The Billionaire & the Princess

by Katherine E Hunt

  “But what? What happened? Why are you telling me now?”

  “Somebody recognized me and then everybody looked me up on the internet and now they all know.” I look back at the party. Have I lost all of my friends too? “I’m … uh … I’m kind of a big deal. They made this stupid list of eligible princesses or something and it went viral. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t have any family to talk to and my friends all sort of got a bit weird about it. Then one of my tutors told me about this job, that he’d recommended me for and here I am.”

  “I need time to think about this.”

  “No, don’t go please, Hank, we can talk about this, work it out, right? We love each other, don’t we? Please just listen to me.”

  “People who love each other don’t lie. How can I believe anything you say ever again? You deceived us all. I gave up my family for you, do you even get that? You’re a selfish little ...” He lets the sentence drop. Wow. Okay. I let my head drop. Take a second to reply.

  He starts to walk back towards the party. “Hank, please.”

  “No Caitlyn. Just don’t.” I want to let him go, admit defeat, but I just can’t.

  I run in front of him put my arms out to stop him, but he pushes me away. “You still love me, right?” I watch him as he walks away from me. “Hank?”

  “How can I love somebody I don’t even know?”

  He is gone. I knew this moment would come, but I thought I’d have some control over it, ease him into it. I allow myself to fall to the ground, to give up. My whole body hurts. The bruises will heal, but my heart is ripping in two.

  I wait a while then walk back through the party, head down. I don’t say a word to anybody, just keep going. Hank is gone. He must have left straight away. I don’t even have a ride. This rich little princess is going to have to call a cab or walk home. Claire and Ted’s house isn’t in one of the private lanes that exist on the island for rich families. Paparazzi are waiting, cameras at the ready, outside of their home.

  It’s not for me; there are quite a few well-known names on the guest list. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t waiting for me now though. Chad’s online posts have probably made the rounds by now. People know I’m here.

  Two or three of them follow me, calling out ‘Princess’ and ‘Lady DeVere’ as they chase me down the street. Tears are flooding down my face. I’m ugly crying in the street and all these people want is a photo of it. Is it so bad that I don’t even care anymore? They can stick shots of my snotty tear-ridden face on all the gossip sites, it’s of no matter to me.

  A car draws up beside me. Ted. “Let me take you home, it’s the least I can do.” He’s a good friend. I settle in beside him. “He’ll cool down. Don’t worry.”

  I wipe my face with my arm. He whips a cotton handkerchief from his top pocket and hands it to me. Ted is going to be an awesome dad. “I ruined everything.”

  “I’m sure you had your reasons.” He smiles at me. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hank as happy as he has been with you. He’ll come around.”

  “No. He’s so mad at me. His family aren’t speaking to him because of me. All I had to do was tell the truth and they would have welcomed me with open arms. I should never have let it get this far. I needed time to get my mind around it myself, before I could talk about it. I don’t want to be that person. I want to be Caitlyn. I’m sorry, I’m boring you.” All I do is ramble. Why can’t I just shut my damned mouth?

  “Not at all. That’s what friends are for.”

  “I want to go home, get away from here. I’ve fucked everything up.” I look up, embarrassed by my language in front of Ted, but he doesn’t even flinch.

  “Hank’s house, the apartment?”

  I shake my head. “No, home, home.” I deceived Hank. He was very clear that he doesn’t love me. I came here to do a job, and that doesn’t even exist anymore. Plus, my cover’s blown. I’ll get no peace now. Time to quit before this gets any worse.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Hank

  I was so mad yesterday that I walked clean out of the party. Took my truck and just drove. Princess Caitlyn. The girl I was going to marry. She’s lied to me since the beginning. Lied about our hook up on the plane, then lied about who she was, about having any money. No wonder she kept getting pissed off at us for buying her clothes. They probably aren’t even good enough for her royal ass.

  Ted is fucking annoying me, hopping from one foot to another. “Shall we go?”

  “What is this?”

  “Let’s just go,” says Jonny. He twirls his car key around his finger. “Get it over with.”

  “You got somewhere to be?” I ask him. They’re the ones who woke me up this morning, dragged me out of bed. I would much rather be sleeping off the three-quarters of a bottle of whiskey that got me to sleep last night than standing here now.

  We drive maybe twenty minutes; draw up at a simple brick building. Nice renovation. They’ve recently replaced the awning instead of painting it, which is always a sign of a job well done.

  Ted opens the door.

  The room is old, a bit musty, about 30 feet square. To the left is an architect’s table, with an antique desk lamp over it, a box of business cards sitting on top. I pick one up. It’s got my number on it and Baresi Renovations. Fuck. What is this place?

  All along the back wall is a grill with hooks on it, tools hanging down. I wander around the room, inspecting, exploring. The drill I mentioned the other week, the table saw. Everything I’ve always wanted. “Cait did this? When?”

  “She started planning it when you got together. As a surprise. Honestly, man we had no clue, she just told us, before she left, to bring you here this morning, give you the keys.”

  There are a couple of worktables with vices and along the right-hand side, shelves and units with little compartments for screws and nails. I open them. It’s perfect, right down to the very finest detail. Little-Miss-post-it-note has been very thorough here.

  I think back to when she said that my head massage was better than sex and I get it now. I’m getting off on drills and workbenches. She’ll laugh when she hears it.

  Except she won’t.

  Because I’m a stupid fucking idiot who doesn’t know what he’s got until it’s gone. “Where is she? I want to speak to her.”

  She’s gone,” says Ted.

  “What do you mean, gone where?”

  “Home. I arranged for my car to take her early this morning.” He shrugs his shoulders. He’s mad at me for not listening, for walking away. Ted and I have been friends forever and I know when I’ve disappointed him.

  It’s not the first time. When I dropped out of college, I took my inheritance and split. I never even said goodbye and that hurt him and the other guys. Nobody even knew where I was. I can’t deal with confrontation, I hate it. I have to go away and think about things. He’s not said it, but I know him and I know he thinks I’m a jerk for leaving Caitlyn yesterday and he’s right.

  “Why?”

  “Because somebody took a photo of her tagged her in it and then put it all over the internet.” Ted throws daggers at Chad. “You know the Paps followed her down the street, right, she was on her own, it was fucking dangerous.”

  “What? No.” Why hadn’t they called me? Because I’d switched my phone off.

  Ted turns to me. “She left because someone broke her heart, because he wasn’t man enough to listen to her, understand what she had to say.” Fuck. Ted is really pissed with me, and he has every right to be.

  “But there’s a chance that she hasn’t actually gone yet, right? I mean, maybe her flight’s later today.”

  “This isn’t what she wants,” replies Ted. “She was pretty cut up last night, wanted to go back to England, she didn’t feel safe here anymore.” Yesterday, when we’d argued, she kept grabbing my arms. She just wanted to feel protected.

  “I was so angry.” I struggle to say it. “I told her I didn’t love her. I didn’t mean it, I was
just in shock.” Honestly, it’s a bit of a blur. I know I said some pretty nasty shit, but I was completely taken aback.

  “Man, that’s no excuse, if you love her you have to take the good with the bad.”

  “Take me to the airport, please. I need to make this better. I have to find her, explain to her that I was wrong.” Even if it meant flying across an ocean.

  “You really love her, huh?” asks Chad.

  “Yes.” He and I were going to have strong words about his part in this, but it would have to wait.

  “Well, then let’s go get your girl,” says Jonny.

  We jump into Jonny’s car. The first and only time I’ve ever thanked the Lord for Jonny’s need for speed. I belong to the only billionaire’s club where three out of four members drive sensible cars.

  An hour and a half is a long time to wait to see if someone has caught a plane. While my friends sing along to Jonny’s playlist, I mull over the events of the last few weeks.

  I’m mad. Mad at Cait because she lied. Mad at my family, mad at everyone. But I do love her. She was right; she is the only person I’ve ever met who has truly got me. Believed in me.

  That’s all she was asking of me, to see the person and not the princess.

  And I walked away. I’m a fucking dumbass sometimes.

  Chapter-Twenty Seven

  Caitlyn

  Delays and cancelations. I need to get away from here before I change my bloody mind and all I’ve encountered are delays and cancelations. My flight is going to leave four hours late. No money in the world will get that flight to leave on time.

  “You again.” The old lady with the son in Manhattan. She looks chirpier, a lot less uptight than the outgoing flight.

  “Isn’t this a funny old coincidence?” Isn’t she only supposed to be staying a couple of weeks? How long have I been in America? “Shouldn’t you have gone back to the UK by now?”

  She shrugs her shoulders. “Weren’t you moving here?”

  “Yes.” I don’t want to go. I’ve made friends here, started to feel like I had a place amongst the people of Sag Harbor.

  She smiles at me. “Well, I met a very nice gentleman, decided to stay a bit longer.”

  I chuckle. The irony. “I met one too, that’s why I’m leaving.”

  She places a hand on my arm. Just as my grandmother would have done. This old lady’s kindness makes me feel a million times more alone. “Did he break your heart, dear?”

  “No. I may have broken his though and his family didn’t approve.”

  “Oh no, well that’s the way sometimes, isn’t it? Could have been worse, you could have ended up with that young man from the plane over, remember him? I told my Harry about it and he thought it was hilarious. These Americans, so much more relaxed when it comes to things of a sexual nature.” So that’s why she is so chirpy. I don’t have the courage to tell her that it is, indeed, the guy from the plane. The way this conversation is going, she’ll be congratulating me on finding such a well-hung lover.

  “So was it just a holiday romance, with your gentlemen?” I ask. I’d much rather talk about her guy than mine.

  “Oh no, dear, quite the opposite. He asked me to marry him. Can you imagine? I suppose, when you get to our age, you do these things quicker. I’m going home to get my affairs in order and then I’ll be on the next available flight back. Harry says I can live in his condo. What an odd word. I kept calling it a maisonette, he found that ever so funny.”

  “Oh, well …” I choke back the need to cry, “… that’s nice for you.” Nope. I’m going to cry.

  She wraps her arms around me and rubs my back. “Oh, my poor love. You did get your heart broken, didn’t you? Is there really nothing you can do? Will your young man take you back?”

  “It’s complicated.” That’s the least you could say about this situation.

  She squeezes my arm. “These things have a way of working themselves out, you know.” I’m starting to get attached to this sweet old lady, I might have to keep her.

  I let out a regretful sigh. “It’s too late now, anyway.”

  “Saying goodbye is hard.”

  I turn to look at her, allowing the tears to stream down my cheeks. “I never said goodbye.” I ran away. That’s the truth of the matter. When things get hard, I run away.

  “What? Oh my word dear, does he not know you did this? Oh, you have to tell him you’re leaving, let him say goodbye. Otherwise you’ll both always wonder.”

  “It’s too hard.” It is, I can’t do it, I’ll crack when I see that beautiful face of his and he doesn’t want me anymore. Not the real me.

  “Oh, love, you are in a pickle. It’s not too late, you know. You can turn around now, go and talk to him. You’ll regret it if you don’t. My son wasn’t too keen when I met Harry, but I told him he just had to lump it. It’ll work out, you’ll see, if it’s meant to be.”

  She’s right. I need to talk to Hank. I’ll always regret it if I don’t. “I don’t know if I can.”

  She smiles at me. “You won’t know if you try, will you?”

  I grab my stuff. “I’m doing it.”

  She hugs me, again. God, I love this woman who I don’t even know. “Good for you.”

  I leap to my feet and head for the exit. “Have a great flight, maybe I’ll see you and Harry around New York sometime.”

  How the hell do you get out of an airport? It takes ten minutes of persuasion with the TSA officer to let me back through security. Apparently for love isn’t a good enough reason for disrupting the system. I’m not ashamed to say it, I throw the Baresi name out there and it works.

  I’m back in New York, with only a backpack to keep me company and a simple plan Find Hank, explain everything and say goodbye.

  Jen isn’t answering her phone, so I call Claire. She insists on sending a car, says that I can take a cab to Long Island.

  Forty-five minutes later and my transport arrives, with Claire inside.

  “I decided to come too. I can’t drive, but I’m so bored. This baby is never going to come out of my body so if I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life looking like an elephant I might as well leave the house occasionally.”

  I’m not sure that that was a good idea, but I’m not one to argue with a heavily pregnant woman. “Thank you so much for picking me up.”

  “What’s the plan, are you going to run back into Hank’s open arms?”

  “No. I’m going to say goodbye. And I’m going to talk to him. I was wrong to leave like I did, it was the coward’s way out. We need to talk about what happened.”

  “So you’re not ruling anything out, right? Because that guy loves you, you know that he’d do anything for you.”

  “He told me he doesn’t, that he doesn’t even know me.”

  “Bullshit. Aaah!” She winced in pain. “That man loves you and he has never loved any other woman in his life, you can see it a mile away.”

  “Are you okay?” She nods and signals for me to carry on whilst doubled over in pain. “But his family, what about them?”

  “Ah, they’ll get ... aah, over it, aah! Once they find out who you are, they’ll … ah ... they’ll never leave you alone.” She has a point, but that is exactly why I didn’t tell anybody who I was in the first place. I wanted people to like me for me.

  Nobody that heavily pregnant and grabbing my hand as if she is trying to squeeze the life out of it is ‘okay’. “Claire, are you in labor?” Shit. Please say no. I can’t do this right now.

  “Braxton … aaah … Hicks. Had them for a while now. Oh, oh no. No, my water just broke. No, I’m in labor.” Holy fucking crap shit. What?

  I start googling childbirth. “Where do we…what do we do?”

  Liquid–I hesitate to say water because let’s be honest that does not smell like something that came out of a tap–has seeped all over the lovely leather seats and is dripping onto the floor.

  She leans forward and taps on the driver’s shoulder. “Ken, please ta
ke us to Gacilly Hospital, and make it fast.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I need Ted, you need to get hold of Ted.” She’s stretched out now, back against the door legs akimbo. Despite the swollen ankle blocking my view, I grab my phone, but I’m out of battery. “Shit.”

  She rips it out of my hand and hands it to Ken. “Charge this.” Then she hands me hers. There’s no answer from Ted so I text, then call again.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Hank

  By the time we’ve gotten to the airport we’ve ascertained, using our amazing Private Detective skills that Caitlyn is still in New York. Her phone had gone dead about ten minutes ago, but up until that point she’d still been here.

  “I hope it doesn’t mean she’s gone.”

  “You can’t know for sure until we check flights.”

  “Which terminal do we want? Shit, there’s like a dozen of them.”

  “Wait, my guy dropped her off at terminal 7, I remember.”

  “Awesome.” With three men guiding Jonny it only takes us two trips to terminal four and a couple of wrong turns towards arrivals before we get to terminal seven.

  “Get out, go get her, we’ll park up.”

  “I’m coming with you,” says Ted.

  The two of us leap out of the car and run like hell to security.

  Then we stop.

  Shit, there’s no way we’re getting past TSA. We can’t even buy a ticket just to get past them, neither of us has thought to bring a passport.

  “Holy fucking crappy shit.”

  A portly TSA officer bars our way. He looks pissed, like arresting people pissed. “Sir, can I help you?”

  I hold up my hands. “I need to get through there, it’s my girlfriend, I have to get her back…” He rolls his eyes, sighs and let’s go of his gun holster.

  “What is it with you people today? Don’t tell me, it’s for love?” He lets out a mocking laugh and rolls his eyes again.