17 Unexpected Developments

After all the excitement of Christmas and the New Year, and the revelation by Mum of her previous relationship with ‘Chad’ as she liked to call him, life settled down for a while. Margaret had decided not to return, apparently she had been left a significant legacy by her mother, and along with her own savings, her mother’s house, and her own property, she was comfortably off and decided that she no longer needed the stress of work . As I was now working virtually full-time on financial assessments, it meant that Chloe was now taking on the traditional role of a PA, working more directly with Sir Charles, instead of through me, rather than just basic secretarial duties, which had become more challenging for her and a better use of her time at university.

“ Dani, Sir Charles has asked me to come with him and you to tomorrows meeting at Makepeace, mainly to take notes instead of him going through it with me afterwards. I have obviously seen Mr Makepeace when he has visited here but have not really met him and talked to him, what is he like.”

“ You’ll have no trouble with Gareth, he is easy to get on with. When I did that first presentation he told me that the people we were presenting to ‘are all normal people, take away their fancy suits and their superior business faces, and they are no better than you or me.’, just remember that and you will be ok.”

At Makepeace’s, we were joined by Gareth and two of his senior analysts, James , a middle-aged very formal and severe looking type, and Harry, who despite his responsible role, was still in his twenties, with a pleasant smile, a twinkle in his eye, and a weathered tan giving the impression that he had just returned from a skiing holiday. James, gave a general introduction to a proposal they had for Sir Charles, and passed over to Harry who gave the detailed report. His voice was a bit sing-song betraying his west-country roots, but had a pleasing lilt to it which kept our attention, even through the more intense parts of his report.

After the formal meeting we stood around in groups generally chatting, Sir Charles and Gareth, James and me, and Harry and Chloe, before we returned to the office, where Sir Charles went off to an in-house meeting leaving Chloe and me to pull together the minutes of the meeting.

“ You settled in quite well Chloe, that wasn’t too bad was it?”

“ As you said, they may be in responsible positions but they are really just the same as everyone else underneath it all.”

‘ You and Harry seemed to get on well, the pair of you chatted amongst yourselves, while the rest of us mixed a bit.”

‘ Harry was ok, he really made me relaxed, we had a good chat, and he has asked me out for a drink and meal, but I don’t know whether to go or not. Is it good to mix business and personal relationships?”

“ What harm can it do, he is good-looking and seemed very pleasant and charming, if he had asked me, I would definitely have said yes. The job he is doing, he is not going to be short of money, he is a good catch, go for it girl, but remember no pillow-talk letting out Sir Charles. confidential stuff.”

“ It’s only a dinner date, it will probably not get any further than that.” Chloe replied, giving me a gentle punch on the arm.

I decided that at the weekend, I would drive down to visit Mum, and asked Sir Charles if it would be ok to visit Sarah and him.”

“ I believe that it is already arranged, Sarah and Samantha have met up a few times recently and seem as thick as thieves. I don’t think that you and I have any say in the matter.”

Unlike when we were there at Christmas , this was a much more casual affair, just jeans and jumpers and with my hair tied back in a pony tail. Again Charles and Mum seemed to be deep in conversation so Sarah took me out into the garden for a walk.

When we came back they were sitting together on a sofa, surprisingly holding hands and looking nervous.

“ Sit down Dani, Chad and I have something to tell you which might come as a bit of a shock.”.

Taking a deep breath she continued. “I told you that when Chad and I met all those years ago that we had a bit of a wild weekend. Well it appears that Elizabeth is his daughter, not your Dad’s. Sarah and I collected hair samples and had them all DNA tested and there is no doubt.”

“ Oh my God, have you told Liz?”

“ Not yet, it is not something I want to do over the phone, I am going over to Naples to tell her, will you come with me.”

“ That is a massive shock, you and Dad always seemed so happy together.”

“ We were, this was not cheating on your Dad, this was before we were married and was just a holiday romance amidst all the excitement of the Glastonbury festival. There was no reason to doubt that she was your Dad’s daughter, until recently when I met Chad again.”

“ This is all going to blow her mind, not only will she be meeting me as her sister Danielle, but you will be telling her that we are not really full sisters, or sister and brother, whatever.”

“ Will you come with me, it will make it a lot easier?”

“ Of course, when do you want to go.”

“ I want to go soon before I have second thoughts about it, I want to book a flight for Monday. I will get Sheila to mind the shop for a few days.”

“ Don’t worry about work, Chloe can keep the place ticking over for a few days, she has settled in really well.” Charles interrupted, “ after all, we are sort of family now.”

“ Mum, can we go out for a walk and talk, I want to collect my thoughts, it is all a bit of a shock.”

“ What would Dad think if he was still alive, Mum, it would break his heart?” I asked when we were alone.

“ Your Dad had no reason to doubt that Elizabeth was his daughter, he couldn’t have loved her more. I don’t know how he would have reacted, obviously very disappointed, but even if he had known that Chad was her biological father, he was still her Dad. He was the one who picked her up if she was crying, brushed away her tears many times, played with her, took her on holiday, those things will never change.”

“ Ok , I’ll come to Naples with you, but we have to tell her about me before we go, two shocks in one day would send her into all sorts of emotional states.”

“Arrange the flights Dani and you give her a call. Just keep the conversation about your situation, don’t mention about Chad.”

“ It was an awkward call to Liz, explaining how I had now come to be Dani. Partway through the conversation I changed my voice from Danny’s to Dani’s and most of the long chat was two sisters talking, rather than a brother and sister

The Alitalia flight from London Heathrow to Naples was smooth and pleasant and the final run-in to Naples gave us amazing views to the awe-inspiring crater and slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Getting through passport control and retrieving our luggage in baggage handling was no problem and I was quite relaxed and ready to meet my sister for the first time as Dani.

I decided to treat Liz the same way I had treated Mum the first time in Hastings, told Mum to wait for a few minutes and went out into the Arrivals concourse. I walked straight past her and she just looked past me to the gate searching for Mum and I.

I turned around and asked her“ Excuse me, do you speak English.”

“ Yes, how can I help?”

“ You can start by giving your sister a hug, It is so long since we have seen each other.”

“ What the……., is that you Danny? I would never have recognised you, let’s have a good look at you.”

“ We can’t talk here Liz, let’s get Mum, go back to yours, and we can have a long talk to tell you all about what has happened.”

The short drive out to her seafront apartment in Torre del Greco, outside the main city was the worst part of our journey. Everything I had heard about Italian drivers turned out to be true, they must drive with one hand permanently on the horn and with their feet jumping between the brake and the accelerator pedals. Despite that, Liz got us back to her flat without incident and we settled down with a fresh coffee to soothe our nerves. She had a lovely spacious apartment looking out over the bay of Naples to the Islands of Ischia and Procida in the distance.

“This is an amazing apartment Liz, you are lucky to be living here.”

“ Never mind all the social niceties, they can wait, let me have a good look at you, and you can tell me again all about how you have changed. When you called I didn’t really believe you could make it work, but even when you spoke to me at the airport, I thought you were just another girl needing a bit of help, you are so natural and convincing.” For the next hour, I gave her all the details of my job, sharing the flat with Carol and the various boys I had met and she was enthralled with it all.

“ We can talk about that again later, what about you, how is life treating you?”

“ I’m thinking of coming back to England. I have broken up with Gian Lucca, he has regularly been playing around with other women and I have had enough. It is handy that he has moved out, at least I won’t have to explain why I have a sister that I have never mentioned to him.”

“In many ways,” Mum interrupted, “the fact that we are on our own makes what I am about to say a bit easier. You have been told that Dani has been working as an executive assistant to Sir Charles Montgomery a wealthy financier. Well, it turned out that he lives not far from me and he invited Dani and I and a few others to visit him and his sister for Christmas to try to fill their house and make it a jollier place. We discovered that I knew him a long time ago when we met at Glastonbury in the summer of 1989, and we had a bit of a sort of holiday romance.”

“ Don’t tell me that you have found a rich ex-boyfriend with lots of money, you lucky old thing.”

“ Let’s have less of the’ old thing’ ElizabethIt’s a bit more more than that. We have checked, and he is your biological father. This was before I married, and I settled down with your Dad, and eventually you two. We had a good life together, and I soon forgot all about Chad, as I new him. That is, until we met up again at Christmas."

“You have got me all confused, what am I supposed to think, a lot of my life has been a lie.”

“ Don’t take it like that, your Dad will always be your Dad, he was the one who raised you and loved you. This doesn’t change any of that or take anything from your memory of him. If you want to , Charles would like to meet you sometime.”

“ This is all a bit much, I need to think about it. Drop it for the next few days, let me get to know my new sister and we will see how I feel when you fly back.”

The next few days, we made the most of our time in Naples, wandering the narrow back streets with their lively fresh fish and local food market stalls, visiting the historic squares, cathedral and palace, the fantastic restaurants and ice-cream parlours, and, the icing on the cake, the amazing ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a visit full of memories to take back, particularly as Liz was intending to come home and it was unlikely we would ever be back again. It had not taken Liz long to accept me as her sister, especially when she saw me in my bra and panties while we were changing, and by the time it came for Mum and I to leave, Danny was almost forgotten.

Liz was intending to clear things up in Naples and return to St Leonards in about a month, by when she would have decided what she wanted to do about Sir Charles, so Mum and I had a few busy weekends getting the house all cleaned and freshened up for her return. Working and spending so much time with her, we became really close, much more than when I had been Danny. We often went up to the Abbey, where Mum and Charles were spending more and more time together, leaving Sarah and me to really get to know each other.

With all this going on, Carol and I did not have a lot of time with each other, and she was spending more time with Jamie, I was hoping that things would develop a lot further. Carol had been a good friend to me, and I wanted her to be happy. I went on double-dates with them, and with Callum, but whilst I got on well with him, I had no deep feelings for him, I was still not comfortable thinking about relationships, and sex, with men. We decided that we would always be good friends but nothing more, I didn’t want to tell him about who I really was, and that I was still physically male.

One Friday night Carol came home early from a date with Jamie, and had obviously been crying, from the puffiness and smeared makeup on her eyes.

“ What’s the matter Carol, have you had a row, or is this another of your panic attacks?”

“ Jamie is a lovely lad, and did nothing wrong, it is just that when we having a bit of heavy petting, I suddenly had a vision of that night with Ben and the time I was attacked and molested, and I just couldn’t continue, I am not sure if I will ever be comfortable with men again.”

“ Never mind, come here, have a hug and we will get you calmed down.”

After a while cuddled together and talking about how she felt awful about running away from Jamie, she suddenly pulled me closer and gave me a passionate full kiss on the lips, and for the first time since all this started I felt a stirring in my loins. “ Oh, Dani, why cannot it always be like this, just the two of us, we know where we are with each other.” We continued in a passionate embrace until she took my hand and led me to her bedroom.

To be continued.