THE PHOTO SHOOT

The driver had just left for the new house, where he was going to pick Aletha. The Noels were staying in their new home, all thanks to Vine's grandparents. It was an extremely beautiful house, and since it came fully furnished, Aletha and Travis agreed to auction away most of their old furniture.

She and lady Pinkerton were supposed to plan for the baby welcome. The little one was only sixteen weeks old, and since lady Pinkerton still treated him like a one-day old, they had no plans of inviting too many people.

When Aletha arrived, she was shown a sketch of all the plans. Everything was already done and finalised, and she wondered why she had been called in. Aletha scanned through it all, and soon there was one of the staff members presenting the baby welcome plans as a mini film on the TV. Lady Pinkerton could not control herself. She was sitting on the edge of the sofa and the more the video played, the closer she moved to both the front and towards Aletha.

She could not wait to hear the comments of praise from Aletha.

"It's beautiful," Aletha said when the video finished playing.

"You think so? Do you like it?"

"I do. I have a few recommendations, if you don't mind."

"Yes please, tell me, Aletha."

"I thought since this is a very crucial event for the child, and we want him to look back at it with smiles, when it comes to photos, can't we have more than one photographers?"

"We have two, actually. You didn't see that? Please rewind for us,"

"No, thank you. Don't rewind, I think I saw it. I wanted to say even four, five photographers won't harm anyone. We can have one concentrating on the new parents, one on the baby and the other one on the rest of the family members. We also need the decorations captured, it must be so well done that Vincent will have a very clear image of how his day went. And also, if one photographer misses any detail, another one will be sure to pick it." Aletha explained, hiding her desperation. She was really not prepared to take no for an answer.

"I think you are right," lady Pinkerton said after some thought.

***

The mansion was painted blue, literally. Everything was shouting BABY BOY! The walls were decorated with some lights which were flashing on and off, and they gave off light in different shades of blue. In the middle of the room there was a very fluffy blue rug, on which Kiara and Vine were meant to sit on. Of course there was no telling if Vine was going to attend that event, for he had already voiced his opinion that since the event was going to be full of ladies, he had no time and reason to be among them.

There was a wine board with various blue juices and wines hanging from the board. The ladies who were invited all looked very beautiful. Two hours before the event began; two photographers came in and started to take pictures, capturing every detail without missing anything.

Videos were also being recorded, and everything was in the order that lady Pinkerton would have loved it to be.

When the guests arrived, they were welcomed by the waitresses, and shown to their seats. Each and every one of them could not wait to see the new baby. Some of them were itching to see Kiara, for they had failed to see her at the wedding.

"I understand she went into labour on the day of the wedding?" one lady asked the person seated next to her.

"Apparently it was false labour. She didn't give birth until the 29th of December."

On another corner, some ladies were also whispering to each other, "I can't wait to see who Vine chose. Our daughters are beautiful and classy, yet he never seemed to see them."

"Rumour says he has no interest in ladies."

"He has! If he didn't have, how then did he get this one, and even impregnated and married her. She's a lucky girl," the other lady folded her hands on her chest and started to appear to be in deep thought.

Kiara entered by a grand entrance. When she came in, the lights were all dimmed, and the flash lights, for fear that they were going to irritate the little one's young and sensitive eyes, were set to be bright minus the flashing. The event was during the day but naturally the room did not let in too much light.

Kiara walked in, dressed in a magnificent sky blue gown which had a tail running over. For real, all the ladies, although some of them were jealous, failed to deny that the young lady was beautiful.

"Whose child is she, by the way?" one lady asked her friend.

"Who knows? Some Noels family, some unknown people who used to stay in a tiny little house. It was only after the marriage that the Pinkertons upgraded them and bought them a decent home."

"I wonder what Vine saw in her," the lady whispered again.

"Huh? What did you say?" her friend leaned in to hear clearly.

"I said I wonder what Vine saw in her. This girl."

"She is beautiful. It was the beauty that he saw. What you should wonder instead is, how and where did they meet!"

The two ladies giggled and threw jealous glances in Kiara's way.

"She's a lucky girl," one of them mumbled to herself.

The event was very well organized. Vine did not appear, and his grandmother gave an apology on his behalf, stating that he was currently attending to some business at one of the family hotels.

Lady Pinkerton was very careful about the child, refusing for him to be held by too many people.

"I think the best would be, I hold him, and you can just come and see him. I'm sorry if I sound mean, but he's still too young and we really should be extra careful with him."

Some ladies stood up and went to see the little one. They gave positive comments before going back to their seats.

"That child looks nothing like Vine," one of the ladies said.

"But the hair colour is the same," another woman responded.

"Ok, tell me this," said a third woman, "besides the hair colour, what else is Vine's on that baby?"

The woman who had spoken first spoke up, "ladies, on second thoughts I think we are wrong. Do we really think that the Pinkertons can be cheated into taking care of a child not theirs? I doubt it."

"Of course they will always run to the most expensive centre in town, and get a DNA test done."

"The child probably takes most of his features from his mum," the second lady said in a jealous tone.

"But I didn't see anything that looks like the mother. If you ask me, that little boy has neither Vine nor Kiara's features.

"Babies' facial features tend to change as they grow."

"If you say so. Anyway, let's ask for some more drinks."

Most of the ladies thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There were also some young ladies who had previously tried their luck to attract Vine but had failed dismally. They had to force the smiles and celebrate the new bundle of joy.

When it was time to take photos, Aletha suggested that some photos of the child be taken in his room, and she, together with Tessa, Kiara and the photographer, went upstairs. Kiara, who had lost count of the number of photographers at the event, was shocked to see yet another new face.

"How many people are taking videos and photos here?" she asked no-one in particular, and no-one responded.

Although she wanted to move forward, her leg refused to carry her forward. What was it about that photographer? Why did he seem to be so familiar?

He had a moustache and a beard, and he wore a cap very low, covering his whole forehead. How on earth is someone supposed to take good photos when they have their eyes covered up like that – Kiara asked herself silently.

She proceeded to go upstairs. When she entered into the child's room, she saw that it was looking even more beautiful. Although it was always nicely decorated, on that day it looked even more beautiful.

"Tessa, straighten up the bed cover and please do go downstairs and make sure that the kitchen prepares something salty for Kiara. The two of us will manage here." Aletha said.

Tessa did as she was told. As soon as the young maid left the room, Aletha carefully placed the little one inside his basket, and she said,

"I will be back soon. I need to use the restroom, please proceed." She was speaking to the photographer.

Kiara looked at her mother and at the photographer, and she cursed herself for being so dumb.

Why? How? How could she have seen and walked with him all the way from downstairs, and fail to recognise him? How could the beard and mustache have fooled her, on a man that she had known since the first week of his life? She kept questioning herself how on earth she missed his step, and even his back view while he was walking up and down taking pictures in the room. What kind of woman was she, to fail to recognise the love of her heart, even though he had tried to disguise himself? To think that she looked at him and frowned, asking herself why there were so many photographers; and yet he was the photographer that she needed the most. How did she miss even his cologne, for it was still the same good old one. Of course many other men would use it, but on him, it smelt different. When it touched his body, it came forth with a totally different scent, a scent that she loved with her whole heart. How on earth had she missed all those clues?

She sank on the bed, shook her head and rubbed her eyes, trying her best to make sure that she was not having a dream. If it was a dream, then she wanted it to go on forever. She never wanted the dream to come to an end. She needed it to go on and on and on, and she was never to be woken up from such a dream.

The young man stepped forward and stretched his hand with, "I am a photographer from Elianah Photography; good to see you ma'am."

Kiara did not respond. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tell the whole world that come and see, he is here right now, he is standing right in front of me. She needed the whole world to know…she wanted everyone to know. They all needed to know; for the news was just but too big for Kiara to handle on her own.

"Jeremy," she said in a very low voice after she had finally found her voice.

She feared to run to him, for what if it was all a dream, and if she should try and touch him; what if he just disappeared into thin air? Was he there, for real? Was he standing right in front of her? She had difficulties believing it, until the man spoke,

"Kiara.

He threw his camera on the bed, and opened his arms to give her a hug.