Sophia Holmes and the Other Woman (Sherlock's Daughter Fanfic) *Completed*

Chapter Four

Sabrina comes in to meet us the following morning, under the assumption that we've found the dirt she needs to split up with her husband. I've downloaded and printed off the photos from Chris' computer, deleting the originals in the process. My suspicion is she already knows they exist, as we found no evidence of Chris having an affair. She must have wanted us to take away his hold on her.

"We know about your affair," dad tells her, almost immediately. "Your husband hired a private detective to gather proof that you were having an affair. We found the photos on his computer."

Jennings breaks down in front of us. "I'm sorry," she sobs. "Chris wasn't the one having the affair. I caught his detective taking photos of me and Louise last week." She rubs away her tears with one hand and looks away as she tries to pull herself together. "My family aren't the sort who would respond well to me coming out."

"And being from a wealthy family, you didn't want to lose out on your cut of the will," dad puts in.

Jennings nods miserably. "Chris was a friend of mine at Uni. I'd always suspected he had a thing for me so I told him he wasn't my type." She clears her throat. "He outed me the next day and started blackmailing me. He told me that ... that if I married him, he wouldn't tell my family the truth. That way, we get to keep my trust fund and he gets to live off my family's money."

"But then everything changed a few months ago, didn't it?" I prompt gently.

She nods, still sobbing. "I met her through work. I knew we couldn't be together while I was still married to Chris, so I needed a way to discredit anything he told my parents once we'd filed the divorce papers."

I pass her the envelope containing the photos of her affair. She looks up, confused, and opens in front of us, breaking down again when she see's what's inside.

"Now Chris has no hold over you except from the one you allow him to have," dad tells her. "They're the only copies." 

She looks over at dad, smiling through her tears. "Thank you." 

"Tell your parents," dad says gently. "Tell them everything." He looks to me. "There shouldn't be secrets in families."

"What if they disown me?" she asks.

"Unlikely," I reply, "considering they've put up with someone so obnoxious as a son-in-law because they thought you loved him. And even if they did, wouldn't it be worth it to be with the woman you love?" 

She smiles and nods. "Thank you, Miss Holmes - thanks to both of you."

Dad hands her a card from his pocket - Harriet Watson Solicitors. His own divorce lawyer. "She'll take you through everything," he says gently, and Sabrina nods and takes it on her way out.

I look across to dad as he watches her go. I can't help but think that his time away has made him more compassionate - I doubt he would have taken the case if she had brought it to us three years ago. Just goes to show how people can change. Maybe it has been for the better after all.