Page 40 of Crushed
CHAPTER 12
Cormac
The view from the booth showed the seats in front of the stage, where Scarlett was speaking to another club member. He was telling her some story, and her expression seemed fascinated. She had perked up when she saw me entering the building, but didn’t move; she was still entertaining another member. Still, her attention wandered; she kept an eye on me.
It was strange to think that seeing Scarlett with her body angled towards this other club member, didn’t bother me. I never wanted to see her with another man, but I was confident that she would come to me. At the end of the day, her position at the Dahlia District was a job, albeit a false one. But total power exchange with me had an unspoken rule. Only I would touch her body. Even if we hadn’t said it, she knew that.
Scarlett’s forehead rippled in annoyance at the club member, but she buried it away and smiled, waiting for him to finish his story. She was wearing another sports bra and booty short set, this time in bright orange. It wasn’t a color normally worn in the club, but in doing so, it drew everyone’s eyes to her.
The waitress brought me a scotch neat. It was my second attempt at trying to enjoy a scotch that day, the first being when Dr. Davis had come to my study.She needs social interaction, Dr. Davis had said.At her age, she needs to be around her peers. To learn the social queues appropriate for her age group.
Dr. Davis was not the first person to bring up this predicament with Rose, but he was the first to do so vehemently. I had settled my glass of scotch on the table and waited until he was finished with his speech.
Do you suggest we bring them into her nursery, or that we bring her to a school?I had asked. At that question, Dr. Davis had stared at me with an open mouth. Was the crazed, isolating, lunatic billionaire actually willing to budge?
Bring her to a school, sir, he had stammered out.
I waited for a few moments, giving him the chance to speak, but when he said nothing, I continued.In a school, she would risk contamination, Dr. Davis. I will not risk her livelihood for the sake of social interaction. We can bring another child here.
He shook his head, ready to fight back. But I knew what was best for my daughter.With all due respect, sir,he started,another child wouldn’t be able to withstand the cleansing process, and I can’t willfully—
Then we can’t have that social interaction, can we?I said. I stood, straightening my clothes, towering over Dr. Davis.With all due respect, Dr. Davis. Rose is my daughter. I decide what’s best for her.
There was truth to what Dr. Davis was saying. Rose couldn’t learn many life lessons if she was tucked inside the estate, never leaving her nursery. The nursery was the self-contained heart of the house, and had a bed, a snack area, and an attached bathroom. Her nanny, Ms. Anderson, Dr. Davis, or I brought in the meals from the kitchen at the appropriate times, or whenever Rose requested it. I had the nursery designed that way.
A traditional school meant trusting Rose in the hands of strangers. You could only vet a person so much; Dr. Davis was proof of that. How could I trust an entire school of people? Dr. Davis was one of the best in his profession, and yet he had still stepped out of bounds with the books he bought for Rose, and with the diet changes he submitted to her chef without my approval. A small cookie each day didn’t mean anything, until Rose craved it, and then at fourteen, she’d be well on the path to high blood pressure, like her mother.
It was hereditary. My late wife had followed all of the recommendations throughout her pregnancy; I made sure of it. And still, the disease attacked her. Her mother had had it, and her mother before her. For whatever reason, each of the women had gotten preeclampsia, but only my late wife’s condition had worsened into HELLP syndrome, a disease that affected the blood and liver even after birth. I had known that her mother had died young, but I had never known why. Not until I went home alone with our daughter that night.
I couldn’t control what Rose inherited. But I could prevent her from going down a path that led her towards that same end. Still, IknewDr. Davis was right. How did I make sure that Rose had the best possible future, but that she was still protected?
Scarlett approached the booth. She opened her mouth to speak, but then decided against it. I nodded, inviting her inside. I asked if she wanted anything to eat or drink, but she declined. A few minutes passed, both of us watching the server on the stage: a belly dancer with elaborate coin sash, the sound of the metal trinkets jingling through the main floor.
“You’re quieter than usual,” she finally said.
“Am I usually talkative?” I muttered.
She shrugged. “What’s on your mind?”
Why not tell Scarlett? If I could share the dilemma in a way that never touched Rose, then no harm would come to her. And perhaps some intimacy would lead Scarlett to hint at the reasons she was pursuing me.
“If you knew someone or something was delicate,” I started, “fragile, in need of guidance, protection… If you cared about this thing, thisperson, you would do everything in your power to protect it. Would you not?”
“I think everyone who cares about something would want to protect it.”
“Say someone’s life depended on it, that the only way you could care for this person was to make sure that anything that could infect or contaminate them would never get near that path. What would you say then?”
Her dark amber eyes studied me. Trying to determine the hidden meaning. Would she connect the missing pieces, or would she assume that I meant her?
Perhaps Scarlett had her own people in need of protection. Though I doubted she had created a secluded nursery for her loved one.
I knew it was extreme. That was the hard part. But if I let anything happen to my daughter, I would burn the whole fucking world to the ground.
“And if someone got in your way, you would make sure that they understood, would you not?” I asked.
She was still, analyzing me. Reading me. Scarlett wasn’t the usual server that came through the Dahlia District, and yet she surprised even my initial impressions. She was so much more than I had ever expected. Observant. Keen. Always learning.
“You have to do what it takes to protect those who need it,” Scarlett said. She put a hand on my arm, and I stared at her touch. “Of course you would want to do whatever it took. That’s understandable.”
