still paranoid about bugs, so we don’t talk inside, except in the bathroom. That happens to be where we fuck a lot too. Also in the car, in the woods behind the house, in the gazebo. The other night, she came to my room and we had sex in total silence, which was also extremely hot.
I just don’t know how to approach it. I shouldn’t be afraid of my father. I want to stand up to him and be defiant in my feelings for her. I want him to know that I will choose her over him every time.
I know I need to play my cards right, though. Because this isn’t just your normal father-son relationship.
I remember what he said earlier this year when I made it clear that I wasn’t going to hurt Seraphine or collect her for his own revenge. He told me he has every means to turn around and pin Ludovic’s death on me, even though there isn’t a shred of evidence, even though I had nothing to do with it.
The truth is, I didn’t even know what he was going to do that night at the masquerade ball. I was under the impression that Father just wanted to sabotage things, make Ludovic sick and unstable so that he could take over the company, so that I would rise in the ranks with Olivier’s shares gone. He had told me he had a plan to take his brother out of the picture “for now,” and the thought of him murdering him didn’t even cross my mind.
But then Ludovic dropped dead in front of my eyes, while my father was grinning at him like a fucking skull, and then I knew. I knew immediately what my father had done. Whether it was poison or other means, who knows. The autopsy was no doubt paid off. I just knew that my father had murdered his own brother in cold blood, and I had no choice but to stand by and look and pretend that this didn’t really happen. Pretend that Seraphine’s wild accusations were part of an overactive imagination. I had to pretend that when I was helping my father, I was doing it for the good of myself, the good of the company.
So much pretending. It’s like the mask I wore that night Ludovic died had never come off. It hadn’t come off until I let Gabrielle into my life, and she removed it with her beauty and vulnerability and strength. And she liked the man she saw underneath, a man I don’t know.
A man I want to know. A man who is still looking for something to stand for.
There is a change coming now, the same change that I felt before. It’s unstoppable. And when it happens, I will never be the same. This family will never be the same. The Dumont brand will never be the same.
In the end, that might just be a good thing.
It’s a cloudy day, so the halls are dark as I make my way into the kitchen. As I head toward it, I think I hear a noise from the study.
I go over and peer around the corner, seeing Gabrielle standing by the books, running her hands over them as if in a trance.
I stand there in the doorway, watching her for a few moments. Usually she’s so aware of her surroundings, it surprises me that she hasn’t seen me yet.
Then I realize there are tears running down her face.
Immediately, I spring across the study toward her, having to step back just in time before it looks too intimate.
“What happened?” I whisper.
She’s holding the book with the bullet hole in it. “Did your gun do this?”
I blink at her, shake my head absently. “No, it was Blaise’s gun. Or Seraphine’s. Mine was in the desk.”
“This desk?” she asks and opens the drawer. The gun is gone.
“I had it there just in case. It’s upstairs now, you know this. Why are you crying?”
I glance over at the hall and the staircase, but I see no one. I reach for her, cupping her beautiful, ethereal face in my hands and wiping away her tears.
“It’s nothing,” she says softly, her eyes downcast.
“I’ve never seen you cry,” I tell her, and it’s true. It’s breaking my heart. “It has to be something. Please tell me.”
She swallows loudly. “It’s my mother.”
“Is she okay?”
She shakes her head, still avoiding my gaze. “No. And she’ll never be. But there’s nothing I can do. I have no choice.”