I’d hung the sat phone up, shaking from how angry she’d made me. Bribery! Threats! I’d hung up with her that evening trying very hard not to feel the restlessness our conversation had given me. I wasn’t joking with her, I had about a million things on my plate.
Little did I know, her unreal request would be the loose thread that would unravel my entire world.
The day before Christmas Eve, things felt to be steadying out and looking hopeful again. We would surprise each child with a new outfit, new shoes and two toys Christmas Day, the construction was moving forward seamlessly, and even Charles had come up for air to help every once in awhile. Yes, I, we, had every reason to be hopeful.
I woke that morning to a knock on my CHU.
“Pembrook? What’s up?” I asked, smiling.
He looked visibly put out. “May I come in?”
“Of course,” I said, swinging open my door for him. He sat at the little chair at the little built-in desk and I sat across from him on my cot.
“Just spit it out,” I said, burying my head in my hands. “I don’t think anything you say could make our situations any worse.” He shook his head in answer and my stomach dropped. “What is it?”
“Somehow the courts became aware of your unscheduled trip to Cape Town. A warrant for your arrest has been issued and you have until January second to turn yourself in.”
I stood, my hands going to my head. “There’s no way,” I said, beginning to pace. “She wouldn’t.”
“Who wouldn’t?” he asked.
“Abri Aberdeen. Ian’s mom?”
“Yes?”
“She called a few days back and essentially threatened me to leave her son alone. She felt the match imprudent considering both our background stories, felt it would be detrimental to her current political goals. She wanted me to promise to leave him alone.”
“Preposterous!” Pembrook exclaimed.
“She’d admitted to having political ties in L.A. There’s no other person I could think of who would do this. Would my father have done this?” I asked Pemmy.
“No, he knew of the trip, was ecstatic about the potential connection.”
“Figures,” I said, laughing. “So that leaves Abri. I just can’t believe she would do this. What should I do?”
“You have no choice, Sophie. You’ll return home and face Reinhold.”
“I can’t leave them now, Pemmy. I just can’t,” I said, straining not to break down. “It would make things so much worse.”
“If you don’t face Reinhold now, your legal troubles will compound. It would be wiser for you to appease them now.”
I looked at Pemmy. “He’ll throw me in jail.”
He shrugged his shoulders in reply.
I smiled at him in disbelief. “I’m paying for my past sins, Pembrook.”
“Oh,” he said, taking my hand, “I believe you’ve already paid for them tenfold, Sophie.”
“When will you tell, Ian?”
o;Shhh,” I told her, brushing her hair back when she inhaled and choked on air. “Save your breath, Karina.”
“You may have misery,” she continued, ignoring my plea, “you may lose hope in the sorrow of an unplanned life but as long as you have faith and trust in adoration, in affection, in love, that sorrow will turn to happiness. And that is a constant, dear.” She breathed deeply and steadily for a moment, seemingly catching her breath.
“No one can know sincere happiness, Sophie, without first having known sorrow. One can never appreciate the enormity and rareness of such a fiery bliss without seeing misery, however unfair that may be.
“And you will know honest happiness. Of that I am certain. Certain because it’s why you are here and also because here is your inevitability.”