Chapter 33
33
T hey’d returned from the Bahamas two weeks ago. And now Brock took Yvette’s hand. “Are you ready?”
They came to Adeline’s mansion on the hill in a caravan of vehicles, two moving vans, Trevor in his car, and she and Brock in hers.
Trevor had rented a flat in the city while he and Lorna looked for the perfect home down on the Peninsula. Yvette and Brock had taken a flat in the same building while they searched for something permanent, somewhere close to the office but with a view of the bay. And today, they were here to collect what each of them couldn’t live without, along with the girls’ things. The rest could stay behind.
But first, there was Adeline. The woman could not be ignored forever.
Nolan opened the door before either of them could knock. “Sir. It’s good to see you again. Your mother awaits you in the morning room.” Then he stood back for them to pass through.
As they entered the big house, Brock raised Yvette’s hand to brush his lips across her knuckles. Then he kissed her, softly, sweetly. Their first kiss ever in this house.
Yvette wasn’t sad that it would be the last in this place.
They climbed the stairs, while Trevor arranged with the workers driving the vans.
At the home’s front on the second floor, the morning room afforded a magnificent view of the bridges, the water, and the city as the sun rose over it.
Seated by the window, Adeline looked at their linked hands. And her lips flattened. “To what do I owe,” she said, then paused, dropping her voice a note, “this pleasure?” Her tone said it wasn’t a pleasure at all.
Brock pulled out the sheaf of papers he’d stowed in his jacket pocket. Unfolding them, he crossed to Adeline’s chair, Yvette there with him, hand still in his, forever in his, and laid the papers down on the tea table. Tapping two fingers on top of them, he said, “Did you think we wouldn’t have our own tests done? Or that they wouldn’t expose your lies?”
But Adeline was never cowed. And she would never admit when she was wrong. She put an arthritically gnarled hand on her bony chest. “I didn’t lie. The tests lied. I know exactly what your father did. And if you’ve got a test saying she’s not his daughter, then they hoodwinked you. Because that test is a lie.”
A harsh laugh burst out of Yvette. She couldn’t have stopped if she’d tried. And she didn’t want to. “You just don’t know when to stop, do you.” It wasn’t a question. It was the truth.
Adeline turned her hard gaze on Yvette. “All I’ve ever done is protect this family from women like you. Like your mother. I made Harris fire your whole family. But he just wouldn’t stop wanting that girl.” She looked at Brock once more. “If you leave with her now, never come back. I’ll cut you out of my will. You’ll never get this house.”
He huffed out a breath that might have been a laugh. “I don’t want this house. Or anything that comes with it.”
“And I will make sure the board takes the company away from you as well.”
Yvette felt Brock still beside her. And for just a moment, his fingers tightened around hers. Then he said in a voice harsh enough for a boardroom battle, “Go ahead and try, Adeline. You’ll find you don’t have the support you think you do.”
As he left his mother’s morning room, Brock’s tension drained away. The noise from his former suite at the far end of the house signaled the movers packing up Trevor and Lorna’s belongings.
Brock stopped Yvette at the top of the stairs, turning to face her. “There’s not one damn thing I want out of this house. She can do whatever she wants with what’s left in my rooms.”
Reaching up, she cupped his face. “We’ll make a fresh start. I only want to take the girls’ things and the furniture they wanted.” Kacey was already planning her own apartment when she graduated in the spring. “And the photo albums, the memories. Just that.” Then she asked, worry in her voice, “She can’t get the board to oust you, can she?”
He picked her up, whirled her around, feeling more free than he ever had in his life. “I’ve got more clout than she does. And even if she could do something,” he said as he set her back on her feet, “I don’t give a damn. Because I have you.”
And he had his sons. He felt as if he had everything he’d ever needed or wanted. He loved the company, loved his work. But more than that, he loved his kids. And most especially, he loved Yvette. If it came right down to it, he didn’t need anything else.
His mother, on the other hand, had fought all her life for some make-believe dynasty. She’d cheated, she’d lied, she’d schemed. But in the end, none of it had worked. The DNA tests had proven the one thing she hadn’t lied about, that Pierce was only his half-brother. He and Yvette were no relation at all. The girls happily handed over their DNA, and Jodi and Kacey had DNA no one else in the family had, obviously coming from Pierce’s father, whoever that man was. Trevor was Brock’s full brother. Maybe their father had cheated, maybe he hadn’t. But Yvette’s mother had never given him a child.
Adeline’s life was full of the lies she’d told herself.
Holding Yvette’s hand in his, he said the only thing that mattered. “I love you. Now we’re getting out of here. And we’re never coming back.”
Brock and Yvette were married three months later in the garden of Trevor and Lorna’s new Atherton home. On a sunny mid-April afternoon, flowers bloomed and the sun’s warmth blessed them.
It wasn’t a large affair, just the family. Yvette wore a cream wool suit over a coral blouse, Brock’s ruby necklace at her throat, while Brock dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and one of the silk ties she’d bought him for Christmas. They held a small reception afterward, catered with an elegant high-tea buffet. Tea sandwiches, sausage rolls, stuffed mushroom caps, a curried shrimp savory, bite-size Welsh rarebits, and all the sweets, from scones to cookies to single-serve flan. And the most delicious champagne that reminded Yvette of their island cove.
Garth made the first toast. “To the couple who deserves this day more than anyone I know.”
Standing next to him, Jodi raised her glass. “To the happily ever after you both deserve.”
Setting her glass down, she wiped tears from her eyes and hugged her mother. Then she threw her arms around her uncle, also her new stepfather, laughing and crying with joy that seemed as big as the joy Yvette felt.
Then Yvette folded her oldest daughter in her arms, and Kacey whispered, “I’m so happy for you.”
Kacey had not gone back to Darryl. Instead, she’d applied to study a year abroad. “I’ve never been to Rome,” Yvette had said, and Kacey had replied, “So now you and Uncle Brock will have a reason to visit.” In that moment, Yvette had known Kacey fully accepted Brock.
“I love you, Mom,” she said, still holding on to Yvette. “I’m sorry about all the grief I caused at Christmas. I was just in such a bad place.”
Yvette cupped her daughter’s cheeks. “Don’t be silly. You don’t need to apologize again. You were going through some hard stuff. So please stop worrying about it. I love you.”
“Truly, I’m happy for you, Mom. You two are so good together.” They held each other for a long moment, then Kacey turned to Brock. She gave him a hug that brought tears to Yvette’s eyes. Finally, everything in her life was perfect.
She hugged each of her nephews. Or was she supposed to call them stepsons now? But they would always be her nephews, no matter what Adeline had done all those years ago, no matter how she tried to punish Harris for something he hadn’t done.
Trevor hugged her then. “I want to welcome you to the family all over again.”
She stepped back with her hands on his shoulders. “And you are the best dad ever.”
“Hey,” Brock butted in. “That’s supposed to be me. And I’ve got the mug to prove it.”
Lorna smiled, holding baby Freya, who’d come into the world six weeks ago. Lorna was radiant in her new home. “Let’s not fight about it, gentlemen. You’re both wonderful fathers.”
“And I’m a great uncle too.” Brock held out his arms. “May I hold my adorable little niece?”
He was just as adorable, cooing at the tiny baby in his arms. God, how she loved this man. Between them, they had five amazing children. They had a loving family.
And they had a future that seemed brighter than any star in a night sky.