Chapter Four

They'd been walking in silence for a while, but she didn't mind. She wanted to give him all the time he needed to gather his thoughts and tell her what he was ready to share. She knew it wasn't easy, it hadn't been easy for her either. But she was holding his hand as a silent encouragement, like he'd done to her that day and she knew it was just a matter of time.

"My sister, Helen introduced her to me. She brought Lauren home with her one year during summer holiday. They went to the same art college in San Francisco and they became good friends there. Helen has always been good at drawing and our mother wanted her to develop those skills. Lauren studied interior design. She made magic with the house during the few weeks she spent here each summer. That's how we got to know each other."

He paused and she took this opportunity to ask the question that had been on her mind since the morning.

"You're talking about this house, right?"

"Yes, it's our family's heritage. Both my sisters moved out when they got married, but we lived here. Although I had the place redecorated after the divorce, it was just too painful to see her hands' work everywhere."

Diane was grateful for him for answering her unvoiced question. She would have hated to feel uncomfortable in the house from now on.

"How did it happen?"

"The divorce? I don't know. I mean we had a few fights from time to time, but that's normal in a marriage. But in the end she blamed me for quite a few things. I wasn't there for her when she needed me the most, she couldn't count on me because of my work, I was away too often and left Lara to her. I didn't cooperate enough in bringing her up and only enjoyed the advantages, not to mention I spoiled her too much. She threw all this at my head a few times and I tried to change, but it wasn't enough for her. I knew she felt a little lonely here, her family being far away, she had to start a new life, find new friends, my sister was gone soon too. She just didn't feel like home here, I wasn't enough for her. She was homesick too often and there was also some childhood love of her in the picture. Anyway, she decided to go back to her old life again and take our daughter with her and I couldn't do anything to change her mind."

"I'm sorry. I can only imagine what you'd been through, losing a child."

"Fortunately she's not blaming either of us, she's learnt to accept that it just didn't work. It took some time though, she had to grow up to be able to understand it properly."

"What about you and Lauren, are you on good terms?"

"We don't talk much and only about Lara. She's still friends with Helen though."

She hadn't met his sisters yet, but she'd learnt a few things about them and their families from him. She wasn't really ready to meet them, even though after this encounter with his ex wife she would most likely have been able to take anything. He knew she didn't have siblings, her closest living relative was her father's sister, who she had been named after. She had a granddaughter who was like a niece to her, but that was pretty much all the family she could show up, while he had six nieces and nephews. She could imagine how a family reunion could have looked like in his family and she hoped she could postpone taking part on one of those with a few more months, or even more. It was definitely too early for even thinking of that, although it had already crossed her mind.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" he asked after a long pause.

"No," she replied and she heard him letting out a big sigh, "And I'm sorry if I caused you any pain with my questions."

"No," he reassured her quickly, "You have the right to know all this, I probably should have told you earlier."

"Do you think she's okay with me being around Lara? It might be the reason she came here that she doesn't trust me."

"She has to trust me. She knows I want what's best for our daughter and you're the first one who actually met her, no wonder Lauren became curious."

"You do know that I'm not exactly the maternal type, right?"

"She's twenty, it's perfectly fine that you two get along as friends."

"I think we will, although when it comes to the firm, I can't promise anything. I hear they talk about me as the bitchy boss," she chuckled, turning to a less serious tone.

"I'm sure you can make an exception with my daughter," he smiled.

"No," she replied teasing, "The fact that I hired her has already given way to gossip."

"Really? And who dares to gossip about the bitchy boss?" he laughed, "You gotta give those people some serious work to do."

"I'll do my best," she said smiling.

They walked back to the house and she knew it would soon be time for him to pick Lara up and for her to get used to having a third person in their life for a longer term. Even though she knew she could count on him, she still had doubts about how everything would work out for the three of them. And even though she got to know some things about Lara's mother, she still didn't exactly know why she decided to enter their life and how long she was going to stay.