Billionaire Ever After

by Blair Babylon

  Minutes later, he stood at the front of the church and nodded to his aunt in the front row, who seemed almost giddy. She did love weddings.

  His closest friends—Dieter, Yoshi, and his cousin Wills—stood behind him.

  The doors at the back opened, and his sister Flicka walked down the aisle, graceful as ever, bending slightly with the music.

  Every now and then, he could see that his much younger sister had grown into a beautiful woman, no longer the wee, traumatized child who had crawled into his dorm room every night until even the starchy headmaster had agreed that something had to be done.

  Flicka drifted down the aisle, wearing a white dress, and Wulf breathed because that job, at least, was done. Every night, for years, he had prayed that he would live long enough to see her to adulthood, and here she was, his greatest accomplishment.

  Lizzy stepped down the aisle next, his tiny friend from the Southwest, a sprite of a woman. Having her, of all people, at his wedding almost made him laugh, but Lizzy’s fiancé glowering near the back of the church kept him from exhibiting too much mirth. The man fluctuated between protective and obsessive, and he was exactly what Lizzy needed.

  And then Rae.

  The sunlight outside blazed in her brilliant auburn hair under the white net as she started up the aisle, a swaying hourglass in white that everyone turned to see.

  She glided up the aisle at just the right pace, her cousin Craigh escorting her through the standing congregation.

  When she reached Wulf, he could see her warm, brown eyes behind the veil, and she smiled at him.

  Every time she smiled at him, his heart beat a little stronger, and he felt the life in his body.

  One Last Thing

  Rae Stone-von Hannover

  The minister had finished his short sermon and was chanting, blessing the rings.

  Rae breathed, absorbing every moment, holding every glance in her heart. Yes, they had been married on paper for months, but this was, for her, the ceremony that made it real.

  It was funny because she had always expected this moment to be in the tiny, wooden church in her hometown, not in an extravagant cathedral—she was pretty sure that this church qualified as a cathedral—in Switzerland.

  Switzerland, and she smiled a little more.

  She would get used to it, Wulf assured her, but right now, it all still seemed magical.

  Especially Wulf. He seemed magical. Only magic could have brought the two of them together.

  At the back of the church, the doors slammed open.

  Oh, God.

  Possibilities swept through her head: Wulf’s father Phillipp stomping up the aisle to rail his objections, her own father raising a gun and shooting down Wulf just before being shot dead in a barrage by Wulf’s security staff, any one of Wulf’s ex-girlfriends arriving to royally scratch Rae’s eyes out, or some mad, lone gunman, the one that she worried about and dreaded, a jackal who was impossible to predict.

  But the figure silhouetted in the afternoon sunshine was slim, and she swayed on her feet. A long braid swung down her back.

  Rae shaded her eyes with her hand, trying to see better, and called across the crowd, “Georgie?”

  And yes, Georgie was there, and all was perfect.

  Getting Hitched

  Rae Stone-von Hannover

  In this moment, this tremulous moment, I have everything that I want: my husband before me, holding my hands, all my friends around me (even the one we couldn’t find for a while,) and my cousin over on the side of the church, holding up his cell phone to livestream my wedding to my mother (who is hiding in the barn to watch,) and a child growing inside me.

  The autism clinic that I used to doodle about in boring lectures will break ground in a few weeks. When I finish college, I will turn the key to the front door and walk in.

  I have love, I have good work, and I have my life. I am free and yet I am held and loved.

  My most desperate, impossible hopes have become my future.

  Vigilant

  Rae Stone-von Hannover

  I hold her hands in this impossible moment, a moment that I never thought I would see, and my heart is full.

  Beyond Rae—my Rae, my wife—my sister Flicka is smiling at me. The child that I raised from kindergarten is a young woman and married. She doesn’t need me anymore, which means that I did well. I used to pray that I would live until she could take care of herself.

  Now, Rae is giving me another chance to be a father. This time, I will watch the child grow from infancy. Every day that I see changes in Rae is a revelation. Every moment is a prayer.

  I am vigilant, listening for the click of a hammer or the lens flare from a telescopic sight, but there is nothing, nothing but music and light glowing from the candles and tiny lights and her small hands in mine.

  I had been a ghost, but now I am alive.

  And, God help me, I feel like I might live.

  Keep Dreaming

  Billionaires in Disguise: Rae and Wulf

  Epilogue #8

  (Really, this time. Last one.)

  By: Blair Babylon

  Wulf

  Wulf

  The recovery room smelled like sharp antiseptic and blood.

  Wulf swallowed hard, trying to distance himself from the memories that the coppery, salty scent provoked.

  The nurse laid the tiny, swaddled bundle in Wulf’s hands. The pink and blue blanket was wound tightly around the baby, and only the baby’s tiny, wrinkled face peered above the cotton.

  She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

  The muscles in Wulf’s arms seemed too hard around the infant, like he might hurt her just by holding her. The child’s smushed face moved, like she was trying to express something, or just realizing that she had a face. Her head was smaller than Wulf’s fist.

  His hands around her felt enormous.

  Something felt lodged in Wulf’s chest, and his lungs ached.

  Wulf wrapped his arms around the baby, shielding her from the whole world, and walked back to Rae, limp in the recovery bed. Sweat darkened her auburn hair and shone on her face. Her ragged breathing felt like his heartbeat.

  “They have brought her back,” he told Rae. The hospital staff had whisked the baby away after the emergency Cesarean section, reassuring him that they were just checking her vitals and giving her the vitamin K shot.

  Rae nodded, a wan smile on her face, and held out her arms for their baby.

  Wulf swiveled his hands under that minuscule bit of humanity and laid her in Rae’s arms. Rae’s exhausted smile lit her face.

  “Can you move your legs yet?” he asked, trailing his fingers down the utilitarian woven blanket over her.

  “Not yet. They kind of tingle. When they gave me the spinal, they said that it would be a while.”

  They had ushered Wulf out of the operating room while the anesthesiologist had administered the spinal injection, and Wulf had almost pulled rank and privilege, if such tactics would have worked in an American hospital. He suspected not.

  Rae smiled down at their child in her arms, her auburn hair clinging to her cheek and neck. He moved her hair aside, peeling it off her sticky skin. She had been farther into labor than she had let on when the LifeFlight helicopter had arrived at the hospital. When the obstetrician had examined her, the woman’s face had jerked into a rictus of shock that Rae had progressed so far.

  Rae had bled early in the pregnancy. It was determined that the baby’s placenta had implanted near her cervix, a condition called placenta previa, and a traditional labor and delivery might have killed her. She had been scheduled for a Cesarean delivery the next day.

  When Wulf had seen the panic on the doctor’s face, his heart had seized, and he had frozen all over.

  His wife. His daughter. His family.

  His whole life.

  He bent and kissed the top of Rae’s head and laid his cheek on her damp scalp to watch their daughter. The baby’s gray-blue eyes moved, mayb
e tracking the light.

  He said, “She might have my eyes.”

  “I hate to break it to you.” Rae’s exhausted voice cut straight to Wulf’s heart. “A lot of white babies have blue eyes. They might change color later.”

  Wulf smiled. His contrary little Rae was still as feisty as ever. He hoped the baby’s eyes would change to warm brown, like Rae’s. The fuzz on her head seemed a little darker than the platinum blond that his younger sister Flicka had been born with. He had met Flicka when she was three months old because he had been away at boarding school, and then he had raised Flicka from the time that she had been five and he was fifteen, alone. He still counted some of those memories, playing with her, as some of the most joyful in his life.

  He couldn’t think about his sister just then. Flicka had been missing for four months.

  The baby’s petal-pink lips pursed, and she glanced at the lights and blinked.

  Wulf watched the child, reveling in her every twitch, with his hand on Rae’s shoulder.

  The doctors and nurses assured themselves that the monitors were all showing correct numbers and left the room. Earlier, they had said something to him, and he had made the civilized replies and had shaken their hands. Some part of his mind would inform him later what he had said, but just then his soul was full of Rae and their baby girl.

  Victoria Augusta, Prinzessin von Hannover, for now. She would receive the rest of her names from her godmothers when she was baptized.

  He hoped that one of her names would be Friederike, if Flicka were found safe in time.

  That scenario was becoming more unlikely with each passing day, and Wulf tightened his arms around his wife and child.

  Victoria’s fascinating little lips curved and smacked open.

  Wulf glanced around the room, ensuring that they were alone. He kissed the top of Rae’s head again. “I love you, so much.”

  Rae took one arm off the baby and touched his hand. “I love you, too.” She glanced up at him. The lively intelligence was sharpening in her eyes as the drugs receded.

  He said, “I can’t stop looking at her.”

  Wulf shifted and lay down beside Rae in the narrow bed. For two such strapping specimens such as themselves, they had to squeeze a bit. He wrapped his arms around both his girls, one arm across Rae’s chest and around the child, and one arm up and around Rae. Her head rested on his shoulder.

  Rae’s mouth curved up in a smile. “You’re shielding me again.”

  “Yes. I am.”

  Rae rolled her head back in his arms. “What’s going on, in there?” She glanced at his forehead.

  Anything she decided that she should know, she would eventually pry out of him. Early capitulation was his best option, no matter how excruciating.

  He let himself smile on one side of his mouth, trying to downplay the rather German fatalism. “I didn’t think that I would live long enough to see a child of my own.”

  “Oh, Wulf.” Rae glanced down at the baby, but Victoria had closed her eyes. Rae slid the infant into the crevice between their bodies.

  “It occurred to me that the universe gave me Flicka to raise because it would be my only chance to be a father.” He leaned forward, resting his head against Rae’s, like he always did when emotions roiled within him, nearly to breaking him down.

  She pressed her hand against his chest where his heart pulsed. “You say the most heart-breaking things I’ve ever heard.”

  He cradled both of them. “I will never let anything happen to you.”

  Rae said, “I know.”

  Every moment of life was precious and must be seized and treasured. No matter how much more or how little time he had, Wulf lived this moment, and every one after.

  Rae

  Rae

  A baby.

  We have a baby.

  A year ago, when I was living in a college dorm, my crazy religious family controlled every aspect of my life, even forcing me to room with my cousin who reported back about me. They threatened me with excommunication if I put one toe out of line, if I had challenged any one of their crazy beliefs. There were so many crazy beliefs, an uncountable number of crazy beliefs. I was majoring in psychology and trying to do a little good in this world, desperately trying. One of my cousins was autistic, devastatingly so. I had an idea for a one-stop autism therapy clinic for kids, but I had little idea how to make it happen other than to get my degree and hope I figured it out.

  Then everything went to Hell, fast.

  I thought I was sunk. I thought everything had collapsed in on me. I thought my chance was over.

  But it wasn’t.

  Wulf saved me. One random chance ended up with us having a totally inadvisable quickie and then falling in love.

  Now, I’m married to a prince, an honest-to-God prince, even if his family was deposed over a century ago and he would fight any attempt to reinstate the Hannover monarchy by every legal means at his disposal—and he has a lot of those—and now we have a baby.

  Victoria is so tiny. Of course, I knew she would be small, a few ounces over six pounds, but she’s so tiny.

  And wrinkled.

  I think I’m still stoned on pain medicine.

  Of course I am.

  When we were alone, Wulf was looking at Victoria the same way that he looks at me, with that soft light in his dark, crystal-blue eyes.

  When Georgie and Alexandre came in, Wulf had stood, his posture and bearing hardened, and he accepted their congratulations. He always turns that closed, cold face to the world.

  It’s only with me that he lets that shell break open all the way and see how vulnerable he is underneath, and how lonely he was.

  Lizzy and Georgie are here now, too, along with their husbands, Theo and Alexandre, and they’re laughing and trying to make it look like they are comfortable passing the baby among them, but of course they’re not. I’m still afraid I will break her, or I would be if I weren’t loopy on morphine.

  Victoria is the first baby in our little group—Lizzy, Georgie, and me—but I have a feeling she won’t be the last.

  Lizzy had hinted something about they would be “getting” a baby soon, so Victoria might be the oldest in a whole new group of friends.

  She will need them.

  I grew up surrounded by cousins, lots of cousins, all with slightly different beliefs and attitudes. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have been able to break away, to find Lizzy and Georgie who became my sisters, to find Wulf, who became my protector and soulmate.

  I don’t want Victoria to grow up alone.

  Most of my family won’t talk to me because I went off alone, because I won’t live my life the way they demand, subservient and frightened and with an empty head and heart.

  Family means more than similar DNA or blood type.

  Family means love, and no matter where we are, no matter where we go, no matter if Lizzy is the First Lady in the White House someday and if Georgie is still touring with a rock band and if I am a princess in a German castle. We will always have each other.

  Victoria will always be surrounded by love.

  ~~~

  The door from the hallway clattered open just as Lizzy was handing off Victoria to Rae.

  Rae cradled the baby, adjusting her arms around the warm, soft bundle and cooing to her for a moment before she bothered to look at the doctor or nurse who was coming in to take her blood or check the beeps and lines on the monitors.

  So she didn’t see who was there.

  Beside her bed, Wulf asked, “Why didn’t you call? It’s been months.”

  That wasn’t something that he would say to a doctor, and his deep voice was loud and stressed, like he was projecting all the way to the door. Wulf never sounded stressed.

  Rae looked up.

  The tall, burly man swaying in the doorway wore a dark suit. Bulges under his arms meant that he was armed with guns in holsters under his suit jacket. His disheveled, blond hair and short beard were so odd that Rae almost didn’
t recognize him.

  Dieter said to Wulf, “I need to talk to you.” His Swiss accent sounded like German slurred with French, and exhaustion coarsened his voice.

  Wulf glanced at her.

  Rae said to him, “Go. Go!” As her husband strode toward the door, she called after Dieter, who had turned and was walking out of her hospital room, “Did you find her?”

  Dieter glanced back. “I need to talk to him first. Then I’ll brief you.”

  “Is Flicka alive?” Rae yelled as best she could, her own voice still stupidly weak from the surgery.

  “Probably. She was yesterday.” Dieter led Wulf out of the hospital room.

  Rae held her daughter more tightly. The world was a terrible place where even someone as well-guarded as Wulf’s sister Flicka could disappear so completely that even Dieter and his private security company, which was the polite term for his extensive force of mercenaries and former special ops operators, couldn’t find her and bring her home.

  Victoria Augusta von Hannover blinked and closed her eyes, settling down to sleep.

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  The Billionaires in Disguise series continues

  with Flicka’s story!

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  Flicka von Hannover