Chapter 13: Dr. Croft's Gentle Mask

Valkyrie's POV 

The silence in the kitchen was heavy, and it seemed as if the glass was about to shatter.

Outside, the rain had become a continuous, suffocating drizzle, falling in a quiet, rhythmic pattern on the glass. Between us on the kitchen counter was Hamish’s encrypted satellite phone, the dark screen reflecting the morning light.

“He's outside, Valkyrie.  Kaelen. He is waiting at the gate.”

I gripped the handle of the small folding knife in my cardigan pocket, my heart beating so hard against my ribs that it made my shoulders shake.

I stared at his eyes, hoping to discover the stranger who had been behind the kind mask he had worn for four long years.

"I've been betrayed," I whispered, my voice becoming rough and painful. 

"All this time... after you brought my son into the world, after you rescued Chloe... were you working for him?"

Hamish didn't move. He neither drew a weapon nor reached for his phone; instead, he sighed softly and heavily, a deep, exhausted sadness that stopped the rush of adrenaline in my chest.

"I never had Kaelen Vance as my employer, Val," said Hamish, speaking in a quiet, steady, and gentle voice. 

"It was you that I worked for."

"Don't lie to me!" I retorted, stepping back quickly until my back came against the kitchen counter, "about the transponder in your bag! The live GPS tracking! The satellite phone which is on my counter at this moment…."

"Four years ago, my clinic was placed under compulsory monitoring; Vance's corporate security team fitted the transponder into my bag," Hamish said smoothly, advancing slowly and deliberately towards me while keeping his hands open and clearly in sight.

"They paid my practice a monthly allowance so you would remain in Port Campbell, saying you were a criminal who had stolen corporate secrets and wanted me to report on your movements." 

"And did you?" I asked.

"Never," Hamish murmured, stopping just two feet from me. He looked down at me, his eyes shining with a deeply tender and firm warmth that was so genuine it hurt. 

"I took their money, spent every cent of it on the raw peptide compounds that were keeping Chloe alive. For four years I fed them false medical reports, saying you were broke, sickly, and completely harmless, just so Kaelen’s mother's hounds wouldn't tear this cottage apart."

"Then why is he at the gate, Hamish? Why have you brought him here now?"

"Since he discovered the Aegis server loop himself, Val," Hamish whispered, stretching out his hand gently on my knuckled grip, which was outside my sweater pocket. 

"He didn't come because I asked him to; instead, he came because your digital firewall blew out ten minutes ago. I dropped the phone on the counter to make it clear to you that I wasn't hiding it anymore."

While I was still walking through what he had said, a gentle rustling came from the hallway.

Chloe was standing with her head against the wooden frame, one hand holding a small bunch of yellow coastal wattle flowers which Hamish had given her an hour ago. 

Her eyes were full of innocent confusion and her face pale against the large sweater she was wearing.

"Val? Chloe asked, Who's at the gate? "Is something wrong with Hamish?"

"

At once Hamish turned towards my sister and his face settled back into the gentle, kindly smile which had been the anchor holding our little household together for years.

"Everything is all right, Chloe," Hamish said as he walked over to her with a skilled and calming manner. 

He took the wildflowers from her shaking hand gently and placed them in a porcelain vase on the hall table, adjusting the stems carefully. "It's just some local business. You ought to be in bed, little sister. The compound has to work its way into your bloodstream."

Chloe whispered, "You've brought me my favourite flowers," in a weak voice, allowing him to take her back towards the armchair by the window, "as you always do."

"I always remember," Hamish replied, wrapping a warm blanket around her knees.

He turned back to me, his face firm with absolute determination. "I told you four years ago, Valkyrie. You and your family are safe in this town. I provided you with financial assistance when you had nothing, I gave birth to your son, and I will defend this sanctuary at the cost of my life."

He stood up, adjusting his wet jacket, and walked towards the front door.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, rushing to the entrance before him.

“I'm going to the gate," he said, "to open it.”

“Kaelen Vance thinks he can walk into this town and take what he has abandoned; he thinks his billions give him the right to shatter the ghost life you've built.”

"Hamish, no!" I moved forward and caught hold of his sleeve. "You don't know him at all! He's extremely ruthless! If he finds out you lied to his security team for four years…"

"Let him come and try," Hamish whispered, stepping out onto the wet porch as the cold wind blew around us. 

"Though he may own Melbourne, Val, in Port Campbell I am the only thing preventing your sister from breathing."

He turned and began walking down the driveway towards the gate, where three black armored SUVs were parked in the fog, their headlights cutting through the mist as if they were huge, glowing eyes.

I stood on the porch, my hands shaking, my chest rising and falling as I watched Hamish's single figure move bravely into the path of the Vance empire.

The back door of the lead black SUV opened.

A tall person came out into the rain, wearing a long dark wool coat with broad shoulders and hair shining with wet mist.

Kaelen.

He didn't turn to look at Hamish; his vivid and frightening eyes went straight through the fog, down the gravel path, and settled directly on me standing on the porch.

Next to me, the hallway floorboards made a soft, creaking sound.

 Lachlan stepped out onto the porch, holding onto his blanket and his messy hair standing up as he rubbed his eyes in the cold air.

“Mommy?" Lachlan called out in a soft voice, looking up at me "Who is the man at the gate?”