“So, Amelia. What brings you to Manhattan?”
“Truth?”
I nodded.
“I was so damn bored. My parents just spend all their time at the Hampton’s and I need more from life. I’m twenty-three now. I want a career and I want to live in Manhattan.”
“And you thought I could help you with those things?” I gave her a small smirk as I had no idea what was going through this young woman’s mind.
“Oh God no. I was going to rent a small apartment for a while until I got on my feet, but Ralph asked me to bring you a letter.” Ralph was Vee’s father, the one who’d also been unable to love again.
“How is he? You see much of him?” I asked her.
“He’s really well. I don’t see a lot of him, but he and Mom kept things civil and so he invited us to his wedding last month.”
I accidentally spilled some of my wine down my mouth. “His wedding?”
Amelia leaped from the table, grabbed a napkin and dabbed at my mouth. She was too near, invading my personal space, and I took the napkin from her hand and jumped down from my stool, pretending to wash my mouth at the sink.
“Yeah. He met the most lovely woman. Her name’s Belle. Anyway, we were chatting at the wedding and he said if I was coming to Manhattan I should look you up. That he wondered if you were okay. You never kept in touch with any of us…” Her voice tapered off.
I chose not to reply.
“So, I came to the apartment. Your address was easy to Google, your privacy settings are lame, dude, and I met Mary, who is lovely by the way, and I may have thought you’d remarried an older woman, but she set me straight and said I was welcome to take a guest room for the night. She said I was just what you needed.” She shrugged.
“Mary thinks I live in the past a little too much.” I explained.
“Well, I need showing around Manhattan and I kind of threw caution to the wind and came here with only one job lead.” She took a large gulp of wine.
“Okay, okay. This is all a little much to take in.” I told her. “How about you stay here this week? I have plenty of room. You can do whatever business you need to do and I can get caught up with what’s happening with your family. Maybe I shouldn’t have completely lost touch, but at the time it seemed the easiest thing to do.”
“I still miss her.” Said Amelia. Her stare made me feel uncomfortable, like she was trying to read my mind, assess how I felt about her sister after all these years.
I nodded. “We’ll talk about your sister. But not now, okay?”
She nodded back.
“Right now, I need to work on some emails so how about you go get used to your room or you can chill in the living room and I’ll see you in the morning at breakfast?”
“Sounds great. Can I take the rest of the bottle of wine?” She looked at me with a begging expression on her face. It reminded me of what I saw at the club and I quickly turned away.
“Sure.”
“Cool. See you tomorrow.” She said breezily. Then she kissed my cheek and skipped out of the room.
I opened a second bottle of wine, filled up my glass and went into the study, Ralph’s letter tucked under my armpit. Once in the privacy of my own space I placed my wine glass and the letter down on my desk and slumped in my chair.
Amelia was like a hurricane and I felt unbalanced like someone clutching a tree branch, holding on for dear life.
In one night my past had come hurtling back into my future, threatening my safety and my sanity.
I refused to think about Amelia herself, about how she looked. I shook my head as if I could shake the thoughts right out of my mind, but they kept repeating.
If she was at the club, you’d have wanted her.
She smelled beautiful.
She was full of life.
She lit up the apartment.
Then I reminded myself I was dead inside and she was my dead wife’s half-sister, and I reached for Ralph’s letter.
Son,
It’s been a while, I know. I wanted to get in touch and I picked up the phone many times but I couldn’t do it. I figured you had your reasons for cutting yourself off from everyone and I knew how you felt. I did the same when Connie left me. So why now? I hear you say. Well, Henry, I met a woman. Despite telling you I’d never love again. Belle just came into my life — my new accountant could you believe it? And, well, it hit me like a ton of bricks, son. I actually think I love Belle more than I ever loved Connie. Now, steady on. I don’t want ya spluttering that you’ll never meet anyone you’ll love more than you did my daughter. It might be that time has dulled my feelings and that my love for both was huge. All I’m saying is I found the capacity to love again. Yes, Connie wasn’t cruelly taken away from me like my daughter/your wife was, but still, I wanted to let you know, your heart still does have the capacity for love inside. I know it because it’s happened to me. Belle is younger than me and we’re having a baby. My new baby will never be Vee, but maybe she’ll go some way to fill the void left when my daughter departed the earth, the void of looking to the future and thinking of grandchildren and old age. Hell, I thought I’d be cuddling grandkids now, not about to start again myself at the age of 55!
I’ve kept tabs on you Henry. I know about your Club and I know there’s been no one serious in your life. So, I’m reaching out to you. Life is short. You don’t have to seek love, but why not give it a chance to come find you? Be more open to dating instead of spending all your time in that damn club with people who don’t give a damn. My address is enclosed, and any time you feel like popping over to see me, to meet my new wife (and my new daughter when she appears) - well, son, you are more than welcome.
Now I know this letter has been delivered to you by Amelia. If there’s any work related stuff — not the club jeez — you can get her involved in, her mom would be forever in your debt. Due to what happened with Vee, well, let’s just say, Amelia’s had a overprotected and sheltered existence and Connie’s scared she’s going to settle over there and go wild. That she’s going to lose her too.
I’m signing off now, my hand is hurting. People don’t tend to write letters these days, do they? Just think about things and live a little. You didn’t die that day, Henry. Vee did. Would she want you to have mourned for her for all this time?
Ralph.
With trembling hands, I placed the letter on the side and moved to my bedroom with my wine glass. I collected the bottle on the way past the kitchen and I drank myself into a stupor as the words from his letter circled the drain of my mind.
Chapter 3
Amelia
Holy fuck. What was I doing here? I sat back against the headboard of the guest room bed, wine in hand. I’d told Henry I’d come to his home to deliver Ralph’s letter and while that wasn’t an outright lie, it wasn’t the entire reason I was here either.
My imagination had led me here. Faded and scant memories of a man who had loved my sister. Someone I’d remembered as a Prince. He could tell me things about Vee that I didn’t know that I’d been too young to know. I could make the vision of the person in my mind a reality. I had been just nine years old when I’d lost my sister. Far too young to experience such grief and so I found it had hit me again later in life. Times like when I got my period, or had a crush on a guy at school. Times when it would be too embarrassing to talk to Mom, but an older sister who’d trod the path before could have been a great adviser. Instead, it was like I barely knew her at all. She’d been fourteen years older than me and by the time I was properly aware of my big sister she’d moved away from home. She’d gotten along with Ralph okay, but the moment she could she had left the family home. She had a brilliant mind Mon said and was a billionaire in property by the age of twenty-one. To me she was a hero, an enigma. I had family photos of us, photos with my big sister hugging me and smiling fondly at me. However, the real keeper of her secrets, of what she was like in personality, was held within the cold tomb of Henry Carter. That’s how my mom had desc
ribed him, anyway. She said he’d lost touch, had found it too difficult to remain around us. He’d thrown himself into his businesses — a club my parents thought I knew nothing about, and his property business. The business my sister had set up. She’d always said there would be a job for me when I was older and now I’d come to see if Henry would let me take that job. But if I was to get anywhere with him, I could see I was going to have to tread very carefully, go slowly. He was like a timid, but feral cat - wary and watching. As soon as I had sat across from him at the kitchen island, I could see I’d thrown his carefully ordered world upside down and that he was struggling to think straight. It was why I’d agreed I’d see him in the morning. Henry Carter needed to process things. He needed the time to consider his options. I had no idea what was in the letter my mom’s first husband, Ralph - Vee’s father - had sent him, but Ralph had asked me to make sure he was alright after reading it, so I would ask him about it in the morning.
I stared around the classic looking room with its high ceilings, high windows and muted tones of beiges and creams. It was beautiful and a much nicer room than anything I would be able to rent. When Henry had said I could stay the week I had breathed a huge sigh of relief. It had saved me asking him if I could stay.
Taking a drink of wine I rested my head back and closed my eyes. My thoughts taking me back in time.
“What’s it like being in love, Vee?” I asked my big sister. She was getting married soon. Her boyfriend, Henry, was like one of the princes in my fairy tale books. He had longish blond hair, all floppy over his face and when he smiled, it was like his face was sunshine. He gave my sister the sunshine look all the time. “Is it like sunshine?” I added.
Vee stroked my face.
“Sometimes. Well, a lot of the time, it’s like sunshine. It makes you feel all happy and warm inside, you know?” I nodded avidly.
“But it’s not like those fairy tales I keep catching you reading.” My face dulled. “Sometimes we argue, just like anyone. That could be the thunder and lightning I guess, and sometimes we can get upset with each other and I guess that’s the rain? But then the sun comes back out and everything is lovely again.”
“But is it mainly sunshine.”
She nodded. “It’s mainly sunshine, Lia.” (She was the only person who ever called me that. I was her special Lia.)
I beamed at her words. “I thought so.”
We didn’t know that the lightning would strike her down and leave ongoing storm damage.
Death is strange when you’re young. You don’t fully understand what is happening. All I knew was my princess sister had died and her prince had left forever, brokenhearted.
For years I had kept all my family photos in my room. I pored over photographs of Vee and of Henry. Eventually, as my teens hit, I found myself looking more and more at the photos of Henry. The prince with the smiling face, and I wondered whether he’d found another princess, another wife. But I’d searched for him via the internet and realized pretty quickly that he’d never settled down again. He was broken, just like me. We were missing a piece. A piece called Vee. I needed to find him and talk to him.
When I’d walked into the room, those kid-like feelings of seeing Prince Henry had come to the fore. He was Mr. Sunshine and I’d flung my arms around him. Then he’d held me at arms-length and I’d seen in his eyes that there was no sun shining there anymore. His gaze was intense. His long, prince-like hair now short and stripped away like Delilah had done a Samson on him.
But he was beautiful. The man was a beautiful storm, and I’d realized the truth of why I was really there. I’d crushed on my prince for many long years while I had mourned my sister and now I’d found him. A broken prince I was determined to save.
To bring the sunshine back.
For a short while the next morning as the alarm on my cell phone slowly awakened me, I wondered where I was. The vast king-size bed dwarfed my thin frame and the thick comforter was wrapped around my legs. I kicked it off and stared at the ceiling. It was my first full day in Manhattan. As I didn’t know how I would be spending the day yet, I fixed my hair into a ponytail, placed a robe over the top of my pajamas, and made my way towards the kitchen. The aroma of fresh coffee coupled with bacon drifted down the landing and my stomach growled in anticipation.
“Good morning, Amelia. Did you sleep well?” Mary turned away from the stove. “Take a seat and I’ll bring you some breakfast. Coffee, and bacon and eggs, okay?”
“Oh my, that sounds like heaven, Mary. Thank you.” I said honestly, my stomach growled with the thought of a home-cooked breakfast.
“Toast is on the table.”
She brought my food over and I added some buttered toast and tucked in heartily. The food was delicious, and I told her so while still chewing.
“It’s nice to see someone enjoying my food.”
I turned to her and tilted my head. “Do you mean Henry doesn’t enjoy your food, or other, erm, people?”
“There are never other people.” She emphasized the word other as she spoke it. “Henry always says thank you, but I never see the look on his face I just saw on yours.”
“He’s a mess isn’t he?” I asked her, even though I already knew the answer.
“He’s a complex man. A hugely successful businessman. But he’s closed off. Emotional situations shut him down. He avoids them.”
I pick up my coffee, “How?”
Mary’s paused for a moment in thought. “Say an acquaintance of his is getting married. He’ll send them the most perfect present he can get them. It will be carefully considered, but he’ll always have a business trip that means he can’t attend the occasion.”
“Weddings are boring; sounds like a great excuse to get out of them.” I quipped.
A small smile appeared on Mary’s face. “Well, there is that. I’ve four daughters. I have to admit that by the fourth one’s wedding, I was praying none of them remarry! It’s more than that though. It’s like he can’t face anything like that. Still. After all this time.” Then Mary puts a hand to her chest. “I’m sorry, Amelia. I’m forgetting she was your sister.”
I waved her off, “It’s fine, Mary. I’m the opposite of Henry. I like to talk about my sister because I don’t remember her all that much. We, as you know, had different parents and Vee was fourteen years older than me. She stayed over sometimes though, once she’d left, just to see me.”
“It must have been very difficult for you.”
“It was strange because my mom changed. She became very overprotective, which now I’m older I understand, but at the time it was hard. She wouldn’t let me do the things other kids my age did. I couldn’t roller-blade or ride a horse. I felt like Rapunzel, you know, stuck in my ivory tower.”
“Morning.”
Mary and I turned our heads towards the doorway simultaneously and there he was, Henry. Already immaculately dressed in a sharp gray suit, with a pale gray shirt, and a black and navy striped tie. He sat down at the kitchen island and Mary passed him a coffee and a slice of toast.
“Are you not having the lovely breakfast Mary’s cooked for you?” I asked him.
He looked up at me, a frown on his face. “I only ever have coffee and toast. I need to rush to the office.”
“But she cooked, there’s bacon and-”
“I cooked for you, Amelia. I wanted to make sure you got a good start to your day.”
I blushed a little, surprised and heart-warmed. “Mary, you shouldn’t have. Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure, like I said before, to see someone enjoy my cooking.”
“Cook Henry some bacon and eggs, please.” I asked.
“Amelia.” Henry warned. “I’m in a rush.”
“Are you? I thought you were the boss? Delegate, or be late. It’s not every day you get a surprise visitor.”
“I got a surprise visitor yesterday,” he smirked. “Today, I know you’re here.”
“Well, I want to see you for a while. Who knows
I may leave today and go get a job in Manhattan and not return, so you’d better hang on to see me right now.” I stuck my tongue in my cheek.
Henry sighed. “Fine. Mary, would you please fix me some bacon and eggs, so I may breakfast with Amelia, and if you haven’t eaten yourself yet, please fix some for yourself too, and let’s all sit down and entertain Amelia while she’s still here.” He picked up his cell, “Ashley. Something’s come up. Can you move my morning appointment to tomorrow? Thanks.” He placed his cell back on the table. “Satisfied? The boss moved things so you can watch him eat bacon.”
I laughed, and Mary joined in. We both looked at the very serious looking Henry who sounded as if he’d just had a tantrum. Then Henry began laughing too.
“Actually, the aroma in here is so good, it’s not a hardship to stay and eat a cooked breakfast. I’ll have to hit the gym harder tonight, that’s all.”
“You go to the gym a lot?” I asked him.
“Most days. It’s on the fifth floor. I’ll get you a guest pass.” He explained.
“Excellent. When will you be going?”
“I never have a set time, just when I get home from work.”
“Well, let me know, and I’ll come with you. You can show me the ropes.”
He turned to me, “You do realize there are instructors there who can ‘show you the ropes’, and the equipment, and the weights?”
“Yeah, but I’m shy, so I’d rather go there with you.”
Mary placed a plate of food in front of him and refilled his coffee.
“Help me, Mary. This girl has come and is causing chaos. She’s only been here a few hours.”
Mary took a seat at the table and smirked at me while Henry sliced up a piece of bacon.
“Yes, I’ve noticed the difference already,” she said, and she winked at me.
Chapter 4
Henry
What was happening? I’d heard friendly chatter coming from the usually quiet kitchen. Usually in a morning, once she’d served me my coffee and toast, Mary left me to my laptop, cell or the morning news. But today, the kitchen seemed more, well, alive. I took in how happy Mary was when Amelia had thanked her for her breakfast and then here I was, forced to eat one myself.
The Billionaire and the Virgin: H's story (The Billionaires Book 1) Page 2