Page 31 of The Spanish Daughter (The Lost Daughters #5)

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PRESENT DAY

Rose stared at the test in her hand. She’d thought it was scary when she’d first waited for a Covid test to show two lines, but seeing the two dark red lines on the pregnancy test was like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and she had no idea whether to be excited or terrified or both.

‘Sweetheart, I thought you could use a coffee,’ Benjamin said as he pushed open the door.

She looked up, her eyes meeting his as the smile on his face hovered into something resembling shock. Rose was surprised he didn’t drop one of the two coffee cups he was holding.

‘That’s a, a?—’

‘Pregnancy test,’ she whispered, curling her toes against the cold tiles as her stomach lurched.

‘A pregnancy test,’ he repeated, as if he wanted to say something but was at a loss for words so just repeated what she’d said.

‘I’m pregnant.’

Benjamin started nodding. ‘Right. I, ahh, I’m just going to set these cups down here.’

Rose was about to reach for him when he disappeared, and she found herself dropping the test in the bin and staring into the still-full coffee cups he’d left behind. I’m going to lose him . Tears pricked her eyes as she placed both hands on the basin, turning on the water and running her hands beneath it for something to do.

Everything had felt as if it were falling into place, as if it was meant to be, and now she felt as if history was repeating itself. Only she had control over her own body and her own life in ways that her great-grandmother hadn’t.

After taking a moment to gather herself, she picked up one of the cups, lifting the steaming liquid to her lips to take a sip. She couldn’t see any point in letting the coffee go to waste.

But when she walked out of the bathroom, she was surprised to see Benjamin walking back into the room.

‘Sorry, I?—’

‘It’s fine, it came as a shock to me, too.’

‘It’s not that,’ he said, as he came towards her and took the cup from her hands, setting it down beside the bed.

‘Honestly, it’s fine. I’ve only just come back and?—’

‘Rose, stop,’ he said, taking her hand and shaking his head. ‘Just stop and let me talk for a moment, would you?’

Rose pressed her lips together, seeing how serious Benjamin looked. But it wasn’t until he dropped to one knee that she understood what was happening.

‘Rose, this isn’t how I planned this, but?—’

‘Stop,’ she whispered. ‘You don’t have to do this.’

Benjamin sighed and stood up, letting go of one of her hands as he touched gently beneath her chin and lifted her face slightly, so she was looking into his eyes.

‘Rose, I’m just going to say this before you interrupt me again,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘My father told me never to ask a woman to marry me unless I was certain I couldn’t live the rest of my life without her, and from the moment you came back to Argentina, I’ve known that I never wanted to know what it was like for you to leave again.’

Rose stared back at Benjamin, hardly able to believe the words that were falling from his mouth. She forced herself to stay quiet as he stared at her in the most tender way a man had ever looked at her in her life before.

‘This is not what I planned, because I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment, but when I walked in on you before I realised that I just needed to ask you. That the perfect moment was now.’

‘I don’t want you to marry me just because I’m pregnant,’ she whispered. ‘I can do this on my own, you don’t need to?—’

‘Rose,’ Benjamin said, reaching into his pocket and holding a diamond solitaire on a band in the palm of his hand. ‘Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’

She stared at the ring, before looking up at Benjamin.

‘I’ve had this ring in my pocket since the day after you came home, so please, don’t think that I’ve only proposed because of the baby. It’s so much more than that, Rose,’ he said, holding it out to her. ‘I love you.’

Her heart started to beat a little faster, even though the voice in her head told her that he was only asking her because of what had just happened. But as he slipped the ring onto her finger, she also knew that he hadn’t just rummaged up a ring in the last five minutes. He bought this for me before .

‘What do you say?’ Benjamin asked.

The weight of the diamond felt unusual on her finger. She barely wore jewellery, and if she did it was usually a necklace or a pair of earrings.

‘I…’ Rose wanted to say yes, but it all felt so soon, as if she was rushing head-first into something without giving it enough consideration. For once in my life, can’t I just say yes?

She looked at the hopeful expression on Benjamin’s face, saw the kindness within him, the love he had for her, and she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips. ‘Yes,’ she said at last. ‘Yes, I will marry you.’

He let out a whoop and scooped her up into his arms, swinging her around as she protested, before he dropped her onto the bed and flopped down beside her, still keeping hold of her hand.

‘I’ve never been so nervous in my life,’ he said. ‘But this, us , it’s going to be amazing. Being without you, coming back to this house when you were gone, I knew I’d made the biggest mistake of my life in letting you leave without telling you how I felt.’

‘I need to be honest with you, Benj,’ she said, rolling onto her side so she could look at him. ‘The thought of a wedding without my mum right now, I can’t even imagine it. But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to marry you.’

He leaned in and kissed her forehead, his lips lingering. ‘We can get married quietly, just the two of us, or we can wait. We don’t even need to tell anyone about the engagement until you’re ready.’

‘You’re sure? I don’t want to ruin this for you. I know how close you are to your family.’

He grinned. ‘We’re going to have our own little family now, and that’s all that matters. When you’re ready for us to tell the world, then we’ll share the news. Until then, we can keep it all a secret.’

She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, wondering how she’d ever thought they weren’t meant to be together.

‘You’re going to make a great dad, you know that?’ she murmured, trying not to cry.

‘You’re going to make a great mum, too.’

Rose lay in Benjamin’s arms, marvelling at how her life had taken such a wonderful yet surprising turn. Only weeks ago, she’d worried about whether she was making the right decision about her job, whether she was foolish to even travel to Buenos Aires in the first place, and now she’d somehow stumbled into the future she was always supposed to have.

‘I keep forgetting to tell you, but a letter arrived while you were gone. I put it in the top drawer in the kitchen.’

‘Addressed to me?’ she asked.

‘Yes, addressed to you. It was handwritten, so I didn’t open it on your behalf in case it was personal.’

They lay there a while longer, but curiosity got the better of Rose and she couldn’t help going downstairs to take a look. The house was quiet, but when she found the letter and sat down at the kitchen table to open it, she saw the cat was sitting there, watching her. She’d taken to leaving one of the doors open a crack so he could come and go, and today he was blinking at her as if he wasn’t quite sure about his new residence.

Rose turned her attention from him and slid her fingernail beneath the seal of the letter, finding two pages of cream paper folded inside, with a striking cursive writing covering the pages.

To my beautiful daughter,

I started writing this letter so many times, and didn’t know how to start. In the end, I decided to simply start with the truth, so here it is. I have watched you your whole life, from when you were a little girl until you had your own daughter, and then a granddaughter after that. I never wanted to leave you, but at the time, I was barely an adult myself, and my life felt as if I didn’t have a say in it. I was so determined to return for you, but fate meant that it wasn’t to be. I want you to know that not a day passed that I didn’t think about you.

One day I will leave everything to you, and I hope that you find a second home in Argentina, and that you feel as if you belong in the country I have loved so fiercely. You might have been born in London, but somewhere deep inside, you have Spanish blood flowing through your veins, and a connection to Argentina that can never be erased.

Once, many years ago, I was forced into a marriage that I resisted with all of my heart, but that marriage gave me you, and I wouldn’t have swapped those precious moments I spent holding you in my arms for anything. I only wish that things could have been different, and that I could have spent the rest of my life getting to know you.

If you’ve received this letter, then I am long gone. So please, breathe in the fresh air, explore the land around you and open your heart. And know that you were forever held in mine, until my very last breath.

Valentina Santiago

Rose stood, leaving the letter on the table as she walked out of the door and stood in the sunshine, tilting her head up to the sky and breathing in the air, just as her great-grandmother had instructed. Because she’d been right—somehow, despite everything, she did feel the connection to this property, to Argentina, to the legacy Valentina had left behind. And now she finally knew the truth.

‘There you are.’

Benjamin’s arms wrapped around her from behind, and she let him hold her, leaning back into him as she looked out at the landscape around them. Her world had been turned upside down more than once these past few years, but Rose had the most overwhelming feeling that she was at last, somehow , exactly where she was supposed to be.