Chapter Twenty-One

A couple of days later, Sapphie resisted the urge to slam the door to her office shut after coming from Pierre's. If one more thing went wrong, she was going to start pulling her hair out. First, their suppliers delivered late the new training kits, causing a delay in the team's warm up a few days back. Then the other day, the balls were under inflated and had to be quickly pumped up before the players could practice their passing drills. She'd barely made it to work on time every day for the past week. And to top it all off, one of the nets had a hole in it, which made scoring goals impossible.

Sapphie couldn't help but think about how everything had been going wrong lately. The team was on a losing streak, and she felt like she was constantly playing catch up with equipment orders and repairs. It was taking a toll on her, both mentally and physically.

She massaged her head as she headed for her tiny desk and picked up her landline. If only she could catch her breath, she thought as she punched in the all too familiar number.

"Hi, Claude it's Sapphie. I'm calling about the cleats that we ordered last month. We haven't received them yet and they are needed like last week. What's going on?" She paced about her desk.

"Hey Sapphie, I'm sorry to hear that. What exactly is the problem?"

She gritted her teeth to reel in her temper and explained the situation again.

"We ordered 50 pairs of cleats for the first team a couple of months ago and I still haven't received anything from neither you nor your team. Not an email, no message nothing. We need those shoes for the next game which is in a few days."

"I'm sorry to hear this. When you didn't say anything, I thought the delivery went as planned. Did you go through the proper channels to report the issue?"

Sapphie felt the control she had on her temper continue to slip.

"Cut the customer care bull Claude, you are the proper channels. I've been calling, filing reports and emails but it's like they all end up in your spam folder or something. I'm getting in trouble at work because of this."

"I can understand your frustration. Let me look into this for you and see what I can do to help."

Sapphie waited patiently as she heard the click-click clack of his keyboard.

"Okay, I see the problem. It turns out there was a delay in production but that was resolved recently but it will unfortunately mean that deliveries will be delayed as well."

Someone knocked on her door, prompting Sapphie to check her wrist watch. She covered her phone's mouth piece and shouted,

"Not now Dylan!"

"Now you listen to me Claude and listen well. Whatever happened at Nike is none of my business but those cleats are. If I don't see those boxes on Camp des Loges' door step by Friday morning, I will come down there and it is your ass I'll be having for breakfast with a glass of grapefruit juice!" She slammed the phone back onto the receiver and massaged her temples.

I need another coffee pronto, she sighed just before another knock sounded on her door.

"Dylan, I already told you, you can't keep coming around to steal my—" Her words died on her lips when the person who peeked their head into her office.

"Faizah!" She blinked even as she subconsciously corrected her posture.

What was Kylian's mother doing here?

"May I come in?" She asked.

Sapphie had to shake herself out of her daze, "Sure! Yes, come on in."

"Are you looking for Kylian?" She asked though it was highly unluckily Faizah was lost. After all it'd been years since she started coming around from time to time. She probably was as familiar with the facilities as she was with her own offices at Inspired by KM.

"No, I'm actually here to speak with you Sapphie. I know my visit is unexpected." She gestured to the telephone, "I realise I'm interrupting your busy schedule but I was hoping to have just a few minutes to talk with you."

Her heart slammed against her ribs at the mention of those words even as she smiled and said, "Sure, don't worry. I could probably do with the break.

Sapphie watched in anxious silence as the older woman entered the room and took the seat, she'd gestured for her to take.

Was she here talk about her and Kylian? Had she come to tell her to break up with her son? All these questions shot into Sapphie's mind like from a canon. She rounded her desk and headed for the table where she kept her urn.

"Can I offer you anything to drink? I have coffee, tea...water?"

"A cup of coffee is fine, thank you."

Oh no, thought Sapphie. This...whatever she was here for is going to take a while.

Sapphie quickly prepared two cups with shaky hands and carried them back to her desk. It took a lot of effort to not spill anything.

"Thank you." Nodded Faizah when she accepted the mug. Sapphie smiled as she too took her seat. With the painful smile still pasted n her face, Sapphie took a sip of her coffee, just to give herself something to do. It was painfully awkward.

"Relax, Sapphie. I'm not here to repeat the other night. In fact," she opened her hand bag, pulled out a large brown envelope and placed it on the desk in front of her before pushing it with a finger in Sapphie's direction.

"I wanted to apologize for my behaviour at dinner. I was out of line and I'm sorry."

A little taken aback, Sapphie blinked at the woman even as her hand reached out for the envelope. Someone, presumably Faizah, had already torn it open so she simply reached inside and took out a thin flat file. Sapphie gapped at the contents in utter surprise.

She stared at Kylian's mother. She sat in her chair, her heart now pounding in her chest. She hurriedly flipped through the contents of the manila folder in utter disbelief. Kylian's mother had hired a private investigator to look into her past! When she finally looked up, Sapphie didn't know what she wanted to do more. Whether to get up and throw the woman out or demand an explanation.

She sat in shock as the file lay open on her desk, forgotten. She couldn't believe that someone would investigate her without her knowledge or consent.

What kind of an apology was this?!

So ever since dinner at Kylian's someone had probably followed her countless times...just lurking in the shadows and watching her?

"I know this looks bad but I can explain," Faizah pushed her gasses up the bridge of her nose, "I got in contact with a private investigator that night and I picked those up earlier today. I'm sorry to say it but, it was the assurance that I needed."

"What assurance?" Sapphie threw her hands in the air and stared at the pages full of stuff about her, pictures...

"That my son wasn't getting himself into a predicament by getting himself involved with you so I had a background check done on you."

"Doing a background check is a little extreme, don't you think? This is an invasion of my privacy, my family's!"

"I realise that and I know how you must feel, but consider this, how many people do you think would have shown you that."

"With all due respect does it look like I care? If anything, I'd rather have not known!" Sapphie shot up from her seat with a shake of her head, "I don't know what this is but what I do know is that this is not how an apology should go. I think you should leave, please."

The older woman saw how things were going south fast and she quickly tried to explain herself.

"Look, Sapphie I'm sure it seems odd that I had you investigated. But I did it because I was worried about my son—"

"I'm sorry but does not give you the right to do what you did!" Said Sapphie as she cut her off. She was aware it was the rude thing to do but what Kylian's mother had done was a huge turn off. She just wanted her out of her office so she could be alone.

"For what it's worth, the background check, it really wasn't an exaggeration. It was me trying to keep mistakes from repeating themselves, but that is a story you'd need to get from Kylian himself when he is ready."

"What?" Her expression softened at Faizah's words, "What does that mean?"

Slowly she sank back into her chair as if she were in a trance. Faizah didn't reply her question, she simply gave her a weak smile before speaking again.

"I know my sons are grown men and they can make their own decisions in life. But just because they are grown, doesn't mean I stop being their mother and a good mother protects her children."

Sapphie felt her anger start draining away and being filled by sympathy.

"Kylian is the kind of person who, when he wants something or chooses to let someone into his life, he gives himself away and I don't take it lightly. Kylian will always be my child, no matter how old he grows. I will always want the best for him out of life. But if being the best means I have to be on guard concerning whoever comes into our home, our family, then that is what I will do. I'm sure you understand."

She was starting to. Sapphie nodded.

"Alright, I get that you wanted to protect Kylian," she nodded, "But, why didn't you just ask me?"

Faizah shook her head, "I didn't want to do that, if you had something to hide from us the odds were you would lie anyway. That's why I thought it would be better if I found out everything first."

"when I made the decision to do this, I was well aware that even though I was protecting my child, it was unfair to you and for that I also apologize. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me." She peered into Sapphie's eyes, her expression giving away nothing but sincerity.

For a minute everything in the room went silent as neither of them spoke or moved. It was as if Faizah's words hung in the air and whatever Sapphie said or did next would change the fate of their relationship for good.

Sapphie peered down at her picture of herself in the folder and then looked back up at Faizah with a deep sigh.

"I believe you," she nodded, "and I'm also glad that you care enough about your son to make sure he is protected. That I can respect."

Faizah smiled gratefully and promptly reached out to give Sapphie's hand a warm squeeze.

"Thank you for understanding cheri. I just want what's best for Kylian and I hope that you can be part of that."