Chapter 70
ALEX
Keith drops me outside Brooke’s apartment building.
I hit the intercom, but there’s no answer.
I look around, hitting it again and wondering if she’s gone shopping. A familiar face appears out of the convenience store. He looks up and spots me, a scowl forming.
“Mitch, isn’t it?”
“Mr Bianchi. What are you doing here?” he asks.
“I’ve come to see Brooke, but she’s not answering her door.”
“She’s left,” he says.
My heart sinks. “Left?”
“Gone back to England.”
“England?” I repeat.
He inclines his head and watches me.
He inhales before nodding towards the door. “You might want to come up. She left something for you.”
“She did?”
He opens the door, holding it to let me pass.
“She did,” he repeats, with a smirk.
We make our way to his apartment, the door opposite Brooke’s. It’s my turn to frown. So, Mitch is one of the guys who looked out for Brooke.
He steps inside, motioning for me to follow. The apartment is packed up, as if he’s moving out.
“You’re leaving?”
He doesn’t answer. He picks up an envelope with my name on it.
I’d recognise Brooke’s handwriting anywhere.
“You might want to sit down. I was going to drop it into the office this afternoon before I leave.”
I take a seat on the old couch.
“I’ll give you time to read it,” he says before disappearing into the bedroom.
I stare at the white envelope.
My gut twists, and I fear whatever Brooke has divulged is going to change everything.
Every morning since she left, I’ve woken up with my body drenched in sweat, feeling like I’ve been searching for something. Something I’ve lost. Only it’s gone, and I know I’m to blame.
I hear Mitch moving around in the other room.
Does he know what it contains?
I pull out the neatly folded sheet.
Dear Alex,
By the time you read this letter, I’ll be on a plane to England. I would have preferred to have this conversation in person, but unfortunately, life has other ideas.
I’m sorry things ended the way they did between us. You’re a truly wonderful man, but I cannot blame you for having doubts about me, about us. There’s so much you don’t know, so much I haven’t been able to share with you.
I stare at her words. Is that what it was? Doubts? I accused an innocent woman of corporate espionage, and she blames herself.
I return to the letter.
I want to warn you about what is to come.
I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I can’t tell you how close I’ve come to telling you the truth, but I made promises I could not break, not without endangering myself and others. I just hope that one day you’ll be able to forgive me and remember our time together with fondness.
Who the hell did she make promises to? My mother? Someone else?
Her next words steal the breath from my lungs.
My name is not Brooke Feldmann.
It is Harper Frazer.
I stare at the words in front of me. Harper Frazer. Where do I know that name from?
The missing British heiress. Fuck!
Enzo kept bringing her up when I was in London. Did he know? Suspect?
I return to the letter.
As a British-American, you’re probably most familiar with my older sister, Kat, Kathryn Frazer, CEO of the Frazer Hotel Group, and Penelope Dawson, my soon-to-be sister-in-law. Kris Lansdown can also vouch for me, as it was Kris who helped me enter the US undetected.
Shit! It was Kathryn Frazer who was rushed to hospital. I think back to Kris when he visited me in my office. He must have known Brooke, but he never let on.
During the past eight months, I’ve been in witness protection.
Before that, I was targeted by the same group of men and women who murdered my father, Robert Frazer, seven years ago.
These men targeted me as a warning. Those investigating his death suspected my life was in danger, so I was sent by my mother to yours.
I don’t understand their history, but Sophia very kindly agreed to take me in and offered me refuge.
I’ll forever be in her debt. Please don’t blame Kris or your mother.
They understood that I had signed away my real identity and respected that.
When I return to the UK, I will be unreachable for a time. I’m being moved to a safe house where I’ll be debriefed before I can return to the civilised world. I’ve been warned during this time, that all outside contact will be cut off. That is why I’ve asked M to deliver you this letter.
Please know you’ve been a shining light during my darkest hours.
I never expected us to meet, or to develop feelings.
Please believe me when I say I’ve hated lying to you.
Just know that, as Brooke, I found something I never thought possible, and as Harper, I’ll cherish every memory of our time together.
I just hope one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Thank you for everything.
Love always,
Your Brooke xx
Harper
I’m not familiar with Harper Frazer, though her elder brother, Elijah, was a couple of years younger than me in school.
He was a day pupil, not a boarder, so our paths rarely crossed.
I know, however, that Kris has just purchased Elijah’s cyber security firm as part of his company’s expansion into Europe.
Strange, considering the man stole his fiancée.
Mitch reappears and leans on the doorframe.
“Who are you to her?”
“Dan and I are her protection officers.”
“She really was in danger?”
He nods.
“She’s an amazing young woman,” he says. “She’s not what we expected.”
He laughs at my clear confusion.
“You’re an American. Harper Frazer is quite a character, or should I say was. I think she’s enjoyed the anonymity of being Brooke and everything it has afforded her.”
His words hit a nerve.
That is why she understood.
I always felt it was strange how she could empathise with Enzo and me.
“What now?”
He shrugs.
“That, sir, is completely up to you.”
Keith drives me to Mother’s.
She’s at the door when I arrive. As I get out of the car, she simply turns and walks back into the house.
“You knew, and you didn’t say anything?”
She inclines her head, taking a sip of her iced tea.
“It was for her safety, especially after you employed her as your PA.” She sighs. “I must say, I didn’t see that coming, or the fact that you were going to fall in love with her.”
“I—”
“You’re in love with her. Don’t try to deny it.
I’ve got eyes in my head. And whether she’s Brooke or Harper, she’s the same woman.
Brooke is just the unfiltered version.” She chuckles to herself.
“Although that may be the wrong description. Harper Frazer has never been filtered, at least not in her later years. It was why I was tough on her when she arrived.”
“But you could have told me who she was,” I say. “What did you think I’d do? Throw her out or leave her unprotected?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “No, Sandro, you would have tried to burn down the world for her,” she says.
“The moment you two met, I felt it. It was like she unlocked something inside you. Your protective nature would have put her in danger. I made her promise not to tell you, although I know she’d already signed a memorandum of understanding, or perhaps it was a witness-protection agreement.
Whichever it was, it required her to keep her identity secret if she wanted to retain her protective team.
It set out strict behavioural rules, which that young woman has followed to a tee. I think she’s surprised everyone.”
I sink down onto the couch.
“What now?” I ask.
“That’s up to you.”
“How do you know her mother? Is she really a friend’s daughter?”
Mother surprises me by chuckling.
“Francesca is the reason I’m married to your father.”
I frown, not understanding what she means.
“Your grandfather had arranged my marriage to another man when I was barely a teenager.”
“Another man?”
“Robert Frazer, to be precise.”
I sit and stare at her. She was engaged to Robert Frazer, Harper’s father?
She smiles.
“When I eloped with your father, your grandfather cut me off. Francesca helped us, and so did Robert. It was only when your grandfather got sick that he relented. He needed an heir, and despite our differences, he wanted St Clair to stay in the family. It’s why you were raised and schooled in England. ”
“I need to go after her,” I say.
Her smile widens. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” She pauses. “Wait here.”
She disappears, returning a few minutes later.
“When you see her, you need to return this.”
I look up at the pendant dangling from her fingers. A ruby pendant. A custom-made St Clair design.
“I promised her I would keep it safe,” she says. “It was a gift chosen by her mother and father before he died. But she only received it after his death, on her twenty-first birthday.”
“You took it off her?”
Something churns in my chest as I realise what this must have meant to Brooke. No wonder her hand kept going to her throat before dropping as if it were searching for something.
“It’s a distinctive piece.”
I know she’s right. And Harper has been hiding in plain sight. Brooke would never have worn something like this.
She takes my hand, turns it over, and lowers it into my palm.
“I’m trusting you to return it with my love.”
I nod.
“Now get out of here, Sandro. Enzo is expecting you.”