Hope is a Four Letter Word - Complete

Chapter Fourteen

After the introductions, the three of them stood awkwardly.

"Let's sit," Janine suggested, sitting on the end of one sofa primly, Abe seated beside her, in stark contrast to the scene of a few minutes before.

"So I take it from before that you two are still, um, friendly?" Rose asked.

Abe looked at Janine and raised an eyebrow, at a loss for what to say.

"We've spent most of the last seventeen years apart, but we've always remained very fond of one another," Janine said.

Abe rolled his eyes at Janine's evasive answer. "What your mother means to say is we've stayed faithful to one another, seen one another when we could, and loved each other deeply all these years," Abe said, reaching over to take Janine's hand in his.

"Stayed in touch? How often? Are we talking every day? Once a week? Every month? A couple of times a year?" Rose asked. She was feeling shocked. She'd honestly thought her father was a part of her mother's past. A youthful dalliance discarded when more pressing worldly concerns took precedence. It was quite a surprise to find out not only had it been a lot more than that, but unbeknownst to her it had also been that way her entire life.

"We went four years without speaking when your mother left. We didn't know how closely I might be being watched, so it was safest that you and your mother dropped out of my life altogether. I didn't have any idea where the two of you were, and I don't mind saying it was the hardest four years of my life. Janine got in touch a couple of days before she brought you to America when you were nearly four, and I got to see you briefly then. I don't suppose you remember?" Abe asked hopefully.

Rose shook her head, too stunned by this new information to articulate a response.

"Never mind," Abe said with an encouraging smile. "After you came to the Academy, and your mother accepted an allocation with Lord Szelsky, it was a little easier. After a few years, Janine felt comfortable confiding in Lord Szelsky that she had a long-term partner of considerable means, so when he went on holidays, I'd arrange to holiday in the same place, and we'd spend a few days together. Disposable mobile phones have made life a lot easier, so we speak more often now, but my business has also become considerably less dangerous over the years, so the level of potential danger has decreased."

"Wow, you must have seen some amazing places together?" Rose asked faintly.

"Oh, we have!" Abe said enthusiastically, giving her a warm smile. "We've been to Mexico, Ibiza, The Maldives, Jamaica, Nepal, Mauritius, Morocco, Turkey as well as California, Quebec, New York and The Hamptons!"

"That's a lot of holidays together. Which was your favorite?"

Abe looked at Janine lovingly, missing the flash of warning in her eyes. "Probably the Hamptons. I rented an amazing house completely secluded with its own beach. It was magnificent!"

"It sounds it," Rose said sadly. "So tell me, while you were holidaying all over the world, did you stop to wonder how your daughter was going? You know - the one dumped at an Academy at four years old to grow up as an orphan? Did either of you think about me? Because while the Hamptons and all those exotic places sound like a blast, let me assure you growing up alone and forgotten wasn't!"

Rose stood on shaking legs feeling a dark rage flooding her. But this wasn't spirit darkness; it was years of bad feelings and resentment finally coming to the fore.

"Did you ever think about the four-year-old who eventually learned there was no point crying out in the night because no one was listening or cared enough to come? Did you know I relied on hand-me-downs and charity from the Dragomirs to clothe myself? That I caught pneumonia after making it most of the way through a Montana winter when I was five before anyone twigged I didn't have a coat or any shoes that fit? Does it surprise you I learned at a very young age the guardian life could be a lonely one and as a little girl that no one cared to protect, there were some guardians you never wanted to find yourself alone with?! I'm glad you enjoyed your happy vacations away together but let me assure you, being given away to grow up unloved and uncared for was definitely not fun," Rose bellowed in rage.