Full Circle - Day 11

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Day 11

Suddenly the room seemed to begin spinning. Victoria felt as if she could no longer control her own breathing. “No! That’s a lie, Father!” she screamed, struggling through each breath. “I… I remember. I heard screaming. I heard you and Mother arguing. Mother was pleading with you not to do it. I heard this. You know it’s true,” she pleaded. “You know it is.” Victoria collapsed into her sister’s arms. “It’s not true… Tell him it’s not true.” she sobbed.

Viola’s heart ached for her daughter. For all of them. Walking over to her daughters, she wrapped her arms her arms protectively around both of them. She gave Victoria a gentle squeeze. “Yes,” she whispered sadly, her face pressed close to Victoria’s. “it is true, Victoria. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she repeated, wishing she could somehow change all of this.

Victoria took a deep breath, trying to compose herself enough to make sense of what she was hearing. “But why? Why would I want to kill Camille… my own sister? My twin? I loved her so much. Much more than any of you ever did. Father,” she said, now glaring across the room. “he resented her. She had no place in his perfect world.”

No one said anything as Viola held the girls close and silently wept. Not because of the painful sting from what Victoria had just said. But because she knew that they could each share their own version of what happened that night in an attempt to free themselves from the past that had haunted them all since Camille’s death, but nothing anyone could say or do could change anything that happened that night. And nothing could bring Camille back.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Ivan slowly turned from the window and walked over to the three of them. He could see the gun lying unnoticed on the floor.. He knew he now had a way to end this all. Victoria was no longer holding the trump card. He froze in his tracks, contemplating his next move. Then quickly, he pushed the gun with his foot and watched as it went spinning, then sliding across the room until it was safely out of sight under the bed. He didn’t have it in his hands, but at least he knew where it was. In case he should need it. For now, he would just let this whole thing continue to play out and see where it took them.

Now he moved closer to his wife and daughters. They all looked so small and fragile as he stared down at them. They looked weak and frightened. And this did not please him. He simply wanted their lives to return to normal, but he had great doubts that that could ever happen. “Victoria,” he said, sighing at the very thought of what their lives may now be like. The prospect was quite grim when he added it all up. “you have gone to great lengths to get our attention.” he continued. “I have tried to protect you… we all have. You left home angry and confused.”

“You mean she was sent from home angry and confused, don’t you, Father?” Alexandria asked, not bothering to mask the anger she was feeling at his desperate attempt to alter the truth so as not to portray himself in a bad light.

“Went away, sent away, that makes very little difference now, Alexandria.” Ivan barked, quite annoyed by her attempts to make him out to be a heartless monster. “The point is you were far too young, Victoria, to deal with the fantasy you had created in your own mind. I wish I had done something about it then. I wish…” he stopped, letting his words trail off. Ivan shook his head sadly. He had almost as many regrets as he did bank accounts. And at this point in his life, he was a very, very wealthy man. Would things have been any differently, he wondered, if the world had known about Camille? Would he still have been the mighty Ivan Baron Van Cort?. The man that men both admired and feared? He shook his head again, not really wanting to contemplate the answer. It was all too painful to consider now and for Camille, it was far too late.

Be sure to look for the continuation of this story in about 3 days.