Authors: Melissa Delport
I kiss Abby’s cheek and she hurtles inside with all the energy of youth.
Steven comes over and takes my hand.
“How did it go?” he asks gently and I take a deep breath, the tears finally flowing.
“Okay,” I
answer, my voice breaking.
His strong arms come around me and he rubs my back while I cry.
Steven and I were married a month after Abby’s fourth birthday. Adam’s sudden and unexpected appearance that day had made me two hours late for my own wedding. Steven understood. He was still waiting when I finally made it to the altar and his first words were to interrupt the Minister’s opening address when I reached him and ask me if I was okay. Then he had asked how Adam was and at last had asked the Minister to please continue. Steven was not threatened by Adam and he respected that a part of me would always love Adam Parker. Just as a part of me would always love Kevin.
Steven loved Abby like his own and had officially adopted her a year after our wedding. Simon had signed all rights over to me as soon as she was born; he had wanted nothing to do with the “offspring of our incestuous union”.
I still wasn’t sure whether I would tell Abby the truth when she was older or whether I would let her believe that Steven is in fact her dad. There is so much pain in this world that she will have to deal with, I do not want to burden her with any more. Despite that though, I think I will probably tell her the truth in the end, when she is old enough to deal with it and realise that Simon Harris is not her father and that Adam was a separate person altogether.
I have never told anybody about what happened in Ireland, not even Steven. It was between me and Adam, our little piece of forever that can never be taken away; our beautiful, life-altering secret. We all have our secrets I know that now. If there is one thing I've learned, it's that life doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be lived.
“It looks like rain,” Steven’s calm, strong voice interrupts my reverie and I smile, lifting my head and gazing out at the clouds.
I look up at him, so grateful that we found each other and I smile through my tears.
“Will you dance with me if it does?” I ask.
“Don’t I always?” he answers, dropping a kiss on my forehead.
I still dance in the rain. I still try and live every day as though it is my last, because now, more than ever, I realise that it could be. I understand now how precious life is and how we should grab it with both hands and let it consume us. I still love to write; Harry offered me my old job back without any hesitation, but I turned it down, preferring the flexibility of freelancing. This allowed me the freedom to dedicate most of my time to my family and the Foundation. I used almost all of my invested money to open the Adam Parker Foundation the year after Adam integrated. Its two primary functions are research into Dissociative Identity Disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease. It gives me a sense of purpose, knowing that, because of me, someone else might possibly not have to suffer the way I had.
I rest my head on my husband’s shoulder as we stand with our arms around each other.
“Are you sure about tomorrow?” he asks and I grin.
“We’ve discussed this babe, you're not backing out now," I scold.
“But really, Paige. I just think we might be being a bit hasty.”
I laugh out loud.
“Coward.” I nudge him with my shoulder and he looks down at me with love and adoration.
“So, jumping out of an aeroplane at 12 000 feet sounds like fun to you?” he asks, raising his eyes incredulously.
I pretend to give this some serious thought and then I grin wickedly, “Absolutely!”
Melissa Delport graduated from the University of South Africa with a degree in English Literature and now lives with her husband and three children in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal.
For more information visit
www.melissadelport.com
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