“I want you to go,” Merry said. “I want you out of here.”
“You think that’s what you want,” he said. “But you don’t really. In fact, you’re going to be thanking me in about five minutes.”
“Thanking you?” she spat. “What on earth have I got to thank you for? All those wasted years? The moment I caught you kissing your assistant? It was only when I met Christian that I understood how awful you really were. He showed me true love.”
“Pffft,” Adrian said, waving her words away. “That’s garbage. I’m going to show you exactly what kind of man Christian is.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, clinging to the spiral necklace as if it might call Christian to her.
“After I was here the other day,” said Adrian. “Christian texted Bianca.”
“What?” Merry said, a snowstorm blowing through her veins. Adrian pushed himself off the grotto and walked to her.
“I don’t know how he found out her number, but he did, and he texted her. He told her he wanted to meet up, that he thought she was beautiful.”
“You’re lying,” Merry said, shaking her head as if it might deflect his attack.
“I’m not,” he said. “I swear. They arranged to meet tonight. If you don’t believe me, then I can take you to them right now.”
It was a lie, Merry was sure of it. But all the same, her stomach was churning, and she felt like she could be sick at any moment. Adrian walked past her, heading for the escalators.
“Come on, Merry,” he said. “Let’s get this over with, then maybe you’ll find your senses and come back to me.”
Never, she said inside her head, but the words wouldn’t fit up her throat. What if Adrian was right? What if Christian really had texted Bianca? Even though her heart felt as if it had loved Christian for years, the truth was she barely even knew him. What if he’d met with Bianca and bought her a dress too? What if he’d met with other girls from the store? What if this was the real Christian? It was just too awful to bear, and she followed Adrian in stunned silence down the escalator, repeating a prayer over and over and over.
Please don’t be true, please don’t be true, please don’t be true.
They walked past the entrance to the restaurant, the party still raving inside, then into the electronics department. Adrian seemed to know exactly where he was going, heading right for the corridor that led to the staff door.
“You’ll see,” he said, his voice strangely loud in the quiet space. “You’ll see just how evil he really is.”
She walked around the corner, looking into the shadows of the corridor. There were two people here, their arms wrapped around each other. They were kissing, and by the way one of them was moving it seemed to be a passionate kiss. Merry felt the strength literally leak out of her, replaced by a cold, roaring darkness.
“No,” she said.
One of the people in the corridor—the man—broke free, pushing the other away. He turned, and even in the dim light she recognized him straight away.
It was Christian.
The woman who was there with him began to laugh, an evil cackle that belonged to a witch. It was Bianca, just as Adrian had said it would be.
“Merry!” yelled Christian, walking toward her. “Wait, it’s not what it looks like!”
Merry’s heart seemed to wither and die right there. She clutched at her chest, somehow remembering how to move her feet. Turning, she ran—Christian’s pleas, Bianca’s cackle, and Adrian’s “I told you, Merry!” chasing her through the dark, quiet halls.
25
What had just happened?
He’d followed the woman into the corridor, hoping she would lead him to Merry. Then he’d heard Adrian’s voice, and the woman had thrown herself on him—literally thrown herself, like this was a football game and she was trying to tackle him. Her lips had been on his before he even knew what was going on, and even though he’d pushed her away instantly it had been too late.
Merry had seen him.
Christian began to run after Merry, only for her ex to stand in his way. Adrian grinned up at him.
“You can’t have her,” he said. “She’s mine.”
Christian bunched his fist, ready to pound the guy into the floor.
“I don’t know what your game is,” he growled. “But you’d better move.”
“Oh yes, please do,” said Adrian. “Merry loves guys who can throw a punch.”
“Enough!” came a cry from behind him. Christian forced himself to relax his fist. The woman was there, shaking her head. “I can’t do this anymore,” she said. “It’s not right.”
“You’ll do exactly what I tell you to, Bianca,” said Adrian, jabbing a finger at her. “Or I’m not paying you another penny.”
“What?” said Christian, frowning. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t care about your money,” Bianca said. “I won’t be a part of this any longer.” She turned to Christian. “We’re not engaged, we’re not even together. I met him at work, he said he’d pay me to pretend to be his girlfriend.”
“Lies,” said Adrian. Bianca dismissed him with a hateful stare.
“He told me he wanted to win back his ex, and I didn’t care because I needed the money. But then I saw you both sing. There’s something there.” She looked at Christian. “I know love when I see it, and I won’t be the one who gets in the way. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I’m sorry.”
She ran, vanishing into the aisles. Adrian’s face was warped by fury.
“It doesn’t matter what you do now,” he said. “She’ll never trust you.”
Christian pushed past him, heading back toward the party. There was a group of people standing by the escalator.
“Did a girl run through here?” Christian asked.
“The redhead in the sensational dress?” replied one guy. Christian nodded, and the man pointed up. He ran up the escalator, then the next one, into the toy department on the tenth floor. There was no sign of Merry, but she was probably heading for the locker room.
Please let me find her, he begged, the anger and panic like fuel, driving him forward. He buzzed through the security door, making it halfway to the locker room before he heard a strange clanking noise coming from the corridor to his right. He set off down it, practically running into the old freight elevator room. Merry was already inside, tugging at the doors and yelling for them to close.
“Merry,” he said, and she looked up at him with an expression that broke his heart. She looked like she hated him, her eyes already red and puffy with tears.
“Go away,” she said. “I can’t believe it. You’re just like all the others.”
“Please,” he said gently, holding out his hands. “I know how much that must have hurt, and I’m sorry you had to see it. Give me a chance to explain.”
“I just want to go home,” Merry sobbed, yanking the doors. “Why won’t this stupid thing close.”
“You have to wiggle it,” Christian said. “Let me show you. Listen to what I have to say. One ride, if I haven’t convinced you by the time we reach the ground floor, then you can go, you never have to see me again.”
Merry sighed, giving up. She walked to the other side of the elevator cab, wrapping her hands around herself and resting her head against the wall.
“One ride,” she said. “Just get me out of here.”
Christian walked into the elevator, wrestling the doors closed. He pushed the button for the ground floor and the elevator rocked alarmingly, clunking its way downward. He wasn’t sure where to start, but as the light for the ninth floor snapped on he knew he had to be quick.
“Merry, I can’t explain what’s happened to me these last few days,” he said. “I feel like somebody pulled me out of my life into a… into a Christmas fable. It’s been like a dream, a wonderful dream that I never want to end.”
The elevator dinged as it passed the eighth floor.
“I think you’re amazing,” he went on. “You’re beaut
iful, you’re smart, you’re exciting, you’re kind. But it’s more than that. I feel like you’re made for me, that you’re a gift I never knew existed, that I never knew could exist. I feel like we’re connected, that somehow we’ve always been connected, like two snowflakes that just happen to be identical, and that just happen to find one another.”
Ding. 7. Merry turned around to face him, wiping the tears from her eyes.
“That woman, Bianca, I only followed her because she said you were in danger. Yes, she kissed me, but it’s part of something that your ex was planning. Adrian wanted you to arrive at that exact moment, he wanted you to see it, because he wants you back. She wasn’t even his girlfriend, he was paying her.”
Ding. 6.
“I don’t want anything to do with her, or anyone else. Merry, you’ve made me realize how important love is. I said to you before, that you showed me how to look forward instead of always looking back. And I am. I’m looking forward now, looking forward to being with you.”
Ding. 5. The elevator rattled, the old gears grumbling, but Christian soldiered on.
“I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with you, to spending every Christmas with you, if you’ll have me. What we have, I think, is something special. Not just special, but magical. It’s like a Christmas miracle, and I know how corny that sounds, but I really believe it.”
Ding. 4.
Christian took a deep breath. He knew that the next few seconds would make or break his relationship with Merry. It would make or break his chances for happiness. But she had a right to know who he really was.
“I haven’t told you the whole truth,” he said. Merry’s face fell, and he moved toward her. But she pushed back against the wall, shaking her head. “Not about tonight,” he went on. “But about who I am. Everything I told you is true. I used to live in New York, then I moved overseas, and I still live and work in the Philippines. I’m me, Merry, the same man you’ve got to know these last few days, the same guy that you… that I hope you have feelings for.”
“But?” Merry asked.
Ding. 3.
“But my full name is Christian Carroll,” he said, and Merry looked at him in surprise. “Lewis is my father. I’m his only son. I’m here because he asked me to help him find out what’s been happening to the store, and why everyone is leaving. I took on the role of janitor so I could work undercover, but really I’m the heir to all of this.”
Ding. 2.
“I’m still me, Merry. I’m still me. And even though I didn’t tell you the whole truth—even though I couldn’t tell you the whole truth—everything else is real. Everything else I’ve done, I’ve said, I’ve felt, it’s all real. There has never been anything more real in my entire life. Please believe me, Merry. I came back to New York in anger, but I found love. I found you, and…”
The elevator started to slow, rattling so hard that it made Christian’s teeth chatter. He put a hand on the wall to brace himself, feeling his stomach loop-the-loop as the elevator rumbled to a halt.
Ding.
“I don’t know how it happened,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a Christmas wish, or fate, or luck, but…”
He paused for a moment, then nodded to himself.
“But I love you, Merry Sinclair.”
After the cacophony of the elevator, the silence was deafening.
Christian’s words echoed around the space, as if they wanted to make sure they were heard. How could she not have heard them, though? They entered her head, and made a beeline for her heart, thawing out the ice that had formed there just minutes ago.
“I love you, Merry,” Christian said again. “That’s the truest thing I know.”
She was having trouble processing what she’d just heard. The business with Adrian and Bianca was too crazy not to be true. Adrian had as much as said it to her before, when he’d spoken to her in the store. He’d threatened to force her back to him. She just hadn’t imagined how low he could sink. Now that she had calmed down, she felt confident that Christian would never have kissed Bianca. Even after these few days, she knew his soul well enough to be sure of that.
But he’d lied to her about who he was, about the very essence of himself. He’d done it because of a promise to his father, because he had a job to do, but it was still a huge breach of trust. How could she believe him about anything now?
She met his eyes. Those wonderful, open, kind, chestnut brown eyes.
“Say it again,” she said.
“I love you,” he said. “I don’t know how it happened, but it’s real.”
And she saw the truth of it right there, in his face. Nothing else was important, she understood, this was the only thing that mattered.
“Oh Christian,” she said. “I love you too.”
She took a step toward him and he responded, sweeping her off her feet and spinning her around. She laughed with the sheer joy of it, taking his head in her hands and leaning in to him. This time, she gave herself to him completely, the kiss seeming to pull her out of the elevator, out of the building and up, up into the skies above New York City where the snow danced and the wind sung. They kissed each other until the breath had gone from their lungs, and only then did she pull away.
“I love you too, Christian Carroll,” she said again. “With every little piece of me.”
He gently put her down, stroking her hair. It was as if he couldn’t look away from her, and she couldn’t look away from him. An energy bound them to one another, a magic that made her whole body tingle. She laughed, and so did he, and they were just leaning in for another kiss when the elevator rattled.
“Do you want to go back to the party?” Merry asked. He shook his head.
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said. “If you don’t mind another elevator ride.”
26
They rode back up in silence, their fingers entwined.
There was something poetic about it, Merry thought. Just a few moments ago she’d been riding the elevator down, her mood plummeting alongside it as she faced the idea that her relationship with Christian was in ruins. Now, though, she was soaring back up into the clouds, her spirits lifted by his words.
After a terrifying cacophony of rumbling and rattling, they reached the tenth floor. The elevator dipped and wobbled, as if it meant to drop again.
“We really should get out of here,” said Merry. Christian nodded.
“If we can get out of here,” he said, tugging at the doors.
“You need to wiggle it,” she said. “Let me try.”
They bent down together, and there was an audible clonk as their heads connected.
“Ow!” Christian said, rubbing the red patch that was forming on his forehead. “We really should stop doing that.”
Laughing, they pulled the elevator doors open together, practically running out onto the safety of solid ground. Christian closed them behind him, then he took her hand. She didn’t need to ask him where they were going, she already knew, as if their minds were one. They walked up the stairs, Christian grabbing a handful of blankets from the locker beside the door. He wrapped one tightly around her shoulders before taking her hand again.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” she replied. He opened the door and a storm of snow blew in. Merry gasped at the cold, clinging on to Christian as he crunched across the snow-covered roof, heading for the conservatory. The lights were on inside, shining through the plants and casting green-hued shadows on the ground. It was only as they were reaching for the conservatory door that it flew open.
“Oh!” Merry gasped.
Mrs. Cradley stood there, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. To Merry’s great surprise, the old lady smiled.
“Hurry up,” she said, ushering them in. Merry followed Christian through the door, seeing two cups of steaming hot chocolate on the table—complete with whipped cream and sprinkles. “Make yourselves at home, dears.”
“What’s going on?” Merry asked, waiting for
the dragon lady to start yelling at them. But Mrs. Cradley just slid a wooly hat onto her head and stood in the open door.
“Miss Sinclair,” she said. “I see everything that goes on in this store. I see the duties, yes, I see the chatter and the late arrivals, but I also see the magic. And this,” she smiled at them, “is magic.”
Merry smiled at her. This really was magic.
“It’s good to have you home, Christian,” she said. Christian frowned.
“You knew?”
Mrs. Cradley smiled, and turned to go. Then she seemed to have second thoughts.
“Oh, and I ran into your friend on the way up here, Miss Sinclair. A rather unsightly little man in a cheap suit.”
“He’s really not my friend,” said Merry.
“I gathered,” said Mrs. Cradley, holding up her clipboard. “And I made it very clear he isn’t welcome back. He’ll be smarting for a while, I think.”
Merry had to hide her laugh behind her hand at the thought of Mrs. Cradley chasing Adrian out of the store. Mrs. Cradley smiled, a wicked glint in her eye.
“Sometimes it pays to know a dragon lady,” she said.
Mrs. Cradley closed the door behind her, and the conservatory fell into silence.
Christian’s mind was reeling from everything that had happened in the last half hour or so—from the euphoria of their duet on the dance floor, to the horror of being ambushed by Bianca, to the despair of feeling like he had lost Merry forever, to right now, standing next to the love of his life on what felt like the very top of the world.
Merry led him to the sofa, and they sat down next to each other. He spread the blankets over their legs, then pulled her close to him. She rested her head on his chest, looping her arm around his stomach and holding him like she never wanted to let him go. In front of them, past the swirling steam of their hot chocolates, the city gleamed and sparkled with a million lights. It looked beautiful, and he couldn’t remember why he had been so desperate to leave.
My Christmas Billionaire Page 18