Chapter Thirty-Two

Celeste shook her head with hands on her hips as she stared at Kara who refused to return her gaze.
"I can't believe it," she murmured. "All that? You kept all that inside and carried it around all by yourself?"
François said nothing, only stood besides his wife, a sombre expression on his face. Kara finally told them everything and the magnitude of the burden she bore all by herself had François speechless. He'd known, when Isabelle phoned Celeste earlier that day, that Kara was in trouble. The same trouble that had had her hiding on his ranch for the past few weeks.
But never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that she was the daughter of Markos Vilmont!
Celeste had been upset over what Kara had gone through and had cried over it. It had taken a while to calm her down, longer than it took to calm Kara down. Her eyes were dark rimmed, showing evidence of shedding tears prior to their meeting, but other than that, Kara's face was streaked with not even a single tear. She felt guilty that she hadn't told them everything about herself and told them that they were two of the very very few people she could count as friends. François knew she'd meant it, which made it even worse that Kara wanted to leave France.
Not tomorrow or next week. She wanted to leave the very same night.
She shrugged and got hastily out of her seat, rubbing her hands up and down her black jeans in a nervous manner. She was wearing exactly the same clothes he'd first brought her home to his wife in.
François looked at her pale face and felt a protectiveness rise up in him and he wanted to strangle the man who'd hurt her.
"You don't have to leave, Kara," he told her. He meant it. The entire ranch loved her, she could stay with him and Celeste for the rest of her life if she wanted, they'd happily have her. But Kara scoffed and shook her head.
"Yes, I do..." she murmured sadly. "This place has brought me nothing but pain... I'm going to start again. I deserve that."
Celeste's mouth turned downward and Kara pulled her in for a hug before she could start crying again.
"Tu ne mérite rien de tout ça, Kara, you really don't deserve this," said Celeste softly, her grey eyes sad.
Kara bit the inside of her cheek as they pulled apart, feeling her heart swell with too many different emotions.
They turned to the door at the sound of footsteps.
"I've got it," said Isabelle as she walked in. Her black outfit contrasted beautifully against her skin.
She lifted her hand and waved a fold of papers. Kara sighed with relief. Isabelle reached them and began to leaf through the papers in her hand.
"This," she said "... is the cheque for that absolutely phenomenal painting you gave me." She paused to smile sadly at Kara and immediately Kara remembered how much Lucas had wanted her to keep that painting. Because he knew how much she loved it.
A heavy mass of sadness settled over her heart and Kara rubbed at her chest, hoping to clear it. Why had he been so caring? Even if it had been in a rough and barbaric way, Lucas kept defending her, protecting her like she was his. Even in sleep, he'd held her close to his chest. But why? He obviously didn't love her if he sold her out to her father, right?
He'd been pretending all along. Yeah. That's what it was. He was an arrogant, chauvinistic miser who believed that women were to be under the control of a testosterone pumped cow in order to live. Well, she'd show him!
"Thank you," she said to Isabelle who shook her head sadly. Isabelle had calmed down a lot. When Kara first got home, she'd planned and plotted, calling fire from heaven to rain down on Luc's head, promising death by the sword for him. It had made Kara feel more than loved to have all that vengeful violence threatened in her honor, it really had.
"I wish I could do more," Isabelle said softly. She sighed, handing Kara the cheque, watching as Kara's hand trembled, although her face remained as composed as a marble statue.
Isabelle was beyond impressed with how perfectly Kara kept her expression under control. But then, she remembered, her poor darling had had lots of practice doing that. Far too much practice than Isabelle liked.
"This one," continued Isabelle, handing wide-eyed Kara another cheque. ".... is for... uh... your work at Celeste and François's. Yes."
"Oh," said Kara glancing at Celeste who quickly nodded. She'd completely even forgotten that she'd been working there.
Kara took the cheque and glanced down at it. She froze, her eyes widening at the amount.
"What?!" She looked up at her friends in mild panic. It was so much. Too much! More than she'd stolen from Lucas, way more! "Isabelle, Celeste... guys, I can't..."
Kara stopped when her voice broke.
Isabelle shook her head firmly. "Raphaël says he won't take no for an answer, you must take that cheque if you want to head back to the states tonight."
Kara raised a brow at her. "So Raphaël's paying for my work at Celeste's?" Isabelle covered her mouth in a "Oops" pose and Celeste face palmed herself. Kara laughed. "You thought you were slick, huh, Isabelle?"
"Not very slick," added Celeste.
Isabelle cringed and rolled her eyes at their laughter. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway..." she held up the final papers, her eyes losing their amusement. "This is your ticket and all your travel information."
The room grew quiet.
"Does she really have to go?" François asked his wife and Isabelle scoffed out a laugh, wiping her eyes. He turned back to her with tender eyes, Kara looked back at him.
"I'll miss you, François," she said. "I don't think I'll find many French ranchers in New York."
The older man's face softened. He felt like he was losing an actual sibling.
"You could stay," François suggested again, making Kara laugh. "You could! Celeste will give you riding classes, you know you love the horses... and we'll help you start your art studio."
"We will," said Celeste.
Kara shook her head slowly, feeling her heart hurt. She looked around at all three of their sad eyes. "I'm so sorry I did this to you..."
"You didn't do anything! Okay?" said Isabelle firmly. "You're an amazing soul that I wish I'd met earlier, especially because you're the only person around here who has Lucas squirming in his seat!"
The moment the sadness entered Kara's eyes, Isabelle wished she could take her words back.
Celeste gasped. "Lucas! Does he know you're leaving us? Leaving... him?"
Kara gulped and shook her head as she picked her back pack up to put her ticket in it. She neatly folded up the first cheques she'd ever held in her life and tucked them into her front pocket.
"He's going to be... so sad." Celeste whispered with watering grey eyes and Kara wanted to scoff.
She highly doubted! Maybe he'd regret that she wasn't around for him to perhaps drag to a men's conference and show them Exhibit A of How To Treat A Woman Like Crap.
The thought had her chest tightening in pain. Kara winced and rubbed a hand over it.
"Yeah, um" she whispered. "Lucas should probably go and fuck himself."
Kara then nodded wisely, not taking into account the widening of Celeste's eyes and the raising of François's brows.
Isabelle chuckled without humor, once more feeling irritated with Lucas. This was by far, the dumbest thing he'd ever done, especially to a woman that she knew he was absolutely crazy about.
"Why, what happened?" asked Celeste.
Kara shook her head, picking up her back pack. "Maybe you should ask him, Celeste, mon amour. He'll better explain... what happened."
Isabelle raised her brows. "The flight is for ten pm, love," she said. "It's still seven o'clock, let's sit for a bit."
Kara wrung her hands, biting the inside of her cheek as she looked at her friends.
"Guys, I..." she didn't know what to say. She needed to leave. She just wanted to go, something told her that delaying this any longer would cause problems. Problems with cold grey eyes and long dirty, blonde hair.
Kara didn't want to see him.
"I just... I don't want to seem ungrateful or paranoid, but I really just want to leave. As much as it kills me that I might never see any of you again... I need to go..."
Celeste hugged herself and Kara sighed. She should never come back. Lucas was right, she was putting all their lives in danger.
"I'm sorry for putting you guys in danger, I never..."
Isabelle's scoff cut her off. "Danger? What danger? Markos bozo-head Vilmont doesn't scare me. I'm sorry, honey, I know he's your father, but he's a dick. Also, Raphaël would blow his head off if he stepped an inch towards us."
She nodded solemnly, ignoring the niggly little voice that told her that her husband would never kill. He'd make Markos wish he were never born, but he wouldn't kill him. Isabelle didn't mention that, finding it more satisfying to think of Markos Vimont in a big river of blood and guts. She winced at her thoughts. This was why Raphaël always told her he'd hire her a personal psychologist.
Kara pursed her lips, glad that at least they had never been in danger. As Lucas claimed.
She sighed and gave Isabelle a little smile. "Markos Vilmont was never my father. Don't have one."
Without another word, Kara pulled François and Celeste in and hugged them with warmth and gratitude.
"Thank you guys so much," she whispered as they hugged her back warmly.
Celeste sniffled as they parted and François put his hands on her shoulders.
"It was our pleasure, Kara," he said and his wife nodded, dabbing at her eyes.
Kara swallowed painfully and turned around, putting her arm in Isabelle's.
"Come on, Mrs Sauvage, show me to the door."
Isabelle smiled and held onto Kara as they turned, heading for the door.
"Don't think you've escaped me!" she warned. "Expect me in the US as soon as you get settled in!"
Kara laughed, wiping at her suddenly filling eyes. "I'd be over-damn-joyed, honestly!"
They made their way out of the TV room where they'd been gathered and headed slowly down the corridor.
Isabelle spoke of cheerful topics like Kara's plans to get an art studio and her next painting, but Kara struggled to listen.
Lucas.
She was dying inside. God, she loved him. Loved his smile and his laughter and the challenge in his eye whenever he argued with her, she loved how he'd kiss her hard and make her love it, she loved how he managed to make her feel safe with just his presence. Loved him so much, it bloody hurt and all she wanted to do was go numb for a little while. But like Augustus had quoted in The Fault In Our Stars... "Pain demanded to be felt".
And Lucas had ensured she felt every bit of it.
"Fuck! Son of a bitch!"someone cursed further in the house.
Kara froze, her heart sinking all the way into her boots. She and Isabelle glanced at each other.
"No. No, no, no," she whispered, shaking her head at Isabelle.
"Calm down..." Isabelle said as they inched carefully past an empty room. Kara's eyes were wide, darting back and forth between the floor and the living room where she could hear Lucas begging for something.
"I don't want to see him."
Isabelle nodded. "I know, honey, I know. But please, Kara... just hear him out."
Kara was already shaking her head, the tears caressing their way gracefully down her face to die on her trembling lips.
"Please," Isabelle pleaded. "The car's parked right outside. If you don't like what he says to you, you can walk right out and nobody will stop you."
The uncertainty was clear on her face, but before Kara could make a choice, Lucas came storming out of the living room, looking like a mess.
"You know what?! I'll find her mys...!" He halted when he saw her and Kara froze at the sight of him.
Raphaël came hurrying out of the room, also halting when he saw them staring at each other. Everything and everyone quietened around them.
"Kara..."
Not waiting to hear the rest, Kara turned and started for the front door. Lucas grabbed her wrist desperately, eyes widened in fear.
"Kara, no, please! Please hear me out..."
She stared up at him. His beard was more haggard and his hair very messy, like he'd rolled around in the grass for hours and hadn't fixed it after. Her hand formed a fist above the wrist held in his hand.
She didn't want him to hold her wrist! Didn't want him to touch her at all because God knows it killed her.
"Let me go..." she whispered, seeing him so clearly even through her tears. Committing every single angle, line and feature to her memory. Every single nip and dip in his face, every single artistically carved part, she looked at. Avoiding his eyes completely.
"Kara, please hear me out, just listen to me."
It all rushed at her. Every single new and confusing emotion Luc had made her feel in the past month along with the anger, the sadness and the betrayal.
Kara ripped her wrist out of his hold with a snarl. Lucas winced and her heart bled, but she didn't care.
"Listen to what, Lucas? Huh?!"
Kara knew somewhere at the back of her mind that her voice was a little too emotional, a little to thick, a little to loud right now, but she didn't care. It was what he had done to her and if it hurt his ears, then tough. He'd hurt her so now he had to hear every single ounce of pain he'd caused her as it reverberated in her voice.
"Kara?"
"Stop!" Kara hissed, her hands coming up to cover her ears in a jerky movement of repressed fury. "Stop saying my name! S-stop it... You hurt me, Lucas!"
"I'm so sorry, baby..." He reached for her and she jerked away.
"No! You don't get to treat me like I'm nothing and then just say sorry." She shook her head at him, having given up on wiping the tears drenching her face or stopping the sobs clogging her throat.
"You judged me, Lucas. Judged me based on what Vilmont was. Yes, I was born poor, yes, I was his bastard child, yes, I'd been in that Rein life for five whole years! Yes, I was judged for my background my whole damn life, but you know what?! I never wanted you, Lucas... You... to judge me the same! But jokes on me, cause you did, didn't you? What the hell did I really expect? This isn't a fairytale, I'm no Cinderella... and you sure as hell aren't Prince charming."

She laughed humorlessly as Lucas stared at her, paler and colder than he'd ever been before. He could feel her slipping away from him and he was scared.
Scared because he didn't know how to get her back.
"Kara, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, if I could undo everything, I would."
"Well, you can't! You left me there that morning, Lucas! Knowing very well that you'd put that man onto me. He was going to kill me, Lucas! Do you know that?!"
His eyes closed on the pain in his heart at that moment and Lucas lost his strength.
He didn't know what he was trying to get her back for. Yes, he couldn't live without Kara... but he didn't deserve her.
Not one bit.
When he remained silent, Kara nodded.
"I thought you did."
Luc looked up then shaking his head slowly. "I didn't know, Kara...I promise, I thought he was a real father to you... I thought he'd cut your allowance as punishment or something, but..."
"What?! Are you hearing yourself?!"
Lucas snapped his mouth shut, he was only hurting her more by talking. Kara shook her head at him and when Lucas saw the cold detached look that entered her eyes, he felt as though his soul was being ripped out of his body.
"Kara, I'm sorry...please..."
She swallowed hard, struggling to control her breathing. "I left everything I bought with your money at François's. You can take it all. Isabelle will give you the rest of the money out of the payment for my painting. "
Luc's heart stopped.
Kara put her back pack on her back before she looked right up into his eyes.
"Goodbye, Lucas."