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A classic four-poster princess bed was in the corner of the room, set at an angle which might have been space-inefficient if it weren’t for the fact Lexi’s room was enormous. There were two arm chairs, angled towards a flat screen television, and one wall was lined with shelves, all of them filled with boxes of toys. New toys. The very latest in kid-obsession.
“Syed,” Sarah murmured, her eyes lifting to his face with all the emotions bubbling through her. “This is …”
“I love it!” Lexi squealed, running to the bed and throwing herself against the mattress in a genuinely hysterical fit of exuberance. “Is it really mine?”
“Yes,” Syed spoke over anything Sarah might say. “Do you know what else, Lexi?”
“What?” She grabbed one of the teddy bears and hugged it tight, in a betrayal of the bear she’d always loved and hugged. Would he be forgotten now?
“This is a room fit for a princess.”
Lexi’s eyes were wide. Wider still when he walked to the shelf and pulled a black velvet box down.
“And when your mom and I are married, that’s what you’ll be.”
Sarah sucked in a breath. She had planned to break the news to Lexi slowly, gently, giving her a chance to adapt.
“You mean it?”
He nodded gravely, going down on bended knee and popping the top of the box. Lexi, all four years of her, had seen enough Disney films-on-repeat to understand the significance of the moment.
Sarah was behind Syed, still hovering at the door, and so she didn’t see at first what he was pulling from the box. But as he lifted the tiara and placed it on Lexi’s blonde head, she gasped.
“Tell me that’s not real,” Sarah whispered, almost blinded by the sparkling diamonds that formed several triangular peaks at the front.
“It’s heavy,” Lexi whispered earnestly, lifting a hand to her head and touching the side of the tiara. “Not like the one Caitlyn lent me.”
Sarah closed her eyes on a wash of embarrassment. Until that moment, Lexi had never even owned her own toy tiara, unlike just about every other little girl the world over.
“It’s real, and for very special occasions,” he said with a dazzling smile. Sarah could see Lexi’s four year old heart falling as much in love with Syed as her own had, five years earlier.
“Like now?” Lexi grinned winningly.
The love thing appeared mutual at least. Syed’s smile was pure indulgence. “Yes. Like now.”
Sarah shook her head, bewildered completely. That sense only increased when Lexi lifted her hand and placed it slowly into Syed’s her face lifted to his in obvious admiration. “Will mommy get one too?”
“Oh, yes,” he answered, without looking in Sarah’s direction. “She’ll get at least ten.”
“Ten crowns!” Lexi shouted. “No way!”
His laugh was a deep
rumble. “Absolutely.”
“Why so many?”
“Because she is going to be a Queen,” he said seriously, and as he walked towards Sarah, his eyes pierced hers. “And because she deserves them.”
Sarah’s breath seemed to puff out of her in one big exhalation. She was deflated, and unable to find any words.
It didn’t matter though, because Lexi and Syed were forming their own little coalition, wandering through the penthouse – or should that be sky-mansion? – as though Sarah wasn’t even there.
“What’s this room?” Lexi asked as they moved past another bedroom, this one with a double bed, a sofa, and a television.
“This is where a special friend of yours is going to stay.”
“Caitlyn?” Lexi murmured thoughtfully.
