Note: Okay, last chapter. Hope you have enjoyed the story. Criticisms and ideas greatly appreciated as they will be used in the sequel (cos I can never just leave a story as it is). Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing. Enjoy!
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
"Hey, let's just remember who left who here."
"So you were punishing me for leaving you? You thought you'd get your revenge by not telling me I'm a father?" he shouted, pacing across the room.
"How dare you? How dare you accuse me of being that deceitful? Giving up our child was the hardest thing I have ever done."
"Then why did you do it?"
"Would you have come back if you had known? Would it have changed your mind?"
He slowed his walking gradually until he stopped, covering his face with his hands, "I don't know."
She went over to where he stood, taking his hands in hers, "The only thing in my life, once you went, was my job. If I had a baby, I wouldn't be able to do my job anymore. And I would have to leave the palace. No job, nowhere to live, no money. That's no way to raise a child."
"If you had told me, I would have made sure you were taken care of."
She cocked an eyebrow, "How romantic."
"This isn't about romance, Charlotte."
"I wanted our baby, that's why I didn't have an abortion, but it just wasn't possible."
"I would have wanted it too," he said, quietly.
"I know," she admitted, "but I didn't know what else to do."
He sighed and pulled her into a hug, "What a mess." She closed her eyes, breathing in his familiar scent, enjoying the feel of his arms around her once again.
"Do you still want to start again, knowing what you know now?"
"We both made our mistakes. We'll take it really slowly. One step at a time," he stroked her hair gently, deep in thought, "Do you know if he was ever adopted?"
"Luke?" she asked, pushing away from him slightly so she could look up at him, "I don't know. He went into foster case until they found a family for him. I always just assumed that they would."
"Can we find out? I mean, if we're back on track and he hasn't been adopted, maybe he could, I don't know, come back to us."
"Pierre, one step at a time, remember?" she reminded him, "Let's sort us out before we go looking for Luke."
He smiled, "Eleven years and all we had to do was talk?"
"No, we needed to heal and to grow up. We know who we are now and we know what we really want."
"Do you want to go back to the party?"
"Yes, I do, but I just need to fix my make-up," she told him, dashing away to the bathroom. Pierre looked slowly around the room. He was saddened by the severe lack of photographs and hoped to rectify that. His eyes lighted on an object on the coffee table and he smiled, heading over to pick it up. He examined the object carefully, turning it round and round in his fingers.
"I only ever put it on once," she told him, knocking him out of his thoughts.
He moved to stand in front of her, "Did it fit?"
She held out her hand for him to slide the ring onto her finger, "Like a glove."