Cristiane Serruya - Trust: Betrayed

Fuck. “Aye.”

“Are you going to marry her?”

Fuck. Double fuck. It was Alistair’s turn to blink. Sometimes Gabriela made him speechless.

“Can I come in? I promise not to wake her up.”

You’re blocking the entrance to her mother’s bedroom, stupid. Alistair scowled at himself and picked Gabriela up, closing the door behind him.

The little girl looked at her mother and then at Alistair and put her finger on her lips, “Shhh, she is sleeping.”

When he sat on the sofa by the glass doors and put her beside him, she rose on her knees and murmured in his ear, “Can we have breakfast together? On the terrace?”

“We’ll wake her if Aisha and Lucy come through the room,” he whispered.

She shook her head, “No. There’s another door in the TV room.” Her eyes glittered. “Can we?”

“All right, then.”

She smiled, “I’ll ask Aisha- Ah... What do you like for breakfast?”

“Surprise me.”

Gabriela jumped down from the sofa happily and froze as Sophia sighed and shifted on the bed. She bit her lip and looked up at him, sheepishly.

“Go on,” he whispered. “I’ll meet you outside in five minutes.”

She grinned and bobbed her head as she tiptoed silently through the room with lots of ideas churning in her mind.

09.08 a.m.

Alistair was more than enchanted by the little girl. She had asked for the breakfast to be extra special, so the maids had prepared an array of delicious food served on Sophia’s best china and silverware, arranged over a white embroidered towel and a vase full of yellow and orange daffodils that Gabriela picked from Sophia’s garden.

As they sat down to eat, the little girl told him about Narcissus’s legend. She truly believed that the young Greek man had drowned himself in the small pond in their garden and that was why the daffodils grew there. And when Alistair chuckled at the story, she shook her head at him with lips pursed sternly, her pigtails bouncing around her small face.

“All right, all right. I have to agree with you,” he conceded, as he checked on Sophia through the open glass door. When his gaze returned to Gabriela’s face, he noticed she had stopped eating her scrambled eggs and was eyeing him intently, her teeth digging in her bottom lip.

“What is it, Fairy?”

Her delicate eyebrows lowered when she chastised him, “You didn’t answer my question, you know?”

He composed his face restraining the smile that wanted to curl his lips up. “What question, sweetheart?”

“Are you going to marry Mama?”

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Alistair decided to play safe for the moment. “Do you want me to?”

Gabriela’s face glowed as she answered, “Yes.”

Christ. What now? I can’t tell her I want to marry Sophia too. He drank his tea while he tried to put his thoughts and feelings in order. His gaze swung back to Sophia. An idea took form in his mind. “Do you want to go to Craigdale again, Gabriela? Today? We could spend the weekend there.”

“Is Lachlann going to be there? We could look for fairies again.”

“Very well, then. Wait here, I’ll be right back.” He rose from the chair and went into the bedroom to grab his cell phone and returned in a moment.

He called Tavish asking if he could go with them. He wouldn’t be in peace if he took Sophia to Ardaneaskan without a doctor or a nurse. When his brother instantly agreed to the trip, he called MacKeenan asking him to inform his crew they would depart from London City Airport to Craigdale Castle at one o’clock.

“Can we invite Ariadne?”

“Anyone you want, sweetheart.”

She squealed and immediately put a hand over her mouth. Alistair chuckled as he called Alice and invited her too.

He finished the call and turned to Gabriela, “All set.” He glanced at his watch. “I think we’d better wake your mother. She has therapy in an hour.”

Before he rose, Gabriela put her small hand over his. Her pretty face was serious when she asked, “Can I tell you a secret?”

“I’m all ears,” he smiled.

“But you can’t tell Mama. Promise?”

“Fairy.” Alistair grimaced and covered her hand with his other one. “I can’t keep secrets from Sophia. And you shouldn’t either. But I will promise you this,” he put two fingers over his heart, “if it’s something Sophia doesn’t need to know, then we can keep it between us. Okay?” He’d learned the hard way that some secrets did more damage than good, but he did want Gabriela to trust him.

Gabriela bent her chin to her chest, avoiding his stare while she thought about Alistair’s counterproposal.

“You can trust me. But Sophia is your mother. She loves you and she’s your best friend-”

“I know. That is why you can’t tell her. It’s going to make Mama sad.”

What? “Hmm. Very well. Tell me your secret.”

She stared at him with her beautiful blue eyes and whispered, “Sometimes... I miss my Daddy. I don’t cry anymore, but I still miss him.”

Alistair swallowed with difficulty. His hand gently squeezed her little one, giving comfort.

“Alistair, if you marry Mama, would you be my father?”

“If you wish,” the words rasped from his throat as a lump formed in it.

“Then can I call you Daddy?”

Daddy! Even now, Alistair could hear Nathalie calling him. The memory was raw and the pain, fresh. It was too much for him to bear stoically. He looked down at their hands, so she wouldn’t see the tears that gathered in his eyes. His chest hurt when he breathed in deep and his voice was loaded with emotion when he said, “I’d be honored to be your father, Gabriela.” He could hardly speak without revealing his strong emotions. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

9.21 a.m.

Gabriela’s kiss awoke a still groggy Sophia. Despite everything that had happened yesterday, she was feeling refreshed. When she stretched out lazily and opened her eyes, Gabriela sprinkled kisses on her cheek.

“Wake up, Mama,” she said impatiently, so excited she was practically bouncing on the bed. “We are going to Craigdale.”

That made Sophia blink and fully wake up. She rubbed her eyes and pushed up, seeing Alistair standing by the edge of the bed, “Hey, good morning. We’re going to Craigdale? Today?”

“Aye,” he sat by her side. “After your therapy session. I’ve spoken with Dr. Colton-”

“You’ve spoken with Dr. Colton,” she repeated dryly, tilting her head to study his face. Sophia didn’t know if she should be irritated with the way he had decided everything without consulting her. She wasn’t used to having someone else make the decision. “When?”

“He called about ten minutes ago. He wanted to know how you spent the night.” He tucked back a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Tavish Uilleam is coming with us, you don’t need to worry.”

Sophia smiled, amused. He orders everyone around.

“And Alistair let me invite Ariadne, Alice, Michael and Leonard,” Gabriela complemented. “Everyone, Mama! Can I choose your clothes?”

Sophia’s smile couldn’t be contained anymore. Gabriela’s happiness was her priority in life and if Alistair made her daughter happy, she would put up with some meddling in her life. Right now, it was the lesser of her problems.

Kensington. Dr. Guilhermina Kent’s Office.

10.14 a.m.

Guilhermina Kent opened the door to her office and smiled, welcoming Sophia in with a kiss on each cheek. She was Columbian and looked thirty, despite being forty-five years old. She had olive skin, very short brownish hair and brown expressive eyes. She didn’t dress conservatively; she didn’t talk pompously; she used just a hint of makeup. She encouraged her patients to call her by her nickname, Mina, and she talked - really talked - during the sessions. And smiled a lot. No stern looks or frowns from Dr. Kent.

Edward was the one who had referred her. Based solely on her appearance and demeanor, Sophia would never have guessed she was a psychiatrist, who graduated from Stanford University, with a doctorate in psychoanalysis from the University of Essex.

“How are you, Sophia?”

“I’ve been better,” Sophia sat in the armchair instead of lying on the couch. She preferred to look at Dr. Kent’s face and the doctor was very comfortable with this arrangement.

Dr. Kent’s trained gaze swept over Sophia’s face. “You look better than yesterday. Much better.”

“I’m trying to convince myself of that as well,” Sophia said wryly.

With her lips twisting ruefully, Dr. Kent sat in her armchair, facing Sophia and crossed her legs.

“You know, Sophia, you are human. You don’t have to punish yourself because you can’t always live up to the high standards you set for yourself.”

High standards? You have no idea. Sophia grimaced, “People expect me to behave according to the high expectations I’ve always set. I have always had a perfect and model behavior. I- Sophia, the lawyer, the teacher, the heiress, even the widow and the mother... We are myths, hiding our dark secrets under fairy tales.”

“We are here to deconstruct these myths you have created for yourself and shed some light on those supposedly dark secrets of yours.”

“People see what they want to see and they will react to me based on who they want me to be.”

Dr. Kent smiled then and put her elbows on her knees. “And who do you want to be, Sophia?” she asked quietly, resting her chin on her enlaced fingers.

I don’t know. Sophia didn’t answer.

“Secrets,” Dr. Kent mused, “they weigh on us. How much are you carrying on your shoulders?”