Chapter 74: Chapter 74

The walk to the hotel where the party had been held earlier that night seemed to take forever, but the air helped calm Sebastian's frayed nerves, at least a little. He did not know where to wait for Jessica, so he just sat where they had met earlier and waited for her. The party was still in full swing, but he did not go in. The last thing he needed was to see Carol's friend at that time of the night. At exactly twelve midnight, someone tapped Sebastian on his shoulder, causing him to jump about a foot high as he sprang up and turned to face whoever it was. He had not seen anyone approach because he had been facing the entrance to the hotel, thinking that Jessica would approach from there. It was Jessica, still dressed in the baggy t-shirt and jeans that she had been wearing earlier, but this time, she seemed a little better off emotionally, although not by much.

Her hair was piled up in a messy bun, exactly the way he used to like it. She smiled a little shyly at him, and Sebastian was taken aback by how beautiful she looked in the moonlight and the dim light that the few lights surrounding the hotel provided.

"Hello, Sebastian. May I sit?" She asked. Sebastian nodded immediately, standing up to draw out a chair for her so that she could sit.

"Thanks," Jessica said softly, after which she sat down and proceeded to stare sadly at him for the next minute or so.

"Um, so are we going to talk about the reason why we're both here at this time of the night?" Sebastian asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the way she was staring at him.

"Do you love her, Sebastian? Did you ever love me at all?"

"Jessica. Earlier, you had me believe that you were in grave danger and that you wanted to get away from here. Can we talk about that instead as it seems to be the more pressing issue right now?

"Sure. You said that you had some questions to ask me. Well, here I am. Ask away."

"Oh. Right." Sebastian said, not knowing where on earth to start now that she was here. She seemed so different from the person who had met him not more than three hours ago, and he peered at her, wondering what the hell was going on. Looking into her eyes, he saw that they were spaced out, he knew without anyone telling him that she was high on drugs.

"Jessica?"

"Yes?"

"You're high." He stated. It was not a question.

"Well, maybe. How did you know?"

"It's obvious. You seem quite different from how you were earlier."

"How so?"

"I don't know. You just seem to be different. Anyway, was any of what you said earlier true? Is anybody after your life?"

At this question, she seemed to gather herself together and sobered up a little.

"Yes, Sebastian." She said, tears gathering in her eyes. He could see them swimming in her eyes in the moonlight, and he resisted the urge to take her in his arms and soothe her pain. Suddenly, she looked terrified again so Sebastian spoke, trying to soothe her and calm her down.

"Okay, so you escaped from them, but you're in hiding. Am I correct?" Sebastian asked. Jessica did not answer, but instead wiped at her eyes, sniffled, and glanced around warily. Her gaze seemed to linger somewhere in the shadows before she looked back, eyes downcast. A sudden horrible suspicion began to blossom in Sebastian's mind and he was glad that he had asked Frank, his bodyguard to come here and wait for him, but not make himself conspicuous until he was asked to do so. He always trusted his intuition, and it never failed him. Surreptitiously, he glanced at the place where Jessica had glanced after a minute or so and was not surprised to make out the faint shadow of a man who was lurking in the dark. Taking a deep breath, he spoke again to Jessica, whose head was still downcast.

"Jessica, you don't need to be afraid. I'm right here. Tell me everything from the beginning. Who kidnapped you? Do you know them?"

Jessica took in a deep, shuddering breath and spoke almost inaudibly. "It was your uncle, Sebastian."

Sebastian did not grasp what she had said at first, and then when he did, he thought that he had probably misheard her so he asked her to repeat herself.

"It was Mr. James. He was the one who ordered my kidnapping, Sebastian. He kept me locked up all this while, asked them to torture me, and made me suffer inhuman things. Sebastian, I really suffered!" She cried, the tears coming down in earnest the more she tried to wipe them away.

Sebastian stared at her, waiting for her to calm down and when she did, she looked up at him to see him watching her calmly.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed in a horrified tone. "You knew about this? Were you a part of this too? Oh, God. I must be going crazy."

"Calm down, Jessica. If I heard and understood you correctly, you're saying that my uncle, Mr. James, the man who loves you so much and practically takes you as his daughter, had you kidnapped and tortured? You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous and I thought so at first, but that was what the people who held me captive told me, and then they showed me their conversations with him. Sebastian, your uncle is an evil person. You have to believe me." She cried, looking at him, and seeing that he did not believe a word of what she was saying.

"Oh God, Charlotte is going to kill me." Jessica thought to herself. Charlotte had told her that the only way she would release her is if she convinced Sebastian of what Mr. James had done.

"So my uncle, who is even now bedridden, had been sick for a long time now and has not more than three months to live ordered for your kidnap and torture? I'm beginning to think that you truly disappeared of your own accord, Jessica. Is that what you've been doing all this while, getting high and using all the drugs in the world?"

"Sebastian, I'm telling you the truth...and as for the drugs, they made me take it before I came here. You know I hate drugs, but I had no choice." Jessica said, the sincerity in her voice too much for him to bear. He looked away, refusing to even entertain the thought of any of what she was saying. It simply could not be true.

"What motive would my uncle have to do all that to you? Look, Jessica, I know that you've been through a lot, and they're even feeding you drugs, so all those things are bound to have messed with your sanity. Come on, I'll take you back home and have you see a therapist or something..."

"He has a motive, Sebastian," Jessica said desperately. Her time was running up. If she did not make Sebastian believe what she was saying, then she had no inkling of what that crazy Charlotte would do.

"What's that?"

Jessica took a deep breath, released it, and said shamefully. "He knew that I cheated on you."

"What?"

"I'm very sorry, Sebastian." Jessica cried, unable to bring herself to add that she had come on to Mr. James while drunk.

"Wow. Why on earth would you do that?" Sebastian asked, but to his great surprise, he did not feel as bad about it as he had thought that he would. In fact, he hardly felt anything more than surprise.

"It was just once and it was because I wanted to further my career. I did not do it again. I swear on my life, Sebastian."

"That's okay, but I still don't see why that would make my uncle want to do any of that to you," Sebastian said, getting tired of the whole thing.

"You know how much your uncle loves you, Sebastian. The day he found out about it, he changed completely towards me. I remember him telling me that I would surely regret doing that. Can't you remember wondering why he suddenly changed towards me and thought I was not good enough for you?" Jessica asked.

All of a sudden, alarm bells began to go off in Sebastian's head. Now that she mentioned it, he realized that he could remember, quite alright. His uncle, who loved Jessica so much, had changed all of a sudden a few weeks before her disappearance. He remembered the altercation at the party and all of a sudden, as much as he did not want it to be, everything became crystal clear.