1.7
1265 Words
Jonas paused outside the door of the room he had only just moved into in the main house. For a second he felt regret at the decision to move there. He did not think he would have made the same decision if Francesca had asked him that after what she had done.
His arms felt heavy, and as he reluctantly pushed the door open it felt oppressive and overbearing.
He had not made the room his own. It was barely more than a shell. Pleasant enough, but devoid of any personal touches. It was like an upmarket hotel room more than anything else.
He sank down onto the couch he had positioned at the bottom of his bed. He was tired, and he felt responsible for Elizabeth because he was certain that Francesca wasn’t going to show her any sympathy.
He hadn’t been trying to play good cop / bad cop. He had seen that Francesca didn’t leave the food in the room and he felt like taking it back for her was the right thing to do.
They hadn’t locked her in the room. She was technically free to leave whenever she wanted, and she could have gone and made her own food if she felt like it.
He knew that Francesca was outside of his room. He didn’t get up to answer the door. She hadn’t knocked, and he didn’t want to see her right now.
He thought that she would get the message, but after a few minutes the door opened and she walked in casually as if she was not aware he had chosen to ignore her.
“What do you want?”
He sounded exhausted, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“I have to have a reason to spend time with you now?”
She had leaned casually against the wall beside the door and folded her arms.
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to. You’ve made it perfectly clear in other ways.”
“I’m 41. I’m not as energetic as I used to be all of the time. If you get to my age you might understand.”
“If? Is that a threat?”
“No. It’s the reality of the position you were so desperate to take on. You get older, you get slower, it takes you longer to recover, and your reflexes are just a little slower than they once were. If you haven’t accepted it is time to give this up before that, someone will be waiting to take it from you. If you have one single moment of weakness at the wrong time, you will end up paying for it with your life.”
“You think I did the wrong thing.”
Her hands dropped to her sides, and for the first time since she sent her brother away, she was willing to listen to what somebody else had to say.
“You did the wrong thing; that is not my opinion, it is a factual statement.”
“You think I saw a chance to take over and made an impulsive decision without thinking it through.”
“If you had spoken to me about this beforehand, I might have understood. I may have been able to support you. So, either it was an impulse, or you chose not to tell me because you don’t trust me… or you knew I would disagree with you because it was the wrong thing to do.”
Francesca sat down beside him, and he immediately stood up. She caught his hand and pulled him down again.
“It wasn’t impulsive, Jonas. I had been planning this for a long time. I left this as long as I could, and I was never certain it would have to happen. But he was getting worse, and it was putting us all in danger. I didn’t tell you because I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”
“And so you had everything planned meticulously, on the off-chance you would be forced to do this. Because everything had to be calculated, and perfect with you. There was no room for any mistakes because if it ever came down to it you would only get one chance, and it would be absolutely vital that everything went exactly how you needed it to. You always think of everything; that’s who you are.”
“You always knew that.”
“Have you ever asked for help when you have been planning anything?”
Francesca smiled sardonically at the question. She found it amusing.
“It has never been necessary.”
“Well, you made a mistake this time. You are so sure that this was necessary that I am inclined to trust you, but you didn’t think of everything. If you had just spoken to me first I would have been able to tell you that.”
“I’m listening.”
“Elizabeth knew instinctively that something was wrong. She’ll figure out he isn’t dead sooner or later, and you can’t suppress that no matter how much control you think you have over her.”
Francesca looked offended. She was not happy that he thought he had found a flaw in something she had planned meticulously. Of course she had considered that.
“I had not forgotten that. She will attribute it to grief; she doesn’t know any better.”
“You’re wrong. You have no idea what they feel, because it is not something you are capable of understanding. If he thinks she is in danger he won’t stay away. He won’t be able to. When she figures out the truth, she is going to become a problem for you.”
“And how do you propose I avoid that?”
“By accepting that you made a mistake. You need to tell her that you were wrong, and that he isn’t dead. She needs something to live for, for Christ’s sake.”
Francesca shook her head.
“No. If you are wrong about this it could cost us everything. Shane and Mizuki aren’t missing, they are dead. I was trying to figure out what happened and how to tell Harper, but she realized something was wrong and I had to give Nathan the chance to resolve it. I went down to tell him; the way he was, and the things Elle told me… I couldn’t let him drag us down with him. He was determined to self-destruct, and letting him stay in control would have been handing him the means to do that.”
“You were going to kill him.”
“You don’t know how serious this is.”
“Because you won’t tell me. I can only compare your actions to the facts I have. As it stands, I think you are mishandling this and being needlessly cruel. Taking control and forcing him to clean himself up wasn’t the wrong thing to do, but I do not stand by the way you did it, or the fact you are letting an innocent woman suffer for no reason. I thought you were better than that.”
- Writer
