Page 85 of The Devil
I do not bother to face her; I merely turn my head to the side and hold up my index finger to silence her. Fortunately, she heeds my warning and remains quiet.
Helena
“I thought Helena marrying the father of her child was for the best, yes,” Dad says, lifting his chin in defiance. “At the time, I thought he was a more appropriate match for Helena, and marrying him would be better than letting her raise a baby by herself at the age of twenty.”
“Whatever,” I huff, “it turns out Evan was lying. Christ knows how he did it, but the letter he gave me must have been fake because Jess recently did her own DNA test, and guess what? Evan cannot be her biological father, which means…”
“Lucius Hastings is?” Nate bursts out. “I didn’t even realize you guys were ever a thing. When did that happen?”
“I’m not sure Jess should know that, Helena,” Dad butts in. “I mean the poor girl grew up with Evan and now she has to come to terms with being the offspring of someone like Lucius Hastings. The man’s not known as ‘The Devil’ for nothing, his reputation is beyond shady. His uncle is believed to be the head of some criminal outfit in the city. I think it’s best that you tell her you don’t know who he is.”
“Are you freaking kidding me, Dad?” Cam looks at my father like he’s finally lost his marbles. “You can’t keep that from her, or him; what if that was me or Nate?”
“It’s not your decision though, is it, Dad?” I finally manage to push out through my lips with angry tears. “Just like it wasn’t really up to you to tell Evan or push me into marrying him.”
“I thought you loved him,” he lies. God forbid he loses the respect of his precious sons. “It seemed like the perfect solution. How was I to know he would one day attack Lily?”
Cam tenses up at this point, but this is my battle. I don’t need anyone to fight it for me.
“How can you say that? I told you at the time that I never loved him. I was deeply in love with Lucius and my decision to not tell him I was pregnant is the biggest regret of my life. Maybe if I had, this would have all been different, but that’s my role in this whole shitshow.”
“Helena, sweetheart-” he tries to say, but I’m not letting him have any of it.
“Knowing what he was capable of, have you never once wondered what it was like for me to be shacked up with Evan? A guy I didn’t want to be with in the slightest. Can you understand what it was like to sign my life away when I was in love with Lucius? You saw how I reacted when he told me the results, you saw me run, you heard me throwing up, and yet you gave me no option but to marry him.”
By this point, my father has turned silent, Mom is weeping, and Cam and Nate look a cross between angry and sad. But I’m not finished.
“Well, Daddy dearest, who was so smart, so looking out for me, so in my corner, on the night of our wedding he revealed his true colors. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to behave the way he wanted me to, to accept his affairs, including turning a blind eye when Cam and I witnessed him groping Amanda on the family couch.” All eyes move to look at Cam at this point and he sadly nods his confirmation. “And then…then…” I close my eyes as my voice becomes pitchy and I relive those awful nights in my head. “Then, I wasn’t as lucky as Lily to get away.” When I open my eyes, they are all looking at me with horrified expressions, except Mom, who already knew. “I wasn’t lucky a lot of times during my marriage,” I add quietly. “I have six cigarette scars; my finger is fucked and I have been beaten countless times over the years. But nothing,nothingwas more soul destroying than knowing the man you were supposed to be with, is out there, not being with you.”
“Helena…” Dad says in barely more than a whisper and with tears beginning to fall.
“Enough!” a growl of a voice comes from the direction of the now open door.
“Lucius?” I gasp in surprise when I see him filling the door frame, dressed in his signature black suit. He’s heard all of it now - every, last, sordid detail. The question is, is he here for me? Or against me?
The whole room stares at the intense-looking man and his intimidating glare. He walks slowly toward me, and I find myself staring down at the floor, feeling too afraid to meet his gaze. He crosses the room and cups my face, lifting my eyes to his, only so he can gently press his forehead against mine.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, “you don’t ever have to look ashamed in front of me.”
I cover his hands with mine as we stand together while he kisses me and holds onto me so tight, I finally feel like he will never let me go. Eventually, he pulls back to face the rest of my family while holding up the original DNA results for all to see.
“This is a fabricated document, plain as day to the trained eye,” he says matter of factly. “Tell me, Mr Carter,” he addresses my father, “were you, or were you not, a fraud investigator for the bank you worked for?”
My father turns a ghostly shade of pale and I begin to feel violently sick as the realization of what Lucius is suggesting sinks in.
“Seems to me, someone with your experience could have seen this was a fake a mile away,” he says theatrically as he walks up close to him. “So, either you were pathetically piss poor at your job, or you totally fucked over your daughter, your granddaughter, and…” he pauses before leaning in extra close to my father with a menacing expression on his face, “…me.”
“Lucius,” Cam begins in an anxious tone of voice, but Lucius backs away, and instead, looks at me to make sure I’ve fully understood the full extent of what my father actually did all those years ago.
“You knew?” I gasp in disbelief. “You knew it was fake and went along with it? How could you do that to me?”
“Dad, what the fuck?!” Nate snaps.
“I-I sincerely thought it was in everyone’s best interests,” he stutters. “Y-you know you have a reputation, Lucius, you wouldn’t have wanted a child. Evan was offering marriage, a stable home, a family environment with a bright future. What I did was out of concern for you, Helena! Cameron, you understand, after what he did with your girlfriend at Jen’s wedding, surely?”
“Though it also served you, did it not? After all, what would your friends and business colleagues think about your daughter being knocked up by a Hastings? You see, Helena, when I left for a few weeks during that summer you stayed with us, I was privy to a case that led to the conviction of a number of your father’s inner circle. Fraud, very sloppily done too. Do you remember?”
“I remember,” I whisper. I remember everything about that summer, right down to the smell of Lucius’ cologne, the brand of tea Owen drank, even the pattern of the crystal glasses in which Lucius had poured our drinks.