Obliviate Book Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Maeve rushed inside, throwing open the front doors to her family home. Several people were standing in the foyer that she didn't recognize, and their hushed voices came to an abrupt stop upon seeing her.

Her heart rate was rapidly increasing. She looked up to the landing on the second floor. Grandmother Agatha was staring down, looking at her with a grim expression.

Maeve shot up the stairs and down the hallway past Agatha. Irma Black stood leaned against the wall, her head bowed and shadowed.

No, no, no, thought Maeve. Please no. Let it be anyone else. Just not him. Please.

She broke into a run and slammed through the oak double doors at the end of the hallway that led to her parent's bedroom.

Arianna stood next to the bed, embraced by their mother. There were two or three other men in the room, including Minister Moon.

Moon looked behind him at Maeve as she burst through the doors. He moved to the side, revealing her father lying on the bed. A dark red trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth down his chin.

The other men moved aside as Maeve ran towards her father, hurling herself over the bed's footboard and landing next to where Ambrose lay.

She grabbed his face and screamed as her fingers touched his cold skin. His head was limp in her hands.

"No," cried Maeve, tears spilling onto her face. "No, you can't." She was shaking Ambrose's shoulders now, desperately attempting to wake him.

"You can't, you can't," she cried, touching his face again.

She continued to beg her father to wake up, but he was dead.

Slender fingers wrapped around her hand, gently pulling her away.

"No!" Screamed Maeve, yanking her hand back and placing the side of her head on her father's chest, searching for a heartbeat.

She heard nothing.

Arianna ran from the room, sobbing. Their mother hurried after her wiping silent tears. s

The same fingers encircled her arm again, pulling her. Maeve resisted and clung to her father's body. An arm circled around her waist with more force and managed to pull her off the bed.

She turned and attempted to shove Tom away from her, but he was stronger. She resisted him the entire time he guided her out of the room. Once in the hallway, he released her, and she broke into a run.

She ran down the main stairs, circling to the back corridor. She quickly pushed open the door to her father's basement and hurried down the stairs. She ran along the long corridor to the end, where the portraits of her family stopped.

The previously empty portrait between her Grandfather Alyicious and her brother Antony now held a portrait of her father sitting behind his desk, smoking a cigar.

Maeve's knees hit the carpet.

"It can't be," cried Maeve. "You can't leave me."

She doubled over and slammed her fists into the carpet.

"I don't want to be here," cried Maeve quietly, "if you are not here too."

She sat crumpled over on the carpet. It couldn't be real. How could she never hear his laugh again, feel his embrace or see him look at her adoringly? How could the smell of his cigars never fill his office again? How could he never write her another letter or play a game of wizard's chess?

Maeve would never see that most dazzling and mischievous smile again. All was gone. And Maeve could do nothing.

Two days later, Maeve stood on a cliffside in Scotland where all the Sinclair family were buried and watched as her father's body met its final resting place.