by Lola Gabriel
Alan parked the car and Laila got out. She walked toward the castle and the door opened as she approached it. A man smiled at her as she approached.
“Good evening, Miss Kent,” he said. “Right this way, please.”
Laila nodded to the man and followed him along the hallway. He led her to the room she had been in the last time she was here.
“Fabian will be along in just a moment,” the man told her. “Would you like anything to drink while you wait?”
A strong brandy, Laila thought to herself. Maybe two or three.
“No, thank you,” she smiled.
The man gave a half-nod, half-bow and retreated from the room, leaving Laila alone. She looked around, taking the room in a little more than she had the last time she was here. The room was what she would describe as ornate, not the sort of room she imagined Fabian using when he didn’t have guests.
After a couple of minutes, the door opened and Fabian came in. Laila started to rise, but Fabian shook his head, waving her back down.
“It’s good to see you again, Laila,” he said. “I won’t keep you in suspense.”
He handed Laila a sheet of paper. She unfolded it and scanned over it and then she went back and read it more thoroughly. Fabian was her father. Or at least the test was ninety-nine percent sure that he was. The room for doubt was so tiny it might as well not exist at all.
Fabian is my father. It was going through her head on a loop. She looked up slowly and saw Fabian watching her.
“You look disappointed,” he said, not quite meeting her eye.
“Oh no, I’m not disappointed,” Laila said quickly, not wanting to hurt his feelings. He did meet her eye then, giving her a nervous smile which she returned equally nervously. “I’m just… I honestly don’t know what I feel. I didn’t think…”
She trailed off. She didn’t know how she felt about this, and trying to explain something she didn’t understand herself had left her tripping over her words and at a loss for what to say.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
“Yes,” Fabian said. “I’m sure it must be. I’ve dreamed of this day for twenty-three years, but it’s all new to you. It must be a little overwhelming, to say the least.”
Laila nodded, grateful that he understood. Fabian sat down beside her on the couch, not close enough to make her feel uncomfortable, but close enough that she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to.
“I know this is a big shock to you and I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but I would love to have some sort of relationship with you. I realize it’s probably too late for me to ever be a real father, but I would really like us to spend some time together and get to know each other a little. Is that something you would consider?” Fabian asked.
Laila nodded slowly, a cautious nod. She did want to get to know her father, but now that the DNA test confirmed Fabian was her father, it opened up so many questions about her mom. Was all of Fabian’s story true? Laila couldn’t imagine a world where her mom killed someone and stole a baby, but why would Fabian have spun such a tale if it wasn’t true? Surely he knew she would ask her mom questions about it. Surely he knew she and her mom could take a DNA test just as easily as they had.
It can’t be true, though. My mom can’t be a monster. She can’t be. But she did lie to me. She told me my father was dead, Laila thought to herself. Oh my God, he has to be a psycho or something. That’s why she told me he was dead, so I would never go looking for him.
“Laila?” Fabian said gently, pulling Laila out of her spiraling thoughts and reminding her of where she was. “You look conflicted.”
It was a statement, not a question, which Laila was grateful for, because she had no idea how she would answer such a question had it been one.
“Look, I think you know how much I want to have a relationship with you, but I will understand if you don’t want anything to do with me,” Fabian said sadly. “And I realize this opens a huge can of worms over your childhood. I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you the truth about your parentage and I hope you can forgive me for that.”
“Of course,” Laila said. “I understand why you needed to know if I was your daughter. And if your story about my mom is true, then it does leave me with a lot of questions, but that’s hardly your fault.”
Fabian nodded.
“It’s true, but I doubt Polly will be willing to admit to any of it. But still, I don’t want to put any pressure on you, so how about this. I want to get to know you more than anything, but I’ll leave the ball in your court. Go home, let the news sink in. Get a good night’s sleep. And if you decide you’d like to get to know me, well, you know where I am,” Fabian said.
He handed her a business card with his name and phone number on it.
“Call me anytime, night or day, and I will have someone collect you if you decide you want to come back,” he said.
Laila took the card and pushed it into her pocket.
“Thank you,” she said. “For being so understanding about this. It is a lot to take in, and I do need some time. But I really would like to try to have some sort of relationship with you once I wrap my head around it all.”
“I can’t ask for more than that,” Fabian said, his face lighting up. “I’ll have Alan take you home.”
Laila thanked him again and Fabian disappeared, coming back a few moments later to tell her that Alan was ready whenever she was. She went outside to the waiting car, and again, she asked to be dropped off at the store. She didn’t bother pretending she needed to buy something this time. She just waited for Alan to drive away and then she headed home.
She knew what she had to do. She had to call Polly and see what she had to say about all of this. Now that she had seen the test results, she knew she had to ask the awkward questions, as much as she didn’t want to.
She went inside her house and poured herself a large glass of wine, and then she took it to the living room and curled up on the couch. She pulled her cell phone out of her handbag and made the call.
“Hi, love, how’s things?” her mom asked, picking up the call quickly. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch but I didn’t want to be too pushy. I figured you’d call me when you got settled in.”
“I was going to call you sooner,” Laila said. “But you know how it goes.”
Her mom made a sound like she agreed with her. She had no idea how this had gone, though. It wasn’t just the settling in. Laila had avoided calling her so she could avoid asking the questions she knew she had to ask now.
“Mom, what happened to my dad?” Laila asked.
She held her breath, more afraid of the answer than of the question.
“You know what happened to your dad. He died before you were born,” her mom said.
Laila debated pushing for more details, but being lied to was only making her angry and she wanted to be calm for the hardest part of this conversation. The part where she had to admit she knew the truth.
“I know that’s the story you’ve always told me, but now I want the truth. I’ve met my dad and we’ve taken a DNA test. Why did you tell me he was dead?” Laila asked.
There was silence from her mom. It went on for so long that Laila was starting to think she had hung up on her. Finally, her mom spoke again, and when she did, her voice was a mixture of disgust, pain, and undeniable fear.
“Goddamned Fabian,” she said. “I should have known this day would come, that he would never tire of looking for you. I prayed he had left Greer, or that he would never spot you on the streets.”
“I…” Laila started.
“Laila, listen to me. I’ll tell you everything, I swear, but right now, you need to get out of there. Come home. Leave right now. I know you have no reason to trust me after you’ve found out I have lied to you for all of these years, but there’s a damned good reason for it. Fabian is dangerous. More dangerous than you could ever imagine. And now that he knows who you are, you�
��re in so much danger. Please, Laila, promise me you’ll leave that place, even if you won’t come home. I’ll meet you anywhere you want me to,” her mom said.
Laila could hear the outright terror in her mom’s voice, and she didn’t doubt the truth of her words for even a second. She felt shame flooding her. How had she even considered believing Fabian’s story?
“I’ll grab my things and leave right away,” Laila said. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Laila’s mom said, the relief in her voice as clear as the fear had been.
Laila ended the call and swallowed down a bit of the wine and then she jumped to her feet and ran to the stairs. She went to her bedroom and began throwing her things into a bag. She debated calling Cassie, but it would take too long to explain and she knew how worried her mom would be if she was later than she was expecting her to be. She would call Cassie once she was home. Maybe after hearing the truth from her mom, she would even know what to tell her, hopefully something that didn’t make her sound too crazy.
Within half an hour, she had everything packed. She began to drag her bags down to the car. On the second trip, she put two boxes into the trunk. She turned to go back to the house for more stuff, when she froze in her tracks. Fabian stood not a foot away from her. She hadn’t even heard him approaching. He shook his head, looking disappointed.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, Laila, but you’ve left me no choice,” he said.
His hand darted out as he said it, and Laila didn’t have a chance to move or even to scream for help. She felt a sharp sting in her arm and then cold liquid squirting into her muscle. She felt her body relax, her knees buckling beneath her. Fabian caught her before she hit the ground. She tried to cry out, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move any of her limbs. It was like being paralyzed. Nothing worked except her mind. In her mind, she was screaming bloody murder, but it made no difference. She couldn’t even get a whisper to come out of her mouth.
Fabian carried her around to the side of her house where a car waited. He opened the back door and pushed Laila into the car. He got her into a reasonable imitation of a seated position and then he slammed the door shut. He disappeared from sight for a moment and then he came back into view and got into the driver’s seat.
“I was just locking your car and your front door. We don’t want it to look like you were snatched off the streets, do we?” Fabian said as he pulled away.
Laila could hear the amusement in his voice and it made her mad, but her anger was no match for the terror in her stomach.
“I suppose you want to know what’s going on?” Fabian said.
He looked at her through the rearview mirror. She couldn’t reply, couldn’t even change her facial expression. He still looked amused and the anger began to burn her fear away a little bit. It made no difference, though. Even with a clear mind, she had no plan. How could she escape when she couldn’t even move?
“I should have known better than to trust you, but I really thought we could do this the easy way. I guess you spoke to Polly, huh? What did she tell you? Probably not much—it would take way too long for her to explain it all over the phone and get you to believe it. So my guess is she told you I was dangerous and to run,” Fabian said. He glanced at her in the rearview mirror again. “What, no reply? Cat got your tongue?”
He laughed at his own joke and Laila seethed some more. He shook his head.
“Sorry. Bad joke,” he said. “So, let me tell you what Polly would likely have told you if you’d made it back to her. You are my daughter and she did steal you away from me when you were just minutes old, that much is true. But she didn’t kill your real mom. She took you because your real mom begged her to. To take you and keep you safe from me. I guess it’s fair to say she failed on that point, but I have to give her some credit. I never expected her to be this good at it, to keep you safe from me for so long. It’s ironic, really, because if you hadn’t have come back here, I probably never would have found you.”
Laila kicked herself inside. Her mom—well, no, maybe not her mom, but Polly would always be her mom in her eyes—hadn’t wanted her to come here. But Laila had insisted on it. This was all her own fault for being so damned stubborn and not even considering another option.
Laila’s head was starting to spin and she could feel her eyelids getting heavy. Whatever Fabian had injected her with was starting to knock her out. She had so many questions, questions she wouldn’t be able to ask because she was still mute, but as her head spun, she began to lose the thread of them all anyway.
Fabian glanced at her in the rearview mirror once more, a self-satisfied grin on his face.
“But none of that matters now, Laila. All that matters now is that I have you and I’m going to sell you to the highest bidder. I am going to make a lot of money out of you,” Fabian said, his eyes sparkling with delight.
Make money out of me? What does he mean by that? Laila thought to herself.
She didn’t have time to ponder the answer as the sedative kicked right in and she fell into black oblivion.
13
Cedric frowned when the landline in the dining room began to ring. No one ever called him on that number. As far as he had been aware, no one even knew the number. Hell, he didn’t even know the number himself. He only kept the line because it was easier than getting it disconnected. He considered ignoring it altogether, but something told him to take the call.
“Hello?” he said, picking up the phone.
“Cedric Waters?” a woman’s voice he didn’t recognize asked.
“Yes. Who is this?” he said.
Instead of answering the question, the woman burst into tears.
“Oh, thank God,” she said. “I was afraid you would have moved on by now or changed your number or something. I’m sorry for calling like this, but I need your help and I didn’t know where else to turn. Please say you’ll help me.”
Cedric caught perhaps one word in three. The woman was crying so hard it was almost impossible to understand her words.
“Calm down,” he said, his voice gentle. “I can barely understand you.”
He waited while the woman took a deep breath and began to compose herself. Her voice was shaky, and her breath still hitched a little when she began over again, but she managed to make herself understood this time.
“My name is Polly Kent. I am a witch. I knew your father a long time ago, and when I learned my daughter was coming to Greer, I looked him up to ask him to keep an eye out for her. I found out he had moved on and you were the alpha now. I found a listing for a phone number and I just prayed it was the right one. Fabian, the dark fae in the mountains, has taken my daughter, and I know this is a big favor from a complete stranger, but I really need your help,” Polly said.
“How do you know Fabian has her?” Cedric asked.
None of this was his problem, but he had wanted to get rid of Fabian anyway, so maybe they could kill two birds with one stone this way. It would maybe help him to stop thinking about Laila, although he doubted that would work. He didn’t think anything could get Laila out of his head.
“Fabian is her father. I call her my daughter because I raised her, but the truth is, her mother was one of Fabian’s prisoners. We tricked him into thinking I was a midwife and I was able to sneak Laila away.”
“Wait,” Cedric interrupted. “Your daughter is Laila Kent?”
His heart was hammering as he waited for the reply.
“Yes. Do you know her?” Polly asked.
“Yeah. Go on,” Cedric said, not wanting to go into details about how he knew Laila.
One thing was for sure now, though. Whatever story Polly told him, however dangerous it was going to be, he was getting Laila back from Fabian.
“She called me earlier, asking about her father. I had always told her he died before she was born. Fabian had seen her and worked out who she was. He even had her take a DNA test to prove he was her father,” Polly sa
id.
Cedric felt his heart skip a beat. If Laila really was Fabian’s daughter, it meant she was a fae, the same as he was. It meant that she wouldn’t have to make the decision to be turned. She was already a fae, already immortal.
It also explained something to Cedric. It explained what had happened last week. Fabian had taken her and done the test. He had let her go then because he had no reason to think she would try to flee before she got the results. And Laila hadn’t lied to them as such. She didn’t know Fabian or what he was like. He would have used a memory potion on her to make her forget she had been dragged into the car, and as far as she was concerned, she didn’t think she had been abducted. She was just keeping the real reason for her visit to the castle quiet until she knew for sure whether or not Fabian was her father.
“She called me a few hours ago and I told her to get out of there. She should have been home by now. She’s not answering her cell phone. He has to have her, doesn’t he?” Polly said.
She was crying again now. Cedric knew how she felt. The thought of Fabian having Laila made his stomach turn.
“Okay, listen. I want you to stay where you are, okay? Just in case Laila turns up. She could have been held up in traffic or something, and if she’s driving, she likely wouldn’t answer her cell phone. Don’t worry about Fabian. I’m going to take care of it,” he said.
“You’re willing to help me?” Polly asked.
Cedric could hear the doubt in her tone, like she hardly dared to believe he was telling her the truth.
“Of course I am,” Cedric said. “Do you have a pen? I’ll give you my cell phone number.”
He listened as Polly rustled about on her end of the line.
“Okay, go ahead,” she said after a few seconds.
Cedric gave her the number.
“Text me so I have your number,” he said. “I will call you as soon as I have Laila safely back here. And if she does turn up at your place in the meantime, please do let me know.”