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“Thank you Bill” he said with a smile before pulling out the cuddly rabbit, which the little girl had embraced with a squeal of delight and a happy smile, laughing and kissing it.
Kira watched them together, knowing that she had done the right thing. She could see the love for the little girl pouring from him as he concentrated on her every word. Alex had loved the attention from the new stranger and was giggling at him as he lay on the floor allowing her to clamber all over him.
“Daddy silly” she had chuckled as he made things disappear from his hands and re-appear behind her. She had found this so funny that she had fallen over laughing. Craig who had leapt over to her in concern started laughing himself, seeing her lying on her back giggling uncontrollably. He looked over at Kira, silently watching the whole scene and smiled.
“She has your eyes” he said softly seeing the same expressive eyes on his daughter. Kira smiled
“Yes, but she has your nature” she replied chuckling “always gets what she wants and lord help us if she doesn’t”
He looked back down on the small bundle in her pyjamas
“And how could you not give her what she wants” he said with such love in his voice
Kira groaned “great like Bill and Marissa don’t spoil her enough” she laughed “now I’ll have to deal with you too”
“OK, young lady” Kira said before sweeping the child into her arms and blowing a raspberry into her stomach much to her delight
“Beddie byes”
Alex hugged her mother not arguing as she moved into a small bedroom which held a child size bed and an assortment of brightly coloured furniture all built for a child.
Craig watched as Kira put her into her bed, kissing her gently on the forehead.
“Say goodnight to daddy” she said watching her as her eyes slowly closed and her head turned to the side as sleep took the tired child
“Night daddy” she said sleepily before she fell fast asleep
Putting on a small night light Kira switched on a baby monitor before the two of them moved back out into the hall and closed the door.
As they returned to the living room, Craig dropped down into one of the couches.
“I have a daughter” he said looking at her still in shock
“Why didn’t you tell me” he asked a hurt tone in his voice.
Sitting beside him she softly replied “I tried”
An anguished groan escaped him as memories started to flood his bemused mind
“Oh God” he said in a pained voice
She covered his hand softly as he lifted it to his lips
“I’m so sorry” he muttered
“When you didn’t turn up that night I didn’t know I was pregnant. I waited for you to call and then I tried to call you. I was told that you weren’t taking any more calls from me” her voice was sad
“I was so upset….I couldn’t believe that you would cut me off that way…and I only had a week left before my visa expired and I just kept calling you”
Craig moaned at the thought of her desperately trying to contact him
“Kira, I was in a hell of a mess. I thought that you were working with your father, I couldn’t stand seeing you”
She smiled at him a sad pained smile.
“Eventually I went back home. That’s when I found out I was pregnant. “She paused for a second
“But I was lucky…. I had no where to live, I had no job, no money and there was no way I was turning to my father, but I met Bill and Marissa. They let me stay with them for a while, gave me a job and helped with Alex.” The memory of their kindness brought a small smile to her lips
“I tried calling you and then I tried writing to you…..but all my letters were sent back unopened.”
She stood up and reaching into the back of a drawer in a bureau she retrieved a small pile of letters. She looked for and found one in particular and handed it to him.
Slowly he opened it to stare at the small black and white pre-natal scan image of the little girl now sleeping next door. Once again she saw the tear in his eye, as he read the letter inside.
“I’m so sorry” he muttered “Wasn’t there some way you could have told me….some way of getting the message to me…… I would have been here straight away”
She smiled
“What tell the press…….no…. you were getting enough press at the time……..I didn’t want Alex to be just another sordid story”
She looked down at her hands
“And beside…….the way you were acting……….all those women and the way you just dumped me…………I started to think that you were no better than my father”
He looked up at her with pained eyes
“I didn’t want to end up like my mother Craig, running and hiding from you because you wanted something you thought was yours. I couldn’t tell you who I was phoning on the island because I was scared… I didn’t want you to take Alex away from me…”
Craig reached over and pulled her into his arms kissing her so gently that she felt the familiar fire burning within her veins.
“We have wasted so many years” he sighed “I am so sorry Kira, the things I thought of you…I feel sick at the way I treated you … and Alex” he added
“Don’t be sorry for me” she said seriously, Alex got me through it. “In many ways I suppose I was lucky, I had her”
Quietly he nodded his head against her
“I was so lost without you Kira, I treated women as objects and started drinking really heavily. Tom was the one who fixed me up”
Kira nodded not surprised that Tom was the one who had turned him around
He laughed softly
“One night I hit on his girlfriend…. I’d been drinking…alot……and he punched me, damn hard I might add, and then he took me home. Stayed with me all night, listening while I talked about you for hours. Over the next couple of weeks he kept dropping by refusing to take any of my rubbish, telling me that I had to pull myself together. He was a good friend to me….. a really good friend”
He smiled at the memory
Kira lifted herself from him and kneeling between his knees she looked into his sorrowful eyes.
“Like I said before he’s nice”
Craig looked deeply into her eyes, his haunted and so full of pain and sadness
“I’ve missed so much of her life” he whispered dragging a hand over his face. His eyes scanned the small room seeing the many pictures of Alex at different stages of her life. He could see the baby pictures and the toddler images and she saw his eyes filling at realising all he had lost.
“She is so beautiful just like you” he said gently, adding
“You must have looked so beautiful carrying her” he placed a hand on her stomach, his voice breaking slightly “and I wasn’t there to help you”
Kira could see the hurt in his eyes as he looked away from her not able to meet her gaze
“I should have been there for you…how the hell can you ever forgive me”
She reached up and putting her arms around his neck kissed him softly. Sitting back she had lifted the gold locket from around her neck, and as he watched she had started to open it
“You asked me once whose picture I now kept here” she said softly. He nodded remembering the day in his office in which he had blackmailed her to be with him
“I keep the picture of the two people I’ve always loved most in this world” she said softly before pulling it open to show him the images, one of the small girl now lying next door and the other the image she had cut out three years ago. He had held it in his fingers groaning his eyes full of pain
Finally they were being completely open and honest with each other and looking deeply into his eyes she felt the need to finally say the words which she had never uttered to him, despite her heart yelling it to her.
“I love you Craig. I’ve always loved you”
As he gasped she saw the light burning in his eyes as he looked down on her a happy glow on his face
“Oh Kira, I’ve loved you from the very moment I ever saw you.”
Cupping her face in his hands he kissed her softly
“I thought that I was doing OK, until I saw you again….but when I saw you in the foyer of the Superior, something in me jumped….. for the first time in a long time I actually felt something. All the anger came back like it had happened yesterday and I wanted to hurt you – but only because I was hurting so much myself…. But every time you looked at me or touched me I just dreaded the day you would be gone again”
Kira very softly whispered
“Well you don’t ever have to be alone again…. If you don’t want to be”
Craig kissed her with a deep passion, before gently pulling her onto the seat beside him. Moving he knelt down on one knee in front of her lifting her hand to kiss it
