Chapter20.

"Finally. This is over and I can get on with my life now" Benjamin said as he stepped out of the court with Gabriel beside him.
"Did you inform at home?" Gabriel asked
"No. Let me" Benjamin said and dialed Isabella's number.
"Benjamin?" Isabella answered the call on the second ring.
"Bella. It's over" Benjamin said
"In our favour right?" Isabella asked anxiously.
"Of course. Where is Sapphire" Benjamin asked
"Here. With me" Isabella said
"Give her a loud kiss from me" Benjamin said and Isabella chuckled.
"Will do. Are you coming home now?" Isabella asked
"Yes. There are certain formalities left. Some papers to be signed. I will be home after that" Benjamin said
"Was Lillian there?" Isabella asked
"I didn't see her Bella. She knew she wouldn't be winning the case. So she bailed out" Benjamin said with relief. He honestly do not want to see that woman's face again.
"Okay then. Come home soon. We are waiting for you" Isabella said as she caressed little Sapphire's head
"Soon. Tell mom and dad also" Benjamin said and hung up the call
***
"Finally. You are ours forever" Isabella said cuddling little Sapphire to her bosom.
"Sapphy Out" Sapphire demanded pointing at the rose garden from the bedroom window.
"Sapphire wants to go out. Then we will go out" Isabella said and made Sapphire wear her little hat and took her out.
On the way out, Isabella informed William and Elizabeth about what Benjamin told them and they took their turns cuddling and kissing Sapphire.
"Ellie nooo" wiggled in their arms and let out a loud wail, eager to get out of their hold and go out.
"It's her play time I guess. Not in a mood to be pampered it seems" Elizabeth said letting Sapphire down on the floor.
As soon as she was kept down, Sapphire toddled over, on her chubby little feet, to the French doors that leads to the garden.
***
Lillian was driving at reckless speed towards the Lockwood mansion.
There had to be some way to make Benjamin pay her that money, Lillian fumed frantically.
She had been so sure that he would buy her off! That was the whole reason she had threatened to lay claim to Sapphire. The last thing she wanted was a dependent child.
The new watchman, not knowing the evil she was, let her in. Lillian stopped the car as she saw Benjamin wife with Sapphire in the garden.
"Give me my grandchild" Lillian demanded the moment she reached them, stationing herself strategically in front of Isabella and reaching swiftly down, lifting Sapphire up before Isabella could stop her.
At being handled by a stranger whose touch lacked the loving tenderness she was used to, Sapphire immediately started to cry, her distress adding to Isabella anxiety.
"You're frightening her" she cautioned Lillian protectively.
"She isn't used to being held like that. Look let me show you what she likes…" Isabella tried to stall the woman from whatever she was planning, hoping that somebody would come out and see them.
"I don't give a damn what she does or doesn't like" Lillian retorted unpleasantly, breaking off to give a small angry scream and quickly hold Sapphire at arm's length as the baby reacted to her roughness by sicking up some of her food.
"Don't you dare be sick on me, you little brat" Lillian told her furiously, shaking her so hard that Isabella immediately tried to remonstrate with her.
"You don't like what I'm doing. Tough!" Lillian told Isabella contemptuously. "She's my grandchild and she's coming with me."
Isabella couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Lillian couldn't possibly just walk off with Sapphire like that.
Lillian was now turning round, still holding Sapphire, without any concern for the baby's comfort, and heading for the car, opening the driver's door, and for the first time Isabella realised that the engine was still running.
Panic filled her. You only read about such things—children being abducted in custody wars—but she had never for one second imagined that it might happen to Sapphire.
"You can't take her! Please…" she protested, her throat dry and raw with fear. She wanted to scream for help. But fear held her voice captive.
"She's just a baby! She doesn't know you. Soon she will be hungry and she'll need a feed and…" Isabella tried to reason with the woman.
Frowningly Lillian hesitated.
What Isabella was saying was true! She thought quickly, her eyes narrowing with concentration.
"Well, if you're so concerned about her, you'd better get in the car as well. Who knows? Perhaps Benjamin will be prepared to pay double to get the pair of you back!" Lillian said evilly.
Isabella stared at her. Lillian was kidnapping Sapphire in order to make Benjamin pay to get her back?
Frantically she searched the other woman's face. Everything she could see there confirmed all that Isabella felt about her, and her fears for Sapphire grew.
Lillian was carelessly bundling Sapphire into the back of her car.
"Wait!" Isabella demanded as Lillian started to get into the car, ignoring Sapphire's wails of protest. "I'm coming with you. But we need to take the stroller…it turns into a car seat and—"
"No way! Either get in now or I'll leave" Lillian told her grimly.
What real options did she have? Isabella asked herself.
None! Shakily she got into the back of the car and tried to comfort Sapphire as Lillian proceeded to drive off at such a high speed. Thank heavens she had Sapphire wrapped protectively in her arms.
By the time William and Elizabeth came out hearing the loud cries of the child, all they could see was a car speeding out their driveway.
William hurried towards the security guard.
"Who was that?" William asked frantically
"That was Isabella Madam and the baby" the security guard said
"Who was driving the car?" Elizabeth asked
"The woman who came here last week. The one wearing flashy dresses and all" the security said
"Damn it. How could you let her in?" William asked furiously
The security guard stared at them in fear. He wasn't aware that the woman shouldn't be allowed in.
"We didn't tell them to William . We never expected the woman to stoop this low to kidnap the child. Inform the police and Ben. Hurry up" Elizabeth said
Benjamin was driving home when he got a call from his father. All blood leached from his face when he heard what his father had to say
"What??"
*****
"Please" Isabella begged Lillian. "You are driving much too fast."
"Poor little wifey. What are you trying to do? Make me slow down so that your wonderful macho husband can catch up with us? No way!" Lillian laughed.
"No way do I stop until we're back at my home and then, my dear, Sapphire and I will be on the first flight to UK where we will stay until your precious husband comes to his senses."
Isabella winced as she was thrown against the car door when Lillian took a turn
There was no way Sapphire could endure being driven even a few miles at such a break-neck speed without being sick, never mind all the way to the evil woman's home, wherever it was.
And thanks to Lillian all the baby had was the clothes she was wearing.
Isabella had never in the whole of her life hated anyone as much as she loathed and detested Lillian.
How could she do this to any child, never mind her own grandchild? But Isabella already knew there was no point in trying to reason with her.
Sapphire was snuggling as close as she could to Isabella, her baby eyes round with shock and distress.
"It's all right, little one" Isabella whispered tenderly to her. "Don't worry…don't worry."
Out of the corner of her eye she watched in horrified disbelief as Lillian took a corner by driving in the middle of the road, and only just missed being hit by the car coming the other way.
"Typical male driver!" Isabella heard her mutter as she increased her speed.
"God, I hate men! All of them, but none of them as much as I hate your husband" she told Isabella bitterly.
Isabella refrained herself from reminding the woman that she had two sons.
"All he had to do was to part with mere millions. That was all. He could have kept the bloody brat and you as well, but, no…he claims to love the pair of you but he obviously doesn't love you very much, does he?"
Lillian was already dangerously driving and frantically Isabella tried to think of some way to calm her down and get her to reduce her speed. If she didn't Isabella was desperately afraid that there could be an accident.
Once she got to airport she would ring Benjamin . Just before she boarded her flight, Lillian decided gleefully. And she would tell him that now the cost of getting custody of Sapphire had doubled, with of course a further million thrown in for the safe return of his wife.
Quite how she was going to persuade Isabella to board the plane with her, Lillian hadn't worked out as yet, but she suspected that wherever she took Sapphire, Isabella would follow.
Surely Lillian wouldn't simply be able to leave the state with Muskaan, Isabella fretted.
There would be legalities; formalities; the small matter of a passport. Or is a passport necessary for domestic travel? Isabella had never gotten on a plane before, so she is unaware of the formalities. Her family had migrated to the states from Italy, even before she was born. And they were not financially stable enough to fly back for a visit.
Sapphire had been sick so often as they'd been thrown around the back of the small car that the poor little thing probably didn't have anything left in her tummy to be sick with, Isabella recognised as she tried her best to comfort her.
Lillian was a rash driver. And Isabella could have sworn that sometimes Lillian forgot which side of the road she was actually supposed to be driving
The inevitable happened just when Isabella had finally begun to relax and convince herself that Lillian's driving was no worse than that of the drivers coming the other way.
She had taken a corner far too fast, and had to swerve to avoid crashing head-on with the lorry coming the other way.
Isabella felt the sickening lurch of the car as Lillian lost control of it and looked up just in time to realise that they were skidding across the road right in the path of an oncoming car.
Reaching instinctively, she threw herself protectively on top of Sapphire whilst the world turned into a hell of twisting, screeching, tearing metal, punctuated by a woman's screams and a series of bone-jarring thuds.
She felt the pain in her legs, and then the numbness, but by then a blessed silence had fallen, a stillness in which she was at peace to let go of the pain tearing into her.
Just as long as she didn't let go of Sapphire…
Later Isabella realised it could only have been a matter of minutes after the crash and her loss of consciousness before willing hands were pulling open the doors of the car, calling out to her in anxious voices that dragged her back from the abyss of her agonising pain.
"The baby! You must take the baby!" she heard herself insisting as she managed to twist her head to look into the eyes of the man bending anxiously over her.
Her thoughts felt muddled and slow; she couldn't see Lillian but she could feel Sapphire's warm, squirming body lying protectively beneath her own.
"The baby!" she repeated to her would-be rescuers.
It was an effort for her to talk, her lips felt numb, but she couldn't lift her hand to touch them because it felt as if the whole of her upper body was trapped beneath some heavy, crushing weight…
"Quick. There is a child in here" she heard one of the men say. And then another called out, "We need to cut the woman free!"
Cut the woman free. What woman? Who were they talking about? Lillian? Even though she disliked her, Isabella hoped that she would be all right…
"The baby" she repeated painfully…as the man leaning over her started to fade and recede in a sickening wave of dizziness…
Sapphire had managed to free one of her arms, and she reached out and touched Isabella's face.
"You must tell Benjamin that Sapphire is safe" she told the man
"He will be worried about us. You must contact him." Slowly and painstakingly she gave him the address and the telephone number, resisting the desire to cling onto Sapphire as she was gently eased out from beneath her own body.
They had to hold her whilst someone put a huge wadding of cushions and what looked like discarded clothes beneath her where Sapphire had been. She could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness.
****
It took Benjamin less than half an hour after the police had informed him about the accident to reach the scene.
He had driven there far faster than Lillian, his heart pounding with dread with each passing second
Sapphire, they had told him, was fine.
"And Isabella? My wife?"
There had been a brief pause.
"She is trapped in the back of the car. She must have thrown herself over the baby to protect her and the force of the collision has pushed the whole of the passenger seat of the car into the back seat and over her" they had told him
When Benjamin reached the scene of the accident it was crowded with people.
"Your wife will have to be cut free" the police officer told.
His heart buckled and twisted, tearing him apart.
He had to be with Isabella and nothing, no one was going to stop him.
"I must go to my wife" he told the policeman grimly.
"She is unconscious at the moment." The policeman frowned. "There has been a spillage of fuel caused by the collision. And it isn't safe to allow anyone to get too close."
Benjamin handed over Sapphire to his parents and demanded quietly
"I have to be with my wife"
Without waiting for the policeman's response, Benjamin pushed his way through the policemen surrounding the accident and then stopped, his head spinning.
This was worse than the accident that had killed Eleanor and John.
The small car had virtually been crushed to nothing by the force of the impact with the much heavier vehicle it had skidded into. Ironically the driver's side of the vehicle was intact, but the passenger side…
"It is a miracle that your daughter is unhurt" the policeman told.
"Mother's love is a wonderful thing. Your wife risked her own life to save her baby. She threw herself over the baby and her body protected her. Unfortunately she is now trapped beneath the front of the car and the passenger seat. We cannot move her, and we do not know just how badly hurt she is. The doctor has just arrived and he is trying to talk to her."
His heart in his mouth, Benjamin strode over to the car.
A man was crouched down beside the open passenger door, stroking Isabella's hand.
"Can you feel anything…any pain—any sensation?" he was asking her quietly.
Isabella was trying to concentrate on what she was being asked, but it was so very, very difficult!
All she wanted to do was to close her eyes and go to sleep.
Her body felt odd…heavy and yet somehow numb.
There was a dreadful pain in her head and a metallic taste in her mouth. Her hand looked unfamiliar to her…limp and odd.
"No, you must stay awake. Don't close your eyes." the doctor said sternly
Isabella winced as he flicked his fingers painfully on the back of her hand.
He was turning his head to speak to someone out of her line of vision, and she couldn't hear what he was saying.
Panic and fear swept through her as she tried to listen.
She felt so alone!
A fear, hundred times worse is coursing through Benjamin, as he reached the doctor and demanded to know what was happening.
"It is important that she remains conscious" the doctor informed Benjamin, who had heard Isabella's small gasp of fear and was reaching out protectively towards her.
"We don't know just what damage may have been caused as yet…and we won't know until we can cut her free. I need to stay here with her and talk to her. Keep her conscious" the doctor explained patiently to Benjamin, recognising his feelings.
"Let me do that. She is my wife." Benjamin demanded immediately.
The doctor frowned, but Benjamin was insistent.
Isabella could hear Benjamin speaking to her; calling her name. Telling her that she must not go to sleep.
Hazily she tried to focus on his voice. How could he possibly be here?
Disbelievingly she forced her heavy eyelids to lift, her eyes widening in shock as she saw that she had not been imagining him, dreaming foolish dreams, he was here. Benjamin was here with her!
Joy filled her in an adrenalin, life-giving surge.
Tears filled her eyes. And she gave a small gasp as Benjamin gently started to wipe them away.
There was blood on the cloth in his hand.
"You must have cut yourself" she told him in concern.
"It's nothing" Benjamin told her. His voice sounded rough, as though something was stuck in his throat, as though he was somehow having trouble speaking.
Benjamin dipped his head so that Isabella wouldn't see the tears in his eyes. The blood was hers from the cuts on her face, which the doctor had insisted were only superficial, but he didn't want to frighten her by telling her that.
It was hot inside the car, and his muscles were already aching from the crouched position he had taken so that he could get as close to her as he could.
Holding her free hand in his whilst he talked to her, telling her how brave she had been, reassuring her that Sapphire was safe.
"How do you feel? Are you in any pain?' He asked her
"My back really hurt when it first happened, but the pain's gone now." Isabella said
"Has it? That's good" Benjamin responded, whilst inwardly he made himself a vow that, no matter how badly injured she was, he would devote the rest of his life to taking care of her and loving her.
This was all his fault. All of it…
He had dragged her into the mess he was in with Lillian. And Isabella had paid the price.
"Where's Lillian?" Isabella asked him.
"I don't know" Benjamin answered her truthfully.
One of the witnesses had stated that they had seen a woman running away from the scene of the accident and he had assumed that she must have been Lillian.
The truck with the cutting gear had arrived and the police were warning Benjamin that for his own safety he would have to move away.
Fiercely he refused.
"What a lot of noise" Isabella whispered as the machines were put to work.
"Mmm…You'll soon be free now" Benjamin comforted her.
An ambulance was standing by and he could see the doctor watching and waiting.
From somewhere Isabella was bleeding. He could see the red stickiness as they started to move the wreckage away from her.
"It hurts!" Isabella whispered shakily. Her face was paper-white, her eyes huge and dazed with pain.
"Try to be brave just a little while longer, darling" Benjamin whispered to her, barely able to choke out the words.
The doctor was moving towards them, a syringe in his hand…
"This is just going to relax you so that we can move you safely" he told Alice.
She squeezed Benjamin's hand tightly as the needle slid into her vein.
****
"So today you are going home. What a pity" the nurse teased Isabella. "We are going to miss seeing that handsome husband of yours."
Isabella gave her a brief smile. She had grown so used to her hospital bedroom these last two weeks. Felt so safe there that she felt reluctant to leave.
Everyone had been so kind to her; so protective of her. So ready to reassure her that she was very brave and very lucky.
Her worst injury had been the blood she had lost where the metal had pierced her flesh, but even the scar from that would fade in time, the doctor had assured her jovially.
Her back had been badly bruised. So badly that she had been black and blue, but by some miracle no permanent damage had been done apart from a few fractures of some of her bones, which are thankfully on the way to healing after extensive surgeries.
The scratches that had covered her face had also totally healed, and now the doctor had decided that she was well enough to leave.
To go home…
Home to Benjamin and Sapphire.
And at least something good had come out of the accident.
When the police had caught up with Lillian at the airport, she had been so terrified that she had willingly agreed to sign a document renouncing any claim on Sapphire.
The woman was immediately arrested and sent to the prison. The final verdict on the case will be given by next week.
Thankfully, the woman's still alive son, did nothing to save his mother from imprisonment.
And Gabriel did everything in his power to make sure that the woman will be locked away for the rest of her life.
Benjamin had told Isabella how much he regretted not simply handing Lillian the money she had demanded, while repeatedly apologising for having put her life in danger.
But, as Isabella had told him, in her opinion all that would have done would have been to convince Lillian that she could continue to blackmail him whenever she chose. And then Sapphire would never have been safe.
****
"Ready, love?"
Isabella nodded with a smile as she watched Benjamin picked her bag up off her bed and hand it over to Khanna, who was waiting by her hospital bedroom.
She was sitting on a wheel chair, not strong enough to walk on her own. She needs extensive physiotherapy to be able to walk properly like before.
But she is okay, as long as her Benjamin is with her.
He has been there, for every single second of the last two weeks. Showering her with love and care, which was by far the best medication that helped speeding up her recovery.
At her own insistence, Isabella was holding little Sapphire. As soon as she was a little better, Isabella had begged to bring Sapphire to her.
She did not want Sapphire to feel that she had lost a mother again.
The two sets of parents had come visiting everyday. Her mother had tried to make Benjamin let her stay the night. But Benjamin was adamant. He would not leave the hospital for anything.
The only time he would leave her bedside would be to go see her doctor.
Isabella had been dreading the drive back to the Lockwood Mansion, but, to her surprise, instead of driving her himself Benjamin got into the back of the car with her after he had strapped Sapphire into her front baby seat, leaving Khanna to drive.
"It's all right, Isabella" he told her quietly, as though he had guessed how she was feeling. "You'll be perfectly safe."
***
Benjamin wheeled Isabella into their bedroom after dinner that night.
His heart still pounded remembering the panic filled hours he had endured, not knowing what is happening with his wife.
Then there was Sapphire, who loved and needed Isabella as much.
In the first hours of Isabella's accident, during her surgery, when Sapphire had been of necessity separated from her, she had cried unceasingly, and been inconsolable, until in desperation Benjamin had aksed her to be brought to the hospital.
The moment he had placed Sapphire on the bed with Isabella, much against the hospital protocols, she had calmed down.
And he had wanted to do the same thing. Get on bed with his girls and hug them to calm his erratic heart beats down.
Just like Sapphire, he too wanted the reassurance of having his Isabella close to him..
He can't imagine what he would have done, if something had happened to her.
He would have died right along with her.
"Benjamin?" Benjamin snapped out of his thoughts when he heard her call out.
"Yes, love" he said, pasting a smile on his face to mask the horrors he had felt for the last two weeks.
"Something wrong?" Isabella asked
"You are with me. What could go wrong?" Benjamin asked with a smile
"I had you worried, didn't I?" Isabella asked
Benjamin took a deep breath and kneeled in front of her. He took her hands in his and brought it to his lips.
"I had died every second there, not knowing what is happening with you. I couldn't bear to lose you Isabella. You are my life" Benjamin said as tears pooled at the corner of his eyes, remembering the pain and worry he had endured.
"I'm sorry" Isabella said
"No no. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I brought this into your life. If not for me, you would have been safe" Benjamin said
"And I would have never known the kind of happiness I found with you" Isabella said, wiping the tears running down his cheeks.
"You brought Sapphire into my life. You brought a set of in laws who loves me like a daughter. Above all, you brought yourself into my life and made me the happiest woman in the world" Isabella said
Benjamin couldn't find the voice to answer that. He was too overwhelmed.
So he acted.
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, pouring all his love into it.
"Forever mine" he pulled away slightly and whispered against her lips.
*****
"Do you know what day it is?" Benjamin asked Isabella teasingly as he bent his head to kiss her on her lips.
She was in his late mother's rose garden, which they had turned into a safe play area for the children, and Benjamin had just returned from a business meet, out of state.
"Ofcourse I do remember" she said laughing and kissed him back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the children playing.
Seven year old Juliana, Elena and Julian's daughter had come over to play.
Their twin daughters, who had been born eighteen months ago was there, and ofcourse - her secret favourite - Sapphire, who was firmly preventing the twins from fighting over the toys.
Like all children, theirs were individual and unique, and that was how she loved them, individually and uniquely, just as she could love the new baby who was due to make his or her arrival in another four months' time.
The new baby was not planned. But he had come along and that was a happy accident. They would love the new addition nevertheless.
But Sapphire would always be extra special to her, just as the bond of love between them was extra special.
When she had risked her own life to protect Sapphire's Isabella had reacted as a mother, putting her child's safety before her own.
And somehow in that split heartbeat of time a bond had been forged between the two of them that was just as strong as the umbilical cord that had bonded her to her birth children.
Whenever strangers remarked on how alike she and Sapphire were, they always shared knowing special smiles.
No mother should have favourites, but sometimes a mother could just not help herself!
"So? What date is it?" Benjamin demanded with a smile.
"The date on which you impulsively declared to Mrs Fort that I'm your fiance. The date you asked me to marry you" Isabella replied promptly, laughing as she added wickedly "For Sapphire's sake."
"For Sapphire's sake" Benjamin agreed wryly.
"And the best decision I have ever made" Benjamin added, releasing her as Sapphire left the twins to their own devices and ran across to join them, lovingly cuddling into Isabella's side.
"I hope this isn't going to be more twins" she told Isabella feelingly as she patted her growing bump.
Isabella laughed.
Both she and Benjamin already knew that the baby she was carrying was a son. They had travelled abroad for a business meet, where Benjamin suggested that they could know the gender of the baby if they want.
But that was going to be their secret.
"I think it's time to take the twins upstairs for their nap" Isabella told Benjamin as she hugged Sapphire lovingly.
"Mmm" Benjamin agreed, watching as Emerald attempted to hit her twin with the doll she had wrestled from her. "I think I'll come with you."
"Oh, you two aren't going to get all soppy, are you?" Sapphire protested, rolling her eyes in seven-year-old disgust.
"Mmm. Sounds like a good idea to me" Benjamin murmured to Isabella as they watched her run back to join Juliana.
"And to me" Isabella agreed softly.
If someone, anyone, had tried to tell her five years ago just how her life was going to turn out she would never have believed them, never have dared to believe she could be so loved or so happy…
But she was, and according to Benjamin he fully intended to make sure that she remained so for the rest of their lives together!
****
Benjamin watched, as his girls slept, all cuddled against one another.
They had taken the twins up for a nap. Emerald and Ruby, their eighteen month old twin girls, had created a fuss before going down for the said nap.
It is really very rare that the two of them go to sleep at the same time. Usually, one stays awake while the other sleeps. That way, they get to sleep very rarely.
Now, that the twins had fallen asleep together, Isabella decided to take advantage of the situation and laid down with them. Sapphire had joined the lot sooner and now his girls are in a peaceful slumber and be could watch on for however long he wants and wouldn't get bored.
He had lost his sister and in return, God had given him this lovely family.
They were planning to look into new properties instead of moving back into his penthouse suite, when his parents suggested that they stay on here.
Instead, his parents moved into his old penthouse. But they visited atleast four days a week. Isabella's parents too dropped by every week, to spend time with their grandchildren.
Alessandro had recently got married to Hayley Locason. Hayley was Sapphire's nursery school teacher, whom Alessandro met two years ago, when he had gone to drop Sapphire at school one day.
After that day, Alessandro had kept on insisting to drop his niece off to school. Soon they fell in love and they got married recently.
Sapphire and Juliana had forged a bond so very like that of Benjamin and Julian.
And the evil that lurked in their life five years ago was completely removed from their life.
Now retired Gabriel, used all his power and locked the woman away for good.
Kidnapping of two people warranted two seven year sentences. And attempted murder of the same two gave her two life imprisonment. And in total her imprisonment will be for thirty eight years. Plus the fine, which her living son refused to pay, added another year to rot in the prison.
The woman, who was already fifty plus, will most probably die in the prison. And nobody could care even a little. She deserved that.
With a smile on his face, he climbed on the bed and laid beside his girls.
Forever Mine, his heart whispered as he looked at his girls.