“I need to see Fredrick.”
“He is away. He’ll be back soon.”
Harold could see the lie in his father’s face.
“Bring him back sooner. I think he would like to meet his wife and his daughter.”
His father didn’t know what he was talking about, but Fredrick was there and he knew. He came out and looked from Carolyn to Sarah.
“Is this her?”
Carolyn had tears in her eyes and she nodded. Neither one of them made a move toward the other for a long time. Sarah was pressing hard on Harold’s hand. It was her father that she was meeting for the first time, and it was clear that she was nervous.
“It’s okay.”
Fredrick stopped in front of Carolyn and picked her up, kissing her the whole way.
“You don’t know how much I have missed you!”
Carolyn was turning red-faced and everyone there was feeling some kind of way because of the kiss. They’d been cursed twenty-four years ago, but times had changed and that was not going to happen again. They could be together now. Harold thought momentarily about Gerald. He really liked him, and the couple had been peaceful together, but no one was denying the fire in the touch of the old flames. Harold was sure that chemistry beat out peace every time.
He pulled back and approached Sarah and Harold.
“I am sorry I attacked you, Fredrick. It wasn’t my intention.”
He smiled and smacked Harold on the shoulder.
“I always knew that I would get in the middle of the two of you. I just didn’t know that you would have such a wallop to you.”
Harold chuckled half-heartily, thankful that they could joke about it now. He was still feeling guilty about the whole situation. It was becoming clear that it was all supposed to be forgotten. That was more than he deserved, and Harold wasn’t ready to let it go. He couldn’t, not when there was still so much at stake.
The father and daughter introduced themselves and it was then that they were given an invitation to stay for the night. Harold didn’t think that he would get even that. He was surprised and humbled, all at the same time.
Sarah was unsure of what to do or feel, made obvious by the way she kept looking at her parents. She was close to Gerald. He was a decent guy, so it wasn’t hard to understand why.
They went back to the bedroom that was prepared for them and Harold recognized it as his old one immediately. Nothing had changed in it, and it made him wonder. Had his father known that he would come back one day? He was banished and still was, so why was it there, prepared for him? It made no sense.
“They were waiting for you to come back.”
Harold thought that Sarah was right.
“Are you reading my mind?”
She shook her head and said that she wasn’t. “No, but it’s like almost a shrine to you, Harold. You have to see that, right?”
Harold sighed. “I was such an idiot, for so long.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You loved your stepmother and she used that to her advantage.”
He sighed. “I guess, but I still feel like an idiot.”
Sarah hugged him and then the next thing Harold knew, he was trying his best to get her in his arms and then onto the bed.
“So, what was that about me being pregnant?”
Harold sighed and knew that there was going to be a pause. He wanted to think that he could have her then, but he had said it.
“Well, you are.”
