Sophia’s Point of View
I turned to look at my savior, my hopes shriveling up within me and dying for the last time.
It wasn’t Reid.
It was someone far more surprising that I thought I had left behind on another continent.
It was Mrs Isle Terrence.
“Were you trying to kill yourself?” She demanded, tears in her eyes.
Why was she getting so emotional over a social climber like me? I might have thought that if I didn’t feel so numb inside.
She knelt next to me pulling me into a warm embrace, her tears wetting the skin of my neck, her hoarse voice in my ear.
“I just found you, I can’t lose you again.”
The older woman had clearly lost her mind but must have lost my mind too because her hug anchored me back to reality and my numbness faded leaving hot tears streaming down my face, as I sobbed.
I lost him. I’d really lost him.
Less than an hour later, I was in a warm cafe but I had never felt more chilly.
“What do you mean I’m your child?” I asked my words dripping with disbelief.
What was today? Mess with Sophia’s mental health day?
Mrs Terrence’s lower lip wobbled, her eyes full of tears once more.
“I know this is hard for you to believe, Sophia, but-”
I cut her short before she could finish, my voice coming out sharper than I had meant it to.
“Less than two weeks ago, I was a social climber who wasn’t even fit to breathe the same air as you and now you are telling me that my parents are abductors and I am your long lost daughter?”
Returning from Tina’s house, I must have crossed into some alternate universe where everything had swapped. The brutal, edgy Mrs Terrence had been replaced by this weepy woman who had to be lying and Mr Prescott by a man I didn’t recognize.
The tears in Mrs Terrence’s eyes spilled over and her words came out as a sob.
“Sophia, forgive me, I was terrible to you. I couldn’t recognize my own child when she was right in front of me.”
I raised my hands.
“Stop, just stop. I can’t deal with this right now.”
I could feel a migraine starting at the base of my skull as I made contact with this stranger who had saved my life but was just that. A stranger.
“I am not your daughter,” I told her. “I have just one mother and she needs me now.”
With that, I stood to leave but Mrs Terrence reached out desperately holding my hand firmly.
“Your father and I searched for you for years before he passed. I thought I would never find you again.” She said in a hush, her eyes clouding over. I wanted to pull my hand out of her grip but I couldn’t do that without drawing even more attention to our table.
“Sophia, I understand this might be hard for you to stomach right away but I have been waiting for you for years. I can wait a little bit longer for you to accept our family.”
With that, she let go of me. I didn’t hesitate before walking away from her and out of the cafe.
I had no doubts. My parents weren’t perfect but they were my parents. Besides, Father wasn’t the type to raise someone else’s child for free.
But for a moment, I considered it.
Being the long lost daughter of the Terrences. An old money family with wealth that easily outclassed the Prescotts. Rita would be my sister in law and Derek, my older brother.
How laughable.
I could never fit into a family like that. I was just Sophia Evergreen, an ordinary lady with extraordinary bad taste in men.
At the thought of Mr Prescott, another jolt of pain raced through me and I had to suck in a deep breath.
Once I would have thought this was Mr Prescott trying to push me away because he was scared of admitting to his feelings and being vulnerable but after looking into those glacier cold gray eyes, after watching him try wiping away my touch, I knew that was a lie.
He didn’t care for me. He never had.
Thankfully, the hospital Mom was admitted to wasn’t too far from the cafe.
My cell phone was gone and I had left Mr Prescott’s house without even a scrap of cash or a card so despite the fact that I was currently millions of dollars rich, I was penniless so I walked.
When I got to the hospital, Mom’s complexion wasn’t as pale. Apparently, she was in recovery from yet another new treatment.
I took her hand in mine.
“Mom, how are you feeling today?”
She didn’t respond but then again, I hadn’t been expecting her to.
My heart was heavy and more tears fell from my eyes. I wished I could say I hated Reid for what he had done, what he had said but I didn’t. I just hurt.
“So many things have happened and I… I don’t know what to do anymore.” My voice cracked and my words fell away as sobs wracked through me.
“Sophia?”
I froze.
Did I just… did Mom just…
I looked up to see tired familiar pale blue eyes open and looking at me for the first time in years.
“Mom?”