That’s when she pumped up the speed. Her head ached as she flew down the street passing a car. She was out of breath as she turned into the clinic parking lot and put a final burst of acceleration into her pedaling and wound up skidding to a halt, dropping the bike and running for the door.
“Boy, did you make it by the hair of your chinny-chin chin,” Dr. Stuart said holding the telephone in one hand. “I was just about to call Myrtle.”
Huffing and puffing she answered, “Sorry about that…”
Dr. Stuart dropped the phone and leapt towards her finally noticing the huge amount of bruising on her head. “Jumping Johosaphat. Maybe I should call any way,” he said examining her scalp like a mother chimp might look for bugs in her babies’ hair.
“It’s fine,” she said just as he touched a sensitive spot and she winced with pain.
“No, in fact, it’s a pretty good hit,” he said grabbing her arm and ushering her into his office out of sight of the employees and patrons. Shutting the door behind them, he said, “Now explain to me what happened.”
“Do I have to?” she said.
“Yes, unless you’d like me to read the letter in the envelope and call Myrtle,” he retorted leaning against his desk with his arms folded on his chest.
“Fine. I was supposed to meet my father yesterday.”
“Marcus Macabre?”
“Yes,” she said as her phone chimed for the tenth time this morning.
“He did this to you?”
“Not exactly, but it may have been a set up that he was a part of.”
“I know the Macabres have an evil streak in them, but I find it hard to believe he’d seek you out like this and hurt you.”
“Really? Considering that’s why I’ve been learning magic for the last six months to fight Macabres who have threatened to kill us all.”
“Right. You’re right. I guess I just can’t imagine a parent every wanting to kill their child, but then this isn’t your normal family, is it?”
“Apparently not,” her phone chimed again and she ignored it like all the rest. “But to be perfectly honest, I never did see him or Autumn for that matter. It was Juliette who did the actual act of throwing me into a tree.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense?”
“What doesn’t?”
“Why didn’t she kill you?”
“Uh. Well…I don’t know, maybe she thought I was dead?” she said frustrated by his question. “Why, are you disappointed?”
“Of course not, but that’s what doesn’t make sense. There must be more to the story than you’re seeing or remember. If Juliette wanted you dead, she’d have checked to make sure you were indeed dead. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
That got her thinking, which made her head hurt. “That’s true.”
“What do you remember?”
“I was picked up by the car and we drove to our destination. When I got out, I saw through her glamour for just a second and I ran knowing what was next. That’s when I got hit with one of those fire ball thingies.”
“But I don’t see any burns on you. Are you sure?” he said hearing her phone again.
“Pretty sure. They have a very distinct smell and sound coming at you like a bullet.”
“Very strange. Then what?” Then her phone rang. She looked at the screen and declined the call setting it down.
“Then I woke up at home in bed. Daniel was taking care of me.” Her phone rang again.
“Someone is trying very hard to get a hold of you. Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“No. It’s Autumn. She’s been texting and calling me nonstop all morning.”
“And you’re not answering because…?”
“Because they tried to kill me. They set me up.”
“I have a feeling that’s not what happened. If that’s all you remember, then there seems to be a bit missing.”
“Like what?”
“Like, why are you not covered in burns? Or to put it bluntly, why are you not dead? Autumn might be able to fill in the blanks. Or maybe you should talk to Myrtle. If this was a death attempt, they should know to keep it from happening again.”
“Myrtle doesn’t need to know.”
“And Autumn?”
“I don’t know. I’m not feeling very sisterly at the moment.” Her phone rang once more.
“Maybe not, but it’s possible she’s trying to explain what happened, yet you won’t answering the phone.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
“I usually am,” he said straightening his tie sporting a cheeky grin. She smirked at him. “Just answer the phone,” he said tiring at hearing it ring. “You can take it in here for privacy.”
“Fine,” she said defeated by his logic. He left the room as she answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Finally. I’ve been calling you all morning. Are you okay?” Autumn asked with great concern.
“Yes. I’m fine aside from a very large bump on the head and a cut on my arm.”
“Good. We were so worried.”
“We? We, who?”
“Dad and I.”
“You were worried? Weren’t you both in on this? Luring me out into the woods so the family could off me once and for all.
“NO! Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. I just know that I got blasted by Juliette who disguised herself as my driver.”
“Yes. That was my fault. I made the mistake of leaving my cell phone downstairs and out of my hands for a few minutes. Juliette must have seen my text and planned to thwart our family get-together.”
“So you’re saying you had nothing to do with this?”
“Aside from wrecklessly leaving my phone for her to see, yes. That’s what I’m saying. If it weren’t for Dad, you’d be dead, Summer. He heard the car pull up and ran out to greet you, when he saw Juliette attack you. He retaliated with his own blow to her. I was behind him and tried to dampen you hitting the tree by throwing an air cushion between you and it, but I was slow in getting it there and it only helped a bit, though it did thwart the fireball from burning you.”
“Oh,” Summer said embarrassed by her brash accusations. “Daniel said you took me home?”
“Yes. Daniel met us in the woods. I think he was going there to protect you, but he realized we were on the same side as he, so instead we gathered you up and he directed us where your home was so we could take you there.”
“I see.”
“Daniel didn’t mention any of this?”
“Not in detail. Though that tends to be his ‘modus operandi.’ He obviously felt I needed to get my information from you and stayed out of it as he’s sworn to do.”
“Seems a little harsh.”
“He’s an angel. He’s not allowed to interfere, though I must say, I do get tired of him telling me that.”
“I’d find it incredibly annoying. Good thing he’s so hot, or I’d tell him to hit the road.”
“He’s a good man. He’s just very moral and true to his heart,” Summer defended.
“He’s an angel, not a man, but to each his own. I couldn’t live with it, but if he makes you happy, then what do I care,” Autumn admitted. Summer smiled.
“So are we okay?” Autumn suddenly asked.
“What do you mean?” Summer said.
“I mean, you don’t think Dad and I were behind this assault anymore, do you?”
“Oh. No. I guess not. I’m sorry I assumed you were.”
“I get it. The Macabres have a bad rep when it comes to the Midnights. I just don’t want my big sister to think I would try to kill her.”
“Big sister? We’re twins.”
“True, but you were born several minutes before me, according to Dad.”
“Huh,” she mostly said to herself as she thought about her father being there to see her come into the world.
“No. We’re good, Autumn.”
“Great. And Dad? You’re still okay with meetin
g up with him?”
“Yeah. I’m good with that, but this time, NO DRIVERS.”
Autumn laughed and agreed. “Definitely. When we make new arrangements, I swear, we’ll either pick you up ourselves or meet you somewhere close where you can fly to join us.
“Perfect.”
“Good. I’ll talk to Dad and I will text you the details, without leaving my phone somewhere stupid.”
* * *
A week later Summer received a text from her sister specifying a time where they would come and pick her up. As an olive branch to make her feel less anxious about another bout with Juliette, Summer could bring Daniel if she liked. It did make her feel less suspicious about the meeting, but she felt she needed to do this alone and offer up a little trust to them. The black Land Rover arrived at her house in the private drive near the cottage, not to raise suspicion with Aunt Myrtle and Morti.
A bit of awkwardness arose at the truck when she first laid eyes on Marcus in close proximity. Was she suppose to hug him? Shake his hand? What? She didn’t know and it was obvious to Summer that he was struggling with the same questions. Thankfully Autumn spoke nonstop in the car as they rode to their destination. Aside from a few glances at her through the rear view mirror, he barely said a word.
The drove north a bit on the highway and then headed back up into the foothills of the mountains. Up and up they climbed where the trees grew so close together that she wondered how one might maneuver through them. They turned off onto a dirt road and continued up a bit more bouncing over uneven road and hills. At the top of the hill just around a long sweeping curve, a beautiful house revealed itself from the dense forest to either side of it. Behind it there were only a few trees which made her wonder what was beyond.
Entering the house she soon found out what was at the rear. A beautiful lake of deep sapphire blue laid out before them seen through giant floor to ceiling windows at least two floors high. A dock stretched into the water, like a weathered wooden arm reaching for the far bank on the other side.
The house was huge though they referred to it as a cabin. Summer had always pictured a cabin as a one or two roomed wooden shack, not something this luxurious and massive. After a quick tour, Summer and Autumn unloaded the back of the truck of a bunch of groceries and supplies. Marcus quickly set out to make a meal of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. The sweet smell of butter and garlic slowly sautéing in a skillet mixed with the pine aroma outside, made a homey feeling throughout the cabin.
The food was spread on the table and Marcus opened a bottle of red wine for the occasion. Marcus seated himself at the head of the table and the girls were to his sides as he poured them each a glass. He’d barely said a word so far and Summer wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was he just a shy, man of few words kind of person, or did he just not have anything to say to his long lost daughter. Her lack of confidence pushed her to believe the latter.
He raised a glass and spoke, “If you lie, may you lie only to keep a friend. If you cheat, may you cheat only death. If you steal, may you steal your lover’s heart. If you drink, may you drink deeply of the joy of our new life together.”
“Cheers,” the girls chimed in.
“I imagine you’ve heard some pretty awful things about me?” Marcus said sadly.
“I…I’ve heard many things,” Summer answered.
“I’m sorry. So sorry for how this whole thing has played out. For me, it’s been a nightmare, I can’t seem to wake from. I thought nothing could be worse when I lost Violet, but to lose you too, was unbearable. If I didn’t have Autumn to look after, I’m not sure I could have bared it. Violet and I had such hopes for our families to come together, but it seems fate had other ideas. I’m just so thrilled to be given a second chance at having my girls in my life.”
Summer didn’t know what to say. It sounded wonderful, but one meeting didn’t erase the past, no matter how much she wanted to be a family. Did he expect her to suddenly assume a role as the daughter? And what would that entail? She’d never had a dad before. She’d seen them on television, read about them in books, but she had no idea how to be a daughter or be a family for that matter. She offered a smile to him, but that was all she could muster at this point.
“I imagine you have many questions,” he said.
“I do, or I had, but now I can’t really think of any.”
“I’m the same way. Whenever I get nervous or angry my brain goes completely blank,” Autumn offered.
“Yes. That’s it.”
“No worries,” Marcus said, “The questions will come when you are ready to ask them.”
Summer nodded in appreciation as she ate her meal.
“How is your head feeling?” Marcus asked with concern.
“It’s fine,” she said.
“I expect you might have thought your sister and I were a part of that attack, given our family’s reputation.”
“No.”
“You so did,” Autumn corrected. “But I explained everything.” Summer was feeling embarrassed.
“I would have wondered if we were in cohoots with Juliette too, given the circumstances. You have every right to mistrust our family. But know this, Juliette is licking a few wounds of her own.”
“I suspect that doesn’t make a friendly living environment.”
“No. That’s why Autumn and I are living here now. I bought this place when Violet and I were married and it had been my intent on raising our family here, away from those of my family who consistently stuck their noses in our business and caused problems for us, though, Violet never got to know of its existence. I kept it all these years in hopes of one day filling it with family. It took some cleaning up, since it had been locked up and empty for so long. I used it as my secret retreat from the family over the years, but never spent any real time here.”
“I love it here,” Autumn said.
“It’s beautiful,” Summer added.
“It is. And it has a peaceful warmth to it that somehow reminds me of your mother.”
“It must have been hard when you found out Violet’s plans to get us out from under the Macabres as a whole.”
“No. Not really. I mean it hurt, but I understood. My family is nothing if not hard to get a long with. They did everything they could to poison our love. With that and the stress of pregnancy, I’m just surprised she lasted as long as she did here. That’s why I bought this house, so we could get a way from all that.”
“Then you think the potion found in your coat was planted by someone?” Summer asked.
“No doubt about it.”
“But, Dad, what about the ‘incident’?” Autumn asked with a disgusted look on her face.
“That I can’t explain. All I know is I woke up that morning in the barn, not in a bed next to my sister,” Marcus said.
“Must have been your doppelganger, Dad.”
A strange look came over Marcus’s face. Summer thought he was going to be sick.
“Are you okay?” Summer asked.
“Oh God. I think I have an idea what happened.”
“Please don’t tell me it was you, Dad.”
“No, No. It wasn’t me, it was my brother.”
“Your brother?” Summer asked.
“My identical…twin….brother.”
“Rene? Why would he be in bed with Juliette?”
“To make it look like I was in bed with Juliette.”
“That only makes me feel a tiny bit better, Dad,” Autumn admitted.
“They had a strange relationship. Since childhood, they’d been known to sleep with one another when one would get scared or what not. I never thought any more of it, but maybe it went beyond childhood…it might explain….hmmm… Never mind. It’s not important, but what is important is that it must have been Rene in bed with her. It would be just like Juliette or Yvonne to plan such a thing for Violet to see.”
“You really think your own family would purposely sabotage your happiness.”
“Yvonne�
�� In a heart beat. She is not above doing anything she felt was best for the family no matter how convoluted that feeling was. Juliette, though, I hadn’t thought she would do such a thing until she attacked you behind our backs.
“And if Rene knowingly knew what the plan was, then he might have really been behind Henry’s death. I never thought he’d do such a thing to me, but…it makes more sense if he was involved. All of this…the dissolution of my marriage, everything…it was MY family’s doing…all along. How could I have been so stupid?” Marcus fell silent. Summer felt horrible for drudging up such painful memories. Tears fell from his eyes as she and Autumn watched him put the pieces together. Autumn reached for his hand and he grabbed it gripping it firmly as if gathering strength from it.
Should she do the same thing? Should she extend her hand in comfort to this man she barely knew? She was unsure, but her hand seemed to have a mind of its own and reached for his grateful hand. He brought each of the hands to his lips kissing each of them in appreciation, dampening them with his tears of both anger and joy. It felt good knowing such a small thing as offering her hand could mean so much to a man who appeared to have everything—family, money, power, and magic to boot.
When dinner was done, they dropped the subject of Juliette, Rene, Yvonne and the rest. Instead they focused on their small family. He brought out a box of mementos he’d kept of his short time with Violet and his girls. Pictures of a younger Marcus and Violet smiling back at them on shiny snapshots. Tickets to concerts, movies, and a trip to Disneyland filled the box with other objects less obvious as to what memory it belonged to. He talked for hours about things he and Violet had done, what their dreams were, and their hopes for the future. And at the very center of everything contained within that shoebox was a picture of two infants nestled and swaddled together. On the back were the words Lunette and Eliane with a symbol of the moon and sun under each name.”
Autumn Calling Page 18