CHAPTER 22

Alice's trench coat was soaking wet with tears, but she couldn't seem to care.

Francis had gone ahead and made an herbal tea for Chelsea, but she hadn't even glanced at it. Alice just simply rubbed her back over and over, listening to the incoherent words that sputtered from Chelsea's mouth.

They'd been sitting there for a long time, and the boys would be home soon. "Do you want me to tell them?" Alice muttered quietly to Chelsea. She was too tired to scream anymore, but the tears still dripped out from the corners.

"No." She shook her head. "No… No… I'll tell them…"

"Are you sure?" Francis asked, his voice low and gentle.

Chelsea nodded. "I'll… be okay… My baby…" She sniffed up her boogers. "She'd want me to… To be strong for them."

"Gran?" Two twin boys walked into the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

Chelsea broke into another fit of sobs. Weakly, Alice glanced at Francis. He got the message.

"Max? Mason? Why don't you come upstairs wiz me?"

He took them away from their grandmother and up into their bedroom. "Why's gran crying?" Max glared at him, blue eyes filled with anger. He looked like an angrier, older version of his Matthew.

Francis bent down to their level, to look them straight in the eye. "Your grandmozer is crying because she's lost someone very important to her."

"Who?" The other little boy, Mason, asked. "Is it someone we know?"

His heartstrings pulled. "Your mozer… passed away zis morning."

"What?" Max eyes widened, but then he was angry again. "You're lying! Mom's just in Greece on a business trip."

"Yeah," Mason said. "She's coming back next week!"

"No, she's not." Francis looked at the little boys, then pulled them into a hug as the tears began to fall.

XXX

The walk back to Francis' apartment was gloomy.

They didn't talk, just kept on walking. The day kept replaying in their heads. "Ils ressemblaient à Matthew…"

Alice nodded slightly. Then, she gave a humorless laugh. "Do you think they'll still stick together after this?"

"Quoi?" Francis frowned at her. "I don't understand."

She sighed, stopping and looking up into the murky London sky. The smoke and exhaust swirled, a thick layer hiding the blue skies. "The death of a loved one sometimes pulls people apart, grief eating away at them, and before you know it...You're not a family, anymore. Or maybe… Maybe you just weren't a family in the first place."

Francis' frown deepened. "Somezing tells me you're not talking about ze Loreleis."

Alice stared into the sky for a long time. "I've made a terrible mistake." She could sense Francis' confusion. "I pushed them away. I pushed away the most important people in this world to me, and I'll never get a second chance." Tears flowed from her bright emerald eyes, but she made no move to stop them.

Francis' heart clenched as she kept on talking. "I-I… All I ever wanted-" Alice hiccupped lightly. "Was to make sure they were happy. Safe, but now-" Another hiccup. "I've lost them. They hate me and they don't want anything else to do with me!" Her whole body racked into sobs.

Francis flew to her, wrapping his arms around her, tightly. "Il est normal... Il est normal... Je suis sûr que vous pouvez travailler sur tout ce qui est entre vous et votre famille."

"No. I can't." Alice leaned into him. "... I'm such a fucking coward! A coward that only runs away..."

"Ma reine, vous êtes le plus fort, femme courageuse que je l'ai rencontré. En aucune manière, les sept derniers mois que nous avons connue l'autre, ai-je jamais pensé que vous étiez un lâche." Francis said, keeping her close to him, pouring his heart out to her.

She looked up, watching him with careful, blurry green eyes. Cautiously, Alice leaned up and whispered into his ear, and told him.

Alice uttered the ugly, dark words her father had whispered with his last breath.

Translations:

Ils ressemblaient à Matthew… = They look like Matthew...

Quoi? = What?

Il est normal... Il est normal... Je suis sûr que vous pouvez travailler sur tout ce qui est entre vous et votre famille. = It's okay ... It's okay ... I'm sure you can work on whatever is between you and your family.

Ma reine, vous êtes le plus fort, femme courageuse que je l'ai rencontré. En aucune manière, les sept derniers mois que nous avons connue l'autre, ai-je jamais pensé que vous étiez un lâche. = My queen, you are the strongest, bravest woman I've met. In no way, the last seven months we've known each other, I never thought you were a coward.