The words seem as though they were almost plucked from a dream of Isobelâs and delivered to her in the form of a little blue-eyed angel. She had dreamed it too many times, the day where Lisbeth would forgive her for all she had hidden from her first born. The three years after she had vanished from Isobelâs warm grip, the woman had never truly forgiven herself. She wore the facade of a warrior but in her heart, she was a scared little girl who had spent and would spend a lifetime avoiding her truths, but rather, take them to her grave.
Now with Lisbethâs return, she had almost smothered the girl with every sugar-filled food known to man and her own presence. More often than not, she felt like a burden, her baby girl, her only daughter whose sapphire hues reflected a mirror of Isobel, had grown up and that was a fact Isobel could not truly accept. That whatever happened to her darling girl in those three years, it had torn her innocence from her, just as Isobelâs was torn from her at age eighteen. But out of the darkness of that innocence lost came the light, came Lisbeth Fontaine and now, Belle could only hope that out of her daughters own sheet of black would emerge a ray of sunshine.
A genuine smile curved upwards on crimson lips, both a reflex from the relief of Lisbethâs forgiveness but also the heart of gold that was nestled in the chest of her daughter. âYou are the furthest thing from a coward, my Lis ⌠you are hope.â And that she was. When Isobel had walked through hell with a Russian cross branded between her breasts and her fellow partners corpses laying beside her, as she was awake, chained and forced to stare at their lifeless bodies, the endless night terrors that Isobel would never dare admit to, Lisbeth, the reveal that a tiny human was growing inside her eighteen year old womb, was hope, the only hope she had.
âJe t'aime.â Lisbeth would never truly know why it was Isobel was so grateful for her existence, why she was so precious and dear to Isobel, what she had given Isobel twenty years ago. And it would remain that way. If there was one secret in Isobelâs treasure chest that she would take to the grave with her, it was that her first born child was the result of a prolonged, diabolical assault by a handful of monsters. Isobel saw her daughter, the result of said assault, as the light, the hope, but she could not risk Lisbeth knowing the details, not now, not after her forgiveness had been given. âAll Iâve ever wanted is your forgiveness, my darling ⌠ever since you left, those three years ago, I have spent everyday hoping you would forgive your mother and I would have my baby back.â