B9/Ch7: A GOODE PRAYER

Dr. Ward questions with Nik & Danielle 

As night continued its rise engulfing a tragic day at Welshport Hope Hospital, Dr. Peter Ward and Dr. Nikolas Jordan took Nurse Holten into a side office. She was a wreck of a woman, her face pale and swollen from crying. Her hands were shaking. Her mind spinning into a dark place of guilt and confusion. What had she done? What had she done to Asha and all those other patients.

"Nurse Holten, we need every single detail of what has happened here. There are seven patients all of whom seem to have received a medication overdose administered by you. What did you give them?" Ward asked.

Danielle couldn't speak. She tried but nothing came out of her mouth. 

"Dani, you have to tell us. What was it that you gave them?" Nik asked, practically begging for some sort of answer. "Asha has died, Dani, please tell us." He added. 

"I...." that was all she could say, and handed them the list of her rounds, a paper attached to a wooden clipboard that she clung to the entire time. 

Ward snatched it from her and read it over noticing nothing out of the ordinary. 

In her mind Danielle flashed to what had happened in Asha's room and began to recount:

*

Danielle recalls her interaction with Asha 

"Good afternoon, Dr. Hoffman," Danielle said, checking off Asha's name on her medication rounds list. "Looks like we have the final brew of medical tea for your stay here. You must be very happy." 

Asha sat up in bed and flung her legs over the side and stood up. "I don't want it."

"Dr. Ward has ordered it, it's just the regular herbal medication with a few drops of vitamins to help keep your strength for your ride home. Nothing you have t taken before." Danielle replied.

Asha walked over to Danielle and took the tea. She stared at her and looked her up and down. The conversation with Rebecca circling her mind of how Rebecca saw Danielle and Nikolas together. Kissing. Hugging. Practically in love right under Asha's very nose. 

"Nikolas and I will be very happy together once I'm home. He's promised we'll go away together. Has he mentioned that to you?" Asha said, again her mind pregnant with Rebecca's description of Nik and Danielle's secret affair.

Danielle blinked slow, sensing a test from Dr. Hoffman. "How wonderful." She played. "He hasn't mentioned anything to me about that, and why would he?" 

"Why would he indeed." Asha said, sipping her tea.

"You must be excited to go home," Danielle added. "Maybe that help trigger your memory — has any of it come back?"

"Not yet, no." Asha replied, lying. She still held on to the truth about Aurora's child, a desperate move for a desperate woman clinging to Nikolas who only wanted that kernel past truth to free his mother Aurora of her grief of losing a child that was really lost. Asha secretly gave the baby away. 

"That's a shame, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to not have memories of such important and life changing events." Danielle replied, sensing Asha might be holding on to the truth for a reason.

"Similar to your father, I suppose." Asha replied, as she drank the rest of the toxic tea. "He's been dealing with his own memory issues for a very long time hasn't he? You know I received a visit from his wife, your stepmother, and she told me a few things." Asha added sitting back down on the bed.

"Did she?" 

"Yes. Very peculiar things about -- well, you." 

Danielle cocked her head to one side, confused. Her dark hair falling onto her shoulder like thick black waterfall bunching in the lushest curls. "What peculiar things did she have to say about me?" 

Asha opened her mouth to speak, she was about to tell Danielle everything, that she knew about the affair, that she knew Rebecca knew that the entire situation was about to blow up in Danielle's face but she couldn't say anything. She seemed frozen. 

"Dr. Hoffman?" Danielle said. "Dr. Hoffman?!" 

Asha lay back on her bed. Her heart rate slowing. Her eyes feeling heavy. She was unable to feel her feet. Blurry. The room went blurry. There was a strange fog that floated above her and seemed to fall on top of her. Her breathing started to slow. Her hands sweating. She tried to speak but her lugs couldn't muster the strength to fight a word out. She gasped for air. Danielle flinched not understand what was happening, the cup in Asha's hand fell and shattered on the hard hospital floor. 

"Dr. Hoffman!! ASHA! ASHA!!" Danielle screamed slapping Asha's face. 

*

Back in the office with Peter and Nik looked at each other unsure of what has happened. For his part, Peter felt the uncomfortable feeling that Danielle had done it on purpose, but it didn't explain the other patients. 

"I need to know something." Dr. Ward said, but he surprised Nik by asking it of Nik.

"What is it?" Nik wondered.

"I need to understand the nature of your relationship, the two of you." He said, darting his eyes to Danielle.

Danielle held her breath. 

"What -- what do you mean?" Nik asked.

"This is the absolute worst time for coyness Dr. Jordan. This isn't a large hospital where things are left in the shadows for no one to see or hear. There is gossip and rumor at every single turn of this place. I've heard about your relationship for week. I've turned a blind eye because it didn't, to me at least, seem to be anyone's business or for that matter true.  However, now, I need to know: are you two in a relationship?" 

"We..." Nik began before Danielle blurted out "Yes."  

Peter turned to Nik who silently nodded. Peter sighed heavily in disappointment. 

"When I discovered you and Dr. Hoffman were an item, I also turned the other cheek, at least in that you two were open, but this? The secrets, she hiding; this is not good." Ward said.

"Dr. Ward, you have to understand, this was not an intentional relationship, and I would never have hidden anything had Asha been healthy. I was waiting for her to be home and healed for it to come out. I always intended for Danielle and myself to be open with what we have, but the right time never came. Asha has been recovering for so long here, telling her about Danielle and myself in her state, I feared would set her back. And she has so much to tell us about what happened to her when she was kidnaped, I needed to allow her to continue to heal and recover." Nik said to Peter.

"And suddenly that right time may never come, will it? You certainly can't announce your relationship now that Asha Hoffman is dead and the reason, she's dead is the nurse whom you're in a new relationship with has given her the tea that killed her. Do you understand what I am saying?" Ward explained. 

"No, no, I didn't do this on purpose! You can't think that!!" Danielle replied. 

Ward only stared at her like a father furious with a child's behavior. His eyes pinned her down and burned through her as if she were a cold-blooded killer. 

"I have to call Constable Ryan. This cannot go unreported." Ward said.

"Doctor Ward, please you can't seriously think Danielle would do something to Asha on purpose! She would never! Obviously, something went wrong with the medication dosages, there were several others who were ill too. I wasn't involved with all those other patients as I was with Asha, so Danielle would have no reason to poison them. You, see, his was an accident; it has to be." Nik tried to explain. 

Dr. Ward furrowed his brow and looked at Nik. The young doctor was right; he had to be some sort of mix up -- but on who's part? 

"We'll clear it up with Constable Ryan." The chief doctor said. "I have to call him." 

Doctor Ward left the room and Danielle fell into Nikolas' arms. She began to cry uncontrollably, her face into his chest. 

"Shhh.. it's ok. We'll figure this out. No one thinks you did anything. It's ok." Nik said, trying to console her.

In his office, Dr. Ward could not ignore the timing of Asha's death and the reaffirmed truth that Nik and Danielle were having an affair. Still, the idea that anyone, especially his protege Nikolas, would have secretly laced his other protege's tea to kill her in a lover's knot felt incredible vial -- yet not totally unheard of. 

These thoughts swirled in Peter's mind as he waited on the phone waiting for the new constable, Justin Ryan, to be brought in by the operator. 

"Constable, yes, hello, this is Dr. Peter Ward at Welshport Hope. Congratulations on joining, yes, yes we're very happy to have you. Unfortunately, this isn't just a welcome call to you. There's been a death here at Hospital. Yes, suspicious. And I think I have the culprit here. Who? Nikolas Jordan. Yes, that's right, Nikolas Jordan -- Ill explain when you get here." 

Rebecca's crime had yet another victim. 

****

Filipe arrives home to a shocking scene 

The Night fog filtered up from the rocky shores around Welshport Island and seeped into the village streets like slow moving white molasses. Fishing trawlers had arrived over the course of the evening releasing their crew back from a hard three days out at sea, including Filipe Braga, who'd taken up a position on one of Matthew Winterborn's ships.

He walked along the slippery streets of the village and to the neighborhood where his mother's home stood. Filipe noticed almost all the lights were off, the windows closed up, which was odd for Filipe's mother Fatima. She especially enjoyed a fresh night sea breeze to come through her window. 

Filipe entered the home, quiet. Peaceful. Untouched. 

"Hello?" He asked, checking the clock on the dark wall across from him confirming the time. It wasn't late, and yet no one was there.

Filipe began lighting some of the front room's lamps, allowing the deep glow of the light to fill the room showing its clear emptiness. The family had vanished, it seemed, without a trance. Without a note. Without a single reminder of them. 

As Filipe was about to go into the backrooms, the front door suddenly opened. Fatima carrying Caleb at her side and Charlotte; All three dressed for the cold night air, entered with very worried expressions.

"What is it?" Filipe asked. But as quickly as the question came to his lips, he noticed a person missing. "Where is Mary?" 

Charlotte's eyes began to water. Fatima sighed deeply, almost a whimper, and passed Caleb to his father. The baby's eyes were swollen from crying, but the little boy mustered a smile as he touched his father's face.

"Where's Mary?" Filipe asked again.

"We don't know." Fatima replied darkly. 

Filipe felt a sudden pull on every one of his internal organs. He held on to the baby tight and shook his head as if the words his mother had spoken were in a different language. 

"What are you talking about? What do you mean you don't know? She didn't tell you where she was going?" He pressed.

"We came home from the market and found Caleb by himself in his crib." Charlotte replied. "We have no idea why she left or where she went and it's been hours." 

"We don't even know how long este pobrezinho was alone. He was just in his little caminha asleep like an angel." Fatima added, reaching for the baby she referred to in Portuguese as the poor baby. 

"No, that's not like her at all, something is wrong." Filipe said handing the baby over to Charlotte.

"We've been all over the village, Filipe, Mary has vanished." Fatima confirmed.

"The village." He replied, his mother nodded. "Then she must be on Goode Island. I need to go there." 

Fatima and Charlotte looked at each other, it clearly didn't dawn on them to check Goode Island. They couldn't think of a reason why Mary would go back at her mother's abandoned home on there; to run off unannounced to all alone. 

****

Verity looks in on her prisoner Mary in the pit

Meanwhile, across the fog cloaked watery strait between Welshport Island, the assumed vacant home of the Goode family on the smaller island named after them stirred with activity. The only house on the tiny island glowed with the warm light of the hearth as Verity Spencer stared at herself in a full-length mirror. She had switched her clothes with her twin sister Mary whom she had abducted to finally give herself the life she felt she deserved, one that she felt was taken from her. 

She posed in the mirror, trying to mimic Mary's subtle characteristics. She tried to speak like Mary, using her phrasing and direct way. The taking over of Mary's life had to be seamless. No one could ever know the truth and it had to be fast — and it had to last. 

Once she felt she had it down, she slipped into Mary's coat and adjusted the belt, tightly around her waist. She gave herself one last look and smirked.

"Done." Verity said, in a Mary's softer tone.

Then she went to the back of the house to a door that led to a cold and dark basement. The basement had been hollowed out, emptied of its contents. The floor had been opened up and a large pit had been made. A ring of salt had been poured out around the pit, a clever trick of magic that Verity had smartly learned from catching up on the documents and old books in the Goode cottage over the weeks she'd been there along. 

Inside the pit, deeply dug into the hard cold ground, was Mary Goode, trapped.

Verity peeked over and saw Mary laying in the fetal position on the tiny mattress that had been flung down there from one of the cottage's beds. She'd been dressed in Verity's dress and also given books, a pail, a lantern, blankets and several wash clothes. There was a ration of food that would last 3 to 4 days that Verity planned to replenish when she could make it back. 

Sensing eyes on her, Mary perked up met her twin's eyes. Eyes that were exactly like her own, despite their color.

"Verity. Verity. Please, please take me out of here. I don't understand why you're doing this. We can figure things out together if you just let me out." 

"No." Verity replied simply. 

Mary slammed her fist into the mattress in frustration, "BUT WHY!?" 

"Because this is how it's going to be, it is how it should have been. I'm going to be the one that lives in the world now, Mary, because I've been give this second chance and I'm not going to waste it." 

"You'd rather trap me here, in this ... in this giant grave... than live together? As sisters???" Mary questioned. "Doesn't that seem counter to what our mother would have wanted?" 

"What mother would have wanted?" Verity questioned. "She didn't have a chance to know what she would have wanted for me. It wasn't for her to decide. Which is the true beauty of this, Mary. I've been given the chance from the witch council to live as a person as a real-life living person the way it could have been and in my eyes, SHOULD have been. That's all that you need to know. You'll see the package of food there, it will last you enough. Don't worry. I won't abandon you, I'm not that kind of person. I was abandoned by time, by the universe, so I know what it feels like. But I'll come back and replenish your food and wash every few days."

"They'll figure it out, Charlotte. Filipe. All of them. You won't be able to do this forever Verity. They'll figure it out! I'm telling you. It's better to come clean, take me out of here and we can do this together." Mary pleaded.

Verity smirked. It was all so simple, Mary thought. But she explained to her trapped twin what she was forgetting; one very important factor: The whole village saw Verity supposedly burn to death in the fire when Jacqueline inhabited Verity's body after the witch trials. The whole village pegged Verity, the magically regenerated twin of Mary Goode, for the true witch of Welshport. They saw her die. They saw her turn to ash and die. Nothing could ever bring her back in the eyes of the mortals in Welshport. Verity knew this, it had to be this way, it had to be this way.

"Then why not kill me?!?!? WHY?? Why keep me alive and suffer in a pit below my mother's home!?" Mary screamed.

"OUR MOTHER!" Verity shot back. "Everything is you, you, you, Mary! Its not about just you anymore. I'm here. I'm alive, and I deserve to live." 

"And that means I should suffer?" Mary asked.

Verity took a breath, she walked away from the mouth of the giant pit she had created. She paced back and forth in the basement, her mind racing -- confused. 

"YES!" Verity screamed out. "This is the way. I can't kill a sister. You know this." 

Mary took a second and realized it was true. The Witch Council would never allow coven sisters to hurt each other, much less true sisters like Mary and Verity. No matter how they were in each other's lives. 

Verity once again peeked over the side of the large opening to the pit Mary was in. Two handfuls of salt rained down on Mary, once again to lock her magic and secure here in the place she'd been put in. 

Mary dusted herself off from the salt and shook her head "You've thought of everything." 

Varity's brow arched and she threw one more handful of salt over Mary who shivered with anger. 

"I have to get back." Varity said. "Take care of yourself, I'll see you soon." 

When Varity was gone, all Mary could do was sit back down on the mattress. She pulled her knees into her chest and held them there -- trapped. Powerless. In fear. 

Mary did the one thing she could do -- she prayed and hoped that someone somewhere somehow would listen to her prayer and find her. 

****

Justin meets with Peter  

Back at Welshport Hope Hospital, the shocking events on Danielle Holten's floor leaked through the corridors like liquid whispers hitting every ear that would hear. The sorrow over Asha's sudden and shocking death was a gut punch to everyone on staff who knew her, worked with her and cared for her in her convalescence from her terrible accident in the fire that destroyed the Police station almost a year before. 

In his office, Dr. Peter Ward, chief of staff, had summoned the newly minted Constable Justin Ryan to gather evidence on what Ward believed was an unfortunate, yet targeted event revolving around a love triangle of Dr. Nikolas Jordan, Nurse Holten and Dr. Asha Hoffman. 

For his part, Constable Ryan was seeing, in rather quick timing, that his new job in his new hometown was not going to be an easy paycheck. In the days since he'd been sworn in, he'd seen already enough dangerous crimes to send a shiver even in the biggest of cities. 

"You'll have to give me more than just that." Justin said to Peter on his theory of what happened to Asha. "A love triangle is a curious piece of the puzzle, but its not a death warrant." 

"No, you're right. I would never bring things up against Dr. Jordan and Nurse Holten just because. And to be honest, I can't imagine them doing anything like this at all. Ever. But there's been so much rumor on their affair and Asha's sudden death, in a manner that seems easily avoidable. It just --- Constable, it just all fits too neatly and too strangely." 

"Doctor." A voice came from the door. It was an orderly. His face cold and frozen as if he'd just witnessed something so awful that it had turned his stomach. 

"Not now, I'm with the constable." Peter told the orderly. 

"He'll want to know this too." The orderly said showing them both an empty vial.

"What is that?" Justin asked.

"Its a vial of Atropa belladonna." The orderly explained.

Justin shrugged and looked at Peter for explanation. "Where did you find it?" Peter asked.

"Where you asked us to look, Dr. Jordan's office." 

"Care to fill me in here?" Justin asked.

"Atropa belladonna is the chemical in nightshade." Dr. Ward explained.

Justin nodded, "The plant." 

"Yes. We use it in a deluded form to help patients who are in incredible amounts of pain or patients who are suffering extreme mental incapacitations to rest. Its cheaper and handier for this rural hospital to get. Morphine is quite pricy and harder to get out on the island. But..." Peter paused his explanation before Justin chimed back in.

"But?"

"But if too much is used, as I am sure you can deduce, it can be deadly." 

"And you found this in Dr. Jordan's office?" Justin asked the orderly who nodded affirmative. "Who asked you to go there?" 

"I did." Peter said. "I just -- I just had a hunch. I hoped nothing would be found." Peter said sincerely. 

"Well, sorry to say doc, but your hunch may have turned up right. Where's Nik Jordan now?" Justin asked.

"He's with -- Asha." The orderly said solemnly.  

Peter, Justin and the orderly and another orderly, a burly man that had come from Churchill Green who was more of a stone-cold security force inside the asylum, went back up to the floor where Asha's room was and where her body was being prepared to be taken to the morgue. Everyone's eyes watched in horror as the foursome went through the winding corridors. Everyone knew what was happening, everyone - nurses, the other few doctors that were on duty, the orderly, patients in the halls, visitors. Everyone. It was a scene out of a frightening place in anyone's mind that could happen in such a place of healing.

As they arrived to Asha's room, her body covered in a white blanket covering her from head to toe, was being wheeled out. Danielle saw the Dr. Ward and his team coming. She quickly grabbed Nik's arms believing she was about to be arrested for murder and attempted murder.

"Tonight, I think is my last day a free woman." She said dramatically. 

Nik turned to her, his face broken and unsure of what could have happened in his life that would lead him to this very moment.  The four men then stood in front of Nik and Danielle. Nik quickly catching up with Danielle's words. He slightly moved his body in front of hers fully expecting them to take her into custody.

"Nikolas Jordan -- you're coming with me." Justin replied shocking both Nik and Danielle as Justin lifted up in his hand the empty vial of nightshade --- the one Rebecca planted in his office in a flurry of panic to free herself of the evidence at the very last second. 

****

Verity poses as Mary & encounters Filipe 

Fog drenched nights in Welshport were a common occurrence. No night, in almost any season, didn't have a least a speck of sea fog that rolled over the wild Atlantic and over the small islands of Frenchman Bay in Maine. 

Combing the streets for Mary, Filipe fears were becoming more and more harrowing as Mary's disappearance felt incredibly out of character for her. The witch trials and his own trials and tribulations with Lycanthropy began to seep into his mind again. How they'd fought so hard to be together during those terrible days and yet again they were back at square one but he was alone.

As Filipe made his way towards the harbor to get on to a small boat he had there at the marina to head over to Goode Island in search for Mary, there was a sudden call to him in the shadows on one of the docks. He turned and saw a figure standing there in silhouette. 

Filipe, who was crouched down untying the boat, slowly got up and watched as the figure moved through the fog slowly, methodically, like a ghost walking through a wall. Then, as the fog lifted over her face, he saw Mary standing there.

"Mary! MARY! MY GOD Where have you been!?!!? We've been looking all over for you all night!" Filipe said, running towards his wife and yanking her small, framed body into a tight hug. He kissed her on her lips, her cheeks, her forehead, man in puppy love thrilled that she was alive and in his arms.

"I'm so sorry." Mary said, only in reality it was Verity posing as her twin sister, her tongue quick with lies. "I -- I'm ashamed of myself. I should never have left Caleb alone and not told anyone where I was going. I just needed sometime alone, but it was selfish. I'm so sorry Filipe."

"Time alone? Why? Did something happen while I was out at sea?" 

Verity, as Mary, shied her face to continue her ruse of innocence mixed with guilt. "How can I go on pretending Caleb isn't the son of two people we know and care about? How I can I continue to pretend, Filipe? Aurora and Caspian should know." 

There was a pause, Verity swallowed hard unsure if her pantomime of what Mary would have said, could pass the mustard. 

Filipe furrowed his brow "We discussed this, Mary." Her sister's name coming from his lips proved to Verity she'd succeeded. 

"We love our son, he's ours. Keeping Caleb away from his birth family is in his best interest. Caspian could always become a danger to himself and others. Everything about that man should give you confidence that what we've done to keep Caleb away from him was right. We're keeping our boy from irreparable harm in the hands of anyone connected to Caspian and the Lords."  He continued. 

"You really think this is the right thing to do?" She asked meekly, again in a voice only to continue her lies.

"Yes, I really do." He answered sincerely. 

"Do you think you can forgive me for this? For just leaving this way, I'm sorry." She sighed.

Filipe pulled her into a tight hug; his body warmed her. The emotional connection she suddenly felt was something Verity had never felt before. She finally understood something of a human connection with a person, a living person. His body felt like a wall between the chaotic world around her and the peace she had always wanted to feel within herself. She clung to him as if it were the last time she'd ever see him but, in a way, it was the first time. She never wanted to lose this connection, now that she had a taste. This, she thought to herself, is what it was all about. To love and be loved. To feel and be felt. To hold and to be held. To connect in all senses of the word. 

"Let's go home." he whispered.

"Home." She whispered. "To a family." She added, feeling a sense that finally she belonged. 

Filipe Chuckled and nodded his head. "Yes, to a family. Our family." 

"Our family." She replied in a blissful tone. "I love that." 

Filipe cocked his head and pulled out of the hug to look at her. Her face, half covered in shadow from the night was soft and pure, the face he expected to see, but there was something about her that he couldn't quite pin point. Her words seemed distant, almost as if she'd been gone for a long time and had just come home. 

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked, both hands on her shoulders matching her eye to eye.

"Yes, yes! Of course, I'm sorry, it's been a very long night. Please let's go home." Verity as Mary said, as a night wind shivered across both of their faces.

He smiled, still unsure of her, but locked her back into his arms and the two set off home. 

Verity had so far kept things under control, but she would have to do a lot better than this when she first encounters Charlotte, Mary's very telepathic and psychic 15-year-old daughter. 

****

Celeste & Jacob, discussion in the gold room

Sitting in Tirymor House's luxurious living room on a double stuffed sofa upholstered with gold and white fabric of leaves from the garden of Eden, Celeste DeVianna-Lord sorted through the family mail that was brought to her on a silver tray by the household maid Jane O'Donnell.

The fire in front of her warmed her from the cold night just outside the French doors to her left. She skimmed through lines of beautiful handwriting from her cousin just across Frenchmen Bay in Winter  Harbor, Maine who had heard of Johnathon's hospitalization. A strange feeling of exposure suddenly clouded Celeste's mind. She didn't want anyone to know of Johnathon's struggles, but -- there it was, in the most beautiful penmanship she'd ever seen.

Shaking off her embarrassment, Celeste suddenly came across to letters to Evie from Catherine Randall-Ruth, the woman Evie met on the ship Iberia when she first arrived in Welshport. 

"God, do you correspond with that woman?" Jacob said, surprising Celeste by looking over her shoulder from behind. 

Celeste rolled her eyes.

"She's always been a pain in my mother's side. Invitations for dinner in New York, fancy dress balls in Boston, some kind of baptism for her grandchild in Newport. What does she want with you?" He added.

"Jacob, you shouldn't read other people's mail." Celeste replied as her husband across from him on an identical sofa. 

"I didn't. I read the envelope." He replied with a creepy grin.

Celeste sighed "It's not for me. Its mail for Evie. They're friends apparently. I'll send this out for Aurora at Bellmore Beach."  

"Aurora is at Bellmore Beach now? Such a shame to have one of our most beautiful family properties passed off to the Jordans. I guess the good news is it'll someday go to Gabriel, despite his Jordan linage. That's a positive." Jacob scoffed.

"I wonder how Evie is doing. Sometimes I wish we didn't have our falling out. I miss our friendship." Celeste confessed as she moved her hand over Evie's name on Catherine's envelope.

"You did what you had to do for Gabriel. His life needed a steady hand; he was only a baby. God knows Sebastian couldn't handle being a parent -- not the way he is. And we all thought Evie was dead, it was natural for you to take care of him as your own." Jacob replied, recalling when the two of them took guardianship over Gabriel. 

 "It was more than that, Jacob. And I do regret it." Celeste confessed.

"Gabriel is a Lord. We were only protecting his interests at the end of the day." Jacob replied, shrugging off his deceptive true plan at the time.

"By controlling his shares of his family's company. We both know what we had in mind, Jacob, and it was just to keep the boy safe." She said, reminding him of the very convenient monetary perk of controlling Gabriel's shares of the family company.

Jacob grabbed a match book that was on the coffee table in front of him ad removed a thick brown cigar from his inside coat pocket and lit it. The smoke puffed his chest to the air around him as he grinned coyly to Celeste's mia culpa about her part in Garbriel's guardianship. 

"It was what it was." Jacob said. "It worked out for everyone I guess, Evie ended up being alive, she took back her son and he has his shares. No harm no foul." 

"It's always just so easy for you to say that. When things go left you always have an escape plan that actually doesn't help you escape, it usually plunges you deeper into some kind of mess of your own making." Celeste said.

He moved over from his sofa to hers and sat close enough to her that if one were to see them one wouldn't be able to tell who was smoking. Their thighs pressed up against each other. She pushed him slightly over with his elbow and he kissed her neck. 

"You do love it don't you? The mess I make?" He whispered in her ear.

She scoffed and pushed him hard with her hand in the chest. 

"You would love it if I said I did." She said, slightly repulsed but always hid the twinge of excitement he gave her.

He reached over and put his hand around her waist. He could feel the tight corsetry of her dress that bound her into it like a fortress of fabric and whale bone. She pulled her close and they kissed passionately in the living room. The mail in her laps fell to the floor at the same time that the front of the mansion opened and slammed shut with a violent bang that startled the married lovers out of their quiet personal moment.

The two turned to the open living room double doors that led to the mansion's dimly lit marble foyer and a blur of dark fabric and red hair passed in a flash and twisted around the banister of the main staircase and bounded up the staircase in an equally blurry mass. 

The Lord family Paige and Jacob's personal fixer, Aaron Hamstead, entered. 

"Its Mrs. Casador." He whispered.

"What's the matter with her?" Jacob asked of his mother. 

Aaron shrugged. "All I know is that she was at the hospital and called me to pick her up. I came and she was in tears. But spoke not a word." 

"She must of found out, maybe Lear told her." Celeste said.

"Lear?" Jacob asked, of his cousin Lear Lockwood the family lawyer. 

"Caspian sent divorce papers in the mail for her to sign. Their up on her bed. Maybe Lear was alerted and he told her." Celeste explained.

“In the mail!? Quite cold, Isn’t it? Even for Caspian!” Jacob exclaimed. “Those are usually served by an officer of the court.”

Celeste and Jacob then looked back to Aaron for more information, but he shrugged again, having truthfully no idea what was happening.

Upstairs, Rebecca closed and locked her bedroom door behind her, little white Maltese BeeBee quickly scurried in making it in with his mistress in the nick of time. The vast room had already been lit with soft lamps as per customary routine in the evenings at Tirymor. A member of the Lord family never walked into a dark room, even Beebee had never seen a dark room. 

The matriarch paced back and forth alongside her large bed. She stopped and turned towards the wall behind her. A large portrait of herself and her late first husband Albert Lord stared back at her. Tears fell from Rebecca's eyes as her mind drifted off into what had happened to him, his fall into the dark shadows of madness at such a young age that eventually took his life -- and now her own crumbling life seemed to be going down the very same path.

Her plan was never ever to hurt anyone. No one, especially not Asha, was supposed to die. She only wanted Danielle to be dealt with in an administrative way and let go from her post at the hospital. It was just one way for Rebecca to chip away at Danielle's link to Welshport. No one, not a single person, was ever meant to die.

And yet -- death came and took an innocent person, a woman who had helped her in the small plot. 

Rebecca turned away from the painting of herself and Albert. Her face swollen with her crying and saw several folders on her bed perfectly tied with twine. She stepped over to her current husband's side of the bed, one Caspian hadn't slept in in weeks. Her dress, long and dark flowing like a woman in mourning, curled around the banister and clung to the curves of her body like it was made of her own skin.

Rebecca untied the twine string and read through the divorce papers that were couriered to Tirymor House with the mail earlier that day. 

"No." She whispered. "NO! NO! NO!!!!" She screamed as she threw the papers across the room frightening BeeBee over to a corner of the room. The papers fell to the ground like leaves from a tree in fall and were scattered everywhere.

Rebecca fell to the floor in the fetal position. She reached for her rosary in her pocket, the same pocket that she had held the vial of deadly nightshade that she placed in Nik's office and clutched them to her chest. Her whole world was damaged beyond repair. She had no idea what to do next. She had killed a woman, made other's ill, and framed an innocent man for the crime.

Beebee slowly made his four-legged way over to his mistress and whimpered as she cried uncontrollably. She reached for his little furry head and caressed him. 

"What do I do, my sweet thing, what do I do?" Rebecca asked the dog, who licked her. 

She was trapped now in her own misguided web of lies and treachery. All in the hopes of keeping the man she loved in her grasp, in her control, and in her life. Her hurt, her loneliness and her yearning for someone special in her life had led her to do things she had never thought herself capable of. 

Outside her door, Jacob listened to his mother's banshee cries of despair. He instantly knew this was not only about the divorce. Something else, he thought, something else had happened. He grinned and arched a brow as ideas quickly flooded his mind. He realized that perhaps, his mother's devastation could yet again benefit his own future.