Chapter 31
M illie Van Der Heusen is an idiot. She thought she’d peer pressure me into getting engaged to her like I’m some grade school weakling. She thought she’d media bully me into it like I give a shit what the media says or does with me.
Whatever she was thinking, she was not only wrong, but she also grossly underestimated who I am.
The power I can wield if I want to turn the tides in my favor.
Her father is a senator, but the Abbot-Fritzes are the gods of Boston, and after delivering Owen in the back of my car, I rock a cape along with my lightning bolt in the eyes of the world.
But there’s more to this than that.
Bianca passed out on me again the second we got on the airplane. Honestly, it’s a relief because my mind was too wild for any sort of chitchat and there was no way I was going to take her on the plane the way I need to take her with all this madness swirling about.
We landed at Logan and even though I hated to do it, I put B in a car with Slash, and I got into one with Axl. My sibling text stream has been blowing up since before we got on the plane and other than telling them that I’m not marrying Millie, I haven’t said anything else.
But it’s not like I have to.
Because here it is, Sunday night and my entire family is at my parents’ compound for dinner because that’s what we do on Sunday nights. So as the car pulls to a stop and I step out, I’m swarmed before the door can even shut behind me.
“Where have you been, and why are you so tan?” That’s Rina.
“The press has been all over us. Hounding us for comments and information.” Oliver.
“The Van Der Heusens faxed over a crazy-ass contract. Is this shit actually happening?” Carter’s turn.
“Just tell them all to fuck off. That’s what I did, and eventually they left me alone.” Landon.
“I could tell them Raven is pregnant.” Luca and—
“Wait,” I snap. “What?”
“I’m not pregnant,” Raven comes in with an eye roll.
“Jesus, Luca. Slow your biological clock because mine hasn’t even started to tick yet.
” She grabs my hand. “And the rest of you, back off. Let the man breathe.” A jerk of my hand and I’m following after my pretty black-haired friend.
“I mean it, Luca,” she threatens with a menacing finger pointed back at them.
“Back off or no naughty play later. And as for the rest of you, I’ll tell the same to your better halves. ”
They’re groaning and arguing, but no one messes with Raven. Or Amelia, for that matter, now that I think about it.
Raven brings me up the front porch steps and into the house. “Thank you,” I tell her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
“Daughter of Morgan Fairchild, former MI6 and chief of Fritz security at your service.”
I let out a small laugh, pulling her closer and dropping an arm over her shoulder. “I hope you’re taking me to see my mom.”
“I am, but she’s in the back with Grace and Owen. She has a whole room set up on the first floor for them.”
Of course she does. Octavia Abbot-Fritz loves her people. I’m counting on that.
We reach a parlor room off to the garden room and Raven knocks. “I have Kaplan with me. Everyone decent?”
“Yes. I’m done nursing. He can come in,” Grace calls out and when we open the door, it’s like walking into a full nursery.
“You know you have a whole nursery set of rooms upstairs, right?” I comment dryly as I look around the gender-neutral room of grays and greens with smatterings of yellow.
Grace is sitting in a large, cushioned rocking chair with a sleeping Owen tucked against her.
My mother is on the daybed, sitting as she always does, though I can see the unease all over her.
“I didn’t want Grace to have to go up and down stairs and Owen is so small, I wanted to have him closer to us.”
Without hesitation, I cross the room and kiss Grace on the forehead and then do the same to my little man, running my fingers gently along his soft hair and tiny nose. “How are you doing being home? You being good for Mommy and Daddy?”
“He’s being as you’d expect for a newborn,” Grace tells me. “You can hold him later.” I get the meaningful look and I roll my head over my shoulder to meet my mother’s eyes.
“I guess that’s my cue.”
I stand to my full height and extend my hand to help my mother up. “It is indeed.”
She takes it and then the two of us find our way through the expansive downstairs all the way to my father’s office.
The door is open as if he was expecting us, and when I enter, he’s sitting on his couch with a stack of official-looking papers in front of him along with a glass of his expensive bourbon.
My mother takes the seat beside him, leaving me one of the chairs, and wordlessly I go about fixing my mother a glass of wine and myself a glass of what my father is having.
I take a sip, but I don’t sit down.
When I was in Key West, talking to Bianca in that alley, something hit me. It hit me hard. And before anything else can be discussed, I have to ask this first of my mother.
“Did you know who she was?”
My mother’s green eyes, the same shade as mine, drag slowly away from what I assume is a contract for marriage up to me.
Her hand falls from her face, revealing the barest hint of a smile.
When Oliver was fake engaged to Amelia and the shit hit the fan with them, he came here to tell my mother that the engagement was fake, but their love was real.
My mother already knew all about it.
I’ve said it before, my mother is cunning.
She also doesn’t play by the rules. Especially when it comes to her children. Or their love lives.
“Did you know who she was?” I repeat, unblinking. “That Bianca is Bunny.”
She rises from the couch and stands before me, so perfect and lovely, even when she says, “You don’t smile a lot.”
A bemused, humorless chuckle flees my chest. “What?”
“You don’t, Kaplan. Unless you’re with your siblings.
But otherwise, no. And it isn’t because you’re like Landon and had your light stolen from you.
You’ve just always been cautious with yours.
Wary of people and their intentions with you.
Slow to trust or show people outside of your family who you truly are.
That’s my fault. Your father’s too, as we ingrained that in you from birth.
And though I wish I could say I regret that side of you, I don’t.
You’re the heir of both the Abbot and Fritz names and we understand all too well what that comes with.
The lengths people go to for a piece of it.
Your father and I had an arranged marriage because of it. ”
“Mom, I—”
She holds up her hand, cutting me off. “Yes, I knew who she was. Not at first though. I saw your car pull up in front of the hotel that morning, and I decided to wait for you, only I noticed someone in the passenger side. I watched as she leaned over and gave you a kiss on the cheek, only to fly out of the car and into the hotel. You smiled, Kaplan. She kissed your cheek, and you smiled, watching her run inside. You had this look about you. One I had never seen before. I had no idea what was going on. I mean, the woman was wearing a wedding dress with makeup all down her face, but there was something about her, so I followed her into the ladies’ room and started talking to her. ”
“Did you know it was her then? Bunny? Forest’s little sister?”
“I met her when I came for Forest’s funeral.
I doubt she remembers. The girl was broken, understandably so.
She looks very different now than she did then and at first, I didn’t recognize her.
When she told me her name and a bit of her backstory, something started clicking into place, and then when she mentioned your name, saying her brother had known you, I knew then it was her. ”
“And you didn’t think to tell me? Mention that the girl you saw flee my car was Bunny Parker?”
“You didn’t mention her to me either, so I assumed, for whatever reason, you wanted to keep her a secret from me. Honestly, I don’t know why I held my tongue about it that morning. Maybe I wanted her to be a surprise if she took that position. Maybe it was instinct.”
“Instinct? For what?”
That smirk again. The one I’ve perfected over the years, I’m staring at now on my mother. Taking my hand, she guides me to sit. I do and she sits back beside my father, who takes her hand, giving her an encouraging nod.
“Once I discovered who she was, at first, I assumed you must have as well. But then Monday morning, when you saw her in the office, I realized you didn’t know.
You were adamant on firing the girl once you saw her, whereas when we spoke about it in the restaurant, you were willing to let me hire someone for the position without asking a whole lot of questions.
That right there told me everything I needed to know.
The girl lit a spark in you in a way no one else ever has.
I assumed either she’d tell you who she was, or you’d figure it out eventually.
I also knew once you learned who she was, there would be no going back for you if it wasn’t already too late for that. ”
My hands dive into my hair, my elbows pressing into my knees as I stare down at the floor, shaking my head. “I don’t understand.”
She laughs. “Yes, you do, my darling boy. You’re already very much in love with her and my guess is you have been for some time.”
“But, if you were planning on pushing Millie down my throat—” I cut myself off, leaning back in my chair and grabbing my drink off the coffee table as realization (once again) kicks my ass. “You never intended for me to marry Millie or get into an arranged marriage. Did you?”
My mother and father exchange looks. “Well. Not fully.”
“Elaborate on that,” I grunt to my father.