1054: Gaslighter

He’d folded his arms over his chest, waiting to hear how Sebastian would try to weasel his way out of the confrontation.

“Your niece came to my place totally upset because she thought I was about to skip town. That kid is really important to me and she should be important to you. You should at least know enough about your niece to realize that she sees me as part of her support team. Dropping a bomb about her losing me affects her.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Tansy was here at the store recently, but we barely even had a conversation. I didn’t say anything to her about you skipping town.”

“But you did say something about it to your friend, what’s her name, the red head. Tansy heard it, she was shattered by the idea that I would just take off without even talking it over.”

Sebastian shoved a hand through his hair. His gaze flicked to the back room door where Ava could emerge any minute. “I’m sorry if something I said upset my niece. It was a misunderstanding. I wish she’d have just come to me to clear it up.”

“She’s not going to come to someone who’s never been there for her. What exactly would you have said to her anyway? How would you have cleared it up? Why were you talking about me leaving? Do you know something that I don’t?”

“You’re leaving town?” came a voice form behind him. “Where are you going?”

Xavier turned to Ava. “Nowhere as far as I know. But, maybe Sebastian can enlighten us both. I wasn’t even going to mention any of this.” Which was a lie. If Sebastian was going to feign innocence, Xavier decided to do the same. “But it’s been nagging at me since it upset Tansy to overhear this guy telling that Lila person that I’d be leaving soon. So I just had to ask, where did he get an idea like that?”

“I’m sorry Tansy was upset, if I’d known…” Ava gazed at Sebastian. “Why were you and Lila talking about Xavier leaving when he’s settled here?”

A frown had flattened her lips and lifted Xavier’s though only slightly. He couldn’t look like he enjoyed putting doubt in her mind about Sebastian. When she realized that her husband was still the kind of guy to plot behind her back, Xavier didn’t want to give Sebastian any excuses. He didn’t want the guy to be able to argue that Xavier had been a legit threat.

And he hadn’t been one. He’d had no intention of being a problem for Sebastian. But that was before Sebastian had worried Tansy. That was before Xavier had found out that Sebastian might be scheming in some way to get rid of him, to push him away from the only friends and pseudo family he had. Sebastian may have chased Xavier away before but it wasn’t happening again.

Xavier had thought that maybe by now Sebastian might have chased away Ava. But Xavier hadn’t seen her since. She hadn’t come to him. It was probably stupid or crazy or a bit of both to think she might.

Episode 1055: No No No