Proserpina
During the following weeks, I refrained from visiting Lucien at the hospital. I had had enough of his blow hot, blow cold behaviour. We had been together in a near-death situation, and all he could do was treat me like this? Sorry, but I was done.
The kids visited him every day, but I invented excuses not to go.
There was also the matter of my work. I was scaling new heights, and the Professor was proud of me, he declared. The university had agreed to fund an extension, so I was gung-ho about launching out on a different phase as well. With Baby Claude and my academic work, I made sure that I did not have time to mope over my Mafia Don, who seemed to be playing some childish game.
For one thing, I had a new assistant, a cheerful young man of Chinese origin, whose parents had settled in the US before he was born. He proved to be a great help in organising the details regarding our new set-up. Alex Wu was intelligent and witty. He often came over to help me as I also had my hands full with the baby. On some nights, when it was late, he slept in the guest room after having worked late into the night. The kids found him easy to get along with.
Tony Beston had already vetted him and declared him safe.
***
One evening, Danielle came to see me when I was sitting with baby Claude, stroking his small, soft head, and humming him to sleep.
As always, she rushed in with no discretion, typically Danielle, I thought wryly.
'I mean, what is it with you guys? NOW?' She burst out in irritation, and I glared at her.
'Why don't you ask your All-Knowing Boss?' I snapped rudely.
She stopped short. I had never been spirited, and this was one of the first times when I had actually shot back rudely.
Swallowing the words she wanted to use, she went on heatedly,
'The man has had a series of major surgeries, he cannot think straight...,' she began.
I held up my hand imperiously.
"Stop it, Danielle,' I said quietly. 'Believe me, I have had enough of this rubbish.'
Rising, I placed baby Claude carefully in the cradle.
"I'm done. I am leaving your precious Lucien Delano.'
The moment I said it, I stopped. I had not really wanted to say that, had I? But Danielle looked pole-axed.
The words had slipped out of my mouth although I had not thought of anything of the sort. Without missing a beat, I decided to play my hand cleverly, knowing full well that at some point, she would inform my husband of what I had said.
"I have an offer to visit Japan next week. There is an opening for a Director of a new Centre and the people there are interested in my profile. After all, I am the one who has done the entire spade work for setting it up so they want me to take over it as well.'
I smiled smugly as she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out if I was lying.
As an afterthought, I shot off another tall tale,' Oh yes. I'm going with Alex Wu.'
She stared at me, open-mouthed.
"But your safety...' she said.
That was it.
Spinning around, I snapped,
"Screw my safety. I do not know when I will return. If at all.'
Her eyebrows shot up, disappearing into the close-cut blonde hair.
'Yes,' I thought, smiling secretly, sailing out of the room as I went to the kitchen,' You can pass the message to the Boss.'
***
Lucien
Lucien missed seeing his wife. She had not turned up to meet him after that evening. He hated himself for it and every time the children turned up, he would keep looking towards the door, half expecting to see her enter the room, smiling with her eyes, wafting the fragrance of vanilla, her long hair floating about her, the lovely curvaceous body that had held him in thrall all this while...
But she never came back.
***
Soon Lucien was able to leave the hospital. Once again, Proserpina did not come, and it sat like a weight on his chest. His twins came along; they accompanied him to the townhouse where he had decided to stay for a while, due to the proximity to the hospital. She sent the baby with Beatrice on some occasions. Little Claude was the spitting image of his elder siblings-tiny and fierce. He wailed lustily when he was brought to meet his father but gave a quizzical look at Lucien when the older man picked him up in his strong arms.
"My son,' thought Lucien, wonderingly, 'This is my son."
But Proserpina herself remained conspicuously absent.
From Ria, he gathered that her mother was super busy these days. Working.
But his attention was caught one afternoon when Ria gabbled on about visiting Japan. A few months had passed since that terrible day when he had been shot. He had recuperated well, his strength was back and he longed to hold his Woman in his arms. But she stubbornly refused to visit him. As for Lucien, he needed an excuse to get her back to him. He just did not know what to do.
The guilt, those feelings of remorse had crystallized into the realization that he had reacted rather stupidly. He had hurt her, and this time, she was not going to come to him. He would have to go after her.
The twins had turned up with Beatrice in tow. The old woman had greeted him stiffly and then remained, primly perched on a chair, in the large room where his gym equipment had also been helpfully arranged...
He had begun to move his arm, the physiotherapy sessions having helped greatly. Two months had fled.
"Visiting Japan?' he asked, turning around to stare sharply at his daughter's blue eyes, pale like his own, 'Who is going to Japan?' he asked sharply.
Piers bit his lip and the twins exchanged looks.
'Mumma,' said Piers, his face lowered, looking so much like his mother, it made Lucien's heart ache.
"And Alex Wu.' he added, glumly.
Lucien sat up now, scowling darkly.
'Alex Wu?' Who is Alex Wu?'
Beatrice piped up nastily from her seat in the corner.
"Well you would know if you called her, wouldn't you?'
Lucien whirled to glare at her. He could not imagine his pretty wife with any other man.
Who was this Alex Wu? His face darkened.
Beatrice, never one to miss a chance, sank the knife deeper as she went on self-righteously,
"That's the nice young man who is working at the Center with her. He loves babies, When he picks up our Claude, the baby actually smiles!'
She beamed at him, munificently, knowing it made him seethe in jealousy, the old witch, he thought angrily.
Ria picked up, innocently enough,
'Uncle Wu comes home every day. He's nice, he makes Mumma laugh.'
And moving towards him, she added confidently,' They have a lot of work. He's her assistant.'
"And do they spend a lot of time together,' he asked, the jealousy in his voice apparent to the old woman.
'Well...they sometimes have dinner in her room together, sit up late at night.'
She said it airily and smiled inwardly, seeing the fury on Lucien's face.
"Why, Alex even spend a couple of nights over at the house.' She added.
Lucien opened his mouth to ask where he had slept, then thought 'better of it, seeing the gleam on the old woman's face.
'Mumma said she will be away for some time. She has lots of work to do.' said Piers, his face gloomy.
He looked up and met his father's eyes,
"It's because of you, isn't it?' he asked, a note of hostility in his voice.
"You made her unhappy so she is leaving us and going away, isn't she?'
And with a half sob, he went on,
"She said she would not come back soon.' He sniffed and went on, his voice breaking, " I heard Aunt Dani say she was never going to come back...That she would probably marry Uncle Wu '
His lower lip quivered as he stood, on the verge of tears.
Ria turned on her brother, but Lucien stood, his mind reeling as he stared at his children.
Danielle had seemed rather guarded when she came with the weekly report. When he had asked about Proserpina, she had said shortly,
"Ask her Boss. She's your wife.'
Now, sensing his son's deep distress, he reached out to take Piers in his arms, but the little boy slapped away his hand and ran out, followed by Ria who kept yelling at him to come back.
In the silence that followed, he met the accusatory eyes of Beatrice, who sniffed and walked out, as if to say,
"You deserve it.'
Lucien stayed where he was, breathing hard.
Lucien had hourly reports of her from the house; why had he not bothered to ask about Alex Wu?
The answer came immediately.
He had not known about this stranger who was spending hours in his wife's company. The man she seemed to care about.
Younger than him.
He picked up the phone and set about finding out about the man who seemed to be spending all the time with his wife.
Beston seemed uncertain when he answered the call; yes, Alex Wu was a constant visitor. Yes, he often slept over. Yes, he was always with Ma'am. Yes, Beston had checked his credentials; he was clean.
Helpfully, he sent a picture of the young man and Lucien sat, glaring at the picture of the smiling young man who was laughing with Proserpina. They made a striking couple, Proserpina with her lovely figure and dazzling smile, Wu with his diminutive looks and happy, smiling face.
His heart sank.
He did not expect Proserpina to walk out on him; on her children.
They were her life, her babies and if she was preparing to leave them and go...it had to be because of his treatment of her.
He felt a surge of self-loathing.
And then came the thought. She was going to leave him for a younger man.
To begin a new life with Alex Wu.
He felt the rage surge through him.
What had he done?