Wealth (free and completed)

Chapter 5 - New Blood

Val

1995

“So, what did they say? Are you going to be a cripple forever?” asked Rafael, then aged sixteen. He was wearing a white fitted shirt and black tights. He did not wear his dance belt at home, but he was not shy about his form. His hands were on his hips, one leg stretched to one side. I sat in my wheelchair, facing him, in the dance room. He had wheeled me there mainly to be his primary – only – audience.

I was not offended by his question. After all, my new brother was a ballet dancer. Okay, he preferred to be called a danseur. He would probably think it was the end of the world if he lost his ability to stand, walk and dance.

“I-I don’t know. The doctors said I had to go through regular physical therapy.”

Rafael could at least understand that. He went for regular physical therapy, too, but more for maintaining his perfect form. He had also broken a few bones before because of his choice of craft. An ankle more recently. Or was it a toe? I liked how he did not complain about fractures and sprains. He would still dance on a broken toe, for example.

It was the end of the world for me, but not in the way he understood it. I had lost my parents not too long ago. At night, I still dreamed of the crash. During the day, I still had visions of their faces. The fear etched there. The panic.

While Mr. Sangster was very kind to bring me to his home, I did not know him well. Still, I was grateful that he decided to keep me even though his decision perplexed me.

The first few months at Briar Hill were full of pain and drugs. So, I barely remembered much, having to slip in and out of consciousness too often. But I knew that I had three new siblings. Rafael was the one who spent the most time with me, perhaps because I could not leave him whenever he practiced his pirouettes and plies. I had to admit I was fascinated with how graceful he was. I was clumsy even when I could still walk.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” he said.

“What about Emilie and Joseph? You’ve already got two of them. Siblings, I mean.”

“Siblings,” he scoffed.

I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain his reaction. It was then that he decided to be quiet. He started practicing in time with his music. I was not quite sure how to call those little jumps he made, but I knew that he did them well.

When the song ended, and he took his bow, I clapped my hands enthusiastically. The claps became louder and louder. We were no longer alone.

“Bravo!” Joseph shouted, cupping his mouth with both hands. He was standing by the doorway languidly leaning on the side jamb while Emilie stood behind him.

“Well, I did not take you for a ballet fan, brother,” Rafael said.

“No. We’re here for Valerie. She should not be subject to torture,” was Joseph’s reply.

Joseph sort of scared me. I felt like the only reason he had not openly bullied me as he sometimes did Rafael was that I was in a wheelchair. On the other hand, Emilie did not care if I could not walk. She would say whatever she wanted, even if it came across as mean. That afternoon, she was dressed in a bubble-gum pink mini dress that barely reached her thighs. My new sister was only about a year older than me, but she filled her dress well. I should have done ballet. At least, my flat chest would have looked good in a tutu. As Rafael would have said, I was fourteen and still waiting to bloom. Like a psychic, he had promised that it would come. I was kind of happy that he did not like to dance around these topics, pun intended.

“It’s not like Val had anywhere else to go. At least she could enjoy watching someone who can actually dance,” Emilie drawled. Then, she snapped her gum. No wonder she sounded garbled. That mouth always held some sort of distraction.

Rafael moved closer to me, holding on to the back of my wheelchair protectively. What did he expect Emilie was going to do, anyway? Would she really hurt me while I was basically trapped in this chair? Would she want people to see how she was willing to fight someone who could not fight back?

I reached his hand with mine, assuring him that I was okay.

“Valerie, would you like to go with Emilie and me?” Joseph finally asked, his voice gentler.

“Where?” I asked.

The hands that gripped the back of my wheelchair were on my shoulders now. Rafael squeezed me lightly, a warning of some kind. He did not want me to go with the other two for some reason.

“Oh, here and there. We’ll give you the grand tour.”

“I got the grand tour, Joseph,” I reminded him. I might have been pumped with painkillers at that time, but I remembered how Randall the butler himself wheeled me around the house. He even made the stories feel like fairytales. It had made me giggle how he treated me as if I was a few years younger.

“You haven’t seen everything yet,” Emilie said.

No, thanks. Not with you, I thought. There was something off about my new sister if I could call her that or if she would rather have me call her that.

Seeing that I would rather stay with Rafael, the two sauntered off. I noticed that there was something wrong with Emilie’s eyes. They looked dazed. Off.

“Rafael, why didn’t you want me to go? Why don’t you want to go?”

“You stayed here, didn’t you? You felt it. It’s not something you want to get into.”

I was baffled by what he said, but I dismissed the thoughts that flitted into my head.

“Why does Emilie look like, um, dazed?”

“Drugs,” Rafael softly said. I was expecting him to laugh after that, confirming that it was a joke, but he did not.

He began wheeling me out the door.

“Are you bringing me back to my room?”

“If you want me to,” he said.

“Well, may I go to the garden?”

“Sure,” he said. I could almost see the smile in his voice. I was lucky that Mr. Sangster wanted to help me out and that Rafael was at least kind. I did not know how to survive if all three of my new siblings ganged up on me.

Then, I remembered one of Emilie’s first questions when I had arrived, “Don’t you feel bad about dad not adopting you?”

“Why don’t they like you, too? I know they don’t want me here. I understand. I must be another, I dunno, child to bother your dad with. A charity case.”

“Our dad. He is our dad whether he adopts you or not,” Rafael reminded me. “And we are all charity cases here even if they make you feel like they belong here more than you do.”

“But Joseph is related by blood. Isn’t he?”

“Yes. He’s still adopted, though. His mom had made a mess of her life. So, if she were still alive, even Joseph would live in poverty. Don’t mind him.”

“So, they are just being snobbish for no reason?” I asked, starting to relax better as we reached the garden. I could smell the roses, the fragrance carried by the crisp air.

“Yes. No matter what, do not go with them when I’m not there with you,” Rafael said.

I simply nodded. I thought that Rafael was being particularly protective, but I liked it.

***

2005

A little bit of fear gripped me when Emilie said I might not get a cent. With my condition, it was going to be rough but not impossible. I had double degrees, and I had a job. I could rent a little bungalow to not have to worry about going up and down the stairs. Although Rafael was my protector when we were younger, his life had gone through so many changes. His ballet career had tanked because of his lack of discipline and alcoholism. I did not want to push myself into his life when he already seemed like he needed more help.

I tried to mark the exact time I started losing Rafael. He was still a principal dancer at age twenty-one. Then things went south after that. There were some secrets in our home that only peeked in and out. I knew some of them, but perhaps I still had to dig in to further understand how promising young people began to be part of Briar Hill’s decay.

Briar Hill still looked beautiful even at its age. It had been passed on for generations. However, the people inside it were broken and held on to its beams and pillars for sustenance. Now, it seemed that the rightful owner had arrived.

It did not seem like I had anything to fear, though. The way Janus looked at me made it clear that he wanted to protect me just as Rafael protected me before. However, his eyes seemed to hold something more intense, something deeper. Perhaps, I was imagining things.

The hand that squeezed mine was still there. Janus’ thumb rubbed on my palm, but I did not pull my hand away. It felt natural there, even as Emilie’s eyes burned on the physical connection. Knowing her, she had things in her mind that made her see the situation a certain way. Our thoughts might have jumped into the same rabbit hole because of our shared upbringing.

Those ocean blue eyes bored into my pale blue ones. They were asking questions that I could not answer yet.

“If I do get the house, Valerie has a home here. You all have a home here. However, I doubt that our dad is that cruel,” I heard Janus say. He was simply passing the message through his hands, but he must have felt he had to make it clear for everyone.

“You’re right, Janus. That sounds more like dad. He will let us all stay,” Rafael said, but not as confidently as I was used to hearing him. He sounded more like he was convincing himself. Janus’ arrival seemed to have upended everything.

And yet, for me, it was something else. It made me anxious that Janus just called Mr. Sangster “our dad.” At that very moment, I was suddenly glad that I had not been adopted legally. The realization made me pull my hand from our new brother. Yes, I had to remind myself that he was our new brother. We might not be related by blood, but we shared a father figure. Just then, he had made it clear that he thought of me as a sister.

My sudden movement startled Janus.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his face filled with concern.

I was not sure I was. In fact, it was silly. I had been the maiden locked up in the tower for too long that I would look at any man as a knight coming to save me.

Yet, I know that I was more than that.

“Of course,” I said with a smile.