Cheryl x Liam: Could It Be You? [Book #2 of Inevitable Series]

Part 5

The next few days passed in a bit of blur; Cheryl, Liam, and Sophia enjoying themselves quite a lot on the sun drench shores of Cape Town as their mornings were spent having breakfast on their little decking area and going for walks, or simply just hanging out on the beach building sandcastles – well Liam and Sophia were building sandcastles while Cheryl just watched whilst her heart melted from seeing them bond so well. Their holiday together was going amazing so far, and truthfully, Cheryl and Liam both felt like this was the first of many holidays they'd have together as a family.

Today was finally Christmas Eve, and to say that Sophia was excited was a bit of an understatement. Throughout the morning whilst they'd been having breakfast, she had been chatting away excitedly about how she hoped that Santa would still find her there in Cape Town and how she hoped he would bring her all the things on her Christmas letter – something that both Cheryl and Liam were trying not to giggle about as she talked as they obviously had all of Sophia's Christmas presents hidden away in the house as Cheryl had gotten one of her good friends that lived in Cape Town – a woman called Janine – to collect all the presents and hide them when they'd been delivered to the villa a week before they'd all come down.

"Mammy, can we still make cookies for Santa too?" Sophia later asked as she and Cheryl sat out on the beach other watching the waves; both of them looking alike for the most part as they both had on pale blue halter sundresses and their dark brown hair were up in top knots.

"Yeah we can babe, we can get Liam to help too because he's pretty crafty with that stuff as well." Cheryl responded as she nudged her arm; Sophia giggling to herself as she picked up another shell to toss into the water.

"Mammy." She said as she stared out at the water.

"Yeah babes?" Cheryl asked, looking over at her.

"Mammy, where is the nice lady that helped you find me when I was gone before? Miss Sophia?" she asked.

Cheryl instantly froze. Sophia hadn't mentioned the whole ordeal in a couple of months now, and while Cheryl knew she hadn't forgotten about it as she was sure it had been traumatizing for her at time, the fact that she hadn't mentioned it was a sure sign that she was trying her hardest to move on from everything. However, Cheryl also couldn't be blind to the fact that Sophia Smith had been very kind to her daughter and had helped with her rescue, so of course Sophia was bound to ask about her.

"Erm, she's in England babe, you'll probably see her soon in court too." She replied, smiling slightly at her.

"Oh you mean when I see the bad men too?" Sophia inquired. Cheryl nodded her head, stroking a bit of hair behind her ear. Sophia smiled and nodded her head as she looked back up at her again.

"Mammy, Miss Sophia wasn't bad, was she? She was very kind to me; she gave me nice cuddles when the bad men would make me cry and stuff." She questioned, her lips pouted together in confusion.

"Erm, well it's hard to explain babe," Cheryl sighed slightly, "Miss Sophia was very kind to you, but she knew the bad men were going to take you and she didn't tell someone – so that was the bad part. That doesn't mean she's a bad person; she erm...she just didn't tell someone so she was in trouble too, because it was bad of them to take you."

"I didn't like them at all," Sophia shrugged before continuing, "I liked Miss Sophia, though. Do you think I'll be able to give her a hug when I see her?"

"I don't know babe; we'll see about all that." Cheryl replied. Sophia nodded before looking up as Liam wandered out to join them; Liam having been inside FaceTiming his family as this was obviously the first Christmas he was spending without them – not that he was complaining as truthfully, there was no place he'd rather be other than right there with Sophia and Cheryl.