Epilogue
Four years later
Sam Reston’s apartment
They weren’t expected. Mike and Chloe arrived around lunchtime two days early.
They both felt they had to rush back home with the news.
The two families were having lunch together, as they often did on Saturday. Merry, sharp as usual, was the first to see them. Or rather Chloe. When Chloe was around, Mike barely existed.
With a squeal, Merry ran into Chloe’s arms, followed by Gracie, her sister Emma and Laura, born the day Chloe almost died.
The four girls jumped around Chloe in a jumble of words and excitement, jostling for attention. Mike stepped sharply to one side, getting out of the way.
Nicole and Ellen were great. Sam and Harry were really lucky guys.
But Chloe was the catch and Mike had caught her.
She couldn’t cook and she wasn’t smart with money, but the kids loved her and that was more important than anything.
Aunt Chloe was central to their lives. She was always there for them, and Nicole and Ellen knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if they had to work and there was a sick girl, Chloe would be there and would love them and care for them like a mother.
It was the best gift of all.
Merry was jumping up and down, trying to see behind Chloe’s back. “Aunt Chloe, Aunt Chloe, did you bring us presents?”
“Pwesents!” Laura echoed, clapping her hands.
It was a ridiculous question, of course.
Chloe was absolutely incapable of going somewhere without buying presents for the girls.
Let alone go to London, which they’d been doing on a regular basis for the past two years.
She could just as easily have sprouted wings and flown as come back empty-handed.
Every time Chloe hoped she could hand them out in an orderly fashion and every time fate laughed cruelly. The sounds of ripping paper and cries of joy started up behind them. Merry, Laura, Gracie and Emma were hopping up and down, in girl heaven.
Nicole got up from the table, smiling, followed by Ellen. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. We were going to organize a little welcome home party for you, but you’re early! So come on in, we were just about ready to sit down to lunch. Manuela made us a fabulous pot roast.”
Ellen touched Chloe’s hand. “How is Sister Mary Michael? And the girls?”
Mike helped Chloe take her jacket off, wondering how they could miss it. And yet there they were, Nicole and Ellen, two piranhas when it came to sniffing out news, totally clueless.
“Sister Mary Michael is fine. She sends her love. Ludmilla won first prize in an international piano competition. Everyone’s really excited about that. And the girls were all really happy with their presents. I’ve got thank you notes in my bag.”
Nicole and Ellen beamed. Putting together packages for the girls in London for Mike and Chloe to take over had become a big deal. A big, happy deal. They’d spend days trolling the shops for just the right things and judging from the excited, happy faces, they got it right.
The ship had been stopped and boarded as soon as it crossed over into American waters. The huge scandal over the pedophile ring that was smashed made headlines for six months and the ripple effects were still felt.
Mike, Sam and Harry had followed each case with grim focus, rejoicing in each prison sentence.
In the meantime, no one knew what to do with the girls. The records of their existence had been destroyed. Some of the girls couldn’t even name the town where they lived. All they knew was the orphanage, and they had been expunged from the records.
So Chloe called in Wonder Woman. Or at least that’s how it felt at the time.
Sister Mary Michael. A tiny woman, 100 pounds dripping wet, in a nun’s habit, and she carried the authority of a general.
Through negotiations that wouldn’t have been out of place in a merger between Microsoft and Apple, she managed to acquire custodianship over the young girls and ferried them back to London, where they were all growing into young, beautiful and happy young women.
Chloe always said she’d inherited way too much money, so she set up a $10 million dollar trust fund for the girls, to help with the expenses at the Sacred Heart and for their university education.
Chloe and Mike visited often, and lately their trips to London had increased, but it wasn’t just to see the girls.
There was a new, very efficient fertility clinic in Knightsbridge and they’d hit the jackpot.
“I have some news,” Chloe said softly and everyone stopped and looked at her.
She was glowing, her eyes that golden color that still drove him crazy with desire.
She reached out for his hand. “Mike and I have something to say. We, ah, we’ve been going to London a lot these past six months, and I know you’ve been wondering why.
We’ve been going to a center that specializes in a new IVF technique. ”
Sam and Harry looked blank. Nicole and Ellen drew in a sharp breath.
“We have good news. Mike and I—we’re pregnant. With twins.” Chloe blushed a fiery red, smiling with happiness.
Behind them the present frenzy had grown to crazy proportions, shreds of wrapping paper flying in the air. Mike thought of all the estrogen that was going to be floating around in a few years’ time.
Well, his guys would take care of that.
“Boys,” he said with satisfaction.