Chapter 16
There was a natural evolution to all things.
September was a time of loss Sabrina knew would come.
It wasn’t like losing Malcolm, which was searing.
It was gentler and bittersweet. The monastery had finally found Elodie and Luc’s grandmother.
She had been in Brittany, living with friends after the pandemic, and had recently moved back to a house of her own.
She was shocked to learn she had grandchildren she didn’t know.
She had heard of her daughter’s death in Spain but not that she had left children in France, so she had never tried to find them.
She was a gentle woman, still young enough to take care of them and eager to.
It was a hard day when Xavier and Sabrina took Luc and Elodie to the monastery and their grandmother was waiting for them.
She promised to bring them to visit Sabrina whenever they wanted, and Sabrina promised that she would come to see them.
The children took all their toys with them, and the clothes she’d bought them.
Xavier sent their bicycles to their grandmother’s home in Brittany, and Luc had just learned to ride his without the training wheels.
Sabrina held the children tight for a moment and released them to their grandmother’s care.
It was her final act of love for them, to let them go.
She cried all the way back to the chateau afterward.
She and Xavier went out on the sailboat that afternoon and watched the sun set.
She knew how much they would miss them. It was lonely for Geraldine after Elodie and Luc left.
Sabrina spent extra time with her, and knew that their time together was limited and tried to prepare her for it.
Sabrina wondered if Xavier’s grandmother had had trouble letting them go too.
But all that mattered was what was good for them and where they would be safe.
There was a rugged court case in October for Geraldine’s custody.
She was finally returned to her mother, which Geraldine said she wanted when the judge asked her.
It was a fitting end to a traumatic year in her life.
She clung to Sabrina before she left, and thanked her.
She and her mother were moving to New York, where she wouldn’t be hounded by her father or his relatives.
Sabrina promised to visit her when she went to see Lizzie.
Her bond to the three children wasn’t over.
It had just progressed to another place, another time.
She had been there for Geraldine and Luc and Elodie when they needed her.
It was a clean wound for Sabrina, and not as deep as losing Malcolm. She knew she could see them again.
“It’s just us now,” Xavier said when they got home. He was going to miss them too. His daughter was finally coming home for Christmas, and Sabrina’s children were also coming to Arcangues. They would all be together at the chateau.
Xavier had started working on the renovation of a new hotel in Provence with Pascal. His divorce would be final in February. Brigitte seemed like a distant memory now. Sabrina’s gentle ways had healed his scars and time was healing hers, with Xavier beside her.
She was still volunteering at the monastery and enjoyed the children.
The Covid-related cases had been resolved in various ways.
The number of residents at the monastery had gone back to normal, and they didn’t need Sabrina and Xavier to house any children.
He was the master of his chateau again. The hand of fate had brought them together at the right time in the right way, a good man and a good woman who needed each other to continue their journey.
—
Sabrina’s children and Xavier’s daughter Victoire arrived at the chateau on the same day in December to celebrate Christmas together. Arabella and their baby boy were there too. Lizzie and Coco hadn’t seen him yet, and took turns holding him.
Sabrina smiled when she met Victoire and saw how much she looked like Xavier.
She was a lovely young woman with gentle ways, and the kindness of her father.
Her mother was skiing in Verbier with friends, and Victoire had wanted to spend Christmas with her father.
She had a month’s leave before she went back to Africa, so she had time to see her mother too.
She hadn’t been surprised about the divorce when Xavier told her about it and had accepted it with compassion and sympathy for him.
They all knew it was right, Victoire too.
The chateau looked slightly different now.
Sabrina had brought over her favorite pieces of furniture and art from the Malibu and Bel Air houses and they blended nicely with Xavier’s ancestral pieces and gave his home a fresh new look.
He loved her paintings and her taste in art.
And she had left the rest in storage in L.A. for her children.
She was running both galleries, in L.A. and at the hotel, from Arcangues, and decorating Xavier and Pascal’s new hotel in Provence.
The week they all spent together was heavenly chaos, and the young people got along well, found soulmates among the group, laughed and danced and listened to the same music.
They spoke a universal language of youth.
Xavier and Sabrina watched them, and translated for each other when needed.
Just seeing them together was a joy for them both.
They had not only found each other, but their families had grown, particularly Xavier’s with Sabrina’s brood, and a grandchild now too, Justin’s baby Theodore, Teddy.
Xavier loved holding the baby and making him laugh.
He was a fat, happy boy who didn’t mind being passed around from hand to hand.
They all had meals together and cooked together and shared good food and good wine.
They had dinner at the Empress Eugénie, and went to the casino in Biarritz, and dancing afterward.
There was an abundance of joy in their lives now.
Xavier took Victoire to see the mural of Noah’s ark and she was awestruck by it.
She and Sabrina liked each other and got along.
Sabrina had the warmth and maternal instincts Victoire’s own mother never had, and she soaked up Sabrina’s kindness like a thirsty plant.
On Christmas morning, Sabrina had a surprise for Xavier.
She had taken the old boot room no one used anymore except on very muddy days, and had turned it into a replica of the part of the original garden that Xavier loved most, minutely painted with each precise detail, every species of flower.
Looking at it, you could almost smell the flowers under a cameo sky.
He stood staring at it in disbelief and studied every detail, as the children looked on and smiled.
They had known about the surprise for months.
“When did you do that?” he asked, pulling her close.
“When you were sleeping and at work,” she said with mischief in her eyes, their children watching them, sharing their happiness.
In the mural, you could see the chateau in the distance, glimpsed through the trees, and a cottage with Arcangues Blue shutters.
She had painted the garden on all four walls of the small, sunny room.
It was her gift to him, as their life together was to each other, a rainbow of colors, each one more beautiful than the next.
He knew what her words meant now, like their life together since they met, and the lessons they had learned from each other and the strength they shared.
The room she had painted for him was the color of hope.