The Cries of the Butterfly - A LOVE STORY (31 page)

“You are also aware that even though ours is an exalted family—and people often call us the royalty of New Halcyon, which I intensely disapprove—I have never shied from embracing people who are from the lowest rung of society. I have never remained aloof, unlike others. I believe in traditional values, yes, yet I am not a fanatic and have never been one. I—and our entire family—work keenly for the Church, yet I have never been a zealot, for I have always believed that practical humaneness should always supersede the word of the Book. Bring me a person who has done bad things—and who has not?—and if he repents, I shall embrace him whole-heartedly…”

“So why don’t you show that same heart for Savannah?”

“Alas, I cannot. For, somewhere you draw the line, son. My heart just cannot reconcile to…that. To imagine that we have in our midst a…it is quite simply unthinkable. It shall destroy our family, Wolf—it shall destroy its very fabric.”

Wolf felt something crawl through him. Something nasty.

“Okay then, so I’ll leave the house and stay on my own. If you want, I’ll leave this nation and go someplace else,” he said desperately.

Grant thought for a while. “Yes, that would be a solution, would it not be? But it would hurt me awfully if you were to go. This is your house as much as mine, perhaps more so, because you, after all, are the favorite son.” He looked at the far wall and his eyes turned wistful. “This is such a big house. And only five people to share it. Sometimes it looks so lost, so forlorn. I had hoped that with your marriage this place would come to life again. There would be a new person and soon a horde of children. It would be Christmas all year round…”

Seeing him like this, Wolf felt a lump rise in his throat and he swallowed. He took a deep breath. “It can still happen, sir.”

“How?” he looked at Wolf keenly, as if for some answer.

Wolf looked away.

“Alas, it does not seem possible,” Grant shook his head. Then a thought seemed to strike him suddenly, that made him sit up straight. “But you have completely overlooked something here, have you not? You have totally forgotten Robin.”

Wolf looked up sharply.

“Maybe it momentarily escaped your mind,” Grant said. “No person is more important than Robin. Think of her, son. I have repeatedly told you, keep the little girl foremost in your thoughts. I need not tell you again and again, this girl needs you like she needs oxygen. You cannot fail her. She should have been in this house this very moment. Instead, her future has never been more uncertain. Think what all this is doing to her.”

If it had been anyone else, Wolf would have thought he was being manipulated. But Grant Butcher never resorted to such cheap designing, not for anything.

He looked at Grant. “So allow me to adopt Robin. And I promise you, we shall go away. You won’t have to face any more embarrassment on my account, sir,” he said, with a fresh spurt of hope.

“I am not scared of embarrassment, son. What people say has never guided my actions as long as I know I was doing right by my conscience. It is not public opinion that really concerns me, but my own beliefs, the beliefs of my soul. And this is one thing I cannot reconcile to. My heart just will not allow it.” A sudden firmness now came to his face. “I completely support Ian’s decision, Wolf. Robin deserves better than to be raised by a woman of such problematic character.”

A surge of anger flooded Wolf. It was so intense it paralyzed him for an instant. Then he stood up and stomped out of his room.

And that was the beginning of the end. Grant and he never exchanged a word in the next six days. In fact, Wolf never saw Grant’s face again. Somehow, they missed each other every time and Wolf suspected Dad had planned it that way.

.

A
fter that engagement with Grant, it was a deluge. First it was Olivia. Wolf had just returned to his room after the face-off with Grant when Olivia appeared, purportedly to sound him for lunch. Instead, it ended up in a sermon on family values et al. Initially, he was prone to argue with her, but abruptly gave up when he realized the futility of it all. As she became increasingly spirited, he went progressively flat. The one-sided engagement lasted all of forty minutes and by the end of it, Wolf had lost the little hunger he’d had remaining. This time around, it was Olivia who left in a huff, violently accusing him of all sorts of things—from bringing the family into disrepute, to being utterly selfish and ungrateful, to being a man of loose character and morals…a ‘Hollywood trash’. Her attack was so vitriolic it left Wolf stunned for the next hour, leaving him wishing that perhaps he too should have died that day with the other five of the family.

Olivia returned a couple of hours later though.

“I’m so sorry, Wolf!” She threw herself on him, clasping him fiercely and breaking down. “On my children, I swear I didn’t mean any of those ghastly things I said to you. Please forgive me, Wolf!”

When at length she abated, there followed another bout of engagement. Olivia reasoned with Wolf this time, then pleaded with him, then tried to manipulate him by bringing in Robin. In-between, she got excited again, but this time she somehow kept her temper tempered. And finally, when after thirty more minutes, all her efforts didn’t budge Wolf, she left in a huff once more, in hot tears.

Then it was Estelle’s turn. For a change, she was sober and mild. But the script ran along tediously familiar lines. They all basically had the same thing to say—forget the whore; think of Robin; restore the family dignity.
Think of Robin
was the most stressed of all.

Around five in the evening, Art made a sudden appearance, truly surprising Wolf. He had left his busy work schedule to attend to this family emergency.

“Hey, little brother,” he began, clutching Wolf’s shoulders, a warm smile on his face. This was the first time that the quiet ace businessman was showing such gregariousness, and Wolf could clearly see it was a forced display. It so obviously went against the grain of his nature.

For a while, they talked, this and that, Art in fact filling Wolf in on how the business was running, something he had never done in the past, opening up so freely that Wolf was left staggered. After twenty minutes of such going nowhere natter, Art finally came to the point. Suddenly his face clicked into soberness and his tone became grave.

“May I broach a topic that you may perhaps not want to discuss?” he said. “I ask you as one brother to another.”

Wolf sighed, then nodded half-heartedly. He was pretty well worn out by it all, yet his big brother had never asked him for anything ever.

“I guess everyone has already said what needed to be said, so I won’t repeat it again,” Art said. “All I’ll ask you is a favor, and I’ve never asked you a favor before. Please do not abandon Robin. And please save our family. I beseech you.” He folded his hands in supplication and Wolf squirmed with embarrassment.

“I’m not going to abandon Robin. I’d never do that. It’s unthinkable,” he said, slightly irked. “And I thought our family was always different from other families. That despite everything, we were much more forward-thinking and tolerant.”

“But we are! Most positively we are. But this is simply too much even for us. Point me one decent family in the whole of the planet that would take in a prostitute as one of their own.”

“Please don’t call her that!” Wolf snapped. “That was her past. And give her credit for being so honest about it—she could’ve so easily denied it. After all, no one can say for sure it was her website. No one can say for sure those were her images. There is no clinching proof of that. Moreover, the website says nothing about
that
, not in a single place. It very clearly offers only innocent companionship, nothing more.”

“But we all know what it really means.”

“No we don’t! It’s just conjecture.”

“Please let’s not talk like lawyers.”

Wolf studied the lines on his palms.

After a wait, Art asked, “So what’s your decision going to be, little brother?”

Wolf cast him a hard look. He hated being addressed ‘little brother’ right now. There was something very condescending about it.

“There’s no decision to make. I love Savannah too much and I’m committed to her.”

“Even if that means sacrificing Robin?”

Wolf’s face flushed hotly.

“Please don’t use Robin as a blackmail tool! I plead with you. She shouldn’t be used as a pawn.”

“It’s not blackmail, it is what’s really going to happen unless you change your mind about the woman. Nor is it my decision—it is Judge Cass’s.”

“And Dad’s.”

“Yes, Dad’s.
Your
Dad. He is as much your father as he is mine, perhaps more so, because the two of you are closer than he and I. So, if for no one else, at least for him, Wolf. Quite frankly, you owe it to him after all that he has done for you…you owe him big time.”

Wolf looked away.

“Do you know something?” Art added softly. “He was going to legally adopt you as soon as you got married. It was to go hand in hand with Robin’s adoption.”

Wolf’s head snapped back. He stared at Art incredulously.

Art nodded. “Yes, this is the truth. He didn’t tell anyone because he wanted it to be a grand surprise, a special wedding present. Even me he told only this morning.” Art studied Wolf’s face. “Do it for him, brother. Just for him and no one else.”

Wolf bit his lip. What Art was saying was so true.
So, so true…I owe it to Dad big time.
In fact, he owed him his life.

And yet…he just couldn’t bring himself to abandon Savannah. How could he?
Oh, how?!

Make this go away! Oh, please make it all go away…somehow!

“There’s nothing more to think, Wolf. You’ll do as I say—you’ll listen to me and you’ll correct the wrongs. And you’ll do it right now!”

Wolf stared at Art in amazement.

“I think you should mind your own business, Art,” he said, his voice unnaturally even. “This has nothing to do with you. I’ll take care of my affairs.”

“It has everything to do with me. This is my family and my family is hurting and it is hurting because of your foolish and egotistic actions.” A cold chill had crept into his voice.

Wolf got to his feet. “Oh, yes?
Your
family? And your family is hurting, is it, and you care so much? Really? Then what about Rochelle? She isn’t a part of your family? She’s been hurting from god knows what you’re doing to her and she’s been hurting for such a long time now. Can’t you see it…are you so freaking blind? You mistreat your own wife and you goddamn talk about family?”

Art stood up. His face had turned to ancient rock.

The two brothers regarded each other steadily for maybe ten seconds. Then a funny look came into Art’s eyes—a look of pity. Pity for Wolf. He now turned around and left without a word.

.

A
rt knocked on Wolf’s door later that evening, just past eight.

“May I come in?”

Wolf stood aside.

“I’m sorry for what happened earlier this evening…” Art began. His face was gentle.

“No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have said all those things to you. I lost it for a moment and I’m truly sorry.”

Art offered his right hand and they shook.
Yes, I shouldn’t have,
Wolf thought. After all, he didn’t really know what was going on between husband and wife. Maybe it wasn’t Art’s fault at all. In fact, it may have nothing to do with Art whatsoever.
Women behave so mysteriously sometimes
.

“Did you have your dinner?” Art asked mildly.

Wolf shook his head.

Art took him by his arm. “Come with me then. Let’s eat together.”

“I’m not hungry…really.”

“Okay then, simply sit beside me.”

“If you don’t mind, brother, I’m really not up to it. I’d appreciate it a lot if you allowed me to be by myself tonight.”

Art nodded. “As you please,” he said understandingly.

After Art had left, Wolf picked up the phone. He needed to speak to Savannah badly. But before he could get through there was a knock on the door.

Sweet shit, not again! For heaven’s sakes leave me alone!

But this time the door didn’t wait to be answered; it was opened by the knocker.

Rochelle walked in with a tray full of food. Wolf kept the handset down. She began setting a table in the seating section.

“Roch, I’m not hungry!” he growled.

She ignored him.

“Roch!”

“You’ll eat. You haven’t eaten in the whole day.”

What’s it to you?
“I’m not hungry, I said! Please take it away.”

Then she turned on him. “Please don’t act like a spoilt brat!” she whipped. “In fact, you’ve been behaving worse than that.”

Wolf sighed. There was no point arguing with this woman…unless he was going to hurt her again, and he sure as hell wasn’t. He suddenly realized that Rochelle had been the only one who had not engaged him over the day. Her only interest in him had been the usual—to take care of him. Nothing else mattered, as if she was oblivious of the other things going on in his life. Now that he was down again, her mood was upbeat once more.
Weird! Real weird, this woman!
…
She’s behaving as if she were my mother.
A mother caring for her only child, and an invalid child at that, with single-minded devotion.