Virtue & Vanity (44 page)

I smiled reassuringly. “Helen, of course you’re not bothering me. I’m look forward to your visits. I wouldn’t mind if you came to see me every day.”

“Careful, Isabelle...” Sebastian’s soft voice filled the room and both of us turned to face him. “She might take you up on that offer. My little sister has a really bad sense of humor.”

With apparent gentleness, he glanced at Helen who sent a feigned offended glare his way. “Look who’s talking. I don’t think I’m the one who has the chronic seriousness syndrome, Mr. Grumpy.”

Everybody laughed at that and while they continued their little funny dispute, I took the time to observe Sebastian’s appearance. He looked so relaxed, like he was enjoying himself and I appreciated the sight because I’d so rarely see him carefree.

“Why don’t we ask your wife?” Helen’s voice traveled in my direction and snapped me out of my thoughts. When I looked up at them, I realized that both of them were staring at me expectantly.

“Ask me what?” I asked in a clear voice, hiding the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about.

“My perfectionist of a brother dared to deny that he’s a total control-freak,” Helen said with an accusing smile. “You of all people should help me unmask this liar.” Even she laughed, realizing how silly this was.

“Isabelle. I’m war—” Sebastian started in a teasing voice, but Helen wouldn’t let him finish.

“Don’t you dare, Sebastian!” She raised her index finger. “Let the lady speak the truth.”

Without taking my eyes off him, I smiled warmly, letting him know I would speak on his behalf. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Helen, but lately he’s been a lot more easygoing than you think.”

Helen looked at Sebastian, laughing with mild surprise.

“What can I say? The lady spoke the truth.” Sebastian shrugged his shoulders and walked over to me, clearly celebrating his victory. “I hope this taught you not to mess with my beautiful wife, Helen,” he whispered, looking at me like I meant the world to him.

If anyone ever asked me how a man in love looked like, I would have described his face, because I couldn’t have imagined that a person could ever display more emotion than he had at that moment. An electric current rushed through my body as his words from last night echoed in my mind.
I love you, princess.

Placing his hand on my waist, he winked at me and leaned closer to give me a small kiss with Helen standing right there behind us. I was unable to hide my surprise, because this was the first time he did something like that in front of someone we knew.

“I wish I could stay but I have to go to work.” He sighed almost like he regretted it. Slowly, he removed his hand from my waist and smiled at Helen, before walking towards the door. “You ladies have fun. I hope to join you soon,” he said on his way out and then turned one more time, flashing me a smile before he disappeared out of our sight.

Now that we were alone, Helen wouldn’t stop staring at me with both an inquiring and teasing smile on her face. She raised her eyebrows and her entire face glowed. Something had made her both intrigued and happy. “It’s so nice to see you two get along,” she said excitedly and then almost sang the words. “Love is in the air!”

“Helen.” I felt the attack of redness on my cheeks again and asked her to stop teasing me about Sebastian’s opened display of affection.

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” she said in a happy voice and then remained silent for a moment, letting me know she would let it go for the time being. “So what do you want to do today?”

It took me a short while to think about it, but I came up with an idea. I suggested that we could watch movies in the media room since we hadn’t done that in a while and Helen loved my proposition. The moment we entered the room, she busied herself with the large choice of movies, trying to find the perfect one. She worked her way through all titles, and despite the imposing choice, still couldn’t find the one movie that held her interest, until she found a black nameless case. To my absolute astonishment, she seemed super excited to have found that particular movie and I wondered what was so special about it.

“Oh, if this is what I think it is, you’re going to love it!” she exclaimed happily and played the movie before I even got a chance to ask anything about it.

The screen seemed to remain black for far too long, but Helen didn’t seem to be worried about it in the least.

“What are we watching?” My voice was tinged with impatience.

“Can’t tell you,” she replied with a smirk, adding to the mystery. “You’ll see.... Look! Look!” She became ecstatic as the image finally appeared on the wall and I was stunned by the most adorable scene ever.

A boy and a girl were playing hide and seek in the garden and a woman, whose voice sounded familiar, was talking behind the camera. As the little boy covered his eyes with his hands and counted to ten, the camera followed the little girl who ran away to hide behind the tree. When the boy stopped counting, he turned to face the camera and there was a clear close-up of his face. I gasped as I recognized those unmistakable green eyes and black hair.

“Quickly, you have to find Helen!”
The soothing woman’s voice encouraged Sebastian to go find his sister, and it didn’t take him long to find her. Soon they were chasing each other on the grass and the sound of children’s laughter filled the room.

I glanced towards Helen, noticing that her eyes were glued to the screen and she couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could I. For a moment, I wondered about Dianne, but it didn’t take long before the woman rotated the camera towards the little girl who sat at the table, pouting like something had made her upset. Without a doubt, that little conceited girl was none other than Dianne Everett. After long persuasion, the woman finally managed to get her to join her siblings. Helen and I looked at each other when young Dianne marched towards young Helen and Sebastian and we were probably thinking the same—even when she’d been a little girl, she still didn’t know how to let go and simply be a child.

“Okay, Helen’s going to count next,”
the woman instructed, but Dianne obviously didn’t like the idea because she pushed Helen as hard as she could, causing her to fall on the grass.

What happened next brought tears to my eyes. Before the woman even got a chance to react, Sebastian ran over to his crying sister and he helped her get up. With recognizable tenderness he hugged her tightly and told her she would be alright. The scene was touching and adorable. He didn’t stop hugging her until she stopped crying and when she finally calmed down he kissed her on the cheek before letting go of her. Then, he glared at Dianne and asked her to apologize to Helen. When she gave him a nasty look and refused, he turned towards the camera and spoke to the lady, revealing her identity.

“Anne, please send Dianne away. She doesn’t want to play nicely.”

Dianne started arguing and the camera was suddenly switched off. Both Helen and I started laughing and commenting that things hadn’t changed that much since then. Seeing that adorable scene from Sebastian’s childhood made me like him even more. There was no doubt in my mind that he indeed was a good man. That video was followed by many others, showing Sebastian’s recitals at school, family dinners, walks with his dog, games he played with his sisters and so many other situations, mostly videotaped by Anne. Helen explained she was more of a mother to them than Catherine was.

After spending the entire afternoon watching those adorable homemade videos, we finally came to the last one and it was a true privilege to watch it. Sebastian was sitting by the piano and in this video he looked a lot younger than on the previous ones. Helen told me it was even before she was adopted, when he was about six years old. Judging by the tree and the decorations, it had to have been a Christmas party. Like a true pianist, he was dressed up in a suit with his hair combed back and he sat there calmly while a large number of people surrounded him, waiting for his performance. As the first notes of
Mozart’s Alla Turca
spread through the room, I couldn’t hide my surprise at his talent from such an early age. I glanced at Helen with eyes wide open in shock.

“I know, right. He’s amazing. He used to dream of pursuing musical career, but Theodore wouldn’t hear of it.”

“That’s really sad,” Both my and Sebastian’s dreams had been crushed by our parents.

“It is, but on the bright side, he’s a great architect and he loves his job. It could have been worse.” She shrugged in resign.

“I guess you’re right,” I whispered, focusing my attention back on the screen.

For a while, my eyes lingered on Sebastian’s fingers and I couldn’t comprehend that a six-year-old could actually produce such captivating music. The applause distracted me so I looked away from little Sebastian and focused on the crowd that stood in the background. As I searched through the faces which were undeniably glued to the piano in the middle of the room, I recognized Anne, Sebastian’s parents, Dianne and a young man whom I recognized to be their butler Frederick. Momentarily, my gaze froze on the girl standing next to him. Some kind of a gut feeling wouldn’t let me look away from her. Her dark brown, curly hair, very little to no make-up and demure clothing didn’t ring a bell, but yet I felt drawn to that figure as if I’d known her forever. I was about to shrug it off and look away, but then she smiled, revealing her perfect white teeth and shock took hold of me as I recognized that condescending smile. The girl standing next to the butler was none other than my mother. I replayed our conversation and remembered how she talked about a man who informed her that Sebastian needed a wife. A man whom she wanted to marry, but couldn’t because of her unwanted pregnancy. That man was Frederick. Still taken aback by my unexpected discovery, I looked towards Helen, wondering if she had recognized my mother, but after a mere second I realized it was impossible because even I had barely figured out who the young woman was.

As much as this revelation made me happy, I still needed to figure out what I would do with the piece of information that had accidentally traveled my way. When the last notes of
Mozart’s
masterpiece echoed through the room and the screen went black again, we sat in silence for a few moments, my glare targeted at that wall. I couldn’t forget what I had just seen.

“Isabelle…” Helen called me and I turned towards her. “Is something the matter?” She noticed I got lost in thoughts.

“No,” I replied, not wanting to make her suspicious. “I’m just still caught up with that video. It was incredibly cute.” And I meant that. The impression it had left on me was beyond words.

“Oh, that’s so sweet.” She smiled. “You know, now I feel all mushy too. It’s been a while since I’d seen these tapes.”

“I’m really glad you found that DVD. It would have never occurred to me to watch it had I found it myself. Thank you for this, Helen. It’s been a perfect afternoon,” I said with true gratitude and pulled her into a warm hug.

“No, thank you,” she accentuated the words. “If I had to spend one more moment at that house, I would have gone crazy. Dianne throws a tantrum every second and sometimes it’s just impossible to stay away from her.”

“I’ve tried to understand her, but I just don’t get it.” I frowned. “What makes her act like that?”

Helen shrugged. “I think it’s her character and that’s why some things about her will never change, but for the most part, she is desperate to keep up appearances. Everybody knows she’s trapped in an awful marriage, but she thinks she can hide it by acting happy,” she said with mild disbelief.

I observed Helen in surprise and her words cut deep. In a weird way, I admired Dianne because pretending to be caught up in marital bliss had never been my forte.

“I guess money and power can’t make you happy after all, can it?” I concluded in haste.

“They definitely can’t, Isabelle. But it was clear you knew that all along and that’s why I liked you from the start.” She looked at me with the compassion she used to produce when my marriage was still hell. “I know that it took a while for Sebastian to realize those things and even though you always denied it, I was aware he was far away from being the kind of husband you deserved.” She smiled sadly. “I’m glad to see he’s finally making amends and treating you with the care and respect he should have from the very beginning.”

“Those were very dark times,” I said in a distant voice, traveling into the not so recent past that still lurked in the corners of my mind. But it wasn’t as painful as it used to be. “But now they’re behind us,” I said in a light voice, free from any hurt or resentment.

“You have a really big heart, Isabelle. Sebastian better treat you like a queen or else that lucky bastard will have to deal with me!” We laughed at her menacing words and once again, I realized how much I truly loved her.

“Thank you so much, Helen. You’re truly an angel,” I said softly and she chuckled.

“Well, it takes one to know one.” She winked and I smiled at her silliness. “I should really get going. They might be worried about me back in hell,” she joked about the Everett residence and I couldn’t blame her. I felt exactly the same about that house. I wanted to hug her one more time before she left, but then she said something that caught me by surprise. “I guess I’ll see you at the wedding then.”

“The wedding?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, Jared, the son of family associates is getting married. Sebastian’s best friend.” She frowned. “It still doesn’t ring a bell?” She exhaled angrily. “He didn’t tell you again, did he?”