The Cries of the Butterfly - A LOVE STORY (64 page)

“Fuck you! Fuck you, bitch! Fuck your…” He let loose with a full arsenal of filth, showering her with the ugliest words in the English language and on its margins. He was still raging wildly when he realized she was no longer there. He slowly lay down his butt on the edge of the bed and covered his face in his hands, breathing heavily.

There was a knock on the door. He looked up. The knob turned and Grant stepped in.

“Did you read the newspaper today, son?” he asked. Then he saw Wolf’s face. “What is the matter? Is something amiss?”

Wolf inhaled deeply and quickly rearranged his face to show normalcy, even as his mind continued to seethe.

“You read the newspaper?” Grant repeated.

Wolf nodded.

“So you were aware of this?” Grant said.

A tinge of guilt came to Wolf’s face.

“I was aware that the oral swabs were taken and the results of the tests.” His eyes flashed. “We shall fight her, sir.”

“You want to fight the biological mother?”

“She’s no mother, she’s a fraud. What sort of a mother would abandon her child at birth, then deny it, then refuse to reclaim her eight years later, then two days on change her mind again?”

“Wolf, have you not read the report in full?”

“It’s a load of crap, sir. I don’t believe it.”

Then he humped…suddenly feeling very lonely, very lost.

“What shall I do, sir?” he beseeched a moment later.

“I cannot tell you that, son. You need to consider and weigh all things and take your own decision.”

“But what are
your
feelings on it?”

Grant thought for a while. “You really want to know?”

“I do, sir,” Wolf nodded earnestly.
I really, really do!
At this moment, he badly needed support.

Grant placed a hand on his shoulder. “I think you should go back to Savannah.”

***

Earlier
, on the day Wolf returned to Butcher Garden, Wednesday, May 28th…

It was nine-seventeen am when the doorbell rang.

Savannah had just finished bathing and was about to leave for Lianne’s place. She acutely needed some air and company and the last thing she wanted now was a pesky neighbor or an early-morning salesperson. She simply wasn’t up to it. Her heart hadn’t stopped weeping ever since she had broken up with Wolf five days ago.

She peeped through the view-hole and her face froze.

“What do you want now?” she demanded in a high voice, a bit taken aback.

“Let me in,” Maddy’s voice said.

“I have nothing to say to you. Please leave!”

“But I have something to say to you. It’s critical.”

“There’s nothing I want to hear. Go away.”

The stand-off continued for another ten minutes.

Maddy prevailed.

“Make it quick, please,” Savannah said when Maddy was seated in the living room. Her face was a dark, frosty mask. “Did Wolf send you here?”

“Don’t be a prick! He knows nothing about this.”

“So what do you want?”

“A little cool head for starters.”

“Please do not be patronizing with me!”

“Fine,” Maddy shrugged. “I came here to say that I believe you.”

Savannah’s eyes went narrow. “Oh? So you
did
have the results fixed!”

Maddy shook her head. “No, I did not. On my only brother, I didn’t.”

“So where does that leave us then?”

“Nowhere,” Maddy said. “Now, I want you to forget about the tests completely and answer one question for me. And I want you to be very honest…”

“I’m not answerable to you, or anyone else on this frigging planet.”

Maddy ignored that. “As a woman, would you be happy to be the mother of a girl like Robin? I ask you purely hypothetically.”

“What’s the point?”

“
I
would be a very proud mom to have a daughter like Robin,” Maddy said.

“So would I. But there’s no point to such speculation.”

“I need you to do me one favor, Savannah.”

“Why should I? I owe you nothing.”

“Oh, yes, you do, you indeed do. I never wanted to mention it, but you force me now,” she said. “Don’t forget the thousand and one favors I’ve done you over the past weeks.”

“You did them for Wolf Butcher.”

“And not you? Weren’t you and Wolf a couple, and a tight couple at that, just five days ago?”

Savannah’s eyes darted for a second. “So what do you want?”

“I want you to come with me and see someone.”

“Who?”

“A friend. She’s a psychiatrist.”

“You think I’m insane?”

“I think you have a blocked memory.”

“Alright, enough! Now please leave. I have to go out.”

Maddy tried to persist, but this time Savannah prevailed.

.

E
arly evening, just after she had returned home from Lianne’s, Savannah had another visitor. Rochelle Butcher.

Although Savannah was cordial with her initially, she quickly lost her cool when she realized the Butcher woman’s agenda was the same as Maddy’s.

“What…have you people decided to gang up on me? You better leave before I have to throw you out!” Savannah glowered. Then her eyes veiled, as if she had switched off, and she turned her back on her visitor.

Rochelle quietly left the house.

.

B
ut it was the midnight knock that stunned Savannah. Actually it was twelve-forty-four am. She had just finished watching the ‘Titanic’ DVD (for the third time…although this time around she had hardly registered anything), when the doorbell sounded, quite startling her. When she peeked through the view-hole, her heart came to a standstill.

President Butcher stood there outside her door.

After a brief spell of paralysis, she answered, then stood staring foolishly at the big man.

He smiled genially and his voice when he spoke was gentle and soothing. “Hello, Savannah,” he said. “I know it is late and perhaps I disturbed your sleep, in which case I am truly sorry. But may I come in for a moment. I promise you this shall not take long.”

She hurriedly stood aside, as if automatically.

“Thank you,” Grant Butcher said with a slight bow.

After a quick look around, he settled himself on a settee. She stood before him, a doe in the glare of a searchlight.

“Why do you not sit too? As I said, this shall not take too long.”

She could feel her heart racing. She sat down awkwardly on the edge of one chair.

“I could have phoned, Savannah. But this is too important to be said that way. I decided I needed to come and see you personally.”

She continued gaping at him.

An elongated silence followed.

Slowly, Savannah began to realize why this man before her was the undisputed champion of over ten million people, and why he cast such a hypnotic spell over her too. His face radiated it—a deep character. A quality of great strength, mixed with vast compassion; an innate fearless honesty, mixed with profound humanity; a class, a dignity, mixed with a subdued ego. And although this man had been the cause of much of her suffering over the past weeks, she strangely found she felt no hostility toward him as he sat there before her, indeed only respect. For here was a man who had unflinchingly stood by the principles he had always believed in. All that, and the fact that the most powerful man in the nation, the God of New Halcyon, had called on her, alone, and now sat before her, kindly and humbly.

“I am aware that Ms. Witcher and my daughter-in-law called on you earlier in the day,” he said. “I am also aware you were rather agitated at what they had to say.” He paused for a second. “Well, Savannah, I have come to say precisely the same things.”

Savannah felt a flash of anger go screaming through her.
How dare he!
But she looked into his eyes and her gaze fell.

“But I have a very good reason to say what I am about to, so please bear with me.” He paused again. She blinked. Suddenly she was back to being nervous. He understood. He cleared his throat. “Can I bother you for a glass of water?” he smiled.

Mary, how could I have overlooked a simple courtesy like that!
Embarrassed, she rushed to the kitchen. The breather indeed helped to lessen her tension.

She offered him the glass of water. “Would you like some coffee, sir, or would you prefer a cola or something?”

“Oh, nothing…thank you so much. It is rather late…I should be in bed by now. I get up early, you know. I need my five o’clock walk. Without it my day is ruined.” He patted his flat belly and laughed. “Not bad for a man my age, uh?”

Savannah flushed.

He sipped the water, then placed the half-empty glass on the coffee table before him.

“Thank you,” he said. “Nothing like pure water for a drink.” His face got a little serious now. “I know we have had our differences, Savannah, but let that not color your judgment. I request you to please hear me out and if at the end of it you do not like what I have to say, you may gladly kick my butt out and I promise you I shall not so much as whimper.”

Her flush deepened, so much it made her cheeks hot. He pretended not to notice.

“Earlier in the day, I spoke to Ms. Susannah Lamb, the managing director of New Halcyon Laboratories. She is an honorable lady and she assured me most earnestly that the DNA results were completely authentic from the samples provided. There is no doubt that Robin
is
your daughter.” Before she could react any, Grant raised his forefinger. “And I am as assured of your truthfulness when you say Robin in
not
your daughter. It is a disquieting situation.”

He took a long breath. “Later in the day, I briefly visited Butcher Hospital. I consulted with Dr. Deirdre Fox and other professionals and discussed this rather strange phenomenon at length. To cut brief a lengthy story, the psychiatrists said that only one thing explained this. They paraded some fancy terms, which simply put meant specific-period amnesia. When a person suffers such trauma that she is unable to bear, the mind’s defense system takes over. As a result, it completely blocks out the traumatic incident from memory, allowing the person to regroup and continue living. Perhaps something terrible happened to you in the period of Robin’s birth, some unspeakable ordeal, something too big for you to handle, something that made your defenses shut out that phase of your life from your mind. Dr. Fox said that these things are wholly possible. It happened with Robin recently, remember?

“And they said that the only way to revive a blocked memory was through hypnotherapy. Of course, there is no scientific sanction for the practice as yet. However, it is unofficially used by some of the most respected medical professionals, more often than one would imagine…albeit very discreetly. Also, there is no guarantee it will work. Moreover, the process could be very painful. But our hospital has a couple of excellent hypnotherapists.” He studied her. “If you allow, Savannah, I can arrange the sessions.

“Now let me tell you why I think you should go for it. Before I came here, I had a meeting with the trustees of the Home at my house. There was unanimity that Robin should be permanently brought to Butcher Garden without delay. In fact, right away. Of course, none of the trustees know of the clandestine DNA testing that you people undertook, and its results, besides me. Anyway, somehow I held them off for a few days.

“And why did I do that? Because I did not want my son to bring the girl home under a cloud. Because I believe that no mother should ever be deprived of her child, no matter what. Equally, no child should have to go through life without her mother, if that mother were still alive and capable.” He exhaled.

“It is for your and Robin’s sake that I think you should go in for hypnotherapy. If finally nothing comes out of it, you are completely free to go your way. No one shall bother you ever again. Robin shall then come to Butcher Garden to Wolf for good and life shall move on. But if your memory does return and you want your child back, I, Grant Butcher, President of this great nation, do solemnly promise you that no one shall stop you from having her. I give you my word.

“I also assure you that all this shall be done in complete confidence. Not a fly outside the walls of the hospital room shall ever come to know. I shall personally supervise everything. I shall be there beside you all the time.” He joined his hands together. There was a look of silent appeal in his eyes. “Do not inadvertently separate a mother from her child, Savannah. And do not be the cause of keeping a child away from her mother. That is all I ask you.” He got to his feet. He looked intensely into Savannah’s eyes for a second and added, “There is no profounder relationship in this world than between a mother and her child. It is God’s own bond.” He took a deep breath. “Well, I have had my say and now I shall leave before you kick me out too.”

He reached the door, opened it, then looked back.

“One more thing. Let this be between you and me for now. Please tell no one I visited. Not even Wolf.” Then he was gone.