What The Files Reveal

Sebastian’s POV

I thought I had known cruelty, but this…

‘Are you sure all the information in here is accurate?’ I asked the man who had given me the files.

‘One hundred percent, boss,’ he answered. ‘You know me better than that.’

I looked at him long and hard. I haven’t even read the whole thing and I already didn’t like what I saw.

Just then a knock came on the door.

‘Come in,’ I called out, then waved at the man. ‘That’d be all for now.’

‘Get well soon boss,’ he said as he walked out, at the same time Liora and a doctor came in.

‘Just wanted to see how you’re doing,’ the doctor said as he came in, his gaze flickering to the file I held in my hand.

I shrugged. The doctor went ahead to carry out some checks and confirmed I was doing better.

‘Just make sure he takes his meds,’ the doctor turned to Liora. ‘He might be having small bouts of fever, but he’ll be fine.’

Liora saw the doctor out, and I lay in perfect silence. My ribs still hurt and my legs felt heavy. I felt totally useless lying down here, even if I knew the company would still run without me for a few weeks.

Good thing I closed the Forster deal before the accident. I sighed.

‘You really care about work more than your health,’ a voice called from the door.

It was Liora, standing by the door. I hadn’t even realized she was there.

‘Is that what you think?’ I smirked.

She tilted her head toward the file in my hand. ‘Please get some rest.’

She looked really tired, standing there like a mother hen, arms folded with her hair pulled up in a messy bun.

‘I will, when I’m done with this,’ I struggled to sit up.

Pain exploded around my whole rib cage, but she was there to help me, propping the pillow up against my back.

‘Is it really important?’ She asked me, concern clearly etched on her face.

‘Yes,’ I tried to keep the file face down so she couldn’t read the text in front.

‘A major deal?’

‘Yes,’ I avoided her gaze. It hurt to lie to her, but I needed answers. For her own good.

It seemed she sensed that I wasn’t in the mood to talk, because she left me after that.

Finally alone, I raised the file up and began to pore through.

The words hit me hard and fast. I had built an empire on cruelty, used it when necessary, and watched men break under it.

But reading her file…it felt different.

The abuse didn’t have volume, but it was repetitive.

Helena Bennett, stepmother, married Mr. George Bennett after his first wife had died.

Camille Bennett, half-sister, three years younger.

I studied their pictures. This was the girl I was supposed to get married to, before Liora was picked.

Something inside me shuddered.

The words on the pages were too clean to describe what they really meant.

Emotional neglect.

Financial control.

Isolation.

Verbal degradation.

This was enough to break a man’s spirit and leave him totally hopeless. I know my father was cruel, but this…

There were statements from witnesses: former staff, home tutors who didn’t stay long in the job, and a housekeeper who resigned abruptly and left the country.

And then…

Father incapacitated following a stroke. Condition deteriorated into a vegetative state:

My fingers tightened around the file. So she had been trapped. She wasn’t the spoiled daddy’s princess I had taken her to be.

I dropped the file and leaned back, fingers curling into my palms. I had to calm my thoughts and the guilt rising within me before I could continue.

More details in the file revealed that Helena had taken total control of household finances after George became incapacitated. Camille had been her enforcer, and Liora…

She had endured it all, even willing to marry a stranger to ensure her father had enough money for his surgery.

A surgery that might not even heal him.

She hadn’t filed any police report, she just endured.

I closed the file slowly, and leaned back again, the guilt rising rapidly within me.

For the first time in a long while, I didn’t know what to do with my anger.

All the pain she felt, I had also contributed to it, and that revelation hit me really hard.

Liora didn’t show up for the rest of the day. It was a middle-aged maid who served me my food instead and gave me my medication. Maybe Liora had deserted me too?

Well, I couldn’t blame her. I would desert me too, after all the pain she had been through.

But when I woke up the next morning, she was right beside me, her beautiful face clouded with something sad.

‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday,’ she began to apologize. ‘I had Giselle give you your meals, because I had to change the meal course so you could have something healthier to eat…’

‘It’s fine, it’s fine,’ I took her hand and pressed my lips against it.

‘Are you good?’ She looked surprised.

‘Never been better,’ I flashed her a smile.

For the rest of the day, we chatted away about trivial things, laughing like we were old buddies.

I realized I had never heard her laugh, and seeing her now, the cloud wearing off her face with her contagious laughter, I was happy.

The small bouts of fever did come some days, and Liora stayed by me, wiping my forehead with cool water. She even took to reading beside me.

‘I never knew you loved to read,’ I said to her on one of those days.

‘Fictional books mostly,’ she smiled. ‘Anything that creates an escapism for me.’

I could understand, and it pained me that I did.

That night I put a call through and the next morning, a whole shelf of fictional books was delivered to her.

The excitement she exuded, the way she hugged me warmly- regardless of the pain in my ribs, in between “You didn’t have to’s” made me want to do more.

Anything to make her happy.

That night she sat beside me, holding her recent book. Her hair was loose, slipping over her shoulders, and her posture petite and beautiful in a way I hadn’t noticed before.

She looked tired. I didn’t speak at first, just listened as she read.

Her voice began to trail off, with her shoulders sagging slightly.

I glanced at the wall clock: 11PM.

‘Liora,’ I called out her name.

‘I’m here,’ she jerked awake. I watched as she tried to tuck me properly, but she couldn’t even stand upright. Then she went to the other side as if in a daze, lay down on the bed- totally ensconced- and went straight to sleep.

Ignoring the pain I felt, I moved towards her and covered her up, holding her there in my arms. Something unfamiliar tightened in my chest.

Possession had never scared me; but protectiveness?

That was new. And it terrified me.