He continued to console her and she began to calm down. Pulling back she looked in his eyes. He'll hate me when he finds out what I did. He'll know what a terrible person I am and never want to see me again.

He brushed the hair out of her eyes, "Tell me what happened."

"I…I can't." She replied averting her eyes

He gently turned her face back to meet his, "Yes, you can."

"Once you know what I did you'll hate me." She said

"No, I won't." He insisted, "Now let's sit down on the couch and you can tell me about it."

She nodded and he led her over to the sofa. She took a deep breath and began, "Well, I told you we were twins. Her name was Stephanie. When we were kids we used to switch places. I would take her math tests and she would do my detention for me. I was always getting in trouble for smoking or something."

"I would imagine most twins do that."

"We had a big fight our senior year in high school. She felt overshadowed by me and she decided to go to Bryn Mawr College and I went to the Sorbonne. Mother wanted us both to go to Bryn Mawr as she had but I had to be difficult. Anyway, Stefanie married after her sophomore year and had two children pretty quickly, Penny and Mark. I finished college and went off to Europe where I married Denton Longworth, a viscount. We divorced after a few years and I remained in London and eventually became part owner of a very exclusive antique shop. Stephanie raised her family and we did stay close, talking quite often." She took another breath as she searched for the words to go on

"It's alright." He said

"I called her about a year ago and invited her to spend our birthday together in Venice." She explained, "She told me there were problems with her husband, Grant and she needed to get away so I paid for her ticket and we spent a week together. She thought Grant might be cheating and he had also become so absorbed in his work he didn't pay much attention to her or the kids sometimes." She paused again, "On our last day we both dreaded going back to our lives. I had become tired of the empty life I was living. All I had was money and friends who only cared about your social status and not really about you…so we decided to do what we did when we were little. We would switch places for a week, get some perspective and also understand the other's life."

He thought for a moment, taking it in, "So you did this, pretending to be the other?"

She nodded and wiped away a tear, "Yes, I went back to Evanston as Stephanie Roberts and she went to London as Sabrina Longworth. It was going okay until a couple of days after I got to Evanston, Grant and I had a party to go to at the University. He's a genetics professor, a scientist. We were in a car accident on the way home and I broke my wrist. I called Stephanie and told her what happened and that I was going to tell Grant the truth. She begged me not to, that he would leave her and take the kids. So we played it out and that's when it all started to unravel."

She searched his eyes and found no judgment or criticism so she continued, "Stephanie started to become more and more caught up in my life and soon she didn't seem to care about coming home. She had started having an affair with an Italian name Carlo. They were on his yacht and there was an explosion and everyone was killed."

He pulled her in his arms and gently rubbed her back, "I'm so sorry, Sabrina. But that isn't your fault."

She pulled back, "But if we hadn't switched places at all she'd still be alive. It was my idea and I should have insisted we tell the truth after the accident."

"But your sister agreed to the switch and you just wanted to help her by not saying anything later." He said, "So what happened after she was killed?"

"I went to the funeral. I still hadn't told him the truth." She explained, "I was going to when I came back but I just didn't know how so for three more months I pretended to be my sister. It wasn't until we came here, to New York, so Grant could interview for a job that he somehow figured it out."

"He confronted you?"

"Yes, and threw me out of our hotel room and his life." She said, "I haven't talked to him or the children in months. He wants nothing to do with me. I don't know if Mark and Penny even know the truth."

"There is more isn't there?" He asked

She nodded, "I fell in love with him. He wasn't how Stephanie described him at all. I think her leaving made him realize they needed to work on their marriage. He was kind, attentive and loving. I tried to keep my distance. They had been sleeping in separate rooms but…"

"You finally made love to him?"

"He came in the bedroom one night and I tried to tell him then but he was so…he was everything I had ever wanted. I knew, for a moment, what it felt like to have real love and a family."

"So…the baby…"

"Is Grant's." She confirmed, "He has no idea."

"You haven't even tried to tell him?" He asked

"How?" She asked, "If I called him, he'd just hang up. If I wrote a letter, he'd throw it away."

"He may be angry with you but he has a right to know."

"Phillip, please. I have to figure this out." She said, "That's one reason I didn't say anything. I didn't want to hear even the most well intended advice."

"Sabrina, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. Nor am I judging you. I just see how unhappy you are."

"I did it to myself." She replied, "He has every right to feel the way he does." She got up and walked over to the mantle and took down the picture of Penny and Mark, running her fingers over it

Phillip came up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders, "You love them very much, don't you?"

A tear spilled onto the frame, "As if they were my own." She put the photograph back and placed her hands on her belly

He slipped one hand around her waist and rested it on her abdomen and she relaxed against him, savoring his gentleness, "Then don't give up so easily."

He had wanted to tell her he loved her but he knew if he were in Grant's place he would want to know about his child. So he held her for a while longer telling himself her friendship would have to be enough.

/

The following day Sabrina returned to work and was busily cataloging pieces when the door to the gallery opened. Madeline was out so she headed to the front of the store and smiled broadly when she saw who was there.

"Sandy!" She said

"Sabrina!" Princess Alexandra embraced her friend then pulled back, "Look at you. I can't believe it."

Sabrina smiled again, "I can't either."

"Well, it looks like we have a lot to talk about."

TBC