His Favorite Sin

FIVE

FALL

Nine Years Ago

Flashes of lightning sliced through the room in ghostly bursts just as the rumbling growl of thunder echoed from a distant, rousing me from my sleep. I was a light sleeper, and the weather here wasn’t meant for my kind, but that wasn’t what troubled me the most, because apart from being a light sleeper, I was scared out of my wits being in this house.

I sat up on my bed and hugged my knees to my chest. I usually wasn’t scared of the dark, but now I had to wrestle the strong urge to spring up and turn the lights on just so I could see everything hidden in the dark.

I could be living under the roof of a serial killer. That thought had left me jumpy for days and unable to get proper sleep. Mr. Dvorak didn’t seem like a killer, but I couldn’t get the stories Hannah told out of my head. I began searching the internet for any news about the deaths that occurred in the woods and expected to find none since the Dvoraks were very private, but to my surprise, the deaths were reported on. There were news articles on the incidents, but just as Hannah said, they were ruled as victims of wild animal attacks. I saw that of Johnathan Thomas, or “old Johnny Thomas” as Hannah had called him. According to the article, he had been officially declared missing for two weeks. But after a heavy storm, his already decomposing body was found beside the tiled road, floating along a stream of muddy water, an aftermath of the storm.

The Dvorak name and the fact that the road the body was found on passed in front of their property were kept out of it. The same with every other article I found on “wild animal attacks.” There were no pictures of the bodies, just descriptions of scratches, nicks, cuts, and long gashes on their skin, which made the story believable. But something about the stories didn’t feel right. They all repeated the same thing, used the same words, which was not unusual, especially if they were all getting their story from the same source, basically whatever the cops gave them. But that was the issue. They were all only writing what the cops gave them; no other source, not even the hospitals where the bodies were examined, or the witnesses who found the body. And when only the cops were giving the story, one should have known something fishy was going on.

I struggled to make a decision – stay or leave?

The cheque Mr. Dvorak handed to me was still in my drawer, uncashed, and every time I thought of returning it and leaving, I never actually dared to go ahead.

My throat was parched and begging for a glass of water. So I rubbed my tired eyes and dug myself from the thick covers of the duvet. I shuddered as my feet touched the cold floor and searched, weary-eyed, for my fluffy slippers. When I went out into the hallway and passed by Lance’s room, I noticed the door slightly ajar, his bed ruffled with the covers tossed aside, and I could easily make out that he wasn’t in there.

Before going down, I took a peek into the library, his favorite part of the house, but he wasn’t there either, and that had me start worrying. He wasn’t supposed to be moving around this late at night without my help. He could get hurt!

I quietly checked some more rooms before going downstairs. It was while alighting the last stairs that I heard the silent mewl of a cat. Fortunately, whenever you saw a cat in this house, it was always glued to Lance’s side like an extra limb.

The sound came from the dining room adjacent to the kitchen, and I found Lance in the dark, sitting on a stool with a glass of milk in front of him. It was one, and also the smallest, of the two dining rooms in the house. His face was being supported in between his hands, his eyes bare of his usual dark glasses, as he rested his elbows on the table. It was unusual to see him without his glasses even when he was inside. He almost always had it on.

‘Lance?’ He didn’t budge at the sound of his name, and I took it that he must have heard me coming. ‘Couldn’t sleep?’

He nodded, still quiet, and my eyes shifted to the cat, curled on the table, its yellow eyes glowing in the dark as it focused on me. ‘The storm bothering you?’

‘No. I had a nightmare.’ His voice came out gruff.

‘Oh.’ I located the light switch and flipped it. He let out a groan, and I turned to see his head bent even lower.

‘Are you okay?’ His cat had its eyes squeezed shut from the glare of the light, and I thought maybe Lance had been sensitive to it also, but he already had his head facing downward before, so the light wouldn’t have even touched his lids.

He finally lifted his head as I walked over, but my feet faltered, and my heart jumped when his eyes met mine. Lance had the darkest pair of brown eyes that I had ever seen, almost black even, as if his irises were non-existent. But for a moment there, they had turned pale, like the moon’s reflection. But I blinked, and they were back to their original dark color.

‘Yeah.’ He answered, flashing me a lazy smile. Had I imagined the change in his irises?

‘Did... did you get down here alone?’ I got a hold of myself and walked to the sink to pour myself a glass of water before taking a seat at the table with him. His cat had stood up and leaped off the table onto a chair, then to the floor, to slink around the table. Its eyes were no longer on me, which was a rare occasion that I was thankful for.

He nodded. ‘My cat helped me.’ I was surprised because the cat had no harness attached to it, so how did it guide him? Did he follow its sound? Ben did say Lance could move around the house with ease in his home.

‘You should have called me. That’s what I’m here for. It’s my job.’

‘I didn’t want to disturb your sleep. You’ve seemed agitated lately. Your heart’s always racing and skipping a beat from the slightest sound.’

I paused. Puzzlement marred my forehead as I blinked back at him. ‘What?’ He could hear my heartbeat?!

An expression flickered on his face, but only briefly, that I didn’t have the time to decipher before it was gone.

‘You’ve been like that since you returned from the town. You’re barely paying me any attention when I’m talking, you get lost in thoughts and get easily startled. Like yesterday, when you screamed because my cat passed by you and touched you with his fur.’ Oh. Was he just trying to say I seemed off and decided to phrase it that way instead?

‘Sorry. I’m just not used to the environment, especially the weather. I have never seen it rain like this before anywhere I’ve been to.’ I wove a lie with the truth. I couldn’t tell him about the rumors circulating in town about his father. He wasn’t even fifteen, and no child should have to hear things like that about their parent. But did he know about them? And did he know what the truth was? I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to ask, to know what he knew.

‘My mum used to travel a lot. She couldn’t take me with her always, but she did a few times. I always liked going with her to Italy, especially in the fall; it’s relatively warm and sunny, at least compared to here, the grapes and olives are fresh, the food is good too.’ He smiled and then c****d his head at me to ask, ‘What’s the weather like in your city?’

‘Well, it’s rainy in spring, foggy and colorful in fall, extra chilly in winter, and sunny in summer as it should be.’ He laughed at the end. Seriously, though, beaches were crowded by this time of the year, but here, it was an endless downpour.

Lance was easy to talk with. He was an expert charmer, and I knew he wouldn’t have trouble making friends when he finally went into the public. His charisma would instantly attract anyone. He wasn’t shy, perhaps a bit reclusive, I noticed. He was the type who would prefer reading in a quiet library to attending a party.

There was something else that had been bothering me, and I had always wanted to ask, so I saw this as an opportunity to do so. ‘Lance? What happened to your mum?’

The smile on his face dimmed at my question till his expression turned completely somber. The silence stretched between us, heavy and unspoken, and I felt him mentally withdraw. I already had an inkling of what his answer would be, but no one had confirmed it for me yet. I had heard some things about her, not just from Lance, but from Mr. Dvorak also. I knew she was overprotective of Lance and devoted most of her time to him, more so than to her other children. However, there was a specific way they spoke about her, as if they didn’t want to, but because she had been part of their lives for so long, she slipped into their conversations. I also noticed how there was no picture of her anywhere, not in the living room, Mr. Dvorak’s office, or even the hallway. He could have one in his bedroom, but I had never been there.

‘She’s gone,’ Lance coolly replied and downed his glass of milk till it was empty. I wanted to ask more about what happened, but the scraping sound of his chair against the floor stopped me as he abruptly got to his feet. ‘I’m done. Could you help me get back to my room, Miss Dahlia?’ He sounded polite, but his stiff posture betrayed his emotions.

Respecting his boundaries, I nodded even though he couldn’t see the action and took our glasses to the sink first. I returned to link his arm with mine, and his cat followed suit as we left the dining room in silence.

******

The days were shorter than the nights, the temperature dropped lower and lower, and from above, the city was a canvas of green, yellow, red, and orange as most trees were almost done shedding their leaves. It was obvious winter was drawing closer, and everyone was dusting off their coats, which they had packed up since spring. This year had been the warmest, and talk of global warming had dominated the news throughout. It was a relief to get back to a cold season.

My pea coat offered me all the warmth I needed when I stepped out of the house. Tamara drove us in her Honda, and the trip was mostly silent as I could feel her loud disapproval in the passenger seat. I was going against her advice even though that was what I employed her to do – advise me. She was good at her job, and all her clients could attest to that, as she had helped make successful authors out of them. She knew the rights and wrongs, the dos and don’ts in her line of work. She could see a lot of wrongs and don’ts in the paths I was taking, but I was stubborn and resolute.

‘Are you having money trouble?’ Tammy sighed after managing to be quiet for eight minutes. I turned to her, puzzled, as she shared her gaze between me and the road. ‘Is that why you’re doing this? You need the money?’

We were on our way to seal the deal, and she had wrestled me, literally and physically, to abort this mission, but all attempts failed. I had made up my mind.

I did need money, but it wasn’t my driving reason at all. ‘No’

‘Then what is it?!’

‘I know what I’m doing, Tamara.’ I sighed.

‘No, you don’t! I don’t understand why you would agree to a deal like this, but whatever your reason, it’s still a stupid idea. And if you would just give me a little more time, I would get you a better company.’

‘You didn’t this past two years.’

‘So that’s it? You’re scared I won’t find another publisher? If that’s what you’re afraid of and making you act so impulsive...’

‘It’s not. Tamara—’

She hit the brakes as we reached a stoplight, and the car screeched to a halt. ‘Then what is it? Tell me!’ Her persistence was giving me a headache. I really wished I could tell her the truth. I wanted to, especially with her scrutinizing gaze boring holes into the side of my head. My eyes flickered up to the traffic light and wished it would magically turn green instantly so we could continue our journey and reach our destination quicker, but the red remained, as if mocking me, warning me of how wrong my decision was.

‘Don’t keep me quiet, young lady.’ Tammy snapped beside me.

‘Tammy—’

‘Is it Isabel??’

‘What?’

‘Did you know her before the dinner? Was that why you were acting so weird? Have you met her before? Is she the one twisting your arm into this deal?’

I sighed, realizing what Tammy was getting at. Funny, she wasn’t so far off from the truth. ‘Tammy, no, I do not know Isabel, and she isn’t forcing me into anything. Now, can you please drive so that maniac can stop honking?’ Behind us, the continuous blaring sound of a car horn signaled the driver’s impatience as the stoplight had turned green ten seconds ago.

She said nothing more and moved us forward, not before “elegantly” flipping the driver behind.

It was when she finally parked that she frowned and faced me quizzically once more.

‘Why did you ask to meet Lance Dvorak?’ I already anticipated this question was coming, and I was prepared.

‘If he’s going to buy the company soon, shouldn’t I get to know my future partner?’

She snorted and shook her head. ‘This contract doesn’t make you a partner but a fool.’ She pointed out before stepping out. She was right to be upset. I didn’t feel as confident about my decision anymore and was starting to feel a bit queasy.

As I stepped out, the fresh breeze picked up a few wispy strands of my hair that I had intentionally left to fall over my forehead. I had spent half the morning straightening every lock and deciding whether to go full formal and confine them all in a high bun or let some strands loose just so I wouldn’t appear stiff or perturbed. I wanted to look like Tammy, like how she always seemed at ease, no matter the social setting. She could wear jeans to a formal dinner party and still own the room. It wasn’t the outfit or the way she styled her hair. It was just her.

Starling House had its own private property where the office building was situated. We took the thin concrete path paved meticulously amidst the neatly trimmed grasses. Round-pruned shrubs lined both sides of the walkways leading to the building. A sleek, artistic logo of the starling bird in mid-flight, with its wings spotting fiery highlights and its tail extended, is featured atop the unique structure of the building.

Just as Tammy reached for the handle, the glass door swung open, revealing Isabel. ‘Welcome!’ She smiled, a little too wide. ‘Glad you could make it. Come on in.’

Tammy forced a smile back and proceeded in while Isabel held the door open, but just as I was about to follow, Isabel stopped me. ‘Oh, uh, he’s waiting for you behind.’ I paused and shared a look with Tammy. ‘You did ask for a meeting with him, right? Why did you ask for a meeting?’ Isabel still had that weird smile on her face as she questioned me, trying to hide the curiosity in her eyes but failing awfully.

‘Just business,’ I replied.

‘Business you can’t discuss with everyone else around as we prepare for the contract signing?’

‘Yes.’ Tammy responded coldly behind her before I could, and I watched satisfied as Isabel’s smile faltered. She nodded and fixed her expression.

‘Just follow the walkway to the back, and it will lead you to a little garden. When you’re done, we will be inside waiting for you two.’

I followed her instructions while she and Tammy went in, not before I nodded for Tammy to go in, with her giving me a stern look that said, ‘Be careful.’

Their office was much larger than it appeared from the front, and as I continued walking, I noticed another structure to the side and another looming in the distance. The entire compound screamed money, and when I got to the garden, I couldn’t help but marvel at the mix of vibrant colors – green, purple, yellow, orange, and red. A gardener was raking up the lost leaves and piling them in a wheelbarrow before I took a turn. I could feel my heartbeat quicken as I noticed a bench not far away and the individual sitting on it, long hair pushed back, dark sunglasses over his eyes, his cane propped against the side of the bench.

He sat leaning back, directly facing me with a sparrow perched on the bench’s backrest beside him, also looking at me. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but it felt like he was staring straight at me, and the smirk playing on his lips caused me to believe that maybe he could see me.