Dinner Disasters: Sebastian and Layana

Chapter 14 (Sebastian): Lingering Doubts

*** TW for reference to stalker and death***

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

I sat up all night, watching Layana sleep next to me on the hotel bed, my hand holding hers. I was too wired, too freaked out by how close it had been, at the danger she'd been in. At the danger she and the baby had been in. That scene would haunt me forever.

Layana had woken up slowly not long ago, hair tousled, eyes sleepy but she saw that I was already wide awake.

"You're awake early," she murmured.

"Didn't sleep. I was thinking."

"I can't imagine what you'd have to think about." Her slight smile made that a lie.

"About our next moves."

"Mmmm." Her eyes fluttered closed. "I already figured it out."

"You did, huh?" I slowly traced I LOVE YOU on the back of her hand that wasn't tucked under the pillow. "What did you figure out?"

"First up, I don't care where we land until we find our new house, but I am not stepping foot back in that house because I wouldn't be surprised if she was already haunting it."

"You don't have to. And if it makes you feel any better, she didn't die in our house, Layana. The police said she was alive, just barely, when she was taken out to the ambulance. She actually died at the hospital on her way into surgery."

"I don't know why that relieves me, but it does for some reason. It's just all so sad and senseless that she didn't get help from her family and her death could have been avoided if she'd gotten help when she needed it."

"It is, but we don't really know what happened with her over the years. She could obviously function and fool people -- she got a job, held it for a couple of years, had a good reputation at her company and made pitches to me for a year until we finally landed on the final deal. She fooled a lot of people. What's next on your list?"

"Second, you go and clean up the floor or get some specialized cleaners to fix it or rip out the flooring and replace it."

"Already on it," I told her. "While you slept, I researched some companies that specialize in cleanup. I'll be calling them later today because I don't know if there's any special biohazard rules for cleaning up that much...stuff."

"Third, please figure out what the hell she did to our wedding pictures and any other pictures in our room. And I need you to make it right, please. I can't bear to think about what she might have done, much less see the damage. So, I'm handing that task off to you, too. We have the original images from the photographer on a flash drive. "

"I'll take care of everything, Layana. I don't want you to have any more stress with this pregnancy."

"Fourth, we'll do a short-term apartment lease while we look for another place to live. Preferably furnished because I'm not moving anything out of our house that she was creeping through doing heaven only knows what."

"Already on that, too. I looked up several nearby apartments online and put in inquiries. How many bedrooms do you want?"

A roundabout way to ask if we'd be sharing a bedroom and she knew it.

"We'll circle back to that, Sebastian. Fifth, I'd like you to go through the house and take out personal things that can't be replaced -- things mom's given me, some of my grandmother's china cups, her old secretary, my grandfather's fountain pen collection, my jewelry, pictures of family, that sort of thing."

"I will."

"Sixth, once we have everything out of the house that we want, I want to have an everything must go sale. Like everything. And what we don't sell, we'll donate. I can't even tell you how creeped out I am by her being alone in our house for a while and then everything that happened once we got home."