED her life -- and the love of those children, and of that man, and of this friend of Mary that she just ran into. She wanted to be Mary. She wanted that house. The kitchen. That life.
She wanted it --- and Verity now realized what her purpose was. She was alive. she was skin, flesh and bones. Blood ran through her veins and her heart beat to live a life she was meant to no matter how it came about. For Verity, everything she was learning in such a short amount of time about the world she was placed in by the witch council felt like a sign: She was born to take over Mary's life.
To take it for herself and make of it what she would. Verity's mind spun -- she'd find a way to insert herself and take over Mary's life --- her mind was set, and a plan would come soon.
****
 |
| Cora and Aaron at home |
Around the corner and a few blocks down in the village, a small 8 unit apartment building sat with a large elm tree in front that covered lived Baxter and Cora.. Baxter hadn't stayed there in weeks. He'd found other lodgings, which was perfect for his adopted sister Cora who remained there without her conniving reporter brother.
She sat at a small kitchen table, her hair in long dark curls cascading down her sleep shoulder draped in an emerald-green dress. She pored over the papers she and Lucas Mural stole from Lear's office of her black-market adoption over and over and over again reading them as if she had never seen them before.
There was nothing new she'd learned from these re-reads, but she couldn't help but hope to find another clue as to who the black-market broker named Ridgway was. Did it even matter? She wasn't sure anymore, all she could do was stare at the forms and hope one day the truth might finally come out so that she could find some answers -- and most of all closure.
As she closed the folder in front of her, her partner Aaron Hamstead entered the apartment. His face lit up as their eyes connected. It had been a few days since they'd seen each other, his work for the Lords took time from their budding relationship, and he own secret work for Jacob did the same.
On this afternoon, he had yet another note to bring from Jacob to "Cee", his secret informant.
"Well, aren't you looking like that cat that ate the canary." She said, as he walked over to her and bent down to kiss her on the head.
"I have a bit news from the boss." He replied with a grin, half teasing about their clandestine jobs.
Coraline rolled her eyes.
"What now?"
"He needs you to keep an eye on Christopher Wesley. Just watch him -- keep track of things he does. Nothing major, as long as he doesn't start anything with Jacob, then he's good to go." Aaron requested.
"Christopher? That's David right?" She asked, reconnecting the dots to her Aunt Rebecca's messy children. Aaron nodded. "Do you think Chris has any plans for Jacob now that he's back?"
Aaron shook his head. "Chris says he's done with of that, he's trying to move passed their history after everything that's happened. I believe him. I've known him all my life, we've been best friends, we've been strangers, and now I do believe he wants a fresh start. But Jacob, is Jacob. He'll never change."
"Paranoid." She said as she arched a brow.
"Exactly."
Coraline smirked and stood up from her chair and came over to his seat and sat on his lap. She kissed his head as he cradled her. Their newfound love felt so effortless and easy. It had been the best thing to come from her agreeing to sneak around Tirymor behind everyone's back and gather intel for Jacob. A job she resisted, a job she was embarrassed about but one she found secretly and deliciously satisfying now that her own familial link to them was confirmed.
"You know you don't have to do this job anymore. If you ever feel it's too much, too dangerous, too anything, you can just let it go." He said as their eyes met.
"Jacob wouldn't just let me go without a fight. I know too much. Besides he would never do anything to me that was -- I don't know, lethal." She replied.
Aaron gave her a look.
"Would he?" she wondered.
"I'd protect you. I'd never let that menace hurt you. We'd get married. I'd be your husband. He'd never hurt my wife. Not if he wanted to live his own life on his own two legs."
She giggled. "He's the only one in the family that knows I was born Maggie Lockwood, his own cousin, do you really think he'd ever hurt me if I decided to leave?"
"Three words: Sebastian, David, Charlotte. All his family and he's done sick things to them. He's not above Familicide. Never has been, never will be."
Coraline pursed her lips in a pout, a cute childlike way to feign dissatisfaction with his concern. "So you'd protect me, huh, You big strong man?" She joked as she reached under his coat and began to tickle him. "No big bad Jacob can get me huh? Can he? Would he?" She continued as the 6 foot 11 inch Aaron squirmed in his chair laughing as she tickled him. He reached over then, his large hand gripped her sides tickling her back.
They both laughed and played as their bodies suddenly felt the pinch of lust.
He jumped up from the kitchen chair, it fell backwards on to the floor, she was in his arms. They kissed as he carried her over to a sofa in the adjoining room. He whispered "Marry me" as he lay her on the sofa and he knelt in front of her. She didn't answer back. Her eyes locked on him in a passionate gaze.
He whispered again. "Marry me."
She continued to look deep into his eyes as she sat on the sofa, and he knelt before her. She pulled up the skirt of her dark green dress, the color was liquified emeralds on her skin. He looked down at her exposed naked perfection, and he grinned and went to taste her sweet peach.
"Yes." She moaned deeply. "I will."
****
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| The Lords meet for dinner |
That evening back at Tirymor House, the large dinner table in the gilded golden dining room was ready for the family to gather. In the center of the hefty, glazed oak table were there large lit candelabras each with three candles, on each arm and one in the center.
Servants scurried about as Jane ordered them to get the first dishes ready.
Celeste sat next to Fabian, her now 5-year-old son, and she tied a pristine white linen cloth around his neck to cover the little suit he was wearing. He giggled at the scratching lined just as his Grandmother Rebecca entered the room. Her dress swooshed through the door like a crashing ocean wave taking Celeste's attention away from her son.
Rebecca looked around and sat at the end of the table that was set for six.
"Dinner for six?" The matriarch asked. "I wasn't told of visitors."
"Where have you been Rebecca? Jane has always set an extra two places at dinner. One for Caspian and one for Charlotte. We never know when they'll pop back in." Celeste replied.
"Perhaps Jane wouldn't have to guess on who's coming to dinner. If it weren't for you, Caspian would still be here and maybe I can say the same thing for my granddaughter Charlotte." Rebecca said unfolding her own white linen cloth napkin.
"What?"
Rebecca's brow arched. She knew better than to get into family squabbles at the dinner table. But it was true that Celeste revealing Rebecca had known of Caspian's true identity and hid it from him for months, hurt the marriage and pushed Caspian to leave home. It was a cold truth Celeste felt she needed to tell the man without a real name, but in her hopes to help him she wounded a very dangerous enemy: her mother in law.
"And Jacob? Please tell me he'll be joining this happy dinner party." Rebecca replied changing the powder keg conversation.
"He felt like having dinner in bed. Dr. Ward told him he could indulge one or two more lazy days in bed after his heart attack, but he'd have to get up soon and back at it." Celeste
"Uncle Tistopo was nice." Fabain interjected mispronouncing Christopher.
Rebecca's ears perked up. "Christopher?"
"Uncle Tisopo was here and I said hello to him. He's very tall." Fabian replied.
"Darling, did you meet..." Rebecca paused as the name her son David adopted passed into her mind and fell on her lips "Christopher?"
The boy nodded.
"I invited him here this afternoon." Celeste replied.
"What? Why wouldn't you tell me this?" Rebecca asked, her eyes locked on her daughter in law.
"Tell you? Why would I have to tell you who I invite over to my home?" Celeste asked, her tone seemingly lacking all fear of the powerful matriarch.
The room fell silent and all eyes turned to Rebecca who's lips became thing as if she were trying to swallow them before replying with the fire in her hear. It was no use.
"The last time I checked, Ms. DeViana," Rebecca began, passive aggressively using Celeste's maiden name, "this was still MY home. I would have appreciated being told my other son was coming over. Or are you arogant enough to think I would just let goings on in my home just pass to you, Celeste. The last time I checked I'm still mistress of this household and head of this family."
Celeste said nothing in return as the servants began entering with the first course, a lush green soup of vegetables and bread.
"You are more than welcome to call him back to visit you when you want, Rebecca, I'm not stopping you." Celeste said with an arched brow.
"Thank you for that permission." Rebecca scoffed.
"But let's admit it, shall well, you're not exactly fully invested in household duties as of late. Always rushing off here and there." Celeste said, after the servants left.
"Watch yourself..." Rebecca began before Celeste interrupted. The truth was, Rebecca held Celeste responsible for her recent marriage troubles.
"Look, Rebecca I don't understand your hostility. I did the right thing when I told Caspian about Danielle and who he really is. He deserved to know and you hiding it from him wasn't only wrong, it was downright cruel. You lied to him." Celeste replied.
"You don't have any right to tell me what is right or wrong in a marriage, for someone who married to save her own bastard brother from a fate unknown, you have no room to talk." Rebecca shot back.
Celeste froze. Her marriage to Jacob was indeed built on the promise that Jacob would never ever hurt Johnathon, their mutual half-brother, but she had no idea Rebecca knew this. It was like someone had taken a dagger to Celeste's chest ripped it open, and what made it feel like Rebecca was pouring salt in the wound was that Rebecca called Johnathon, her stepson, a bastard right in front of little Fabian.
"Rebecca, I'm going to speak calmly now because this little boy doesn't grasp what we are talking about, but one day, he'll know just how cold hearted, sick and very twisted you are. Jacob and I had an agreement, it's true, but we've grown fond of each other over time and if that meant Johnaton was kept safe from any plot or conspiracy that Sabrina, David, or Sebastian ever faced then so be it. I do things to help the one's I love, Rebecca, not hurt them. Unlike you."
"Yes, Saint Celeste, of course. How could I be so wrong." Rebecca replied sarcastically just as Jane walked in with two servants with the salads and a chicken and potato dish.
"Jane, we'll have the rest upstairs with Mr. Lord." Celeste replied as she got up from her seat at the table and yanked Fabian into her arms from his highchair. "Mrs. Casador will eat alone, that's how she prefers."
Rebecca dropped her spoon back in the soup, irritated with Celeste's melodrama, but in seconds, she found herself alone in the glittering dining room candles.
She wondered how this could have happened. She was the queen of this house. She was once the ruler of the staff, the lady of the mansion. Nothing in that home happened without Rebecca's say. Now she felt sidelined. Forgotten. Usurped. Her anger was now coming to a boil. And unfortunately, a kind nurse at Welshport Hope Hospital would soon be the target of Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador's cruel and misguided frustrations.
***
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| Jacob & Celeste discuss Rebecca |
Upstairs, Jacob Lord sat at a small round table near the large floor to ceiling windows that over-looked the shadowing garden with the gazebo he built just a few years before. His legs elegantly crossed as he poked at the steak dinner in front of him while reading the evening paper in a silk robe. His recuperation from a heart-attack still in the back of his mind, among other things.
Like the headline in the paper about the pending memorial for former mayor Thomas Churchill.
The article about the man who took Tirymor and ravaged the mansion with a mob of blood-thirsty villagers read like the biography of a mythological saint, a version of Thomas people wanted to remember in print but didn't exist in life.
"Your mother is impossible to believe!" Celeste said, storming into their bedroom after her confrontation with Rebecca.
Jacob looked up from The Globe's pages and arched a brow.
"Actually, her kind is very possible, what's impossible to believe is the bullshit these writers have scrolled across the pages about that maniac Churchill and his ridiculous useless life." Jacob replied.
Celeste furrowed her brow and shook her head "Jacob, what?"
"Nothing. He's dead, I guess that's all that matters. What's mother done now?"
"She furious with me for inviting Christopher here and for telling Caspian the truth about what she was hiding from him. She thinks I'm trying to take her place in the household." Celeste explained.
"She accused you of that?" He asked folding the paper down neatly on his dinner table as he reached for the glass of Port in front of him.
"Yes!" His wife replied as she fell into a soft side chair near the table.
"Mother's been through a lot, and we all know her mental history. She'll accuse anyone of anything if it deflects from her own misdeeds." Jacob replied.
Celeste tilted her head "Sounds familiar." She replied as this was a trait Jacob carried too.
"Listen, don't pay attention to her. She's been the alpha female in this mansion since Grandmother Lord died, over 50 years ago, it's been only her for all that time." He said.
"What about Sabrina? How did she manage?" Celeste wondered of her long dead sister-in-law.
"Bellemore Beach." Jacob replied of the house once his that was given to David and Sabrina on their wedding day. "Mother made sure I moved back here and she and David, or Christopher as he likes to be called now, moved in there. She basically gave Sabrina her own little world to rule. Far, far, far away from the halls of Tirymor.
"Regardless of what she thinks, I don't want the tension. I'd rather her understand that what I did was for Caspian's own right to know who he was, she lied to him." Celeste replied.
"Hmm." Jacob replied with a smirk.
"What?"
"Is that really all there was to it? There wasn't anything else you hoped you'd achieve by setting Caspian off and back into Aurora Jordan's arms? You know, if that marriage should falter because of that little secret called Viktor mother kept from Caspian all that time, that you, my dear wife, so innocently exposed it could mean a lot of good things for me. For us." Jacob explained.
Celeste huffed, she knew exactly what he was talking about and he knew that she knew it too. It had always been something Jacob wondered quietly between them. How to gain leverage over Rebecca who's marriage to Caspian was the product of a loophole in Albert Lord's will that gave Rebecca more power in the company's bones if she were married.
She should be widowed a second time, her power remained --- Divorced was another story. She'd lose her holdings.
"I don't know what you mean." Celeste said, lying.
Jacob smirked and got up from the small round dinner table across the room from her and slowly made his way to his wife. When he to her, he reached his hand out and she grabbed it. He slowly lifted her up out of the soft chair and held her in his arms. The two of them seemed like such a power couple, and they were, however they'd come together in such a vial way -- through blackmail and coercion.
But here they were. Years after their marriage of convenience, still seemingly working together.
Working together to gain more, take more, be more.
He was taller than her. She stared up at his dark eyes of warm chestnut brown. He was handsome, in a dangerous way that she could always look at and wonder to herself how a man so beautiful on the outside could be so rotten on the inside. Her connection to him tainted with her own smaller twists of truths and secrets but secrets and powers was this love's currency.
Jacob craned his head and kissed her soft pouty lips. She didn't move. She only closed her eyes and let him kiss her. His hands held her tiny waist as she stood there thawing to his warmth. Was it love, still she felt? All this time? Or still a holding of him by their secretive pact: Marry him to protect her their mutual half-brother Johnathon from his treacherous greed.
Celeste wasn't sure.
"Let her be the way she is. Take no offense. She's cornered, like a caged animal, from all her little schemes to keep Caspian away from his past." Jacob said.
"But why does it matter for her which name he takes?" Celeste wondered.
"My mother has lost many times in love. My father, for all his strengths didn't always sit still at home. Johnathon's birth is an obvious proof of that." Jacob replied, referencing her mother Cristina's affair with Jacob's father Albert resulting in Johnathon's conception. "Beyond my father's many, and I mean many, indiscretions and his fall into insanity there was my baby sister's death. Then David's supposed death. Then Sebastian's supposed death, then she lost Caspian to the devil, then to Aurora and when she got Caspian back again suddenly this nurse Danielle shows up ready to take him away again. To her Caspian's past means she doesn't have a future. He wont need her. She's going to fight this time, Celeste, and if I were you I'd let her hang herself with her own actions. Stay clear and let it all be done."
Jacob walked back over to the newspaper he was reading and once again laughed at the article about the sinister mayor Churchill and his death.
"Natural causes... my ass." He said.
Celeste stood there frozen as Jacob's words swirled in her mind and wondered if he was right.
Should she let Rebecca destroy her own life with more schemes or should she do what a good daughter-in-law should do and try and help her through this tangled web of hers to save her from any other disasters.
The answer came to her in a split second as she realized what it would mean for her of her mother-in-law's power within the family structure to finally dim.
Celeste chose to let Rebecca, in whatever wild personal waters she was wading in…drown.
