"HIDDEN FLAME" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 20/05/2002

Hidden Flame Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER THREE

Kit began to see Dr Calvin every day after school. He had insisted on it, saying that it would be best for her. I couldn't help but agree. At first, she showed no sign that she was getting any better. But by the time the third week rolled around, Kit began to act more like herself. Often though, the subject was on Dr Calvin. And that began to grate on Gabby's nerves.
    "You act as if you've forgotten Daddy!" Gabby snapped one night at dinner as Kit described her most recent session with Dr Calvin. "You talk about Doctor Calvin as if he's more important to you than Daddy!"
    "Gabby, sweetie," I started, but she quickly shut me up as she attacked Kit.
    "No, Mama! It's just not right. She doesn't care! She just doesn't care!" she yelled.
    Kit looked at her sister with big tears shining in her eyes. "I didn't forget Daddy," she choked out quietly. Then she got up calmly and left the dinner table. I wasn't even about to call her back.
    "Gabriella!" I snapped, turning on my elder daughter. "She hasn't forgotten your father. She is simply being able to put it in the back of her mind now and enjoy her life again. That is far from wrong!"
    "No, Mama. She is letting that man make her forget him. She is! I know she is! I hate Doctor Calvin! I hate him!" she declared and ran from the table. I decided then and there that Gabriella needed just as much help as Kit did, or else she was going to become something I didn't want her to be. She was going to become something like Mitch.
    Josh had an opinion about how I was letting Kit see a psychiatrist. It irritated me how often he came over. I couldn't help but wonder how much I had to be rude to him before he got the hint and left me alone for good.
    "She's not crazy, Phoenix!" He slapped the napkin down onto the table. We were having lunch together, again. At least he normally had good table manners.
    "I know she isn't crazy. That is not why she is seeing him," I said calmly, taking a bite of my salad.
    "And he's not only a psychiatrist!" he continued. "He is male. Wouldn't it be better for the girls and yourself if she saw a female psychiatrist? I just wouldn't trust him," he insisted.
    I gave him an annoyed look. "It's not your place to trust him, Josh. Please, stop trying to tell me how to run my life and raise my girls."
    His mouth dropped to the floor as if he were in complete shock. "How could you, Phoenix? I'm merely trying to look out for the wellbeing of my family. I love you all to death. I just fear that you aren't in the right state of mind to make the right decisions for the girls."
    Never had my anger hit the roof so quickly. I pointed towards the door. "Get the hell out of my house this second, Joshua. Out! I don't want to look at you." I felt like screaming at him. I felt like attacking him and maybe even killing him. Who was he to say that I was not in the right state of mind to make the correct decisions? I was angrier than I had been in a long time.
    Later that evening, not long after dinner the doorbell rang. I looked up from my position in front of the front parlour's fireplace where I was reading, as the butler, Edmond, walked in. I had hired a new butler, maids and cook after Grandfather Gerald's death. I wanted no one around that reminded me of what life had been like before. "Madam, Doctor Calvin is here to see you about Kit," he announced.
    I nodded. "See him in here."
    Dr Calvin walked in, dressed in just casual clothing. No suit on that was his normal uniform. He was even more appealing in this manner and I found my thoughts wandering somewhere they shouldn't. I quickly slammed the door on my wayward thoughts and focused on his reasoning for being here.
    "How can I help you, Dr Calvin?" I didn't mean to sound so business-like, but every time I saw the man my heart jumped into my throat. I didn't understand it and it frightened me.
    He looked around and then chose to sit. "I wanted to discuss Kit. The past two days she has seemed to draw back into herself. Has something at home happened? I don't mean to insinuate. I just worry about her. I don't normally make house calls, especially this late, but Kit is important to me."
    I couldn't help but smile. I was glad he felt that way about Kit. Somebody needed to show her that affection that she had lost with her father. Even if Gabriella had a problem with it.
    Then my smile wilted and I sighed and looked down at the book I was reading. I shook my head. "Actually, Doctor Calvin, I should have warned you. I expected this would happen." I proceeded to tell him the discussion with Gabby.
    He looked thoughtful. "I think I should talk to Gabriella as well. She might be taking this death a lot harder than she acts. Why else would she make a comment such as that months after her father's death?"
    I nodded. "I was going to talk to you about taking on Gabby as well. She needs it. I shouldn't have taken her word for it and just made her see you. This might not be happening now."
    Suddenly, he caught me off guard. "How about you, Phoenix? How are you taking this death?" His saying my name sent a chill down my spine before I could stop it.
    I swallowed hard. "I think I am dealing with it the best I can. I have to go on living. Though I fear the girls may hate me for doing so, when they have been unable to," I answered nervously. I didn't know how else to answer. Yet I knew I had moved on. I no longer felt the stinging pain in my heart at the thought of Jacob. I felt only the happiness that he had brought me for too short a time.
    "I think that is the hardest thing about a spouse's death," he said sadly. "When you have children, it's harder to go on living. They dwell on it longer and hate you if you wish to be with somebody else." His eyes were glassy as if he were lost in some memory.
    "Do you have children, Doctor Calvin?" I was truly curious.
    He shook his head, not looking me in the eye. "No, I don't have any children," he muttered sadly. His mood suddenly changed and he looked at me again. "Please, call me Alec. I am so tired of anyone even remotely my age calling me Doctor Calvin. I have no friends."
    "Neither do I," I told him. "I don't trust anyone anymore. And I certainly don't like to interact with the last bit of family I have." Why I had mentioned that surpassed my knowledge. Maybe I just needed what he did, adult companionship. I needed friendship. I couldn't help being lonely.
    He looked at me curiously. "Why wouldn't you want to have anything to do with your family?"
    "It's truly a long story, Doctor Calvin." I quickly placed the wall up around me. "You should be going now. We'll talk about Gabby after Kit's next session." And with that I led him to the door.
    "You're blocking me out, Phoenix. You're not allowing yourself any sort of friendship. It's been a long time since I've been interested in anyone other than conversing with children. Please, don't do his to me," he said and then quickly left before giving me a chance to respond.
    "If only you knew, Alec Calvin. You wouldn't be in such a hurry to befriend me," I whispered to his back. I knew he couldn't hear me, but I feared warning him away. I feared it would only make him more curious and interested in me.
    The next day I made Gabby go with Kit and myself to Kit's appointment with Dr Calvin. She was angry with me because she knew exactly what I wanted. She cried, threw tantrums, did everything possible to keep from going. But I wasn't going to give in. There was definitely something wrong. Gabby never acted like this. She had always been a calmer child, albeit with a temper that showed itself an awful lot. But one thing Gabby never did was blow up at Kit. She knew how sensitive she was and had never attacked her the way she had at dinner.
    We walked into the small office. Gabby tagged slowly behind. I knew that she'd see Dr Calvin. She wouldn't disobey me. She would beg and beg me not to make her see him, but she'd still do it. Gabby was a very respectful person. I expected Kit, who was much more the fireball, to tell me no far more often than Gabby.
    I could hardly look at Dr Calvin that day. What had transpired between us had been nothing, but it had been everything, too. It had started something in me that I had thought was surely dead. Wasn't it supposed to be dead after my husband's death? Wasn't I supposed to become a nun and never have these feelings about any man again? It had me shaken up, and Dr Calvin and I hadn't even touched. I couldn't imagine what would happened if we did. I knew I'd probably forget everything. I barely knew the man. What was wrong with me? I had never been this way towards any man.
    Kit and I waited in the lobby for Gabby to finish her first session. When she left the room, she sent me a look that would have put me beyond six feet under if looks could kill. She left to get into the car, Kit following her quickly. I got up to follow the girls out when Dr Calvin came out. "Phoenix," he said.
    I bit my lip and turned around to face him. "Yes?" I answered, looking him dead in the eye, challenging him to start again what had happened the night before. Though I put my wall up, the attraction I felt was undeniably there.
    He looked down at the files in his hands and then looked back up to me. "I just wanted to apologise for last night. I don't know what came over me to treat you like that. I can't explain it."
    I shook my head. "I can't explain it either, Alec Calvin. If I could, then I'd known how to block my attraction for you better," I confessed. Then I turned and left quickly, not wanting to see where this conversation was going to lead.
    When we walked into the house, Kit and Gabby went upstairs to their rooms. I just set my coat on the coat rack by the door when Edmond approached me. He tapped me on the shoulder and looked down the hall that led to the front parlour. "Madam, Mr Joshua is here in the front parlour to see you," he announced in a quiet voice.
    I rolled my eyes. "What does he want now?" I groaned.
    "I don't really know. But he did bring some important-looking people with him. I don't know what it's about, Mrs Weston, but whatever it is, that man doesn't mean it as anything good," he informed me with a look of disgust on his face. I looked at him, confused for a second. I couldn't fathom what Josh was doing. Then I simply nodded and made my way to the front parlour.
    When I walked in I saw a blonde lady in a black pinstripe suit sitting comfortably, sipping something and talking to Josh. A man sat on the other side of Josh in a navy blue three-piece suit. He was thin and, I could tell from his legs, tall. His hair was dark brown, as were his eyes that were magnified ten folds by his thick glasses.
    I felt the fury building in my veins, making my heartbeat faster. "What is this about, Josh?" I snapped, my arms cross over my chest, my foot tapping.
    Josh turned to me and gave me a sympathetic look. "My dear cousin," he greeted, standing. The two people followed suit.
    I knew by his greeting he was up to something. It only angered me further. "Get to it, Joshua. Stop with the sweet greetings."
    He sighed and shook his head, turning to the man. "See what I mean? She's just not very, how do you say, stable? She has even forgotten how to be polite." The man nodded and quickly wrote down something in a little black leather booklet.
    I glared at them. "What does my not being polite to you have anything to do with my being stable?"
    "Dear Phoenix, it has everything to do with it. You just lost your husband a few months ago. You're not taking it well. You have built up anger in you. Why, last I saw both Gabby and Kit they had bruises on them." He smiled and spoke as if he were talking to someone who was locked in a straight jacket and being thrown into a padded room.
    "Gabby and Kit? They do not have a single bruise brought on from anything other than their childish play. Do not make the insinuation that I have ever laid a finger on my daughters," I growled.
    "Now, now, Phoenix, you don't really know if anything has happened. This woman here is going to inspect the girls to see. If there isn't any sign of abuse, then you have nothing to fear." He smiled viciously. "I have also spoke to them about my concern about you sending the girls to see a male psychiatrist. They have agreed with me. In a situation such as this, a female psychiatrist would be much better and wouldn't take advantage of them. They'll be interviewing the girls about this, as well."
    "You son of a bitch!" I growled. And before I could stop myself I was on top of him, my fists pounding, my nails clawing. I had to be ripped off of him and still I tried to go after him.
    The man, who I still had not been introduced to, pulled a cell phone out and called the cops. Before I knew it I was sitting in a jail cell. When the policewoman came back to get me, I looked up at her, confused. Why was she letting me out?
    "Your bail was paid. You're free, Mrs Weston," she said as if reading my mind. I nodded and let her lead me out.
    I was only slightly shocked to see Dr Alec Calvin standing there waiting for me. His eyes were dark, dangerous looking. I looked questioningly at him, but all he did was shrug and give me a look that told me to wait until we left before he told me. I nodded at him knowingly and we left quickly.
    He didn't say a word to me until we were sitting in his car. Then he turned to me. "What is all of this about, Phoenix? Why did they take the girls away and why were they questioning me?" he demanded.
    I leaned my arms against the window and cradled my temples between my thumb and middle fingers. I shook my head. "I don't understand why Josh is doing this, Alec. I don't understand what he is trying to get." I was more frustrated than I had ever been in my entire life. They had taken my girls from me. I had lost my husband that had made me more happy-go-lucky than I had been my life, and now I had also lost my children. Suddenly, it all got to me and I begin to cry. "They took my girls," I moaned, sobbing so hard my body shook.
    Alec leaned over and put his arm around me. "We'll get them back, Phoenix. Don't worry. They have your girls now, but they won't forever. I know that you're a damn good mother. There is no reason for them to have taken them."
    "Josh accused me of abuse. He said I was probably too 'unstable'" - I made quotation marks in the air with my fingers - "to know whether or not I hurt them." I shook my head. "How could anyone say that I would harm my children?"
    "Someone who has plans for your money," he told me. That's when it hit me. Joshua had once told me when I was fourteen that he knew something and couldn't tell me. I knew now that something had to do with his being related to me in some way. There was no way he could touch my money without having some kind of relationship to Grandfather Gerald.
    "He does want my money, Alec. But he can't get it unless he is strongly related to my grandfather. He has to be a son or a grandson to him."
    "Maybe he is and you just don't know it," he said, voicing my own fear.
    "That is what I am afraid of."

Hidden Flame Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

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