Chapter 83: Chapter 83

The next few minutes were a blur to Carol. She was vaguely aware of hearing a loud keening sound, and it was only when Sebastian took the phone from her hands to speak with her father that she realized that the sound was coming from her mouth. Victoria was dead? It sounded so surreal and unbelievable that her sister, who was so full of life and zest, was dead, and worse still, she had been murdered. Sebastian finished talking on the phone and gathered her into his arms, where she sobbed her heart out until she was spent.

"It's all my fault. I should have called her more often." She muttered at last, unable to even summon the strength to speak properly.

"No, my dear. It's not your fault at all. Remember that Victoria always seemed to be pissed at you and rarely ever took your calls."

"I know that, but I should have tried harder. Oh, God! Poor Victoria. Who could have done such an evil thing?" Carol asked, sniffling. She seemed to be on the verge of bursting into tears again.

"Come on. It's late already. Let's go to bed. I'll get you a drink to soothe your nerves, okay." Sebastian told her, not giving her room to protest. He led her to his room, and Carol followed him obediently, like a lost sheep, her heart heavy with the loss. Granted, she and her sister had not had the best of relationships, but Carol had still loved Victoria, and she was sure that Victoria loved her too, at least a little bit. Also, she could not help but feel guilty at her failure to at least try to find out what was wrong the last time that she had heard from Victoria when she was sounding so scared. Sebastian tucked her into his bed and went back downstairs to get her a drink, which she took gratefully. True to his word, the drink made her feel better, and within seconds, she was feeling drowsy. He got into bed with her after she had finished the drink, took her in his arms, and began to rub her back, something which Carol found incredibly soothing and enjoyable. Totally spent, she fell asleep within minutes.

***

It was really sad that Carol had to bear the brutal loss of her sister. Sebastian himself had suffered the great loss of his father as soon as he was born and that of his mother and older sibling soon after. He obviously did not have any recollection or memory of these events, and could rightly say that he did not know how it felt to lose a loved one. He imagined that it had to be really painful, because Carol and her sister had not even been that close, yet her death had affected her so much. People who shot other people for no reason, without thinking about the pain that their loved ones would pass through, deserved to die as painfully as possible, in his opinion. This thought reminded him of poor Jessica, who even now, was fighting for her life in a hospital all because of his uncle, and he scowled. As soon as he was sure that Carol was deeply asleep, Sebastian got off the bed carefully and stormed outside with his phone, dialing his uncle's number aggressively. His uncle picked up on the fifth ring and spoke before Sebastian could even get one word out.

"My boy, so you finally decided to check up on a dying old man. How are you?"

"You bastard! I know what the fuck you did, and believe me, you're going to pay for it one way or the other, or maybe nemesis has caught up with you already. Listen, I want you to stay the fuck away from me and Carol, and most importantly of all, stay the fuck away from Jessica. If I find that you went close to her, I'm going to strangle you myself. Got it?"

There was silence on the other line after Sebastian finished his tirade and he was beginning to think that his uncle had cut the call when the man spoke, surprise and anger clouding his voice.

"Are you drunk?"

"Excuse me?"

"I asked if you were drunk. What gives you the right to stop me from coming close to Carol or Jessica if I wanted? It's a different thing if you don't want me in your life, but you can't control who I'm friends with or who I'm close to."

"Friends? Did you just say, friends? You must be out of your freaking mind. Look, the only reason why you're still walking about a free man is because of what you've done for me in the past, but if you think I'm going to watch you act like a monster, especially to someone I love, and let you get away with it, then you have another thing coming. I will..."

"You know what? I'm supposed to be resting. I will not sit here and allow you to insult me for whatever reasons you think you've got. When you're ready to be mature about whatever it is that you think that I've done to you, you can come to me like the civilized young man that I raised you to be and lay your grievances before me. Until then, goodbye. Mr. James said angrily and ended the call before Sebastian could get in another word. Totally infuriated, Sebastian tried to call the man back, only to find out that he had turned off his phone. Instead, it was his wife that called Sebastian some moments later to talk to him, her voice laden with disappointment.

"Sebastian, honey. You know that you're acting really strange, don't you?" She said.

"Look, aunt. I'm not in the right frame of mind to talk now. Carol's sister was found dead... she was shot."

"Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear that. What on earth happened?"

"We don't know yet. Her father was not sounding coherent over the phone when he called to inform her earlier, not that I can blame him. We hope to find out more tomorrow." Sebastian said wearily.

"And how is poor Carol taking this horrible news?"

"Well, she was inconsolable earlier, but she's sleeping now."

"My condolences to her, honey. Meanwhile, can you come over to the house tomorrow? We need to talk."

"About that... I heard that you guys bought the property next to mine. Why would you want to do that?" Sebastian asked.

"It's a free world, my dear, and we are free to go wherever we want and buy whatever we want to buy. Anyway, it was your uncle who wanted to buy it, and I'm bent on fulfilling all his wishes until the end, unlike some people I know."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Why on earth would you let your uncle know that you and Carol were faking being in love? Couldn't you just have waited until after? Now, to worsen things, you're acting as though he's a leper whom you want nothing to do with. Why are you punishing the man who is practically your father?" His aunt said with so much sadness that guilt pricked his conscience, but he hardened his heart. The man did not deserve any pity for what he had done to poor Jessica.

"I have to go, aunty. I will talk to you later."

"Alright, dear. Try to hash things out with your uncle and forgive him for whatever he has done to you. Anyway, that's my own two cents. I don't want you to do anything that you will regret when he is gone."

"Tomorrow, after I come back from visiting Jessica, I'll go over and give him a piece of my mind," Sebastian promised himself before going back to sleep.