Chapter 186
During that time Desmond and Sofia never spoke about the incident in the kitchen, although from the way Sofia looked at him sometimes Desmond knew that she still had her guard up against him and Desmond couldn’t blame her; the truth is that it was weird enough that Sofia hadn’t chased him out of her house that day.
The third day that Desmond spent in the city was the day he needed to report to the military barracks in the city to go through the evaluations that he request, Sofia took the trouble to take him in her car to the barracks because she also had to appear in the place for its own business.
There was nothing but silence all the way to the barracks, once they were alone things got uncomfortable quickly; When Sofia parked the car, Desmond could no longer keep quiet.
“I’m sorry ... for what happened that day in the kitchen ... My parents, they not only died, they were killed ... by the soldiers in charge of the bunker we took refuge in five years ago, Claire’s parents also died that day in front of us, since then I take care of her... You know what kind of world this is, you can imagine the kind of things I had to do to survive; that’s why I don’t like being treated like a child and... You wear the same uniform as those who took everything from me and when you try to act like a mother with me... I just lost it; sorry.”
It was one of the first times that Desmond talked about his past and his feelings with someone other than Claire, even Sasha had gotten a condensed version of his past; but Desmond felt that he owed at least an explanation to this kind woman to whom he had been so irrationally cruel.
Having said his part Desmond got out of the car without waiting for Sofia’s response, in fact, Desmond didn′t want an answer he just wanted to be able to apologize and leave everything in the past; after all, as far as he was concerned it was unlikely that he would see Sofia again.
Sofia was stunned while she was still in the car watching Desmond go, Desmond’s apology and confession had come out of nowhere and left her with more questions than answers; she now understood the reason for Desmond’s sudden violent outburst that day and now she believed it made perfect sense ... but it was the only thing she made sense of.
In the last two days Sofia had watched Desmond carefully and realized that everything she knew about Desmond from when they originally met was a lie, the serious, strict and firm man was nowhere to be seen.
.....
Desmond around her and her daughters was a completely different man, he was kind, tender, attentive, gentle, even a little flirtatious and Sofia had a strong feeling that this was the real Desmond or at least part of it.
The slight gestures that one acquires through military training such as the way you walk, the posture when standing or the way you address others, all of this she had seen in Desmond during the meeting that day and that give to the three supervisors the impression that Desmond was a young man with military beliefs carved in his blood, but it was all a lie.
The most disturbing thing is that it was the perfect lie, it was all about impressions and appearances, a subtle manipulation, something that an ability that detects lies could never detect; Sofia was even sure that it didn’t matter if everything Desmond said at the meeting was true there would still be hundreds of things he didn’t say.
But Sofia didn′t say anything, even when an officer came to her office to report that Desmond had started taking his evaluations, she didn′t say anything, she didn’t report what had been discovered or did anything about it; Desmond Astryd was a complicated man to say the least, but she didn’t think he was evil or dangerous... well maybe it was dangerous for a single woman to be alone with him for long, but that was a completely different matter.
Sofia couldn’t help but blush when she thought at that moment that they had in the kitchen where she had Desmond on top of her, it wasn′t like she was a masochist or anything, but she had been alone for several years now, with her work and her daughters. ; she just didn’t have time, but Desmond reminded her that she was still a woman.
“What are you thinking Sofia? He is just a boy ... well it would be better if he never heard me call him that but even so he is much younger, just focus on your work ... maybe I should follow that advice from my friend and buy a toy for loneliness ”
Once her thoughts reached there, Sofia could no longer concentrate on work, it was not entirely her fault, she was still a young woman and her body had certain needs just like any other human being; in the end, she spent hours lost in her thought while the paperwork on her desk didn′t seem to diminish.
Knock Knock*
The sound of someone knocking on the door brought her out of her thoughts that had already traveled far enough to involve her and Desmond in a dubious relationship on a beach in Hawaii; Sofia did her best to get all those thoughts out of her head before asking whoever was knocking on her door to pass.
It turned out to be her secretary, Monica, her face was pale as if she had seen a ghost and she was carrying a folder in her hand; Sofia asked what happened, but her secretary’s response sounded puzzling enough.
“It’s the new one, the guy who took his first lieutenant exam in conjunction with six other evaluations ... he’s a monster in human skin.”
Monica left the folder on Sofia’s desk and left the office without saying a single word more, too curious to be stopped; Sofia opened the folder, but when she saw the contents of it, her reaction was quite similar to the one her secretary had.
After having read all the documents that were brought to her and even seeing some videos that were sent in a digital memory along with her folder; a single thought floated over Sofia’s mind: “Maybe he’s a dangerous person after all.”
All the documents were the various evaluations Desmond had taken and despite everything he had written on them; they all had something in common. All of them had the following written as their final evaluation: Maximum marks, extremely promising; extremely dangerous.