Page 73 of Ice Cold Christmas
He damn well didn’t, either. A soft, faint glow of light illuminated the back of the limo. The bluish glow came from the floor. Soft, instrumental Christmas music played from the speakers.
It’s Christmas. Doesn’t really feel that way. All I can think is…
I almost lost her, just when I got her back.
The last Christmas had been the worst one of his life. Even worse than when he’d been a kid and his dad had died in that accident at the factory. Everything in his world had changed with his father’s death. His mom had crawled into a bottle, then gotten hooked on drugs. She’d faded bit by bit in front of him—changing into someone he didn’t know at all. Then she’d dumped him. Never looked back.
He hadn’t really had a good Christmas since his dad’s passing. Not like he’d had anyone to celebrate it with over the years. Sure, as an adult, he went through the motions, but…
Just because it was expected. Had to do the whole routine in front of business associates. Colleagues. No, he hadn’t really celebrated Christmas in a long time.
Until last year. With Melody. She’d decorated. She’d taken him ice skating. They’d watched It’s a Wonderful Life. They’d danced slowly to Christmas music in his den, and he’d realized…his life was wonderful. The holiday was going to be different. He’d celebrate every year going forward. They’d have a family. Maybe one day he’d even dress as Santa for the kids and then?—
Then in a blink, she’d been gone. Everything had been gone. When your heart had been carved from your chest and you walked through a house with decorations everywhere but the person you needed the most was gone…there was nothing more brutal.
“Why did I disappear in the first place?” Her soft voice had his jaw locking. “Why would someone make me vanish?”
He had no answer. For the last year, he’d tried to understand, but he couldn’t.
“When we were at the estate, Sebastian said…he said it was his fault. You were right there. I know you heard him.”
Yes, he had heard him. “Sebastian gets confused, baby.” Victor wanted to pull her into his arms. Hold her. But he was almost afraid to touch her.
“He said he was supposed to pay. That he was supposed to get me back, but he didn’t. That sounds like ransom to me. Like maybe a ransom demand was ordered but Sebastian didn’t pay it.” She shifted on the seat. Edged closer to him.
Pull her against you. Hold her. Don’t ever let go.
“Was I kidnapped?” Her hair brushed over her cheek. “Did he not pay the ransom? Did he just let them take me?”
The limo drove slowly through the dark streets of the city. “If there had been a ransom, don’t you think I would have paid?” Victor would have given every dime he had in order to get her back. “I would have paid anything.” He needed her to understand that basic truth. “I would have paid any amount of money. I would have done anything to get you back. There was no ransom. No demands were made. You simply vanished.”
“But what if the demand wasn’t made to you? What if it was made to Sebastian—to my father? Olivia didn’t know that we were involved. I don’t think anyone did. If no one knew, why would my abductor ever have contacted you? He probably thought you hated me. That seems to be what most people thought. You hated me. Or, at the very least, you tolerated me because of the company and my father.”
I don’t want to be your dirty little secret any longer.
He pressed his lips together.
“Maybe the ransom demand didn’t come to you. Maybe it went to him. Sebastian said he didn’t pay.”
“Baby…” Shit. It broke his heart to do this. “Baby, you can’t believe anything he says.”
“I get that he has dementia. Things come and go. But he said?—”
He had to tell her. Not like there was a lot of time left. “Sebastian is dying. It’s not dementia. It’s a tumor, pressing hard on parts of his brain as it gets bigger and bigger.”
She sucked in a breath. Her hand pulled away from his. It hovered over her heart.
“Inoperable.” He hated telling her this. Dammit. “He may have a month left. Maybe two. He says things…hell, he’s said things for the last year that make no sense. I took over the business because he’d driven the company to the brink of bankruptcy.” Something most people didn’t know. “I…bought it out.” And Sebastian had raged. Only to then forget. To celebrate at the company party last year like it had bene a planned partnership. “He was going to lose everything. So I had to take control.” And when he said everything, Victor truly meant it. “There is no Mage estate any longer. It’s mine. I own the house. I own all the property.” He’d kept it all…
For you, baby. I kept it for you.
“Sebastian has no money. He couldn’t pay anyone for anything. And he hasn’t had contact with anyone outside of a very select circle in…hell, since last year. Since the big company party where he announced that I was taking over.” And you vanished. “He doesn’t check emails. Doesn’t read any texts. He doesn’t leave the estate because he gets confused and angry in new environments. And he—he says things…things that don’t always make sense. Things that aren’t always true.” He’d been down that rabbit hole so many times. “That wasn’t the first time Sebastian said it was his fault that you were missing. I checked through every phone record, checked all emails—checked everything. He never received a ransom demand for you.”
“He’s…dying?”
The doctors were honestly surprised that he hadn’t passed already. “He gets confused about time. It comes, and it goes. Like I told you before, he’ll have good days.” And some really, really bad days. “He’s on strong meds to help. But there is nothing that can fix him. There is no magic cure waiting in the wings. I was at the estate this weekend because he’d been having a few good days.” The doctors had even warned him that maybe, right before the end, Sebastian would seem perfectly normal. Lucid. And then…
Gone.
