AN HEIRESS FOR HIS EMPIRE

by Lucy Monroe

  So Maddie did and, even more importantly, she talked to Vik about it.

  “Yes, the contract your father offered is beneficial to me, but getting married right now is important for you, too.”

  “You think I said yes to the whole marriage thing because of the school, don’t you?” Had she?

  She’d told herself on that crazy, surrealistic day that was exactly why she needed to consider the idea seriously.

  But Vik just shrugged. “Even if the scandal had blown up like it could have, you would not have given up on the school. Romi would have been the public face to run it and you would have been the silent partner as I now will be.”

  She loved his confidence in her. The pleasure of it masked the full import of his words for a moment, but then it settled in.

  “You will?” When had Vik offered to partner with her and Romi in founding the school?

  “We made promises to see one another’s dreams fulfilled. Marriage to you will give me AIH. I’ve told you that I will ensure it provides for your dreams as well.”

  Maybe she should have expected something like this, but she hadn’t. “You really are my white knight.”

  “I thought you did not believe in fairy tales.” His voice and expression were teasing, but something told her he liked her claim.

  “Maybe I just believe in you.” He had always been the exception, the one man she trusted—even when she hadn’t thought she had a reason to.

  Refusing to admit it didn’t make it any less true.

  “You do,” he said with a mix of implacability and smugness that should have annoyed her.

  It didn’t. She liked it. “So certain.”

  “Of you? Yes.”

  Ultimately, it all came down to that simple truth. She trusted Vik to keep the promises he’d made at the Marin Headlands overlook.

  The fact that she was falling in love with Viktor Beck all over again? Well, that was something she didn’t bring up even to Romi.

  How could she help it? The man spent more time masquerading as a white knight than a business tycoon.

  The wedding was going forward. And soon.

  For the ceremony itself, they planned a very small gathering, but the reception would be huge and attended by the cream of society, the scions of the business world and even a few celebrities.

  When Maddie’s follow-up therapy appointment conflicted with a meeting with the caterers for their wedding reception, she told Vik she didn’t want to reschedule her time with Dr. MacKenzie.

  “You are seeing a therapist?” Vik asked. “Why didn’t I know this?” The latter clearly the only thing that bothered him about her revelation.

  “Because I didn’t tell you?”

  He made a scoffing sound.

  “No one knows except Romi.”

  “When did you start seeing him?”

  “Her. And right after the skydiving incident.” Maddie had realized she was taking the same self-destructive path as her mother and she wasn’t going to do that. “I saw her weekly for a couple of months and then a few more times after that.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “You are?” She had worried a little he would think she was weak for needing to see someone.

  “You realized you couldn’t help children if you didn’t deal with your own childhood issues.”

  That had been exactly it. “How do you know me so well?” she asked, falling a little more in love with him right then.

  “You know the answer to that.”

  “You make it a point to get to know everything about the people and businesses you plan to partner with, or take over.”

  “Our partnership will supersede all others. Of course, I will know everything about you.”

  She liked hearing that, even if it wasn’t exactly true. “But you didn’t know I was seeing Dr. MacKenzie.”

  “No.” He sounded chagrined.

  Maddie laughed. “Even you are not infallible, Vik.”

  “Miss Grayson knew.”

  “She’s my best friend.”

  “What am I?”

  “The man I’m going to marry. The man I’m falling in love with all over again.” There, she’d said it.

  What he did with that knowledge was up to him. But one thing she knew, it was time he met Maddie Grace.

  Silence stretched between them.

  “Vik?”

  “I am...honored.”

  “Good.” That was better than thinking she was a fool for believing in the emotion.

  “You...I...” For the first time in memory, Vik didn’t sound in complete control of his words or his thoughts.

  “I don’t expect you to say it back.”

  “Good.” The relief in his tone was not complimentary, but she wasn’t surprised by it, either.

  “You’ll never lie to me,” she said, as if just making that revelation.

  But maybe she understood the depth of his commitment to honesty between them fully for the first time.

  “No, I will not.”

  That included not claiming to love her when he didn’t, but it also meant that his promises? Were written in concrete as far as Viktor Beck was concerned.

  CHAPTER NINE

  MADDIE WAS SHOCKED when her father called and asked her to come to dinner. Alone.

  They ate in the formal dining room. Even with the leaves removed from the table, it would easily seat six.

  Maddie sat to her father’s left and swirled her soup with her spoon, pretending to eat.

  Her father didn’t seem any more at ease than she felt.

  Finally she gave in and asked, “Why am I here?”

  “It’s been a long time since we had a family dinner.”

  “There’s a two-page magazine spread to prove otherwise.”

  He shook his head, an expression she couldn’t quite decipher on his familiar features. “That is not the same.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean then.”

  “You and me. Family.”

  “We stopped being a family when Mom died.” She didn’t say it with accusation, or even anger.

  He could thank the therapist he didn’t know about for that, but it was still the truth.

  “It was never my intention for that to happen.”

  She couldn’t hold back a small scoffing sound. “You sent me to boarding school within months of her death. I’d say your intentions were pretty clear.”

  “That was a mistake.”

  Something inside Maddie cracked at that admission, but she merely shrugged. What could she say? Yes, it had been a huge, painful mistake.

  Somehow agreeing didn’t seem like the thing to do, though. Not least of which because no acknowledgment now could change the consequences of his choice when she was fifteen.

  “I didn’t know what to do,” he admitted with a candidness rare for Jeremy Archer. “I failed your mother and I was terrified of failing you, so I sent you away, hoping they could do for you at school what I was so clearly not qualified to do at home.”

  Maddie stared at him as an emotional maelstrom swirled inside her. “Who are you and what have you done with my father?”

  It was an old joke, but man, was it appropriate.

  Her dad barked out a laugh. “I told Viktor this wouldn’t be easy.”

  “He wanted you to talk to me?” Why wasn’t she surprised?

  “Yes.” Jeremy sighed. “Viktor thinks our relationship is salvageable.”

  “He’s an optimist.”

  “He is.”

  Giving up on the pretense of eating, she set her spoon down. “You sound surprised by that fact.”

  “It’s not a side of him I noticed before.”

  “You don’t think his business world-domination plans take optimism?” she asked, only partially tongue in cheek.

  Her dad laughed again, this time longer and with more real humor. “I suppose they do.”

  “I guess that makes you something of an optimist, too.” Which wasn’t something she’d ever ackno
wledged before.

  “Enough of one to believe things could be different for you than Helene.” He sounded like he meant it.

  “We all have our demons. I’m learning to cope with mine without jumping out of airplanes.” Maddie could give him that at least.

  Her father took a ruminative sip of his wine. “I used to think Helene got into trouble just to get my attention. She seemed to take a perverse pleasure in being written up in the media.”

  “She did.”

  He looked startled at Maddie’s agreement. “But she was a risk taker before we ever met. You know that, don’t you?”

  “She used to tell me stories over her scrapbooks.” It had all sounded so thrilling to a young girl.

  Jeremy nodded. “It was one of the things I admired about her.”

  “You weren’t the first important man in her life to ignore her.” That was one of the things Maddie had come to realize.

  Helene Madison had craved her own father’s attention and only managed to get it when she acted out. By the time she married Jeremy Archer, the attention-seeking behavior was an already established coping mechanism.

  “You’re saying Helene wasn’t adventurous by nature, but because her exploits got her father’s attention.”

  “Oh, I think Mom was definitely adventurous, she just discovered that in giving in to that side of her personality, she got something she craved.”

  “She always said she understood the amount of time I had to give to my company.”

  “Would you have listened if she said she didn’t?” He certainly hadn’t responded to Maddie’s verbal pleas for his time, or to return home from boarding school.

  “Probably not,” her father admitted with more honesty than she expected.

  “Her death wasn’t your fault.” It was a truth that had been very hard come by for Maddie.

  She’d blamed her dad for so long, but one of the first breakthroughs she’d made with her therapist was the realization that Helene Archer had been responsible for her own choices.

  “Wasn’t it?”

  “No.”

  He didn’t look like he agreed.

  “Do you think Mom went racing because she didn’t love me enough to want to be around to raise me?” Maddie asked.

  Her dad went pale with shock, his eyes dilating, his mouth going slack for a second before he nearly shouted, “No, of course not. She adored you, Madison. You must know that.”

  “But she still went racing on the water at night.”

  “Not because of you.”

  “And not because of you, either.”

  “But—”

  “Mom was an adult woman who suppressed normal caution for the adrenaline spikes that made her feel alive.” The fact it had the side effect of gaining her the attention she craved only made her mom’s adventures doubly irresistible to her.

  “You sound like a psychologist.”

  “A degree in early childhood development has its share of psych courses.” Maddie wasn’t telling Jeremy about her sessions with a therapist.

  She wasn’t ashamed of seeing Dr. MacKenzie, but Maddie didn’t trust her father enough to share the more private parts of her life with him. Not even this new and improved Jeremy. She didn’t know how deep the changes went or how long they would last.

  Her dad’s eyes—the same shade as her own, but without the vulnerability she saw in the mirror when she was alone—flickered with something between speculation and curiosity.

  “Speaking of your mother,” he said in a more familiar tone that revealed no emotion.

  “Yes?”

  “You and Viktor have chosen her birthday for your wedding date.”

  “Yes.” A month before Maddie turned twenty-five, it had just felt right to speak their vows on a date connected in such a special way to her mom.

  “Viktor said you wanted to honor her memory with the date.”

  “We do.” Did her dad find that uncomfortable?

  Neither she nor Vik had considered that possibility.

  Her father smiled, the expression appearing genuine. “I was hoping you would be willing to honor her memory in another way as well.”

  “How?” she asked warily.

  “Do not worry, I am not going to use your mother’s memory to try to guilt you into withdrawing the paperwork giving company shares to Ramona Grayson upon your twenty-fifth birthday.”

  But he hadn’t forgotten it, either.

  “It wouldn’t work anyway. Mom loved Romi and I personally wouldn’t have survived boarding school if her father hadn’t sent her there, too.”

  Maddie had desperately wanted her SBC to come to the school once she’d realized her father wouldn’t budge about her going there. However she’d never asked. It wouldn’t have been fair. Just like Maddie, Romi had a life in San Francisco.

  But Romi had begged her dad to send her and he’d done so.

  Jeremy nodded. “He sent her because I offered to pay the tuition and dorm fees.”

  “No.” Wouldn’t her father have told her that before this?

  “Yes. He told me when Romi came to him and asked to follow you. He didn’t want to send her, but I thought you would both be better off with each other than your fathers.”

  Maddie’s dad was sounding more and more human by the minute. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she thought it might be hope.

  However, she felt compelled to say, “Mr. Grayson always loved Romi.”

  “But he was already drinking heavily by then. Do you think he was any more aware of his daughter’s needs than I was of yours?”

  No, the man who had fallen asleep drunk most nights had not been aware of what Romi needed.

  “If she hadn’t gone to boarding school, she would have become her dad’s caregiver.” Jeremy sounded very certain of that. “Romi needed to get away and Gray needed to pour himself into bed at night.”

  “You used to be his friend.”

  “I still am, as much as you can befriend a man intent on drinking himself into an early grave and his own business into bankruptcy.”

  Worry creased Maddie’s brow. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Yet. But it will be.”

  “Don’t pretend threatening to take his company over was a favor you would do him.”

  “No, it wouldn’t be a favor to Grayson, but it would be to Romi.” Her dad sounded very sure of that assertion.

  “So you say.”

  “You don’t trust me at all, do you?”

  “Not really, no.” She couldn’t even say that if she thought the welfare of AIH was a given that her dad would put hers next.

  She wasn’t convinced of that.

  Rather than appear upset by her denial, her dad shrugged. “Maybe you are right not to.”

  “That’s not a comforting thing for you to say.”

  He shrugged. “Would you rather I lied?”

  “No, but you would, if you thought it would get you what you wanted.”

  “That’s one of the primary differences between Viktor and I. Our business peers know it, too. If I want another company president to believe something, I make sure he hears it from Viktor.”

  “Has he ever lied for you unknowingly?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

  “No. I’m not saying I haven’t been tempted, but while I may not feel the same compunction for truth that my successor does, I do recognize that if I did that and Viktor found out about it, he would find another vehicle for his ambition than AIH.”

  Well, she’d never considered her father to be stupid. “I think you’re right.”

  “I know I am.”

  “So, about Mom’s memory...” Maddie said, ready to get back to the reason for her presence at her father’s dinner table.

  “She always said she wanted you to wear her wedding dress when you married.”

  “You still have it?” Maddie couldn’t hide the eagerness in her tone.

  If she’d been with Vik, she wouldn’t have even
felt the need to try.

  “Of course.”

  “But you got rid of all her things.” Maddie would never forget coming home for the first time from boarding school to find most of the house redecorated and her mother’s things gone.

  “I kept her wedding dress and her jewelry for you.” Her father’s tone implied he didn’t understand why Maddie wouldn’t know that.

  “Why? When you got rid of everything else?”

  “The dress is a piece of history.”

  “Not business history.” So, why would her dad care?

  “Family history. A famous designer created it for your great-grandmother in 1957, the year after he did a similar dress for an actress in one of her more famous roles.” Jeremy cleared his throat almost as if talking about this was making him emotional. “Every generation in her direct line has worn it since.”

  “I know.”

  “Oh, I thought maybe you’d forgotten. You didn’t mention wearing it.”

  “I thought you’d gotten rid of it.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “I’m so glad.” It was a dream she’d thought would have to die with her mother.

  “You’re very much of a size with your mother. I doubt it will require much tailoring.”

  * * *

  The beautiful ivory strapless gown with embroidery in champagne silk thread around the full skirt and on the bodice required no altering at all.

  Though she and Romi agreed Maddie should wear a corset under the embroidered bodice for smooth lines. The champagne lining flipped over the hem as a contrast lay exactly as it was supposed to.

  “You look so beautiful,” Romi said with suspiciously shiny eyes.

  The dress hugged Maddie’s breasts and torso, nipping in at her natural waist and then flaring in a full skirt shorter in the front than the back, which had an understated train that swept the floor elegantly behind her.

  “I look like my mom.”

  “But you have your dad’s eyes.” Romi twisted her mouth comically. “I can’t believe he paid for me to attend boarding school with you.”

  “Me, either.” But Mr. Grayson had confirmed Jeremy’s claim.

  “He loves you, I always said so.”

  “In his own way,” Maddie agreed. “Just not the way I needed.”

  “Maybe he just didn’t know how. From what you’ve told me about his parents, it doesn’t sound like the Archers were a warm family.”