Master of Fortune (14 page)

The results of the paternity test came back a week later, revealing that he wasn’t the father of Kaye’s child. Henry was relieved, but he’d screwed up his relationship with Astrid. No matter what he said to her, he couldn’t fix that.

Since she wouldn’t talk to him privately, he had an idea to do a public interview. He called a friend at BBC and arranged to do an interview about his biological father along with Steven and Geoff. The other men readily agreed because they were tired of seeing those old pictures of their mums showing up in the newspapers.

Henry hoped seeing the interview would make Astrid take his calls.

They all wanted a chance to put a new face on the scandal that the men’s births had caused. The interview went well and his own mum met a producer who had heard about her game show and wanted to work with her. Tiffany Malone was over the moon. He was her golden boy once again, and he was happy to be back on good terms with his mum but he really longed to be back with Astrid.

He’d known from the beginning that he wanted her in his life. And that she was different from all the other women he’d dated, but he hadn’t realized how much until they’d been apart. He missed so much of her.

Her keen smile, her sassy wit and her sexy body had won him over. He couldn’t sleep at night because his arms felt empty without her.

Winning her back wasn’t easy. After she continued not taking his calls, he’d tried to contact her family, but her parents were out of town. Bethann took one call from him only to curse him out.

He rubbed the back of his neck. A lesser man would give up, but Henry wasn’t a quitter and he didn’t intend to back down now.

The first copy of the XSU studio sessions were delivered to his office and he remembered the first night they’d heard the group play. That night had changed everything between them.

But she couldn’t continue to be his mistress while he married another woman. Yet once she read in the newspapers that he wasn’t going to marry Kaye and then when she’d learned his was going to appear on BBC One in an interview with Steven and Geoff…well, she couldn’t resist the chance to see him.

Henry looked tired, she thought, as she watched the program. But he carried himself well in the interview as the reporter asked each of them questions about the scandal that had surrounded their births.

“Our mums all loved Malcolm Devonshire,” Henry said. “He just loved the Everest Group more.”

“Now each of us is running part of that company,” Geoff added, “And we understand the difficulties of being in charge of a huge conglomerate and keeping up a personal life.”

“And we can see why the media is so interested in us and our mothers. We’ve never really been together before this, but we hope that your curiosity about us is appeased,” Steven said.

“Because we all have lives we’d like to get back to living outside of the spotlight,” Henry concluded.

The rest of the interview focused on the three men, their mothers and how the boys had been raised. It was interesting to her and she saved it on her DVR so she could watch it again, which she did several times over the next few days.

Henry called again and told her voice mail that he wasn’t the father of Kaye’s baby and he needed to talk to her. And she wanted to talk to him, but now the fact that she’d never told him she couldn’t have a child was at the forefront of her mind.

Having a child of his own was important to Henry and that was the one thing she couldn’t give him.

It took him a few days to wrangle everyone into place, but on Friday night he drove to Woking with a framed photo of the two of them and an engagement ring in his pocket. He got there as everyone was getting home from work.

He had called the building manager and confirmed that Astrid was indeed at home, even though she refused to take his calls.

He also called Bethann, who was waiting for him when he arrived. He was surprised to see she wasn’t carrying a pitchfork or accompanied by an angry mob.

“This better work,” she said.

“No one wants that more than I do.”

Success didn’t matter without Astrid by his side. He needed her. They needed each other—together they were whole. And he wasn’t going to back down.

XSU arrived twenty minutes later and Henry had the band set up. He just needed the confirmation that she was inside the flat itself. Bethann called up and Astrid did answer.

Now that he knew where she was, nothing could stop him from winning her back.

He remembered every big game he’d played and every big event in his life and how much he’d wanted to win. They all paled in comparison to what he wanted now. What he needed now.

Astrid.

“I’m going to go up and open her window so she can hear the band. Give me about ten minutes to talk to her.”

Henry nodded. “Thank you, Bethann.”

“You’re welcome. Just make my sister happy for the rest of her life and we’ll call it even.”

“I intend to.”

Bethann walked away, and a small crowd gathered as the band tuned up their instruments. Henry ignored them as his mum and stepdad arrived with his younger brothers.

“I’m glad you got here.”

“Wouldn’t miss it. I like Astrid. If you are going to ask her to marry you, we want to be a part of it.”

He hugged his mum close realizing how lucky he had been to have been born her son. Percy brought Astrid’s parents. It had taken him a while to track them down and to tell them what had happened. He wanted Astrid to become his with the blessing of her family and his.

Finally he saw the window to Astrid’s flat open, and he signaled the band, who started playing. He waited where he was until he saw Astrid’s pretty blond head peek out the window. She looked down at him and covered her mouth with one hand.

Bethann appeared beside her, wrapping her arm around her sister’s shoulder. When the band finished playing, Henry took the microphone from Angus but before he could speak Astrid did.

“Go home, Henry. This isn’t going to do anything except make us both look ridiculous.”

“That’s not true. I’m here to set things right.”

“How? There’s no way you can do that.”

“Not even if I tell you that I love you?”

The pain he’d caused her had been deep, and she wasn’t ready to forgive him. At first a part of her wanted him to suffer, but that hadn’t made her feel any better. And then she’d been afraid to take his calls.

She’d watched the special on BBC just like everyone else. A part of her had felt a twinge of hope when he’d told the interviewer that he was involved with a special woman.

Now he was standing in the car park at her flat with the very band that had played the night they’d kissed. And he was looking up at her as if she mattered to him.

But she was afraid to believe in him. Afraid to get hurt again.

“You love me? What if—”

“Don’t say anything else,” Henry said. “Let me come up.”

She noticed her parents and brother-in-law, Percy, were standing down there next to Henry. And Tiffany and Gordon and Joshua and Lucas were there, as well. He’d brought their families together.

“Okay,” she said.

She looked around her familiar apartment with its open floor plan and IKEA furniture. She’d done her best to make this place into her home. There were pictures of her family on the wall and she felt safe here. It was the place she retreated to when she needed to escape from the world as she had when she’d miscarried.

This was where she’d been reborn. And she wasn’t too sure she could do it again. There were only so many times she could recover from having her heart broken and she didn’t want to have to do it again. Not with Henry.

She stepped back from the window. “I think he really loves me.”

Bethann started laughing. “I think so, too, but only you can decide that. I’m going to go down and wait with Percy and Mum and Dad.”

“Bethy?”

“Yes?”

“How did you know for sure about Percy?”

“He’s the only man to make me feel alive. He’s not perfect, but he’s mine and when I look at him I know that he loves me even when I’m being a cow.”

She hugged her sister as she left and thought about what Bethann had said. Love was more than just that grand illusion. It was about the quiet times when no one else watched.

Henry knocked on her door and she opened it for him. He handed her a wrapped present as he came inside. Through the open window she still heard the sound of XSU playing.

“You didn’t have to bring a gift for me,” she said.

“Yes, I did. I missed you every day,” he said. He reached for her and drew her into his arms.

“This last week has been the longest of my life,” Henry said. “I can’t believe I was so stupid to think I could marry another woman when you own my heart.”

She looked up at him and saw the truth in his eyes. Saw that he believed what he was saying. “I…I’m afraid to believe that you are really going to stay. So many times I’ve been left before.”

“I know that. But I’m not like the other men you’ve loved before.”

She shook her head. “I haven’t loved any man before. Not like I love you.”

“I love you, too, Astrid and I want to make a life with you. I want to get married and have children. I want us to continue to build our life together.”

She wanted that, too, but Henry would have to know the truth. “I can’t have children, Henry. I…I had an ectopic pregnancy and it was complicated. I lost the baby and my doctor warned that I…well, I can’t have any kids.”

Henry hugged her close. “As long as I have you I’m happy. You’re the missing piece to this life I’ve made for myself. It didn’t take me any time at all to realize that without you by my side nothing mattered.”

He reached into his pocket and brought out a jewelers’ box and got down on one knee in front of her. “Astrid Taylor, will you marry me?”

She looked down at him. At the man she’d had a crush on when she was teenage girl and the boss she’d thought was such a cutie and realized that the man he was, was so much more than that.

“Yes, Henry Devonshire, I will marry you.”

He put the ring on her finger as he stood up and kissed her.

He went to the window and looked down at their family.

“She said yes.”

They applauded and Astrid laughed, happy to have finally found the man she’d always searched for.

MASTER OF FORTUNE

Copyright © 2010 by Katherine Garbera

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