“It doesn’t matter.”
“That good, uh? Listen... It’s been ages since I’ve played with someone. One day we can play together.” Sophia put her cold hand on his warm one and thought for a moment. “A classical opus and a modern piece. They’re small and easy, but I love them.” She took a deep breath and lightly set her fingers on the keys. “Hope you don’t mind the sound of my nails.”
The sounds of Beethoven Moonlight, piano sonata number 14, filled the room. She closed her eyes, concentrated on the song, and her lips moved as if in prayer.
So sad. Alistair’s heart clenched in his chest. He looked at her face and was mesmerized by the many emotions.
She glanced briefly at him. Her eyes were dark brown and on her lips was an apologetic smile. Finishing, she launched into ‘Memories’ by Barbra Streisand and started singing. Her head dropped a bit and her hair fell from her ear, curtaining her face.
Alistair looked at her, entranced, and very slowly so as to not disturb her, he pushed her hair behind her ear. It was then that he noticed that there were tears in her eyes. He placed his hand on her thigh and squeezed.
Sophia kept singing, her fingers moving over the keys and so much emotion in her voice, it astounded Alistair. Towards the end, she dropped her head, her voice faltered as tears fell freely.
Sophia ended the song and put her hands over her face.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice strangled, “I should have chosen another song.” She felt his arms wrapping around her and she put her forehead on his chest.
Gabriel again. “You still love him, don’t you?” he asked, despondent. Is there room in your heart for me?
Sophia understood the meaning behind his question; it was the same way she had felt about Heather not so long ago. She dried her eyes and smiled sadly at him. “I loved him. Very much. He’ll always have a special place in my heart. We were married for seven magical, joyful years. He is the father of my daughter.” She sighed and looked down at her hands, “His death was so, so stupid. If not for me and my father-in-law, Gabriela would still have her father.”
“Your father-in-law?” Alistair asked puzzled. He remembered her saying that she felt responsible for his death, but she didn’t like speaking about it, so he knew little else.
She raised her head, anger and hatred burning in her eyes. “He killed his own son. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of about twenty-million pounds. Peanuts for Gabriel. Even for his father. But, oh, no. No,” she shook her head hard, “that awful man had to negotiate Gabriel’s life. His own son’s life. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Then after eighty days, he demanded proof that his son was still alive,” she whispered so low that he had to confirm.
“Proof?”
She stiffened and gripped his arms, her nails digging in. “They sent me... Me!” She squeezed her eyes shut, as if she could avoid the image that was forever imprinted in her mind. Battling the nausea that always rose when she remembered that day, she whispered, “His finger with his wedding band.”
Christ. He breathed, profoundly shocked, as his hand stroked her back, soothing. “You didn’t have K&R insurance?”
She shook her head. “Brazil stopped being rated as a high risk country. Our cars were armored. We had bodyguards...” She shrugged.
“And your bodyguards?”
“Murdered. I don’t know how, I don’t remember.”
“Why didn’t you pay the ransom?” he asked, astonished at the absurdity and horror of the whole story.
“Gabriel’s father blocked any access to the police or the kidnappers and he appointed himself as the negotiator. I didn’t have the money. Not like that.” She snapped her fingers. “I didn’t have the access to Gabriel’s accounts. I had my own money and properties, and we had a small joint account. I never cared about his money. He gave me everything I could want...” she breathed. “Felipe tried to help me, but Gabriel’s father had too much influence.”
Alistair didn’t understand. “But you were his wife... In a situation like that surely the police would-”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t well for a long time. I got an infection from the gunshot wounds at the public hospital where I was first taken. Although they saved my life, the doctors at public hospitals in Brazil work under precarious circumstances. My grandparents moved me to a private clinic and I underwent two more surgeries on my arm over the next month. Also, from the minute I regained consciousness after the first surgery, I was unwell, depressed. I had amnesia and terrible panic attacks.” Her eyes turned to blistering fire and she hissed, “And my father-in-law kept me drugged.”
He frowned. “Drugged?”
She nodded vigorously, “I suppose he paid off a doctor.”
His brow creased more, “You suppose?”
“I was kept heavily medicated for almost two months. Psychiatric drugs. They controlled the panic attacks, but made me apathetic and dizzy. The amnesia worsened. They were prescribing a much stronger dose than was needed. My grandmother took me to a different specialist when I-” She looked into his face and whispered, “When I forgot Gabriela’s name.”
“Jesus Christ, Sophia.” His green eyes flamed with anger and his fist clenched on her back. “How could anyone be so cruel?”
“He never liked me. Well,” she stood up and paced the room, “to make a very long story short after they sent me his finger, I realized I was going to lose Gabriel. I stopped taking all the drugs, even the painkillers. I called the Federal Police Chief in Rio de Janeiro, a very good friend of Gabriel’s-
“Why? The police wasn’t helping already?” Alistair asked, confused.
“Not the Federal Police. It has no jurisdiction on kidnappings,” she explained. “Well, they started an unofficial search for him. After sixteen days, the police discovered where Gabriel was being held captive. The kidnappers suspected the police were closing in and killed him before escaping.”
This part Alistair already knew. Somehow coming from Sophia’s mouth it seemed more barbaric and cruel.
“No one,” she shook her head, “no one harms someone I love and gets away unpunished. His parents will never see Gabriela again. Never. They convinced a judge that I was a threat to my own daughter, based on the medical reports of corrupt, unethical doctors. A judge ordered that I have no access to Gabriel’s money, properties and business based on those reports and his parents became Gabriela’s tutors.”
Alistair thinned his lips and started to rise from the bench, but she raised a hand to stop him and keep him away as she paced the room shoving her hands into her hair. If he touched her right now, she would lose it.
“Gabriela had a nervous attack when they came for her three days after Gabriel’s funeral with a warrant and policemen. Policemen, do you believe it? She was only two years old. TWO!” she shouted, her body trembling with wrath. “Oh, but he thought he was the über powerful man and I was the young idiot. He was nothing,” she hissed as she slashed her hand in the air and paced away. “I had many lawyer friends and my grandparents had connections in the High Courts. The next morning, I had Gabriela back and they were humiliated.” She dug her nails in her palms and breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. “I sued them for everything I could devise.” She turned to look at him, her chest heaving with labored breaths. “I had the last laugh, but it was bitter.”
He was frozen on the bench, thunderstruck, looking at a woman he didn’t know. Gone was the gentle and happy Sophia and the sensible lawyer who had a charitable foundation. The former glimpses he’d had of her as the avenging angel where nothing compared to this. Sophia looked like she was possessed by the devil himself.