Page 91 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
“So there is something?”
“Yes, there is something. And you’ll know when the time is right.”
I stared at him. His face wasclosed, there wasn’t even the usual challenge to push him I’d seen there before. Nothing. Conversation was ended.
I looked back into my mug. “I need a shower. I stink of cleaning fluid,” I said, gently smiling.
Sebastian insisted on walking upstairs with me. He took my mug and placed it beside the bed. He then grabbed the front of my hoodie and pulled me forward.
“This look on your face, these clothes, this is how you were when I first met you. Sad, and hurt, and tired.” He spoke softly.
“I like this hoodie,” I replied.
“I know. I like you in his hoodie. It’s just, the past few days, you’ve laughed a lot, and now he’s made you fucking sad and that angers me.”
I shook my head. “I’ve made myself sad by letting him affect me. He means nothing, but he was all I focussed on for a long time. I used his disappearance to fuel my anger, in turn, that kept me going.”
Something came to my mind. The looks between Sebastian and Tony. The whispered conversation. The confirmation that Tony knew where my father was when Sebastian asked him. It was all of that, but something more. It was the anger that had radiated fromSebastian when he’d learned it was my father who had upset me. It was more than I would have expected.
I placed my hands on his chest. “Can I ask you one thing?”
“You can, whether I answer is another matter.”
“Did you know my father before me.”
He sighed and closed his eyes. He raised his head as if in thought. Then he lowered it. “Yes.”
“Is that why you sought me out? Is what we have...engineered.” I lowered my hands and took a step back.
“No!” He shouted the word and I blinked rapidly. “No, Ruby. I don’t ever want you to think that. I drove past your house because I was checking out the street. We didn’t even notice you standing there. I was looking across the road. Meeting you was coincidence.”
“Did you know I was his daughter, though?”
“No. Not at first.”
“Is he the man you’ve been looking for?” I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, waiting. I heard him take a step closer.
His breath brushed my lips, and when I opened my eyes, his were full of pain. I cupped his cheeks.
“Is he?”
He nodded. I broke down. I clung to him crying into his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. He held me so tight I felt like I couldn’t breathe properly. My legs gave way, and he held me up. My father had to bethe same age as Sebastian, or thereabouts. He couldn’t have been one of the staff at the home, so he’d been searching for him for another reason. However, I also knew that the one person left had done him harm. So much harm that Sebastian wanted to kill him.
I couldn’t deal with that.
“I need to be alone, please?” I asked, begged. “Please?”
He nodded and stepped back again. I reached for the bed and collapsed on top. “Just give me an hour.”
He didn’t speak but he did leave the room. The door gently clicked shut and I covered my ears as I buried my face into the duvet. I screamed. I screamed so hard my throat was raw.
The man I loved, and I did love Sebastian, was going to kill my father.
How the fuck did I process that?
An hour passed. I hadn’t slept but just laid on the bed, doing everything I could to empty my mind of thought. That, of course, was impossible.
I believed Sebastian when he’d said he hadn’t known I was his daughter initially. However, I carried my father’s name, and it wasn’t a usual name in Spain, let alone in the UK. It was a discussion I needed to havewith him. And the word,initially, bothered me. At what point did he know I was his daughter? Why didn’t he say something?
