OPHELIA: Chapter 36
Blurb
Elizabeth Lockwick wants one thing… to ensure Ophelia remains dead.
For years she’s weaved a life seen through rose-coloured glasses in idyllic Vermont with her husband Sebastian Lockwick, an alluring man with a broken moral compass, whose intent lies in protecting his wife. However, apart from her unorthodox understanding of Sebastian’s dark and gritty hidden nature, she finds herself slipping away from her sanity in maintaining this picturesque life.
After receiving a gruesome gift from an unknown sender threatening to expose her, she finds herself haunted and possibly hunted by her buried past.
In order to make things right for herself and ensure that her secret is hidden, she reluctantly travels back to her sleepy small hometown in Wisconsin. A town where young girls seem to be mysteriously disappearing. There, she reunites with the dysfunctional Pierre-Louis’, a French-American family who sheltered her in their manor in her time of need.
With time slipping away, she struggles with her guilt and a dangerous affair and realizes that perhaps Ophelia wasn’t dead after all these years.
Elizabeth suddenly finds herself caught in a game of cat and mouse, unsure of which she really is this time and who she can trust.
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Chapter 36
They sat around a table in a small tea-room upstairs. The house seemed smaller than she had remember that dreadful night, it was almost claustrophobic being in here.
“Would you like me to open up the windows?” Vivian asked, almost as if she had read her mind.
“Yes please,” Ophelia breathed softly.
The cold drift of air shuffled into the room as she cracked the window open. This room, in particular, was quite antique with its wooden floorboard and dusty corners, adorned with a large oaky coffee table at the center. There was something lonely and tender about the atmosphere inside here.
“This is a lovely room,” Ophelia spoke softly. It reminded her of her mother’s little library room once upon a time.
“I come in here when I need to think. I’ve met many beautiful sunsets through this window.” She cracked a small little smile. Vivian dusted the dust that settled on her off-white cardigan off and cracked open her can coke.
Ophelia trailed her finger nonchalantly around her coke can whilst looking out the window. She felt as if she was in a dream, neither good nor bad. Looking back at Vivian, she noticed the wound on her forehead. “You’re hurt.”
Her question seemed to have taken her by surprise. “It’s nothing,” she brushed it away, “I fell last night but it’s fine.”
A silence lingered between them, but a comforting one.
“I grew up in this town, it wasn’t the most conventional upbringing but it was something. We were so poor that I actually remember how hungry I used to be on some days. I didn’t attend public school, my father’s sister was an educated woman so she visited and home schooled me free of charge. My father was a chicken farmer and my mother a maid. I adored my father, he was a good man, but I guess bad things do happen to good people. He died so quickly, so suddenly. To me his life felt like a flash before my eyes.” She stopped to savor a memory.
“I’m sorry,” Ophelia sighed. “I understand your pain of losing a parent.”
“Most people can, but not many can understand the pain of losing ourselves like you and I did, Ophelia.”
Ophelia’s faced hardened. Her body stilled. She wanted to deny that sentence, but it was all entirely true. The fact that she even changed her name at a certain point in her life said it all. She tried to kill her former identity, Ophelia. And yet, she could never. Like a dead thing buried, always kept sprouting roots. Fighting. Pushing forwards. She could never cage the girl she once was. She could never fully hide her past. It was embedded in her blood and stapled into her scars.
“After my father died, my mother remarried her employer… after the death of his wife of course.” Vivian continued, breaking the silence. “My mother and I weren’t exactly close, and I can’t say my blood favored my step-father. He was a selfish, stupid man.”
Ophelia listened intently when suddenly the sound of a vehicle pulling into the driveway caught their attention. Through the window, Sebastian stepped out of his car and shut the door. Vivian frowned deeply. It was a scowl so sharp and disapproving that it could have cut into thick oaky wood. An unsettled feeling swelled within Ophelia’s stomach.
“Stay here, I’ll deal with him,” Vivian iced softly.
Angered, she rushed down the staircase and shuffled past her mother who sat in the drawing room pulling onto her cigar. Strands of her blond hair sliced through the air as she walked out the door just as Sebastian was about to enter. With folded arms, she iced, “Why are you here?”
He arched a spiteful eyebrow, “You seem agitated, sister.”
“I just don’t like you showing up unannounced.”
He sat on the hood of his car with a chuckle, “You beg me to come visit and when I finally do, you aren’t excited to see me. Not even a bit.”
“Terilla isn’t at home. I’ll let you know when she’s back.”
“No need,” he shrugged and held out an envelope in his hand, “Sign it.”
“What is this?”
“I had my lawyers draft a document giving you and your mother full custody of Terilla.”
Vivian burst out in a fit of laughter, “Like hell.”
“Money will be involved.”
Vivian sighed away her laughter with a little giggle, “Oh Sebby, I do not want your money.”
“Don’t torture me with the responsibility of the girl.”
“Perhaps that’s what I want.”
He scowled, “Read the document, give me an answer by tonight. You might change your mind.”
He was about to look up towards the window when she suddenly snatched the envelope from his hand, “Fine. Just leave me be.”
He smiled.
Closing the door behind her, she heard the engine of the car start and began to fade. She exhaled and flung the envelope across the table at the side, swearing under her breath. He shouldn’t get an inkling of this. With a sigh, she walked back up to the tearoom. Ophelia stood, standing cautiously to the side of the window as she watched where Sebastian’s car was park. In a soft low voice, she spoke as she turned towards her, “It wasn’t Stefan you told me not to trust, you meant Sebastian.”
Vivian noticed the unease the girl held within her eyes. She wanted to comfort her but how could she? Nothing about this situation was near comfort. Instead, she took a breath and tried to continue, “Does the name Jame Lockwick ring a bell to you?”
Ophelia shrugged, confused. She hadn’t heard of that name before. In a distant memory, perhaps. It was like a feather in her thoughts. Yet, the name somehow troubled her.
“Ophelia,” Vivian sighed, walking closer towards the girl two years younger than her, “Jame Lockwick is the man you killed.” She paused, “Jame Lockwick is Sebastian’s older brother.”
Her heart plummeted.
How?
How could she not have known?
Why was it that she couldn’t even remember the boy who’d raped her? What was his name? That couldn’t be possible. Why wasn’t this clear to her before? She’d remember clearly that she wanted nothing to do with the boy. All she’d ever wanted was to erase what had happened, what he did, who he was. Yet, ironically, she hadn’t even known his name. Had she forgotten? How could she forget something like that?
Sebastian Lockwick.
It was beginning to make sense now why he wanted to keep their past a secret. How stupid and gullible she was. Yet, how could she have known? He was playing her all this time. He had her all under his thumb.
Ophelia felt herself sway. Her body felt light. Her mind felt heavy. Vivian quickly pulled the chair so she can sit. “Listen,” she tried to comfort her, “I know this isn’t easy for you. You trusted him and knowing this truth that he kept from you- I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”
“All this time…”
“You need to be careful around him. He knows more than he’s telling,” Vivian warned.
“How do you-”
“When you left this town I knew it wasn’t over. I realized a lot of women went missing, it was mostly prostitutes but the Sheriff and those men in authority kept it down. My stepfather, Sebastian’s father, he isn’t innocent either. They all know about you, Ophelia. A few years ago I tried to meet you, to warn you because I knew you were in danger. I couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing and not warning you. So I tried to meet, and that’s when I saw you with Sebastian. It became clear to me that he was a part of this.”
Ophelia reached for the bottle of water on the table and brough it to her lips. An empty nothingness filled her throat with dread and anger intertwined. All this time…
“You hadn’t known. It wasn’t your fault. You trusted him, and that’s okay,” Vivian continued with a sympathetic smile, “I felt like I had a responsibility towards you, so I kept an eye on you. I had to, for you- for myself. I didn’t want to be a coward like I was that night… when Jame.., I just couldn’t leave you on your own.”
“Why didn’t you tell me all this earlier?”
“It was safer that way,” Vivian frowned.
“So why now?”
She stood with a troubled look and stared out the window, “Because I feel like something bad is about to happen and I have no control over it anymore.”
**
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