Virtue and Vice

Chapter Twenty Five - The Final Chapter

Egbert, the butler, assigned us our rooms and had dinner prepared. 

On Sunday morning, I woke up early and had a cup of tea while watching the fine, pure white snow dusting the landscape outside. It was during this that the house exploded into a frenzied panic.

The twins were roused and they sat with me around the burning fireplace, waiting helplessly as the staff called the doctors in and made arrangements. The most that Lexie got out of them was something about an aneurysm.

"Do you think he's going to die?" Lexie asked as she wrapped her shawl tighter around her, her pretty face pale and uncertain.

I shrugged. "I don't know, Lex. We'll have to wait and see."

Later in the afternoon, Natalie arrived.

She froze when she saw me with the twins but when I realized that the typical surge of jealousy I felt every time I saw her wasn't really there, I simply gave her a small smile and nodded in acknowledgement.

We sat around and waited for the rest of the day, with Charlie getting busy in the kitchen after he gave the cook the night off and Lexie instructing two of the maids to whip out the rest of the Christmas decorations so the house would stop feeling like a dreary castle.

It was late evening when an exhausted yet still lovely Natalie came down to see us, generously thanking Charlie for a steaming cup of spiced hot chocolate.

She sat down and took a long sip before hungrily gobbling up a couple of beef and potato hand pies that Charlie made for an informal dinner.

"We found a small aneurysm in his brain. We didn't see anything when we we ran an MRI on him when he came out of coma a few weeks ago," she explained after Lexie inquired. "They can usually develop over time and go undetected if a patient exhibits no outward symptoms. The risk is in a rupture resulting in subarachnoid hemorrhage which often leads to stroke. That's what happened with Gregory. The bleeding has stopped but he's now at risk for vasospasm where blood byproducts cause tightening of the arteries. This usually leads to a second stroke—one he may not survive considering his overall health. I've called Dr. Wheeler. He's the neurosurgeon signed on to Gregory's case but he's never really needed to attend to him before. He'll be catching a flight to here tomorrow and he can decide if the surgery can be done here or if we have to move him."

Charlie nodded. "Does Seb know?"

Natalie glanced at me uncertainly before answering. "Yes. I've called him. He's flying out of Tokyo right away. There's not much to do right now but sit and wait."

"Can we visit him?" Lexie asked softly.

"Yes," Natalie said with a sympathetic smile. "I'll be perfectly honest. I don't have high hopes of him coming out of this in good shape. He's barely recovered from all the complications that resulted from his attack. Spend what time you can with him. Make it count."

I reached for Lexie's hand and squeezed it.

The twins both came to see him before they went up to bed.

Early Monday morning, after I called Tamara to tell her of a family emergency that was going to keep in New York for another few days, I had Bradley send me most of my work online so I could get at least get some stuff done.

But after staring at a report absently for over an hour, I shut down my computer and made my way to the library to find a book.

Before I knew it, I found myself standing beside Gregory's bed, observing his withered state with a tight squeeze to my heart.

I lived most of my life without a father and I was beginning to think that I was in a far better state than Sebastian had been all these years—having a father who not only couldn't be there for you but you also hated and had to show constant mercy for.