Moon, Elizabeth - Vatta War 04 by Moon Elizabeth

Author:Moon, Elizabeth [Moon, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-15T23:26:19+00:00

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Rafe’s mother and sister both wore thick fleece robes incongruously printed with bright pink flower shapes that looked ugly against the bruises. Following doctors’ instructions, Rafe kept his tone light and soft.

“Mother? It’s Rafael—”

“Rafe? Oh, my—” She burst into tears and reached toward him. Rafe moved closer and took her hands in his, careful not to dislodge her IV line. “Raffi, why weren’t you here? He could never have done it if you’d been here.”

“Shhh…” Rafe stroked her hands. Don’t ask questions, the doctors had said. Don’t disturb her. But she was already disturbed—how could she not be? “I’m here now, Mother,” he said. “And you’re safe.”

She clung to him, her eyes still desperate. Rafe fought down the rage she must not see; his anger had frightened her so before.

“Is he…they won’t tell me…”

“Father is alive,” Rafe said. “He’s very weak.” How much to tell her? How much did she know, or guess? “He escaped; he tried to get out and find help, but it was too cold.”

“They hurt him,” his mother said. “They hurt all of us. I can’t believe he’d do such a thing—he was going to be CEO anyway—”

“Father?” Rafe asked.

“No, no! I forgot, you don’t know. Lew. Lucky Lew, your father called him. A fine young man, we thought. He always seemed like a fine young man…a good family, nice manners, a hard worker…I can’t understand it. Why—”

“I never liked him.” The voice from the next bed startled him. Rafe turned to look at his sister Penelope.

Her dark hair hung lank and stringy beside a pale, gaunt face; she looked nothing like he remembered, or like the formal portraits displayed at home. “You told me how wonderful it was for Father to have such a reliable, competent successor, but his daughter was scared of him.” She looked at Rafe. “I knew her at school.”

“You never told me that!” Indignation lent a touch of color to his mother’s cheeks.

“I tried to. You told me not to meddle, that all children get crosswise with their parents on occasion.”

“They do, but—of course you couldn’t have realized. But Raffi—why did it take you so long?”

“So long?”

“You didn’t get your father’s messages?”

“No, nothing. That’s one reason I came back to Nexus to visit. I didn’t know anything was wrong until I tried to call and didn’t get an answer.” Best not tell her about the trapped phone connection; she didn’t need something else to scare her. “Then I went to the house, and it was obvious—”

“What—what did you find at the house?”

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