Into The Light

by Wolfe, H. M.

  The girl was cut short by the sound of the mansion's grand front door opening. A man and a woman, both in their late forties to early fifties, came inside, heading straight to the couch Christine and Martin Cornelius were seated. At their sight, the young man jumped on his feet, a look of utter surprise on his face.

  "Father... Mother, what a nice surprise, " he smiled shyly. "I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow or the day after. What made you come earlier? Is something wrong?" the young man asked, worry etched on his face.

  Fabian hugged him. "Relax, son. Everything is all right." He smiled. "One of the first lessons a married man has to learn is always to do what he is told to do. Your mother was excited to meet her future daughter in law, so here we are."

  Meanwhile, the woman took a seat near Christine, studying her with a warm smile. Eventually, she took the girl's hands between her own. "Adele Bloom, nice to meet you. Our usually so taciturn son became very talkative, all he does is to tell us about his amazing girlfriend."

  ”Thank you, Mrs. Bloom, you are very kind,” the girl finally spoke, after fighting off the lump in her throat for a few seconds, ”but I think Martin Cornelius should focus more on his future wife.”

  ”You heard the young lady, son, what are you waiting for? Go, take her for a walk, do whatever you young ones call courtship these days!”

  The young man gave his parents a shy smile, kissed Christine on the cheek and lightly squeezed her hand, gesturing with his head to the main door. The girl stood up, ready to follow him when the door burst open, and Tarquin stormed inside, in an apparent state of agitation.

  "Call Liam and Daniel into the living room," he said, turning to Martin Cornelius. "Christine, would you please go to Eugene's and ask him to come here? And take care, Elliott must not, under any circumstance, find out about this," the blond spoke.

  The couple nodded at the same time, and then each of them went in opposite directions, to carry on the task Tarquin assigned to them. Meantime, the blond noticed Fabian and Adele Bloom, who had a confused expression on their faces, and headed to them, arms wide opened.

  "Uncle Fabian, Aunt Adele, how happy I am to see you! We are in the middle of a situation here, I'll explain everything as soon as the others join us," Tarquin spoke, the same agitation from earlier present in his voice.

  The first to enter was Daniel. "Are you all right? Martin Cornelius said you have news." The raven-haired man looked in his husband's eyes, searching for any sign of distress. He then let out a loud sigh of relief when he found nothing.

  First Liam, then Alastair, and finally Eugene, joined the little group. "I see we are all here, so I can start. It's not a secret anymore that Daniel and I freed Swinton to help us with the whole list story. Using his still sharp skills and instincts of an investigative journalist, and with the help of John Harris, he’s discovered a lot of interesting things."

  "And what would be some of these things?" Alastair sourly asked, still not wholly accepting what the two husbands had done, without consulting him.

  "Well, apparently, Hayden's lawyer, one Isaac Williamson from Boston, provided discreet, online services for the very rich. Guess who was one of his high profile clients? Ezra Redmayne and his mother! Ah, and Elliott Spellmann, the missing lawyer," Tarquin added.

  "Elliott... Spellmann?" Eugene said, his eyes wide from shock. "No, it can't be. He said his lawyer was like a father to him...No!" He shook his head vehemently, balling his hands into fists, squeezing them tight, until the knuckles turned white.

  Looking at his adoptive cousin, Daniel finally realized, it all clicked into place, like the pieces of a puzzle. The name Spellmann always sounded familiar, but he didn't know why. He hadn't associated it with the blond lawyer who always looked over his shoulder. However, there were still some things that didn't make sense, so he decided to let Tarquin continue speaking.

  "According to the information Swinton got, all the victims, Ezra, Elliott, and Hayden included, fit into the same profile. Rich, underage heirs, mentally unstable or freshly grieving after experiencing a great loss, are taken into the care of their lawyer. Once of legal age, they leave everything to the lawyer, as an act of gratitude for taking care of them, and then they mysteriously die."

  "Your theory is flawless, but only apparently, my dear Tarquin," Alastair intervened. "For instance, you forget that Selma is still very alive and kicking. As for Hayden, his mother's farm is not enough to kill for. Especially if the guys are big game hunters."

  "Who said they didn't already plan to kill her, while they hold Ezra captive? Then, the boy would have been miraculously found and saved, the lawyer taking him into his care," Tarquin replied.

  "What about my brother? As great-uncle, Alastair said, the farm alone was too little for all this trouble," Daniel asked his husband. There has to be more, to make it worth the risks.

  "It is more, much more,” the blond answered. ”Hayden is the only heir of Jeremy V. Grant.”

  "The stock market guru? What do he and my brother have in common?" the raven-haired man asked, a little confused. "Wait a minute! Mister Grant, father's best friend, and Jeremy V. Grant are..."

  "The same person, yes," Alastair confirmed. "Vincent changed his name when he decided to start a new life, as he promised to the only person he ever loved."

  At this point, the head of the Stark clan exchanged a look full of significance with his nephew Fabian, who barely nodded in understanding. No one noticed it, as all of them were under the impact of what Tarquin had just revealed.

  "This guy Williamson, the lawyer... he couldn't do all by himself," Eugene spoke, voicing everyone's thought. "He must have had an accomplice. Someone who could keep the boys under control. Someone to torment the poor souls to the point they would take their own lives."

  "Exactly," Martin Cornelius agreed. "The accomplice should have the qualifications that allowed them to get close to the boys, win their trust, then twist their mind, to the point they would do anything that person may tell them to. A psychiatrist or psychologist, someone like..."

  "Carter," a barely audible voice said, making everybody turn their attention to who spoke. It was Elliott, who stood in the doorway.

  CHAPTER 26

  "Elliott, what...when did you get here? Where is Christine? Are you all right? You could have called me. You didn't need to come here." Eugene couldn't stop from speaking as he went to the blond, wrapping his arms around him.

  "Take it easy, handsome, everything is all right, Aristarh accompanied me here," Elliott weakly smiled. "I came here to free myself from the past, to tell you everything. The whole truth. Although..." he paused a little, then continued, in a hesitant voice. "I'm afraid I'll give you a distorted version of the events."

  "You don't have to do this, if you are not ready, son," a man Elliott hadn't noticed until then said. He had Daniel's dark blue eyes and pitch black hair. "Probably Martin Cornelius' father," the blond thought to himself. "No one will judge you," he added in a warm, understanding voice.

  Elliot shook his head. "It's not easy for me, sir, but the longer I stay silent, the more innocent lives could be destroyed. I overheard your discussion before I came in, but I was about to explain everything, anyway."

  "You know we are with you through thick and thin, don't you?" Daniel spoke, giving the blond a reassuring smile. "We are ready when you are, no pressure or anything."

  Elliott inhaled sharply. "Everything started about two years after my parents' death. The lawyer in charge of our family estate, Mister Williamson, took me under his care and into his home. Some recent events I am going to mention later left me depressed, so my guardian suggested I should see a therapist."

  Closing his eyes and taking another sharp inhale, Elliott fell silent, remembering how Carter entered in his life, winning the trust and heart of the fourteen-year-old, naive kid he was. The blond remembered how he gave that treacherous snake the keys to his mind, heart, and soul, entrusting him with his deepest buried secrets.

  Liam
took advantage of everyone's attention, turned to Elliott, so he stepped out of the living room. He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and started to write a message. Once the task was completed, he went back, quietly sitting back into a wing chair, his eyes on the blond, who started to talk again.

  "At the beginning, everything was all right, the typical therapist-patient relationship, I guess. But, after a while, I fell back into depression, and it was worse than the first time. Carter suggested we should meet two times a week, instead of one." Elliott's eyes were empty, and the hands that were resting on his knees started to shake almost imperceptibly.

  "When did this happen? Your fall into depression, I mean," Adele, Martin Cornelius' mother, who hadn't said a word up until then, asked.

  "Two years after I moved in with Mister Williamson. By the time they admitted me to Harvard," Elliott had recalled.

  "During these two years, were you on medication of any kind?" Adele asked again, interest and concern mixed in her voice.

  "No, he didn't prescribe me anything. He said I didn't need any meds," the blond answered. "I was glad, thinking I wasn't in such bad shape, but it turned out he did this to worsen my condition," he continued, defeated.

  "How did you manage to overcome it? Because you did, otherwise you wouldn't have graduated from Harvard law school at eighteen. Which is a fucking impressive performance, if you ask me," Liam whistled in admiration.

  "Thank you very much," Elliott smiled shyly. "It was because of the studying. Focusing on it helped me cope with the hell Carter had started to put me through," he said. "During the day, I was the kid who broke all the academic records. While as soon as the sunset, I was a sex toy for the highest bidder."

  Elliott's words met with a collective gasp of shock. None of the people present in the room could have imagined that the young man in front of them had experienced such horrors. Anger was boiling inside Eugene, threatening to explode, but he managed to keep it under control, afraid that the outburst would scare Elliott.

  Just when the blond was about to start talking again, the mansion's door opened, and Elizabeth stepped inside. She took a chair, moved it next to the little couch Eugene and Elliott were sitting on, and, with a warm smile, took one of the blond's shaky hands between her own. Encouraged by the girl's sisterly affection, he continued.

  "Some of the men showed me mercy. At least to some degree. They drugged me when they did all those things to me. Others, however, were brutal and cruel, torturing me to no end. My resistance and the fact that, somehow, I managed to keep my sanity intact, infuriated Carter to no end. When I was on holidays, my life was hellish. They didn't come to me when I had classes."

  "Did the fucker...did he touched you, too?" Eugene answered, as calm as he could, rubbing Elliott's back with his hand.

  "Not in a sexual way, no. On the contrary, he kept telling me how worthy of despite I was. How filthy, how disgusting. That's when he started to beat and torture me. Especially if the clients complained about me not satisfying them." Elliott laughed bitterly. "It's funny, you know. I still loved him then. In spite of everything, but, in the end, I had to admit the doctor was right. No one was going to love me as he did."

  "What kind of doctor? Were they a psychiatrist, too?" Daniel asked, eyes wide with horror, as he already suspected the answer.

  "No, he was a kind of scientist, running a lab of some sorts. It's there where I spent two years before Mister Williamson found me and took me to Boston," Elliott said. "Since my parents' death, the doctor and my guardian were the only two people who'd shown me kindness," he continued in a sad voice.

  "And what did you do during the time you were there, at this lab?" Daniel's voice hesitated when asking the question.

  The blond closed his eyes again, frowning a little as if he was trying hard to remember something. He was well-taken care of by the doctor, and yet, thinking about that period gave him chills down his spine.

  Then, a light exploded inside his head. It left him thrilled, but only for a split second. The light went back out, leaving him alone and empty-hearted in the dark. The loss, pain, and despair he felt were so intense, that Elliott hugged himself, curling into a ball as he was sitting on the couch.

  "What is it, what happened to you, talk to me, amore mio!" Eugene's voice reached to the blond, dragging him from the abyss the memories flooding his mind threw him into. "What did that goddamn bastard do to you? I'll rip his throat out! I'll skin him alive! I'll..."

  "Cousin, stop!" Daniel's stern voice instantly calmed the Detroit Mafia boss down. "The Council of the Ten decided that piece of shit's fate, and you pledged your loyalty to them. Besides," he added in a much softer tone, "you are scaring Elliott."

  The blond opened his eyes, looking around very confused like he didn't know where he was. Finally, he started to speak again. "The doctor gave me the greatest gift of all, two precious babies with blond hair, but then...Then something happened, and the children were no more."

  "What do you mean, they were no more?" Eugene asked, putting an arm around Elliott and drawing him closer. "Did they... Did they die?"

  The blond shook his head. "I don't know. I can't remember, but when I asked the doctor, he said that I was dreaming, that I imagined things. There had been something inside me, he said. Two huge tumors he'd successfully removed."

  "What happened after that? How did the doctor treat you?" Daniel's interest was visible not only in his voice but also in the posture of his body. He tensed like a bow ready to release an arrow.

  "He encouraged me to study, so I did. I graduated high school at fourteen. Online classes, of course, I wasn't allowed to leave the facility, but it was one of the most prestigious high schools in the country, so... Anyway, the day I graduated, the doctor said I'd made him very happy and that someday, I would be the dagger he would use to stab his enemies straight in their heart."

  After saying those words, Elliott stopped again. Memories kept coming back from the dark corner of his mind they were locked in. There were a lot of things the doctor had done and said that the blond didn't understand at the time. Or he hadn't given importance to, but then, all of a sudden, they had a significance that made him involuntarily shiver.

  "I owe him a lot," Elliott said, "including the strength, his words gave me in the darkest times of my existence. No matter what Carter put me through, I kept studying and hoping that I would live long enough to see my sons."

  "So you believe they are still alive out there? Somewhere?" Eugene asked, hope in his voice. "Because if it's so, we are going to find them. Even if we have to turn over every stone in this goddamn city."

  "However," Martin Cornelius, who had been silent until then, spoke, "you shouldn't set your expectations so high because there's also the possibility to be disappointed. You should also avoid emotional distress of any kind because of.. you know…" the young man discreetly cleared his throat.

  "Yes, you're right, Martin Cornelius," Elliott brightly smiled, while Eugene put a protective hand on his belly, slightly rubbing it, "but don't worry, I will take care of us, and this big guy here is going to help me."

  "What are you talking about, dear?" Adele Bloom asked with genuine motherly affection. The young man's story moved her deeply. Especially since, on a different level, her nephew Daniel had lived that horrific experience, too.

  "I carry a child, Miss Adele," Elliott answered, happiness written all over his face. "I thought it was a one-time thing, but somehow, it happened again. Eugene and I didn't use protection at all, and..."

  "How can you be sure of something like that? Excuse me for crushing your illusions like that, but who confirmed this so-called pregnancy?" Alastair's voice was stone-cold, his expression stern.

  "I did, after running a detailed examination on him. I sent the blood and urine samples I collected to four different labs, all of them confirming my initial diagnoses," a voice coming from upstairs spoke.

  Rayne decided that it was time to stop hiding like a coward becau
se he was none. Instead, he went downstairs, ready to face Alastair and even confront him, if the situation required. At the sound of his voice, first Fabian and Adele Bloom, them Liam and finally Alastair turned their heads in the direction the voice had come from.

  "And who are you, If I may ask?" the former Supreme Dragon spoke in an ironic tone. "Because I don't remember seeing you around."

  "I'm the doctor in charge of treating Hayden and Arnett's wounds and helping them with their physical recovery. Also, I'm the one who'd examined Elliott, establishing his diagnoses," Rayne said, in the calmest possible voice. "I could ask the same thing because I hadn't seen you around either," he added sardonically.

  "What does that mean?" Alastair turned to Daniel. "I understand this guy saved the boys' life, but you shouldn't let him treat them, too. There are a lot of good doctors who could..."

  "That's it!" Rayne faced Daniel, speaking in a flat voice. "I'm going to pack my things and leave this place. My professional competence is under question; I won't go far though. I'm moving to Elliott's place. You can still bring the boys if you want them to continue their treatment that is. Unless, of course, you want a better doctor for them."