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“Of course someone will need to stay with you, like the doctor said, until we’re sure you’re yourself,” Jasper said.
I’d gone from answering questions at the police station to answering questions inside a private hospital to answering questions here. I hadn’t slept, though I was exhausted. And the relentless barrage appeared to have no end.
“How about I pick up a few things for you instead?” Jasper offered.
“Don’t bother,” I snapped.
I knew he was trying to help, but I didn’t want help. I didn’t want any of this.
“At least he hasn’t lost his sunny disposition.” Sebastian let out a jovial laugh from across the room.
As soon as I’d arrived on the estate grounds, I’d remembered all about my lack of relationship with my half-brothers. I’d remembered my father, Walter Carrington. I’d remembered how he’d abandoned my mother and me, how we’d been forced to struggle while he’d showered his favored sons with the life he’d denied me.
That disownment had forged me into the man I was, and I was stronger than I ever would have been otherwise. But I would never forgive what he forced my mother to go through.
“Being here is good for you, remember. We’re trying to unlock your memories,” Jasper said.
This place felt like a cage, cornering and trapping me in a miserable state of perpetual tension.
“I remember enough.” I rose from my seat.
“What’s your favorite color?” Jasper asked.
“What kind of test is this? Are you concerned I won’t be able to pass the final kindergarten exams? Will we be finger painting next?”
“Just humor me.”
“Black.”
“Favorite animal?”
“Weasel.”
He furrowed his brows. “The long rats that eat smaller rats?”
“They’re mustelids, not rats.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You choose the animal that people associate with deviousness and thievery.”
“Sounds like Oscar to me,” Sebastian teased.
It wasn’t legitimate support, but I’d take it.
I gave Jasper an even-Sebastian-is-on-my-side look. “Actually, a weasel chose me.”
He looked even more confused, a bit exasperated, and further concerned.
“Why do you have a problem with my answer? Do you have another animal in mind that you wanted me to say? Because I’m fairly certain I’ve never told you what my favorite animal was.”
“If you remember your life so well, I expect you to choose cats.” Jasper frowned. “Remember the strays we found in the boathouse all those years ago?”
Now that he mentioned them, I did. We’d been no older than six and eight, since it happened the summer before Sebastian was born, before Father took Jasper’s life and home and gave them to his newest son. It had been photograph weekend, the only time of year I was acknowledged as a Carrington. Jasper and I had spent every moment we could with the kittens that weekend, and did our best not to let anyone know about them lest the kittens be taken away.
Jasper’s face lined with concern. “I’m worried about you. What is that supposed to mean, ‘a weasel chose you’? Is this a hallucination from your head injury? We’ll help you untangle the delusions from reality.”
I didn’t need or want his help.
“I need to go,” I told him.Again.How many times I’d said the same thing in different words since I’d been removed from the hotel by the authorities, I had no idea. Every time, I was rebuffed.
