Chapter 431 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Are you always this suspicious?”

“No. I’m not.”

“So why can’t you just believe that I’m here to watch over you?” Desmond asked, and Sonia smiled.

“I believe you are here to watch over me, but I also believe that is not the only reason you are here. I noticed the way you were staring at me on the plane earlier. I’m a writer. Things hardly get past me,” Sonia said, and Desmond nodded.

“I want to know how you are doing,” Desmond said, and Sonia smiled.

“I told you already. I’m fine. I think the medication is working. All I need is to rest and…”

“I’m not talking about the medicine, and I know you know it,” Desmond cut in, and Sonia sighed.

“How are you?” Desmond repeated.

“Were you a shrink or something?” Sonia asked curiously.

“A priest. I was going to become a priest before I met Eve, and like Adam, I let her lead me astray,” Desmond said with a straight face, and Sonia’s mouth dropped open in surprise before he burst into a peal of laughter.

“I was just kidding,” he said amidst his laughter, and this time Sonia laughed too.

“I can’t believe I bought that,” Sonia said in amusement.

“To answer your question, I’m not a shrink, but I did take a couple of courses in psychology some years ago. Needed to for Eve’s sake,” Desmond said, and Sonia raised a brow.

“Why? Did she have psychological problems?” Sonia asked curiously.

“You could say that. She grew up with an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. Her father used to molest her kid sister,” Desmond said flatly, and Sonia’s brows pulled together.

“Evelyn?” She asked, unable to believe that someone as tough as Evelyn could have experienced something like that.

“Yeah. Eve. She always felt guilty about it, wishing he had molested her instead of her little sister. She was too young and couldn’t stop him from molesting her, and their mother was too drunk half the time to do anything about it. She finally snapped when her sister died of sepsis, and she stabbed him in his sleep,” Desmond said, and Sonia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“She killed her father?”

“Unfortunately for him, he didn’t die. But he was hurt badly enough for her mother to call an ambulance, and then the police were involved,” Desmond said, and Sonia frowned.

“How old was she?”

“She was twelve. Her sister was nine. Eve lived with the guilt for years. And even though she was taken away from them and placed in foster care, she didn’t move on from it. She blamed herself for living after her sister died,” Desmond said, and Sonia sighed.

“That’s terrible.”

“Do you blame yourself for what happened to Celsie? Is that why you took her side against your family’s?” Desmond asked curiously, and Sonia blinked at him, surprised by how quickly he had turned the discussion to her.

“I took her side because my parents were wrong,” Sonia said after a while.

“Good. So do you blame yourself for what happened to Celsie?” Desmond asked again.

“Jamie was my brother. My half-brother,” Sonia said quietly, as though that answered the question and explained her position.

“So you blame yourself for something your half-brother did, just like Evelyn blamed herself for something her father did,” Desmond said, and Sonia frowned.

“It’s different.”

“Is it?”

“Evelyn was a helpless kid. I wasn’t. I could have done something.”

“Like what?” Desmond asked curiously.

“She wouldn’t have met Jamie had I not been her friend.”

“Do you regret your friendship with Celsie?” Desmond asked curiously.

“Of course not! I don’t,” Sonia said passionately.

“So, what do you think you could have done to stop what happened from happening apart from not being friends with her?” Desmond asked again.

“Better put, if you had the powers to change something in the past, what would you have changed?” Desmond asked.

Sonia frowned as she considered the question, “I could have convinced Celsie to tell her parents about it. I could have told my mom about it or confronted Jamie.”

“Celsie could have done so if she wanted to. Her not doing so had nothing to do with you. Telling your mother or confronting Jamie would also not have changed anything. It wasn’t your fault that your half-brother did what he did. And it wasn’t your fault that Celsie handled it the way she did either. You were an innocent bystander,” Desmond said, and tears filled Sonia’s eyes.

“Did you attend your parents’ funeral?” He asked, and Sonia shook her head.

“Why? Hold on, Let me guess. You didn’t want to leave Celsie’s side? You felt it would be betrayal on your part if you attended the funeral of the people who tried to pin their son’s death on her?” Desmond asked as he handed Sonia his handkerchief.

“Why are you saying all this?” Sonia asked as she wiped her tears.

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