The Proposal

Chapter Thirteen: Facing the Past

Sophia sighed as she slipped into her berry deep V pencil dress with ruffles, she knew that she was going to have to answer Isabel’s invite tonight since she had yet to inform her half-sister that she wouldn’t be attending her wedding to Gerard.

The blonde quickly moved to slip on her black high heels and smiled at herself as she looked at herself in the mirror in her bedroom.

She took a deep breath before she moved to collect her black and gold envelope clutch bag and left her apartment so that she could meet up with Cristiano.

The blonde smiled to herself knowing that she had never dressed like this when she had been dating Gerard, she wanted to make him jealous tonight; she knew it was probably stupid but she wanted to show him what he was missing.

Cristiano looked at Sophia and took a deep breath, of course she would wear a dress to show off her amazing figure to her ex-boyfriend; he couldn’t believe that she looked amazing and seemed to take his breath away every time she wore a dress.

“You look bonita,” Cristiano said making Sophia smile as he gently took her by the hand; Dolores smiled from where she was sat as she watched her son and his fiancée, she could see things heading in the right direction for the couple.

“Shall we go?” the footballer said making Sophia nod as they slowly started for the door; tonight Cristiano didn’t care how he did it, tonight he’d make Gerard regret hurting Sophia.

***

After being quickly shown to their table, Cristiano set about making Sophia feel special; the footballer gently kissed her hand and smiled at Sophia as he noticed her ex and half-sister coming towards them.

“Relax everything will be fine,” he whispered into her ear as Isabel squealed and quickly gave Sophia a hug; the two hadn’t seen each other since Gerard had proposed to Isabel and she was excited to see the only sister that she had that wanted to speak with her.

 “It’s so good to see you again Sophia… I can’t believe we’re both engaged,” Isabel gushed while Gerard and Cristiano glared lightly at one another; Sophia smiled slightly before she turned back to Cristiano and kissed his cheek.

Isabel was quick to start talking about her wedding day arrangements making Cristiano roll his eyes lightly but he had noticed that Gerard couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Sophia; he could tell that the Spanish footballer was jealous and he was surprised just to see just how much.

“So when are you two getting married?” Isabel asked once they had ordered their main courses; not seeing the question coming and having no answer Sophia choked lightly on her wine while Cristiano smirked as he carefully patted his fiancée on the back.

“The 12th August 2012,” he said making Sophia look at him, Isabel smiled and started to talk about her own wedding again; he had thought about everything that might come up and knew that he would do anything to make sure that there was no unexpected surprises.

Sensing Sophia’s surprise, Cristiano squeezed her hand before whispering into her ear so Gerard and Isabel couldn’t hear them; he pressed a kiss to her neck just below her ear causing the defender to frown at him.

“Why can’t you do romantic things like that?” Isabel whined as she looked at Gerard, she had never seen him be like that with her and she was a little jealous of all the looks that Cristiano and Sophia were sharing between one another.

Cristiano smirked at Gerard before he drank some water, he was glad that he was getting under the man’s skin; Isabel sighed then turned her attention back to Sophia, she smiled at her sister as she thought about her wedding.

“Did you get my invitation?” she asked suddenly making Sophia looked at her puzzled for a moment making Isabel curse about the usefulness of the mail service; she didn’t know that the blonde knew what she was talking about.

“I sent you a wedding invite and since papa wants it to be a family affair, I was wondering if you’d be my maid-of-honour?” Isabel asked smiling as if nothing was wrong with what she had said; she didn’t notice the look of horror on Gerard’s face at what she had said.

Cristiano sighed and looked at Sophia, he knew that she had received the invite and how much it upset her; he hadn’t thought Isabel would ask her directly about it especially in a public place.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sophia said as she shook her head, Isabel looked at her confused since she didn’t understand what her older half-sister was saying; she had thought that Sophia would be thrilled at what she had said.

“Why not?” she asked, Gerard looked at Sophia then back to Isabel wondering how his fiancée wasn’t getting what was wrong; everyone had already had a field day when he had proposal to Isabel while he was still with her sister.

Shifting in her seat, Sophia realised it was now or never to tell her sister how she felt; she knew that Isabel thought everything was okay, she didn’t know how much she had hurt her sister.

“Isabel… I don’t want to come to your wedding; I’m sure it will be lovely but after what happened I can’t,” the blonde said making her younger half-sister frown, she took a deep breath as Isabel just looked at her confused; she didn’t know why the brunette just wasn’t getting this.

“I don’t understand…” she said looking at Gerard to explain to her what Sophia meant; though it was clear that he now knew what was going to happen.

“You both really hurt me when Gerard proposed to you; he was my boyfriend for five years and now he’s your fiancé, imagine how that will look to everyone at the wedding… what the press will say if I turn up at the wedding,” Sophia said making Isabel look down at her hands, now that’s she finally understood; she hadn’t expected her actions to hurt the only sister that spoke to her.

Jennifer and Fiona wanted nothing to do to her since she was the product of the affair that her mother had with their father and had resulted in their parents’ divorce.

“I think it would be best if Sophia and I left now,” Cristiano said sensing that things were over, while Gerard looked at the blonde; he hadn’t known how much he had hurt his ex-girlfriend.

Sophia stood allowing Cristiano to place a hand on her waist as she collected her clutch, she smiled at him thanking him for what he had done for her tonight; she knew that without him that she wouldn’t have gotten closure if it wasn’t for him.

“But you can forgive me… right Sophia?” Isabel said panicking as she realised that she was going to lose her only sister, she looked at the blonde hoping that there was something that she could do to fix this.

Sophia stared at her half-sister as she realised just how selfish she was.