Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 81

'The trap."

Max opened the door.

Her eyes were red, her face slightly gaunt but she was still as beautiful as the last time I had seen her.

There was a flicker of a smile as she saw me. She hesitated. She waited to see if it was reciprocated but it wasn't. I couldn't. Not yet. Not until I had heard it from her own lips why she had done this to me, to us; my whole family.

She sensed my mood. Her smile slowly faded and she moved back allowing us to follow her into the living room. She didn't fight me. I saw her friend Tina, the one from Paris, sat waiting. I also saw my daughter. She glanced at me unsure of what to do. I smiled at her reassuringly.

A fire burned steadily in the grate. A tall corner lamp provided the solitary light.

Max spoke first. She turned to face me.

'Uri phoned,' she said calmly. 'He called me this morning. He told me everything. He said that you were coming.'

And then before I could say anything she added quickly.

'You don't know how much I prayed that you would come back. You have to believe me. I waited and waited so long but when no one turned up I just didn't know what to do.'

She then turned slowly away.

Any hate, any anger I had towards this woman simply wasn't there. I felt numb. I had nothing in me.

I looked back at my daughter. She was the only reason I was here, not Max and yet I sensed a real change in the woman in front of me that I couldn't explain.

I had expected an atmosphere. I was expecting a conflict even, screams and shouts but standing here I felt nothing but a sense of an overwhelming calmness in the room.

My daughter suddenly got up and ran towards me hitting me with so much force I was almost sent to the floor. I received her hug and returned an even bigger one her way all the time watching the woman who had taken her from me.

There were no tears. I don't know what I would have done had my daughter cried but she just stood and hugged me and wouldn't let me go.

Geoff moved to the window lifting a side of the heavy curtains to peer outside.

'She's fine,' said Max as our eyes met again. 'You have a lovely girl. I think you should be proud of her.'

'I am,' I said and then quickly. 'We are.'

It was surreal; intimate even. There was no other word I could use to describe how I was feeling.

I prized my child slowly away kneeling down beside her. I asked if she was ok. I could see pain and confusion etched on her face but she simply nodded defiantly. I gave her another smile.

'It will be fine,' I reassured her. 'Your dad's here now and we are going home.'

Calmness surrounded me. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this.

'I honestly did not mean to hurt you,' said Max her eyes reaching out to me. 'I want you to know that. I am not a bad person.'

'I know,' I said.

'I was so young. I didn't deserve what they did to me. You must know that.  The pain, the shame, it twists everything.'

I had an overwhelming urge to close the few feet that separated us and take this woman into my arms, but again something stopped me and instead I simply told her about Adam.