Chapter 12: GIDEON

Dinner was a simple affair in a little bistro that I liked. I ordered her the leek and potato soup as a starter, followed by poached salmon in hollandaise sauce with asparagus and new potatoes.

She was such a delight to spoil. I found myself looking forward to things that I had never paid much attention to in the past. Like the upcoming holidays, not to mention her birthday, which would be in a few short months.

I smiled at the thought.

"What? What are you smiling about?"

That's my little girl, so attentive to my every action.

My smile grew wider. "I'm imagining spoiling my best girl for the holidays."

"Who me?"

She blushed with a look of uncertainty on her face. My poor baby, so unaccustomed to attention, I felt my hands clench into fists. I refuse to let thoughts of her father and what I would like to do to him intrude on our time any more this evening.

My only thought from now on would be of her, of making her life something beautiful.

It was pure torture taking her home af