Author's Note: Thanks so much for the support guys! I was grinning to myself after I read your reviews. I'm sorry for making you wait so long! Hopefully you'll enjoy the story arcs I have lined up for Chelsea. I had fun coming up with them from scratch since I pretty much had to scrap all my previous outlines because the ideas had gone stale in my head. Anyway, hope you enjoy this next chapter and thank you for waiting! I really want to finish this story, so hopefully I don't run out of steam again. x_x

Chapter Thirty Five

Issues

It was still dark when I headed over to Chelsea's place that morning. With her staying with her friends for a couple of days, I made it my mission to do as much work around the farm before she got back. I wanted to surprise her. While I couldn't comfort her the way her friends back home could, I figured that the best way for me to support her was to help try and restore the farm back to its original glory. Even though she had managed to balance the acidity of the soil in her fields by spending most of her savings on expensive fertiliser, she hadn't had much time to plant the buckwheat seeds she'd bought and there was still plenty of work that was still left to do on repairing her farm house. Gannon's efforts had greatly helped in securing the structural integrity of the building, but the panelling outside was still slightly charred from the blaze and there were still bits of burnt wood lying around.

When I reached the farm, I pulled out the set of keys that Chelsea had given me and headed into her house to retrieve the packs of buckwheat seeds she'd bought. As I let myself in, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on ends as I caught a whiff of her scent that had been left behind. I stood still for a moment, looking around the darkened house as I savoured it. The smell of her surrounded me almost torturously and it took a moment for me to regain my senses and remember why I was there. Annoyed with myself for being so affected by the mere smell of her, I took the seed bags from the storage chest near the door and headed back outside so that I could plant them.

It was strange being on the farm without her being somewhere nearby. It was by no means the first time she'd left me alone there, but I felt slightly lonely when I looked over at her unoccupied farmhouse. It's embarrassing for me to admit it, but I missed not having her there. It was a fact that I was reluctant to admit to myself as I sprinkled the seeds over the soil. I'd never wanted a woman so much in my life and it irked me to no end that I had grown so attached to her in such a short space of time.

Before I met Chelsea, I'd never had much trust in women - not even Sabrina. I guess it all stemmed from my overall history with women in general. My mother left my father when I was four, walking out on the pair of us without saying anything. She left no note, she said no goodbyes; she just left. Although now I understand her reason for leaving, I was devastated when my father told me that she wouldn't be coming back. Already quite introverted from being an only child, I further withdrew into myself after her departure. Sad and lonely, I grew up watching my father bringing home hundreds of different women, all of which never seemed very genuine in their attention towards me, further compounding my problem. By the time I entered high school, I'd grown so mistrustful of women that I tried my best to avoid them and ignored them whenever they tried to become close to me. I was eventually peer-pressured into dating a couple of girls, but I could never really empathise with them in the way that they wanted me to and they moved on quickly to my more receptive friends.

As the years passed and I graduated from school, I began to realise that something was missing in my life. Working with my dad kept me busy, but I couldn't help but wonder if my mistrust in women was unfounded. That was when I met Sabrina. She was utterly beautiful and seemed to personify purity in a way I'd never seen in a woman. It's corny, but I was smitten with the idea of her. Although I knew in my heart that she probably wasn't as innocent as I thought she was, I forced myself to fall for her and by the time I realised that she had issues, I'd already found myself too attached to her to end it. I accepted her flaws, but quickly lost my trust in her. It didn't really surprise me when she called the engagement off and I promised myself that I would never trust another woman again. They were too much trouble and required too much energy to deal with.

And then I met Chelsea.

In spite of my misgivings about her, she proved to be the one I'd been waiting for. As I watched her over the course of the year I saw that she was the ideal that I'd wanted Sabrina to be. Although she wasn't particularly innocent, she was genuine and loyal to a fault and my initial physical attraction to her was quickly joined by my emotional attraction to her.

With a sigh, I finished seeding the field and headed back to the tool shed to pull out the watering can. The sun had slowly risen into the sky, weakly burning through the thick clouds overhead and casting its grey light over the islands. As I reached the shed, I noticed a dark figure heading across the bridge towards the farm and I'm pretty sure my mouth fell open when I saw who it was.

"Mr. DeLauer, what are you doing here?" I asked Regis when he came into earshot.

Regis was wrapped up tight in his black cloak and he glanced around the farm with a look of disdain. He was clearly out of his comfort zone and his eyes looked shadowed from lack of sleep. "I'm looking for you of course."

I pushed the brim of my hat up. "And what do you need from me?"

The older man's eyes narrowed and his eyebrow twitched. "Where is my daughter?"

"What?"

"Where is my daughter? Sabrina. Where is she? She disappeared yesterday morning and I haven't heard from her yet. What have you done with her?"

I scowled at him. "I don't know where your daughter is. Why are you even asking me anyway? Why would I know?"

"Because she's attached to you of course," Regis snapped, his top lip curling upwards into that ugly sneer that his daughter had inherited. "She's been obsessed with you ever since I found out about your... relationship. I figured that she finally decided to try running off with you."

I scoffed. "Are you joking?"

"Of course not. Why would I joke about something like that?"

"Because it's been years since Sabrina and I were involved with one another in that way. I've tried my best to avoid her as much as possible, Mr. DeLauer," I replied. "So I really don't know where she is."

"I don't believe you," Regis quipped back defiantly, taking a step towards me. Regis was about the same height as me and was probably one of the few men on the island who could actually make me feel even vaguely threatened.

I clenched my fists in preparation to defend myself and held my ground as I growled back, "I don't care if you don't believe me. I have no idea where your nutjob daughter is, so get out of my face."

"Nutjob? My Sabrina isn't a nutjob!" Regis snapped, a small glob of his spit hitting my cheek. "How dare you?"

"How dare I? Excuse me sir, but your daughter is a nutjob. Clinically. Which reminds me, when was the last time you took her to see her shrink?" I asked through gritted teeth, reaching up and wiping the spit off of my skin with unconcealed disgust.

Regis blinked mutely a couple of times before he said stiffly. "A few months ago."

For the second time that morning, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on ends – but it wasn't a pleasant feeling this time. "Are you kidding me?"

Guiltily, Regis stepped back and half turned away from me as he said, "She's been... resistant. She insisted that she was fine and that there's nothing really wrong with her."

My eyes widened in horror. "And you believed her?"

"She seemed fine," he said with a slight shrug. "I've been too busy recently, so I was relieved that I didn't need to keep bringing her to see Dr. Schulmann. Those visits were costly in both time and money."

"Regis, you and I both know that Sabrina has a problem," I began to say, but he stopped me from saying anything further by whirling around and pointing his finger at me.

"You don't understand anything about Sabrina's problem!" he snarled. "Someone like you wouldn't understand what she's gone through."

"And you do? You just let your daughter run around without her meds? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Not just for her safety, but for the safety of the other people on these islands," I said, my chest heaving angrily. "Regis, your daughter is a diagnosed sociopath."

"She's not a sociopath!" he yelled back at me. He paused, trying to regain his composure before saying more calmly, "It's called Anti-Social Personality disorder."

"Do you even understand what that is?" I asked him.

"Of course I know what it is! Dr. Schulmann told me everything about her condition when I first took her to get looked at," Regis replied uncomfortably.

"Okay, then tell me what you remember about the symptoms of 'Anti-Social Personality Disorder'," I said. "I bet you can't even remember them."

"I remember the main one. Lack of conscience," Regis replied solemnly.

"And do you even know what's been happening on these islands the past few months?" I asked him accusingly, putting down the watering can and folding my arms across my chest. "Your daughter manipulated her friend into dating a sexual deviant and she's also one of the suspects in the arson of this very farm property that we're standing on. Did you even know that? Did she even tell you what she's been up to lately?"

His moustache twitched and he glanced over at the farmhouse before saying, "Is there any proof that she did it?"

"Does there need to be?" I asked. "Consider her history, Mr. DeLauer." I was referring to the rumours that Julia had told me and he clearly knew what I was talking about.

"My daughter is not a monster," Regis replied, his eyes flashing angrily. "You and everyone else on these islands seem determined to demonise her at every angle without even considering that she had nothing to do with these things."

"Chelsea could have died in the fire on this farm, Regis."

His jaw clenched and he glanced back at the farmhouse. "That girl Chelsea... She's supposed to be Sabrina's friend. Why would Sabrina do something like that to her?"

"I don't know," I replied quietly, knowing that Regis would quickly realise the reason.

"It's because of you, isn't it?" he asked me. "You're the reason she turned on that girl, aren't you?"

"Your daughter's psychopathy has nothing to do with me."

He sneered at me and glanced at the newly seeded field as he said, "Sabrina turned on that girl because of you. You're clearly involved with her and Sabrina got jealous over it."

"Regardless, most normal women don't set fire to other people's homes," I snapped back defensively. "If you can't be bothered to look after Sabrina and make sure that she'd getting the care she needs, then let her go and live with her mother. Christina at least has the medical expertise to deal with her and make sure she gets help."

"That stupid bitch doesn't care about her daughter," Regis snapped, turning back to me with burning eyes. "She abandoned us."

"No, she abandoned you," I replied scathingly. "You drove her away with your oppressive behaviour."

"How would you know?!" he yelled, stepping towards me and grabbing the front of my shirt.

"Because she told me!" I thundered back, glaring straight back at him.

He went rigid. "You spoke to her?"

"Yeah, and I told your daughter where to find her too," I said. "I told Sabrina to go and see her and decide for herself who she wants to live with. She at least deserves the right to choose which hell she has to live in."

"You fool," Regis said, letting go of my shirt. "My daughter loves me. She wouldn't leave me."

"She loves your money," I said. "Money equals power and all people with her condition thirst for power like a vampire thirsts for blood. That's why she stays with you and does as you say. Not because she loves you or cares for you as a person, but because she wants to make sure she gets her inheritance when you eventually die."

"If she's so power obsessed then why did she fall in love with someone as pathetic as you?" he retorted.

I chuckled. "Because she wanted to control me. And now she's hellbent on making sure I don't get involved with someone else because she thinks she'll lose that control."

Regis rolled his eyes. "You're nothing to her. She could marry princes or millionaires. What would she gain by maintaining control of you?"

"That's a question that you have to ask her yourself," I replied. "Now, if you're quite finished, I have work to do."

"You still haven't told me where she is," he said petulantly.

I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I would check with her mother, or maybe even ask that fisherman that lives on the beach near your mansion. He's another of your daughter's victims."

"What?" Regis looked utterly disgusted.

"Denny might have a better idea than I do," I said, stooping down to pick up the watering can. "I don't think you should worry too much though. The smell of your money will bring her running back eventually."

I turned away and headed to the outside tap so I could fill up the watering can as Regis turned to leave. I listened to him grumbling to himself as he headed back towards the bridge and I couldn't stop myself from smiling when I realised that I had come dangerously close to having him as a father-in-law. I can't even imagine what my life would have been like if Sabrina had decided to go ahead with the marriage; I probably would have been reduced to a hallow shell of myself.

It was as I was replaying my encounter with Regis over in my head that I remembered how easily the old man had accused me of being the reason behind Sabrina's behaviour. As I recalled his words, I realised that he was right. I turned the tap off and stood stock still as I finally came to the conclusion that all the hardships that Chelsea had come across were probably an indirect result of my growing friendship with her. If I had kept away from Chelsea as I'd first told myself I would, Sabrina's behaviour wouldn't have escalated to arson and Chelsea wouldn't be struggling the way she was. I was the reason for everything that had happened to the woman I loved.

As I looked across her ravaged farm I was overwhelmed with guilt.