Chapter 31
HARRISON
A few days after the ball, I sat in my office at W&S. The building was nearly empty, but even when the place slowed for the holidays, it still had this energy about it. It was quiet but festive and not at all dead.
There were some stragglers still working on closing deals before they packed it in for the year, a few assistants still fielding calls and processing paperwork. A part of me wondered if I should’ve been among their ranks for a different reason, but today, I wasn’t there for work.
Wedding venues in New York City were notoriously difficult to come by and booking one on such short notice was going to require some finesse. That was why I was here, to work my connections trying to pull off the impossible—finding a wedding venue in Manhattan with availability on Christmas Eve.
Two weeks’ notice for a venue in that city was a laughable notion, but if anyone was going to make it happen, it was me. I would move mountains for Aurelia. Sending emails and making phone calls was nothing in comparison.
Halfway through drafting an email to a woman I knew who operated a boutique hotel in the West Village, I heard footsteps approaching my door and I looked up, surprised to see Jameson walking into my office.
His arms were full of files, but he was wearing jeans and an old college hoodie instead of a suit, his eyebrows high as he looked at me. “This is a surprise. What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” I leaned back in my chair. “What’s all that for? I thought you weren’t working over the holidays this year.”
“I’m not. Sterling is.” He crossed the space to my desk and sat down in one of the chairs opposite me, dropping the stack of files on the chair beside him.
“He’s been up all night with Claire so Laney can get some rest and he asked me to grab a few things from his office.
Staying busy will keep him from losing his mind at home, I think. ”
“Right.” I chuckled. “There’s nothing like paperwork to soothe a fussy newborn.”
He shrugged. “Hey man, whatever it takes. I’ve been sneaking stuff home for weeks so I can stay busy while I’m at home keeping an eye on Sadie in the final stretch.
I’ll bet everything I’ve got on you doing the same thing once your turn comes, which brings me back to my original question.
What are you doing here when our offices are basically closed and you have a gorgeous fiancée waiting for you at home? ”
I huffed out a breath. “I told you, it’s just business between us.”
Jameson’s hazel eyes lit with that annoying knowing fire as his eyebrows shot up and a smirk ghosted across his lips. “Uh-huh. Just business. Of course. Is that why you’re here? To distract yourself from the blue balls?”
I snorted. “No. I’m looking for a wedding venue, actually. I figured I had a better shot if the inquiries came from my official W&S account and I don’t have access to all our connections from home.”
“Right.” He folded his hands over his flat stomach and kicked an ankle up on his knee. “What are the plans? Maybe I can help.”
I shrugged, trying for casual, but my pulse was definitely thudding all of a sudden.
“The plans are to get married Christmas Eve morning in New York. We’ll keep it small, so we don’t need a huge venue, but I’ll settle for any venue right about now.
Do you think Mom knows someone who might be able to help? ”
“Oh, I’m sure she does.” Jameson studied me a little too closely, then let out a long, slow breath. “She’s not going to help you, though. Not with this.”
“What?” My heart stammered in my chest. “Why the hell not? CC Westwood lives for this shit.”
“Yeah, but she’s not exactly thrilled about your impending nuptials.” He sighed. “It doesn’t sound like she’s said much to Dad about it, but Sadie told me that Mom is upset. Like, very upset.”
“What? Why?” A cold ripple ran through me, but I masked it with a laugh. “Of course, she’s not fucking onboard with this. Why would she be? It’s me.”
My jaw tightened. I could take pushback from anyone, but after all these years of treating me like the one who would always have to prove himself before he had the right to make any decisions, this felt like another slap in the face from my mother.
Jameson didn’t look away. His gaze was steady and measured, and I could tell it was because he was trying to decide how much to tell me.
“If it helps, Sadie has gone to bat for Aurelia. More than once. She’s stressed that a Van Alen is a perfect match for you and all that stuff, but Mom won’t hear it.
She still doesn’t want this wedding to happen, so I really wouldn’t count on her help if I were you. ”
I froze. “What about Dad?”
Jameson grimaced, looking like he wasn’t particularly happy about being the one who had to deliver the blow.
“Well, uh, that’s where this gets weird.
Mom normally sides with Dad, right? But Dad is thrilled about this.
He talks about Aurelia like she walks on water, which I think is why Mom isn’t really talking to him about it. ”
I blinked hard. “Has that ever happened?”
He shook his head slowly. “This is something we haven’t dealt with as a family before.”
Shock rolled through me, but it was followed by the sharp bite of anger rising up from deep within. “Why does Mom feel this way? Do you know?”
“No.” Jameson lifted one of his shoulders. “Honestly, to me, it sounds like she’s grasping at straws for a reason. She doesn’t like the timing. She thinks you’re rushing into it. That Aurelia’s not the right fit.”
“Not the right fit?” I repeated, the words bitter on my tongue. “Who the fuck is going to be a better fit than her?”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard, not what I think.” He spread his hands out to his sides. “Mom hasn’t exactly laid it out to anyone, least of all me. All I know is that she’s dug in. Sadie says it’s like talking to a brick wall.”
That was enough for me. My pulse hammered, my hands curling into fists under the desk. If my mother wanted to stand in the way of this, if she thought she could dictate my life any longer, she was about to learn how wrong she was.
I didn’t even remember the drive out to the Big House. My hands were tight on the steering wheel, my jaw locked, and my chest braced for whatever fight was waiting for me.
When I got there, Garvey didn’t say a word. He just waved me toward my mother’s sitting room and I didn’t bother with pleasantries. The staff knew better than to try to stop me when I was like this, so even though Mom’s door was closed, no one tried to intercept me on my way in.
I burst into her sitting room, sunlight spilling across the pale blue walls and a porcelain tea set on the ornate coffee table in front of her. Steam curled from one of the cups, but another was already laid out.
She didn’t look surprised to me at all. If anything, it kind of looked like she’d been waiting. She was strangely pale as she waved me into the seat next to hers. “Come sit, darling. Have some tea.”
I didn’t sit or make myself a cup of tea. Instead, I curled my fingers around the back of the chair she’d wanted me to sit on, leveling her with my gaze as I held on tight, hoping that this would keep me from falling over in shock over whatever she was about to say.
“I want the truth, Mother. What is your problem with Aurelia?”
Her cup paused halfway to her lips. Then she set it down gently and smoothed her silk sleeves. “I don’t have a problem with her. She’s a lovely girl.”
My eyebrows shot up. “So what’s this about, then? If you think she’s so lovely, why don’t you want me to marry her?”
“She could’ve been mine,” she replied cryptically after pausing for a few long beats. “She could’ve been mine, Harrison.”
The words knocked the air out of me. I stared into her weirdly vacant hazel eyes, heat rushing to my ears. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Ask Regina,” she said, rising gracefully to her feet and dismissing me from her gaze. “I’m sure her version of the story will be very different from mine.”
“Mom—”
She shook her head, already moving across the room to collect her bag and slide on a pair of gloves. She didn’t even glance back at me. “I have a meeting. Charity committee. Next time you want to talk, try letting me know you’re on your way. This wasn’t a good time.”
Before I could even ask why she’d had another cup ready then, she was gone, her heels clicking down the hall. She left me with nothing but her words echoing through my head. She could have been mine. The fuck does that mean?
I left the sitting room with my blood boiling. My mother’s words rattled around in my head, each one sharper than the last. And what does Regina Van Alen have to do with Mom not liking Aurelia?
The more I thought about it, the more it felt like complete and utter bullshit.
My brothers had been rewarded for moving their lives forward.
Sterling, Jameson, Callum… They’d all gotten their wives, their families, their spots in the company, and their inheritances secure.
Mom hadn’t stood in their way. Hell, she and Sterling had organized Callum’s entire wedding as a surprise and she’d thrown a hell of a wedding for Jameson and Sadie too.
But me? I finally found something worth holding on to, someone who made me feel like I could stand on my own two feet, and suddenly, she was ready to burn it all down. Why does it feel like she’s punishing me for growing up?
As I dropped back in behind the steering wheel of my car, a thought hit fast and hard. Maybe I should just cut through all of this noise and elope with Aurelia.
No audience. No ghosts of past feuds whispering in our ears. No family drama.
Just the two of us, signing the papers, exchanging vows, and moving forward on our own terms. The idea settled in my chest, and as I raced away from the mansion, I just couldn’t shake it. Aurelia and I were right for each other. I knew that. She knew it.
Maybe the best thing that we could do was to take the next step together, really go out on our own, and leave all this other bullshit behind us.