In just a few short weeks, she would be Mrs. Stone, sharing a life with the man of her dreams. Since the attack, the walls that Sebastian had kept so firmly around his life had dropped for Eden. In the days she’d spent in the hospital, he’d sat by her bed recounting stories of his childhood, his boarding school days, how he’d started his company with the funds he’d managed to save from underground boxing events in London. When they came home to his—now their—apartment, he’d kept the office as a surprise until the next day. Her desk and computer were set up ready and he had explained how much he wanted to share his life with her, in all aspects. Hence the shared office.
He still struggled at times to let her in, as did she. Especially when it came to subjects that he thought he needed to protect her from. Like Joachim Benedict. Despite the pile of evidence the police would have against Joachim, should she decide to press charges, both Sebastian and Eden knew he would find a way out of it. With Eden’s past, it would have been easy to tear her apart in court. Add to that the fact that Joachim had threatened to press charges against both Eden and Sebastian for attacking him, despite the fact that it was a flat out lie, made the use of traditional forms of judicial punishment unappealing to her.
Sebastian had taken the news well, much too well for Eden. She’d barely been able to convince him not to go out and pummel Joachim to a pulp while she was still in the hospital. Then a few weeks after she’d been home, Sebastian had received a phone call that he took into another room, something he rarely did anymore. After that, he’d reassured her that Joachim would be dealt with and she had nothing to fear. All she could get from him was that it was all legal, technically, and nothing would reflect back onto them.
Sebastian had also revealed the full truth about Simona, that she was currently in rehab somewhere on the outskirts of London and, for once, it wasn’t him who had put her there. He was no longer bailing her out and her brother had taken over that role once Sebastian made it clear to him how far Simona’s obsession with him had gone. That was good enough for Eden and she wasn’t so spiteful that she didn’t feel bad for Simona. The girl simply had latched on to Sebastian in a way she thought might bring her happiness one way or another.
The buzzer sounded and Eden gestured to Sebastian to sit back down as she made her way out of the office. “Centerpiece samples that Mara wants me to look at again,” she explained when he still insisted and stood up to go with her.
Appeased, he sat back down and she made a face at him. Despite everything they had gone through, Sebastian still remained a controlling alpha male, a side of him that Eden adored as much as she fought against him at times.
“I have a Mrs. Maxwell down here. She says you’ll know what it’s about?” The doorman’s voice came clearly through the intercom.
What was her mother doing here?
“Yes, let her up, please.” Eden clutched her stomach, desperately running through reasons why her mother would be here. What other Machiavellian moves had her parents been up to? They knew about Joachim’s attack, yet hadn’t been in contact with her at all, despite a text from her mother asking her to put an end to “all this ridiculous nonsense with the rumors about a marriage to Sebastian.”
That had been five months ago.
Eden ran down the hall, waving at Sebastian to end the phone call. Responding to the panic on her face, Sebastian came around the desk.
“My mother’s here. She’s on her way up.”
“Fuck!” Sebastian ran his hands through his hair. “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
“Come to what? What do you think she wants? She hasn’t been in contact with me for five months and suddenly she’s on our doorstep.”
“That’s not entirely true. Your father’s been in contact with me several times. Well, his lawyer has, more specifically.”
“What?” Eden screeched at him. “Why is his lawyer contacting you and why the hell haven’t you told me?”
“He’s been in contact because they’re desperate. The indictments against your father have started and he’s been trying to me sue for various things. Obviously unsuccessfully. Your mother turning up must mean things have gotten pretty bad.”
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!”
Sebastian raised his eyebrows at Eden. She rarely swore and the words fell awkwardly out of her mouth. The doorbell rang and their time was up.
“Eden, whatever she’s here for, it doesn’t matter. They’ve got nothing they can hurt you with anymore. I’ve made sure of that, love.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Eden hadn’t seen her mother since their upsetting brunch all those months ago. She was saddened to see how haggard the older woman looked, standing in the doorway of the apartment.
“I know you probably don’t want to see me, but please, hear me out.”
Eden stepped back, gesturing for her mother to come in. Her emotions were all over the place. On the one hand, she wanted to rant at her mother for being nothing but unsupportive for most of her life, culminating in trying to force her to marry a man who ultimately put her in the hospital and might have killed her had Sebastian not arrived, but on the other hand, the woman standing in front of Eden was still her mother and her heart stuck in her throat to think of her suffering.
“What do you want, Mother?” Eden kept her voice calm as she addressed her.
“I…I’ve come to ask for your help. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but things are really quite difficult at the moment, financially and otherwise.”
Sebastian scoffed, his cold glare piercing through his future mother-in-law.
“That’s putting it mildly!” Mrs. Maxwell glared at him. “Does he need to be here? This is really a family matter.”
Eden’s temper began to flare. “Well, from what I’ve learned, you and Daddy have had no qualms about trying to squeeze money out of him in the past few months, so yes, he needs to be here. He’s my fiancé and hence my family. So why are you here? You don’t really expect Sebastian to bail you out, do you?” Is this really what her mother had been resorted to? Simply begging, even to those she had hurt so badly?
“We’ve had to sell all the properties, we’re sharing a car, and we’ve had to scale down to a Volvo. I’ve even sold my diamonds. You have no idea how desperate we are.”
Sebastian moved from the kitchen, where he had been leaning on the island, to come to Eden’s side. “Actually, I’m pretty clear how desperate you are. After you started trying to sue me, I did some looking into your finances. And yes, you are really in trouble, my dear. I also found out that you tried to renege Eden’s trust by attempting to have her involuntarily committed due to her, how did you phrase it in your application?—ah yes—diminished mental capacity and erratic harmful behavior. Good thing Dr. Shepherd can’t be bought so easily.”
Mrs. Maxwell’s face went white at Sebastian’s words.
“You tried to have me committed?” Eden’s voice came out shakier than she had hoped.
“Please, Eden, your behavior has been out of control—your accusations against Joachim, this ridiculous engagement with that man, and yes, we needed your trust money. What did you expect us to do?”
Eden couldn’t control it any longer. She had hoped her mother would show contrition, even regret at how she had treated Eden and Sebastian, but instead, she was once again seeing her parents’ true colors.
“What do I expect you to do? I expect you to treat me like your daughter, to love me, to care for me, with no strings attached, no requirements to be met in order for me to deserve your love. My whole life you’ve treated me as an investment, one to be monitored to ensure maximum yield. And now when I don’t comply, you try to get me committed—you literally are trying to pull your money out of an investment gone wrong! I expect you to leave, to disappear from my life and never contact me again. That’s what I expect you to do.” With those final words, Eden opened the apartment door and stared at her moth
er, daring her to respond.
Mrs. Maxwell stopped in the doorframe, obviously willing to give one last attempt to pull on Eden’s heartstrings. “Eden, I’m begging you, please help us. We’ve got nothing left, no one to turn to. No one else will help us. We have no one who will help us.” The older woman’s eyes were brimming with tears as she clutched her purse to her chest.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” Eden smirked at her mother.
“W…what’s funny?” Her mother stepped back, disturbed by the look on Eden’s face.
“I imagine those are very similar words to the ones Eliza Stone must have said to you all those years ago, right before you slammed the door on her and her son. Karma’s a bitch, Mother.” Eden stared at the closed door. She felt Sebastian come behind her but still didn’t turn around.
“Darling, I didn’t tell you because I knew nothing would come of them meddling with us, with you. I didn’t want to upset you unnecessarily. They didn’t contact you, they never asked about you. I wanted to protect you from them. That’s my job, always. To keep you safe. I messed up with Joachim and I told you I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.” Sebastian grasped her shoulders and made to turn her around. “Eden, stop ignoring me.”
“I’m not ignoring you. I’m trying to figure out how easy it will be to take time off work so we can fly to Vegas today.”
“Vegas?”
“Yes, for our wedding.”
“I thought we were getting married in Scotland. In four weeks.”
“No, we’re getting married in Vegas, tonight. Change of plans.”
Sebastian threw back his head and laughed. Eden grinned up at him, pleased to see that he wasn’t disappointed he wasn’t going to have to wear a kilt.
“Is that really what you want, love?”
“Well, I don’t really want to have to call Mara and tell her that all her hard work was for nothing, and she’ll never forgive me for eloping, but yes, Vegas is really what I want.” She reached up and held Sebastian’s face in her hands. “I’ve been trying for over two years to follow a dream, to start a life where I was living for myself, and I realized that I’m there. I’ve got everything that I want—the man of my dreams, a family, a home, a job I enjoy that hasn’t been chosen for me. I’m not waiting another day just so I can have an elaborately expensive party that neither of us is going to particularly enjoy because we’ll both just be waiting to get on the plane for our honeymoon. I want to become your wife tonight, as soon as possible. So, Vegas it is.”
****
Sebastian looked down at Eden as she tightened her hand on his arm. Her other hand was holding the bouquet of white roses they had bought from the Marilyn Monroe at the front desk. They had also opted for the bubble machine for when they walked out as a married couple. The bouquet was actually pretty elegant, considering there had been the option to have LED flashing lights inserted between the flowers, but Eden had laughed and suggested that perhaps that was a bit too much.
“I’m glad to know there’s a line that can be crossed in a Vegas wedding. Because I thought maybe having the male and female Elvis’s acting as our witnesses was too much, but I was wrong. So thanks for clarifying for me that LED lights are actually too much.” Humor was not Sebastian’s forte, but he knew she got him.
Eden nudged him in the ribs. “Shhh. The couple ahead of us have chosen that bouquet. And it’s my wedding day, so you aren’t allowed to make fun of me.”
Sebastian didn’t respond. Instead, he squeezed her hand and calmly waited for their turn to walk down the aisle. Suffice it to say, as he looked down at Eden half an hour later as Liberace pronounced them husband and wife, this was not how he had pictured himself getting married. But then again, he’d never thought he would get married.
He thought back to the photos of his father that had been spread across his desk just a half a year ago and remembered how his jealousy at his father’s happiness had rankled him. All this time he thought something was wrong with him, that he wasn’t suited for settling down and eventually having a family, something he yearned to do with Eden. But looking down at his new wife, he realized that it was a matter of trusting that he would find the right woman. And he had. The woman of his dreams, in fact.
The End
If you enjoyed this book, you may also like:
Dante’s Angel by Laurie Roma
Coveted by Lexie Davis
Double Down by N.J. Young
Evernight Publishing ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Trusting Stone Page 27