Entangled (Vice Games) (16 page)

We went downstairs shortly after
and headed for the oven where I could smell ratatouille. But Tristan steered me towards the table and sat me down. He disappeared and returned with a plate and a glass of water. 

‘Would you like anything else, madam?’ he said playfully. I laughed. He reached out with his hand and wiped the tear streaks from my cheeks.
I closed my eyes at his warm touch which sent reassuring warmth to my heart. He disappeared and returned with his own plate. Tristan sat himself down next to me and we ate our dinner together.

Jace pulled up the driveway after an hour and a half. Anna ran into the house and wrapped her arms around me. She was frightened
and her mascara stained her cheeks with black streaks. She was in too much distress to notice that I had been crying as well.

‘Hey, what’s all this about?’ I said as wiped her face with my fingers.
She breathed erratically and I immediately led her into the kitchen. Pulling the freezer open, I found that we were out of ice cream. Ice cubes however, were in abundance. I took one and gave it to her. She slipped it in her mouth and the coldness instantly calmed her down.

I kept the details of today’s event from Anna as I put her to bed in my old room. Tristan understood and knew that it was not safe to leave her alone tonight.
I lay next to Anna as the disturbed teen curled up next to me. Although she was stable now, her mind was still in a fragile state. Tristan turned off the lights for us and I attempted to sleep. What went on in the last few hours was exhausting and I knew that something had to be done about the Main House. With these thoughts, I eventually drifted off to sleep.

It was half past seven when I woke up and Anna had just come out of the bathroom dressed in jeans and a shirt. Tristan had left early and I didn’t get a chance to see him.
I attempted to distract Anna with wedding plans but neither of us could bring ourselves into it. The Main House and their threats to take her back messed with her mental state. Tristan returned home in the afternoon with a wad of documents in his hands.

‘It’s an injunction against the
Main House,’ said Tristan. ‘Anna, we need to go to the hospital to get you assessed. I’ve made an appointment with a doctor and a psychiatrist. You are to tell them everything – from the pills, the different ways Karen manipulated you, Lauren’s placement, Phoebe, how you stopped taking the pills and how that’s helped you. If we get this done, they can’t have a conservatorship over your share of the inheritance.’

Anna nodded and complied. I sat with her as Tristan drove the car. The hospital was different from the one Anna usually goes to. A woman dressed professionally and with short cropped white hair greeted us in the car park.

‘This is Ruth Webs,’ Tristan introduced us; ‘she’s my lawyer and knows about our situation.’

‘You have a very strong case against your parents,’ Ruth
said with confidence.

‘They’re not my parents,’ Anna corrected her. ‘She’s just a money hungry bitch who happens to be married to the man t
hat gave me life. That’s all. Tristan and Phoebe is the only family I have.’

We walked together into the hospital and Anna was quickly taken away to be assessed.
I sat down with Tristan and Ruth at the round cafeteria table.

‘Now, to the matter of your name change,’ Ruth started as she pulled out some documents for Tristan to sign.

‘Name change?’ I asked.

‘I’m changing it to Baxter, my mother’s name, as it should be. I don’t want our child to have his name, after all that he’s done to Anna to gain his hands on her money. I’m going to get this sorted now and if anything happens to me…’

I shook my head. ‘Don’t talk like that,’ I said to him. He held his tongue as he saw the distress grow on my face. I took up Tristan’s hand and held them gently in mine. ‘We’re all stressed but we’re going to get through this.’

Tristan managed a laugh. ‘Shouldn’t I be telling you that?’

The name change documents were quick and there was nothing complicated about them.

‘I’ll file these now and notify your associated accounts of the change. As for your sister, I’ll have the injunction in place once the reports have been written.’

Ruth left shortly and I made my way towards the bathroom to answer to nature’s call. I did not expect to see Lauren at all. She came out of the doctor’s office wearing a demure dress that covered up her top half particularly well. I supposed it had something to do with her new set of implants. She recognized me instantly and her eyes lit with fire. Lauren walked up to me and her hand immediately wrapped itself around my arm. Her nails dug itself into my flesh as she dragged me into the empty toilet.

‘You little slut,’ she hissed as her other hand slapped me across the face. I was stunned by the stinging sensation caused by the impact.
She lifted her hand to slap me again but I was quick to respond. I caught her wrist as it was coming down and she screamed with fury towards me. I wasn’t sure what got into her but one thing for certain was that Lauren had turned crazy.

I attempted to run out but she grabbed my shoulders and I almost lost my balance.

‘Help!’ I screamed.

Lauren reached into her handbag and produced a black metallic object.

‘Shit,’ I found myself saying as she held the gun point blank at my face. Someone pushed me to the side as the gun cracked and pushed the bullet out towards my rescuer. I closed my eyes as I fell to the ground. When I opened them again, I found a bloodied body lying on crumpled on the ground.

‘Tristan!’ I screamed. He clutched his bleeding shoulder as Lauren stood there speechless at what she’s done. The noise caught the attention of the hospital staff and within seconds nurses rushed in. The security guards had to wrestle Lauren to the ground as they took the gun off her. I found myself running beside Tristan’s bed as they rolled him into the emergency bay.

Anna found me covered in blood and was shocked by the sight of me seated on the bench, shaking with confusion. Her assessing psychiatrist was with her.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

I looked up at her and then to Anna.

‘Lauren shot Tristan,’ I managed to utter.
I felt a sharp pain jolt through me as tears burst out from my eyes. At first the pain was in my heart but it quickly moved down my spine. I could not control myself and Anna swore as she recognized the signs. It must have been strange for her to see it happen to another person.

‘She’s having a panic attack,’ she said. Anna knelt down in front of me and took my hands. She was unusually calm about it until she realized that I was dripping blood down my legs.

‘Shit,’ she said.

I must have passed out because when I woke up again, I saw Lorraine on the couch on the edge of my bed. Ruth had been called back and as Tristan’s lawyer, she arranged for everything.
The trauma of seeing Tristan shot made me lose the child. A strange emptiness filled me as I lay on the hospital bed alone.

‘How is he?’ I asked when Lorraine noticed that I was awake.

‘He is safe.’

Lorraine placed her arms around as I cried.
Although it was comforting, it did not have the same effect as when Tristan wrapped his arms around me. I felt useless and dejected.

I remained under observation at the hospital for three more days
. Tristan slipped in and out of consciousness as the morphine moved through his system. The police got involved and I soon found myself giving statements about the events that occurred and things that led to Tristan being shot.

As expected, Karen used this opportunity to attempt at gaining control over the assets but Tristan had been quick in his arrangements.

‘He’s named you as the heiress,’ Ruth informed me.

‘But he’s not dead,’ I pointed out to her.

‘No,’ she said, ‘though he’s made it clear that if anything happened to him or if he is rendered unconscious in any way, you are to gain full control over everything.’

Despite this, I did very little in the next few months as Tristan recovered. Ruth was efficient and I wondered why I hadn’t met her earlier.
She became my point of contact for everything and worked hard to keep Anna out of Karen’s greedy clutch. It did not take long for the lawyer’s assurance to come true. She had been right when she said that we had a strong case against the Vices.

On Tristan’s orders, Lorraine
for Tristan’s seaside beach house to be opened and Jace moved our things there. Being away from the city and hidden from Karen’s meddling saved our sanity. Anna hid with us and only Ruth knew of our whereabouts. Her injunction went through and the Vices could not touch anything. Tristan conducted his business through his laptop and I felt useless as I loitered about doing nothing. The court case for Anna’s custody was already in movement and we estimated by the time everything became processed, Anna would be a legal adult.

Three months passed quickly.
I cracked a false reassuring smile every now and then but could not bring myself to slip into bed with Tristan. We spent our nights in separate rooms and although this was concerning for Anna, she did not force me into her brother’s arms. She knew what had happened and it was strange to have to our roles reversed. Anna kept an eye on me as I sat quietly and stared out with a glassy soul. Tristan had saved my life but the life of our child was still taken nevertheless. So this is what depression feels like – an intense emptiness that threatened to drown me with a sense of stupidity and uselessness. I sat curled up on the porch and stared out into the dark night sky. Tristan came out and sat down next to me.

‘Hey,’ he started.

I couldn’t look at him and had been avoiding his gaze since the incident. I closed my eyes and he leaned over and kissed my eyelids. I allowed his lips to touch my numb skin and it was warmed momentarily. He then took up my hand and ran his fingers over mine.

‘You’re not wearing your ring,’ he said softly.

‘I can’t.’

He understood why. There was no need for words.
Although I only knew about the child for about a day, the loss still lingered in the corners of my mind. He lifted up my hand and kissed it. A riveting sensation moved through my skin. It has been a while since I felt the electricity of his touch. The sound of waves crashed against the shoreline and there was something peaceful about it.

‘Let’s start again,’ he said to me. ‘
Out here by the beach.’

I opened my eyes and turned to look at him. ‘Tristan, why am I still here?’

He leaned over and kissed me, our lips interlocking mine and melted my soul. It woke up a part of me that I was convinced had died.

‘Because I need you,’
he whispered. ‘My family’s a mess and you’re the only stable thing in my life.’

He took out a small box and I recognized it. It was the same box he had pulled out of his suit jacket several months ago.

‘Marry me,’ he said as he looked into my eyes and there was the magic again. The world no longer existed and there was only him. His life is indeed one big mess because of Elliot Vice and his wife. But that didn’t matter. Not anymore. I felt my heart beat once again. He was asking me because he cared for me and not for anything other reason. It was not because of Anna or because he needed a pawn. I saw that Tristan simply wanted me.

I nodded in agreement.
He leaned over and kissed me. In the darkness of the night, I knew that my decision had sealed my fate and no matter what, we would always be together. I returned to his bed that night and for the first time laid eyes on the scar on his left shoulder. I ran my fingers gently over the healed wound, a blemish that marked his smooth ivory skin.

‘No heavy lifting for a while,’ he said with a grin
as he moved his body over mine. We kissed and I was alive once again.