Page 77 of A Princess, Stolen
“You’re all sick, aren’t you? You’re all going to die?” I whispered, and suddenly, I could hardly breathe. My heart clenched with a dull pressure. Nathan. Pan. Troy. Icarus. Delphi, Castor, Taurus… All would die. Sooner or later. I stood there and looked at them one by one except for Nathan. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. However, he answered me.
“No,” he replied almost gently. “Sparta and Mykonos are sick, yes. They suffer from an immune deficiency. And there are still some at Buffalo Lake who are too sick to leave. And their relatives can’t leave either. The access roads are unpaved, and in winter, you can only reach Coldville by plane. Some people who have moved away bring food, but it is not enough and their main source of food has dried up. You cannot even imagine the poverty there.”
I had to lean on the railing again, I was so dizzy. “And what exactly do you want from my father?” I asked, confused. What would be better than money to provide everyone with basic medical care? An aid convoy to transport the sick to the surrounding hospitals?
Nathan looked straight at me. “He must turn himself in. For one of the biggest environmental crimes in history. He should disclose everything and pay compensation. That’s how we’ll get the money we need. Honest money, not a ransom. I suspect yourfather will receive a few years in prison, but I don’t care, in fact, it fills me with satisfaction. I told you: we demand justice.”
He wanted Dad to go to prison? My dad? Blinking, I saw my father in front of me, sitting in an orange prison jumpsuit in a four-man cell with a metal toilet. How he was tormented and abused by the other inmates because of his former status. How he ate lunch with hundreds of criminals on cheap benches and did stupid laps in the yard if they hadn’t broken all his bones first. I thought about Rikers Island where Isaac had been imprisoned. Even Nathan had said that his stay had completely turned his brother around.
Now I knew why Dad was unwilling to comply. As little as I wanted to believe he was guilty, he would not willingly admit it. He would never risk losing fame, power, and freedom.
Not even for me.
The last thought filled me with emptiness and rootlessness. I stood there, no longer knowing where I belonged or who I was. Dad did not love me as much as I loved him. I had risked my life for him when his was in danger, he, however, was doing nothing to help me; at least not what was asked of him.
Had he spoken to Isaac? And if so, what had Isaac told him about me? Was he not at all interested in how I was doing? He had seen the photos!
Suddenly, I felt like I was suffocating in the narrow corridor. Mindless, I dashed to the end and barricaded myself in the bathroom with a broom. I didn’t want to hear any more of the supposed truth from these men. I wanted to forget all of it and yet that was exactly what was impossible. It was as if I had previously existed in a shimmering soap bubble that had now burst, leaving only a caricature of my old life. The penthouse with its absurd curiosities from all over the world, my ridiculous clothes, my ridiculous flowers, my ridiculous paintings—it had been a deep sleep that had kept me sedated and calm sothat I didn’t see all the ugliness in the world. Including the ugliness that Dad might be perpetrating. I felt naked without the protection of all those things. Naked and vulnerable.
I stayed in that tiny, stinking bathroom for an eternity, even when Nathan asked me several times to come out. I cried a little, feeling sorry for myself, until I realized it wasn’t making things any better.
Toward evening, I leaned on the railing in a quiet spot and forced myself to look at the ocean. It was smooth and calm, stretching out before me like a canvas.
Strangely, it no longer frightened me. Its infinite blue, a deep blue like in my dream shimmered as if eternity was sleeping in it until the end of the world woke it up. Where was my fear? After my experience, I should actually be even more terrified of the water, but I hardly felt it. I breathed in and out, irritated, but perhaps my head was simply too full of other things. I almost didn’t care where I was. In the distance, lights flashed in the gold-black haze of the approaching night. Certainly a coastline since the points of light stretched out like an endless string of lights. Maybe it was South Carolina. I didn’t know—it could have been Delaware or Rhode Island if Nathan had changed course. I had no idea how fast this cutter was moving or how long it took to sail from one state to the next on the water. It didn’t matter. There was nothing I could do here anyway. All I could do was wait for Dad to finally do what they asked, but he never would. That was clear to me now. So, what would happen to me then?
“Willa?”
Startled, I turned. “Nathan?” He looked so beautiful standing there, his face shadowed, and the dark golden light of dusk washing over his hair. If he was right and their claims were true, every word he said to me must have cost him dearly. How could he kiss me when my father had influenced his life in sucha miserable way? How could I mean anything to him? That was impossible.
“You and the ocean—you’re not going to become friends?” he asked now, winking.
“You don’t have to speak to me,” I said tightly. “I understand if you don’t.”
“Oh, come on, Will! We lured you away with deception, locked you up, and bound you. You don’t have to talk to us either.”
“That’s different.”
“True, it’s worse because you’re innocent.” He took a step closer. “We’ve all known the truth for a long time. It’s just new for you.”
I was certain he was trying to tell me that the chasm I felt only existed for me. Their world hadn’t flipped 180 degrees, only mine. But I turned away anyway. I didn’t want to speak about it; I didn’t want Dad to change in my mind and become someone else. I wanted to ask him what he had to say about the allegations before he became a stranger to me. There might have been a misunderstanding. Maybe he didn’t falsify the results but someone else. One of his experts or notaries. That was possible.
“What if my father didn’t…” I began, but Nathan put his finger to his lips and shook his head.
“Your father is certainly an intelligent man, isn’t he?”
I nodded.
“And he’s certainly not solely responsible for this. To cover up something like this, you need a few people in the right positions. Experts. Judges. Doctors. We also want him to give us the names of those who were and are involved. All of them, without exception.”
“Perhaps, he never saw the real results of the samples?”
Nathan sighed. “Even if he had been presented with fake reports…don’t you think he would have noticed something? So many deaths but no high levels of arsenic, mercury, or PAHs?”
“What are PAHs?”
“Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” Nathan studied me carefully. “Your father is not only intelligent but also influential, Willa. If he had had even the slightest suspicion—and the will to investigate—he could have uncovered everything. And the samples from the water are only part of the story. He knows which chemicals are needed to extract the oil.”
Unfortunately, I had to agree with him. For a moment, I pressed my fingers against my eyelids. “I still don’t understand it. How can something like this happen without the world finding out? Aren’t there protests or environmentalists making it public?”
