Crushed (45 page)

"You're very strange." He mused.

"You're more normal than I thought." She replied.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

"Probably."

She smiled, and helped him to his feet.

Robert seemed worn from reliving the past through his story. He was only a shell of the man he usually was.

In truth, Sophie had so much more she wanted to know. His past was hard to believe, but she knew she had to wait for more answers.

They would have all the time in the future to cover the parts missed.

Right now, it was time to rest and consider the day's events.

As they walked inside, Sophie slipped her hand around Robert's and squeezed it in support.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The momentary calm was disrupted with the return of both responsibility and reality.

Waking up had never been this difficult. Sophie tried to pry open her eyes, but sleep kept calling her back.

She couldn't explain what she was dreaming about, though the pictures in her mind made her realize it was a nightmare.

She wanted to escape, but it was growing harder and harder to wake up.

Then, when the images stopped flashing through her mind, her eyes snapped open.

"Ow..." She whispered, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Sophie rarely woke up with a headache, but today her head was spinning.

She checked the clock lying on her dresser, and crinkled her nose when she noticed that it was almost noon.

The entire house was quiet, which while unusual, didn't concern her. Sophie was more focused on something she was forgetting. Her mind was so unfocused, she couldn't place the memory she wanted to recall.

She stumbled to her bathroom, and splashed her face with water to help wake herself up. As she stared into the mirror, everything started coming back to her.

She winced as her headache worsened at the recall of everything that had happened the night before.

No wonder I had a nightmare. Sophie thought as she rubbed her temples. That was enough information overload to put anyone over the edge.

Looking back now, Sophie felt like last night was a dream as well. It had been so surreal to hear Robert talk about himself, and everything he said was so...unbelievable.

Now that she had the time to think clearly, she wondered where they would go from here.

She knew about Robert's past, but that didn't mean she knew how to react to it. It had been easy to brush it aside last night, when they were both tired and escape was so easy. She was going to have to think up an appropriate reaction, seeing as she had no idea what she was feeling at the moment.

She'd thought the shock would wear off with time, but it was still in full effect.

Stepping cautiously out of the bathroom, she entered the second-floor hallway as silently as she could. No sound was coming from Gwyn and Teddy's room, and she couldn't hear anything above or below her either.

She snuck downstairs, and peaked into the kitchen. Rylan was propped up on his bed, flipping through a book that Gwyn had given him a few days before.

"Good morning." He grinned when he noticed Sophie. "You just missed everyone."

Satisfying herself that Robert wasn't in the room, she awkwardly entered the kitchen.

"Where'd they go?"

"Rob was up early saying he wanted to take Teddy to the zoo." Rylan sounded annoyed that it was planned so last minute. "Gwyn wanted to wait until you woke up, but Robert basically herded them to the car."

"Huh." Sophie crossed her arms, fighting the urge to smile.

She wasn't the only one who needed some space after last night's conversation.

"Any idea when they'll be back?"

"Knowing Teddy, probably late. Rob let him borrow one of his cameras, so they'll be busy all day."

"What about you?" She glanced at the book he was reading, noticing he was already a quarter of the way done. "Any exciting plans?"

"I promised Gwyn I would have this finished by the time she got home." Rylan's goofy smile was heartwarming.

"Oh, she spoke to you?" Sophie laughed when his face turned red. "I thought after yesterday's event, she would be too embarrassed to look you in the eye."

"She shouldn't be!" He said defensively. "It's not like it was something bad..."

"Okay, I'll stop teasing." Sophie winked at him as she reached for a pack of pop-tarts. "I have some stuff I'm working on, so I'll be busy most of the day. Call if you need anything."

"I will." Rylan waved at her as she left the room.

Truthfully, Sophie didn't have anything to work on at all. She simply wanted some time to herself to put everything into perspective.

Now that she no longer had an objective in front of her, it was going to be difficult to refocus herself. In the past, when she'd been struck by something uncomfortable or painful, she had always been able to diffuse the confusion with work.

Today she had a huge expanse of time to decide what her reaction was going to be.

Instead of stopping in her room, she continued up the staircase to the top floor of the house. While speaking to Rylan, an idea had popped into her mind.

From her experience, Sophie knew that she came the closest to understanding the people around her by spending time in their personal space. Just like with Luke and Rylan, she expected that if she went to Robert's room, she would find some kind of closure, or understanding.

She felt proud of herself for thinking up a solution to her problem, though her confidence fell when she reached his bedroom door.

"I should've known..." She whispered as she turned the handle to the door to realize it was locked. "That little..." She sighed, resting her forehead against the wood.

If she thought about it, it wasn't that surprising that he was untrusting enough to lock her out. She figured he probably had a special lock put in place so that it couldn't be picked.

"Stupid thief." She muttered, turning around and sliding down to the floor. She braced her back to the wood, and stared forward towards the wall ahead.

She wasn't going to be able to use his room as a space to think, but maybe just sitting here would give her something to work with.

Sophie closed her eyes, trying to recall at once all the events he'd discussed the night before. Only the big events stood out to her.

Robert had been rich and influential. He'd lived a life that was envied by others, and he'd never really had to suffer through anything. Then, because he'd become obsessed with the idea of escaping his responsibilities as a Fallbrook heir, he'd let himself slip up.

"Alyssa Ellison." Sophie whispered, disliking how beautiful the woman she imagined was.

Alyssa was girl he'd dated for years. Probably the first person he'd been in love with, despite him saying he didn't believe in things like that.

Finally, Sophie addressed the biggest surprise of the evening: Robert was a father.

If she'd been younger, she might've been jealous of Alyssa's presence in his life, or of the fact that he would be forever tied with her through their child. However, she wasn't that immature. Yes, she liked Robert, but she didn't expect him to have never loved anyone before her.

Finding out about him being a father had made her feel depressed rather than angry. Sophie didn't know everything about Robert, but she'd seen the significant impact their makeshift family had on him. He'd tried to pretend he was indifferent to the kids, but that wasn't true at all. From the first day he'd become a thief, he'd been teaching Gwyn to find her own path. He'd acted as an older brother to Rylan, and a father figure to Teddy.

If he'd had the chance to be a father to that little girl, he would've been a wonderful dad. Even if he had to go up against his family constantly, Sophie could see him fighting those battles. Eleven years after losing her, Robert's guilt was just as strong.

The fact that he donated all of his money to orphanages was hard to grasp, mostly because it seemed so story-like. It was as if he was living out his own modern-day version of Robin Hood, in his own crooked way.

Sophie respected his purpose, even though she knew it was in vain. The realistic part of her mind knew that his donations had probably never reached his daughter, and that they were just a small way for him to feel like he was making a difference. His father meant for Robert to never see his daughter again, and if the man hadn't budged after all these years, there was no likelihood that his stance would change.

Even Cleo, with all her resources, hadn't been able to find the girl. Sophie had become used to Cleo solving every problem. It had always seemed like Cleo was able to do anything she wanted with her expanse of wealth, but money could not solve this problem. A nameless baby girl delivered to an orphanage was unfortunately far too common.

Now that all the facts were laid out, all she had were questions. Most of them dealt with her own reaction to this knowledge.

How did this information change him in her perspective? What would be different? What couldn't stay the same?

Most of all, why did his past have to change anything at all?

She felt like she'd heard a strangers story. It didn't seem to fit the persons she'd known all along.

She'd defined Robert initially as a thief, never suspecting that he was so much more. He was a father, a son, a runaway, and a strange kind of hero.

Who was she to judge him at all?

While she hadn't been able to infiltrate his room, just leaning against his door gave her some kind of perspective into his life.

There were so many things about him that she couldn't understand. How had it felt to lose not only a daughter, but the trust of your entire family? What had it been like to make the decision to leave behind the life he'd always thought he would lead?

Question after question overcame her. Robert had been right when he said the questions would continue to grow. He'd given her only a hint at who he was, and now she was curiously reaching for more.

Sophie had always believed that a person's past defined them. She'd been a believer that people never change, and that they continue going through life more or less the same person they've always been. Once a cheater always a cheater, once a thief always a thief. It was one of those concepts that she'd never challenged until now.

As a person, she knew she'd changed, but considering Robert's past, she wondered if it was possible for a person to change so drastically. One event shaped his entire life, wiping away his existence as a rich playboy, and offering him a new career as a thief.

It was so surreal...and confusing.

She felt so numb, it was a struggle to come up with any answers. She wasn't angry, or disappointed, or even frustrated. Sophie honestly didn't think she had the right to be any of those. It wasn't her place to judge him for how he used to live his life, because she wouldn't want him judging her for the way she lived her life in the past.

So, was she okay with everything?

The answer she wanted to have was yes, but even that was not easy to decide.

After spending almost an hour going over the situation in her head, she figured that she'd gotten herself into another mess.

She felt idiotic for trying to make sense of something which she assumed should've been easy.

There was only one answer she felt confident with. It was short and it was simple, but she was going to work with it.

She didn't want to forget what she'd learned about him, but she wasn't going to let it change anything in their relationship as partners or as friends. He'd told her everything because he trusted her, and she had to respect that trust.

The person she'd come to know over the past few months was not Tristan Fallbrook, but Robert Locksley. Who he had been in the past was definitely a chapter in his life, but not a chapter she was apart of. He'd made it clear that he'd left that life behind him, and Sophie would leave it behind her as well.

If she didn't over-think the situation, she could see the story as Tristan's past, rather than Robert's past. Robert Locksley was born eleven years ago as a thief, and he was the person Sophie wanted to be with now.

When she came to terms with her decision, the questions slowly faded away. Of course, they would always be in the back of her mind, but she wouldn't allow them to consume her. She was going to move on without focusing on the past, so the questions would no longer matter.

Just when she felt she was finally getting closure on the situation, her cell phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She nearly jumped as she slipped it out, checking the number before she answered.

"Cleo?" She asked, surprised by the seemingly random call. She hadn't been expecting to hear from her boss for another few days. "What's up?"