Now it was my turn to sigh. “Ivan, who asks someone to marry them after one date? And we didn’t exactly hit it off.”
“Maybe you didn’t, but I thought we did. The problem with you is that you’ve been influenced by the media to think you’re supposed to be this career woman, sleeping around with different men, whoring yourself out?—”
My hand moved before I could call it back. The slap was quiet but mighty.
Ivan glared at me and then leaned forward, getting in my face. “Look how panicked you are that your nights of living wild and free, whoring around, are about to be over. When you’re my wife?—”
“I’d rather die than marry you,” I ground out.
Almost a year he had been pestering me with this ridiculousness, and I’d had enough. I was twenty-two years old. I wasn’t a kid he could order around.
“But you will... I told you that and you didn’t believe me, so now you’ll see what happens when you defy your future husband.”
“You’re insane. You’ve gone mad,” I muttered.
Ivan chuckled. “From what I heard from a nurse in Dr. Blackwood’s office, you’re the one who’s gone mad. Hearing voices and refusing perfectly good marriage proposals.”
I stepped back, my cheeks heating. He knew about the voices? Shame and fear coated me. I felt exposed.
“I want you to leave,” I said stiffly.
My mother appeared at the sitting room door.
“The tea is poured,” she said, wringing her hands. She was nervous.
What was going on?
We dutifully followed her into the sitting room and sat.
Father Vargas shifted forward, his face morphing into the sympathetic expression I had seen countless Sundays for years.
“Now, Katarina, Ivan has told me what is going on with you, and I want you to know, first of all, you are not so lost that you can’t be found.”
“What?” I asked.
Father Vargas went on. “Modern medicine would have you believe that delusions and voices and loose behavior”—he paused—“can all be traced to hormones and diseases of the mind, but it isn’t so.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and Ivan doesn’t know anything about me.”
Vargas nodded as if he’d been expecting me to say just that. “And your own mother? She’s been worried sick by these voices you’re hearing in your head.”
I spun to catch sight of my mother, betrayal stinging deep. She’d told Vargas? Probably in confession. Her blind trust in the Church had always bothered me, and now it was being used against me.
A tingling fear had started at the base of my spine and was working its way up. My mother wouldn’t meet my eyes. The nerves in my stomach intensified.
“My colleagues and I have been developing ways for faith to heal these ailments, but it must be done in a supervised environment. Being free to act out your licentious fantasies can be dangerous for you. You need supervision and care... and since you’re so important to Ivan, I’m here to offer it to you. Hallow Hall is waiting to help you, Katarina.”
I stared at him for a long time, unsure what the hell to say. My mother got up and left the room, weeping.
I looked at Ivan.That motherfucker.He’d gone and told his uncle a pack of lies to punish me for not saying yes to his marriage proposal.
I shook my head.
“There’s been some kind of mix-up here,” I stated firmly.
Then I heard them. The soft rustle of people in the hallway. Several people. I turned, and they were there. In pale-green scrubs, strong arms outstretched.
Orderlies. At least four of them.