May 16, 1974
When Pascal returned from the bathroom a few minutes later he expected to find Victoria exactly where he'd left her at the bar. Instead, he found himself coming into contact with a group of people who had gathered around to see what the commotion was about. Apparently something had happened while he was gone, but no one around him seemed to know what when he asked. After a few awkward seconds of just standing around, Pascal heard someone inside the circle say something about calling an ambulance. Realizing Victoria's roommate and her friends were nowhere to be found when he scanned the room for familiar faces, Pascal put two and two together and made his way through the crowd only to have his worst suspicions confirmed.
Refusing to let another minute pass by without taking action, he asked the bartender to hail him a cab while he knelt down to pick Victoria off of the floor. Once enough people backed away from him, it wasn't difficult to scoop her up into his arms. She was light as a feather. Pushing past the useless bystanders who did nothing to help, Pascal managed to make it outdoors just in time to catch the taxi. Thinking on his feet, he gave the driver his own address instead of Victoria's. It wasn't any farther from the tavern than her school was, and he hadn't the slightest idea which building her dorm belonged to so taking her home with him was the best option he could think of.
Once home, Pascal called on the assistance of his mother- who, despite having been caught off guard, carried Victoria all the way up to the guest bedroom without asking questions and listened intently as her son explained to her what had happened.
"The effects should wear off in a couple of hours," she said once he'd finished, "the best thing we can do for her now is let her rest."
Pascal nodded, "I'm sorry for springing this up on you in the middle of the night, maman."
"Nonsense," she said, waving a hand at him dismissively. "I'm proud of you for helping her."
"She's a friend of mine. The one I told you about..."
"Victoria?"
"Yes," he confirmed, "the one I've been working with."
Pascal watched as his mother gently slipped off Victoria's sandals and tucked her under the covers so that she wouldn't wake up cold in the middle of the night. He knew it would be hours until Victoria regained consciousness, but a part of him kept hoping she'd open her eyes so that he could go to bed knowing she was okay.
"You still don't know much about her, do you?" he heard his mother ask.
"Not yet," he responded, "she's a little shy."
"Give her time. There might be more to her than meets the eye."
The next morning, Pascal rose early to fix Victoria breakfast. He knew there was a chance she would wake up without much of an appetite, so he kept it light with a cheese omelette and some bread on the side.
Meanwhile, in another room, Victoria was beginning to wake. She tossed under the covers for a bit before stretching her legs and eventually rubbing her eyes before opening them. The minute it sunk in that she didn't recognize her surroundings, she flew into panic mode. Nothing in the room gave her a sense of where she was, her head was pounding heavily, and the fact that she couldn't remember a thing from last night was was making her suspect the worst.
Checking for signs, Victoria breathed a sigh of relief when she realized her clothes and underwear were still on. The only things that had been taken off of her were her shoes, which she spotted on the floor a few feet away. Aside from her headache, she didn't feel any pain, either, which was something that reassured her greatly seeing as she'd been hurting for days after Jimmy'd had his way with her. Still, there were other things that could have been done to her while she was unconscious that wouldn't have left a mark. The thought alone unsettled Victoria, so much so that she could feel a panic attack coming on. Taking a minute to control her breathing, she managed to evade it. It was a skill she'd mastered not long after Patrick was born, and one she was proud of.
Unsure of what to do, Victoria decided to slip on her shoes and search for an escape route. She hadn't heard any noises since she'd woken up, so she assumed the house was empty. Opening the bedroom door as quietly as possible just to be safe, she made her way down the hall and took the only flight of stairs she saw. Once she was downstairs she quickly spotted the front door, but just as she was about to make her way across the living to get to it, a voice pulled her back.
"Good morning."
She turned around despite her instincts to make a run for it, only to come face to face with Pascal who was wearing an apron and carrying a breakfast tray in both hands. As much as she hated to admit it, a part of her felt relieved upon seeing him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
The question immediately sent chills down Victoria's spine. Surely, something must have happened to her or he wouldn't be asking her how she was feeling.
"I don't remember anything from last night," she said.
Pascal looked at her pleadingly and motioned for her to take a seat on the couch with the tilt of his head. Judging by the way he was acting, Victoria could sense a story coming. She was afraid to hear what he had to say, but Pascal was the only person who could tell her what had happened the night before and, no matter how horrible the truth was, she needed to hear it.
Taking a seat on the couch himself, Pascal decided to offer Victoria the breakfast he'd made her in an attempt to calm her nerves. Seeing how on edge she was, he'd half expected her to turn it down, but, much to his surprise, she appreciated the gesture and took a bite out of one of the bread slices.
"How far back do you remember?" he started.
Victoria thought back to the very last thing she remembered doing before waking up this morning. She knew a significant chunk of her memory was missing, but she was hoping Pascal would help her recover it by filling in the blanks of last night.
"I remember you asked me if I wanted a drink," she recalled with some difficulty, "so I followed you to the bar and asked for a club soda."
Pascal nodded, "You said you didn't drink, then you started telling me about a vineyard you wanted to see and asked if I wanted to see it with you."
"You said yes..." Victoria had no recollection of asking him to see any vineyards with her, but she did vaguely recall a feeling of excitement over something he'd said and she assumed it was his acceptance of her invitation.
"I did," he confirmed.
Victoria knew Pascal was taking things slowly in order to keep her from freaking out, but she was growing impatient with his hesitation and was anxious to hear the full story, "Please just tell me how I blacked out and ended up here when I wasn't drinking."
Her tone was a bit harsher than usual, but Pascal understood where she was coming from. The more he danced around the subject, the more anxious she became.
"You took someone else's drink thinking it was yours," he said finally. "I left to go to the bathroom, and when I came back you were on the floor. So I asked the bartender to call me a taxi and took you with me because your friends had gone and I didn't know where your dorm was. After I got home, Maman handled the rest. She's the one who took off your shoes and put you to bed."
Victoria averted her gaze as she tried to process everything he had just told her. She was relieved that nothing in Pascal's story seemed to indicate she'd been taken advantage of, but at the same time she had no way of knowing whether or not he was telling her the truth. She wanted to believe he was, but he could also easily be lying to her knowing she wouldn't be able to remember anything to contradict his account of what had happened last night.
"What's wrong?" Pascal asked, sensing a change in her demeanor.
"Why should I believe you?"
Her expression had changed from one of acceptance to one of utter skepticism.
"Victoria-"
"How do I know you're not the one who put something in my drink?"
"Why would I-"
"Because you've been after me from the start! The run-in at the flea market, the cafe, offering to help me with my French, giving me a job I'm not qualified for… none of it was a coincidence, you made it happen!"
Pascal tried to follow her train of thought but came up short, failing to understand where her sudden change of heart had come from. One second she was trusting him enough to help her remember the night before, and the next she was hurling baseless accusations at him for no apparent reason. After everything he'd done to protect her, it infuriated him.
"You're being ridiculous," he snapped.
Unable to stop herself, Victoria struck him across the cheek in a rare show of impulse and unbridled bravado.
"Stay the hell away from me," she said pushing the breakfast tray aside and getting up to leave.
Before she could walk any further, Pascal grabbed a hold of her wrist- unintentionally pulling her backwards harder thank he'd intended. Victoria struggled relentlessly to break free from his grasp, swinging her arms as forcefully as she could and wearing herself out in the process.
"Victoria, stop it!"
"Let me go!"
She continued to fight him, causing her to stumble backwards and fall when he finally released his grip on her. It was a close call, her head barely having missed coming into contact with the edge of the wooden coffee table behind her.
Pascal immediately rushed to her side, feelings of guilt sweeping over him as he hovered over Victoria's body to make sure she was okay.
She was shaking, violently. He had never seen her get so worked up about something, and it pained him to know he had caused her such distress and nearly injured her when she was probably still trying to make sense of what happened the previous night.
Lifting a hand to cup her face reassuringly, Pascal was taken aback when Victoria recoiled from his touch. He didn't understand why she looked back at him with such fear when he had never meant to harm her. On the contrary, all he'd ever done was try to help her, yet here she was looking at him like he was the most terrifying person in the world.
"Victoria, I-"
There were tears in her eyes when she finally managed to whisper, "Please don't hurt me."