The Alastair Affair 2: Sylvain (A Billionaire Dark Romance) by Edwards Scarlett

Author:Edwards, Scarlett [Edwards, Scarlett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Edwards Publishing
Published: 2015-11-24T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Sylvan rapped softly on the chamber doors.

“Bianca?” he asked. “Are you in there?”

Leila shifted from one foot to the other behind him. “I told you,” she said. “Your sister hasn’t been out for days.”

Inwardly, Sylvain cursed. He knew his sister was prone to bouts of paranoia, given the proper triggers. But when he’d last seen her, they lasted a few hours at the most.

Now they’d progressed to days?

“Has anyone been giving her food?” he demanded. He tried to do it in a whisper—he knew that loud noises spooked Bianca. He did not want her frightened before their big reunion.

“There’s only me, Mr. Alastair,” Leila said pointedly. “And yes, I’ve been bringing her meals. Bringing them, then taking them away, untouched.”

Sylvain rounded on her. “And this doesn’t concern you?”

“Of course it concerns me!” Leila fired back. “But I can’t very well do anything about it, can I?”

Sylvain cursed and turned back to the door. He knocked again. “Bianca?”

They waited. No answer came. Sylvain suspected he would have no luck.

“We’ll try again in an hour,” he said. “Meanwhile, I’ll need to speak to my father…”

The door creaked open. From inside, a timid voice said, “Big brother?”

Sylvain felt such a pain in his chest, then. He loved his little sister with all his heart. To hear her speak, after so many years…

“I’ll leave you be,” Leila whispered from behind him. Sylvain barely heard. All of his attention was on the girl inside the room.

She was hidden behind the door, Bianca was. And only when he answered softly, “Yes, it’s me,” did she pull it wider, inviting him in.

Sylvain angled his shoulders to make it through the partially opened door.

“Big brother!” Bianca gasped. She jumped him and wrapped both arms around his neck.

Sylvain hugged her back—but he could not dissociate his mind from the smell.

The room stank. All the windows were tightly closed. The smell of sickness lingered in the air. The smell of disease.

He held his small, frail sibling close. He put his hands on her arms and gently eased her back so he could see her face.

It was Bianca, all right. The eyes, the cheekbones, they were all hers. But everything was thin.

My God, he thought. She is so much more hollow than I remember.

His chest constricted in something very, very close to fear.

There was something else different about her. The… color of her irises? No, surely not. Of course not. That was an impossibility!

And yet… Sylvain had read about certain bipolar patients whose affliction was so strong that the very color of their eyes became different when they underwent a personality shift.

Could he be seeing it in his sister? Madness…

“I knew…” Bianca gave a tremulous smile. “I knew you would come back. I knew you would never forsake me!”

“Never,” Sylvain swore. He held her tight to him again. Well—as tightly as he dared.

He did not want to hurt her.

“Have you been eating enough?” Sylvain asked. He knew the true answer just from the look of her.

“Oh yes!” she insisted. She took his hand.

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