Their New-Found Family

by Rebecca Winters

That was fine. But before Tris left, he was about to stake his own claim.

  Without hesitation he pocketed the ring to give back later, then moved closer and grasped his daughter’s hands, ignoring Rachel’s suggestion that they sit.

  Looking down into those dark brown orbs he said, “I’m not married, cherie.”

  “You’re not?”

  “Not yet,” he mimicked Rachel’s earlier admission. “And now that I know I have a daughter, I want you to come to Switzerland and live with me.”

  “You mean it?” she blurted joyously.

  “How can you doubt it? Because of my amnesia, we’ve lost out on eleven years of a father-daughter relationship. I don’t want to miss another day.”

  “Neither do I,” she confessed. “I always thought my friends were so lucky to grow up with their dads.”

  Emotion caused him to squeeze her hands a little tighter. He kissed the top of her head.

  “If I’d known about you, we’d have been a family from the beginning.”

  Out of the periphery he noticed her mother’s face lose color. It pleased him no end to watch her writhe in guilt.

  “Let me tell you about my house, ma fille. It’s a chalet that sits on a lush green mountain top in Caux overlooking Lake Geneva. Along the shore below is a castle, and you can see across the water to the French Alps. There’s a lake paddle steamer to take you to Geneva where you can visit your mother’s old school.”

  Natalie jumped in place. “Mom told me we would travel there one day so I could see where she studied.”

  “That day is here.” Taking advantage of Rachel’s shocked silence he said, “Whenever you feel like it, you can walk down the mountain to your grandparents’ house in Montreux. They’ll be overjoyed to learn they’ve got a beautiful granddaughter.”

  “Do you think they’ll like me?”

  “They’ll adore you,” he murmured emotionally. “So will your cousin Alain. He lives with me.”

  “How come?”

  “His parents were killed in a car crash a year ago.”

  “Both Bernard and Francoise?” Rachel cried in a stricken voice.

  It shouldn’t have surprised him she remembered the names of his brother and sister-in-law. But he marveled that she sounded like it mattered to her what had happened to them.

  He grimaced. “The tragedy has been very difficult for the family, but especially for Alain. I love him as if he were my own son. He’s quite remarkable.”

  In fact if it hadn’t been for his nephew’s inquisitive nature, that note might have stayed unread forever. Certainly Tris wouldn’t be united with the daughter he hadn’t known existed until now.

  Rachel looked stricken. “I remember the pictures you showed me of them holding their new baby. That poor boy. Thank heaven he has you.”

  The tremor in Rachel’s voice was so real, it touched him in spite of his anger that she hadn’t once tried to find out why he’d never called her or written to her again.

  She was a total enigma to him.

  “How old is he, Dad?”

  “Twelve.”

  “Just a year older than me.”

  Tris glanced at his daughter. “You’re practically twins.”

  “He was really nice on the phone,” Natalie added.

  “With the help of him and his friends, you’ll be speaking fluent French around our house in no time.”

  “I was planning to take it at school this fall.”

  “Bon. That’ll make it easier when you join the girls’ ice hockey team in Montreux. You’ll be happy to know they have a new ice rink. One of my old hockey buddies is the coach for the school age kids. They need a good left wing.”

  “Oh my gosh—Mom—did you hear that?” Her head whipped around to look up at her mother.

  But Rachel’s demeanor had undergone a change. Her eyes were impaling his like green lasers.

  “I heard.”

  She was getting ready to send their daughter upstairs out of hearing distance. Before that happened he needed to make his move.

  “Once upon a time you agreed to marry me,” Tris asserted bluntly. “Though I don’t remember that period of my life, I have your letter and the ring to prove we were planning our wedding.”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “True. But the fact remains we now have a daughter who needs both of us. I want her in my life on a permanent basis,” he declared as if they were alone in the room.

  “Oh, Mom—”

  He smiled at his ecstatic daughter.

  Rachel shook her head wildly. “Honey? I—I need to talk to your father in private.”

  “I’d like her to stay,” Tris countermanded.

  “Please don’t make this any more difficult than it is.”

  “Don’t you think there’ve been enough secrets?” he fired back. “I realize you’re in love with another man. This places our daughter in the middle of an untenable situation.

  “Since we know she won’t be happy away from you or me, then I suggest you move to Switzerland with Natalie while we all get acquainted. I’m thinking a year.”

  “Could we, Mom?” his daughter implored.

  “My house has plenty of room for your boyfriend and your parents.”

  “There’s just my nana,” Natalie informed him wistfully. “My grandpa died two years ago.”

  “I’m sorry you lost him, petite. Your nana can come and live with us if she wants. For that matter, the invitation includes any of your friends who might like to ski with us at Christmas and Easter.”

  Natalie let out a yelp. “Kendra will die when I tell her!”

  He smiled at his daughter. “I take it she’s your best friend.”

  “Yes. She plays hockey, too!”

  His gaze flicked back to Rachel who’d gone distinctly pale. “As for your job, whatever it is,” he continued in the same vein, “I’m sure that when they understand the situation, they’ll give you a year’s sabbatical.”

  “Mom works for an advertising agency,” Natalie supplied proudly.

  Fascinated by that piece of information he said, “There’s always the need for a good one no matter where you live.”

  Already prepared for Rachel’s outright refusal of what he’d proposed, he added the linchpin. “If you can’t bring yourself to be uprooted for a year, then Alain and I will move here. I noticed there’s a townhouse for sale two doors down. That way Natalie won’t have to be torn between us.”

  “You can’t move here—” Rachel sounded aghast.

  He enjoyed watching her squirm. “Why not?”

  “Aside from the obvious fact that Switzerland’s your home, you have huge responsibilities.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because you once told me you would end up working in the family business.”

  Her response sounded logical. But he’d heard a slight hesitation before she answered. He wondered at the reason for it.

  “I thought I’d made it clear I’ll do whatever it takes to be with my daughter. For several years I’ve considered expanding the business beyond Europe. Why not start in Concord?”

  Natalie turned to her mother. “I’d rather go to Switzerland. If Dad hadn’t gotten amnesia, that’s where we’d be living.”

  “But he did have that accident, honey.”

  Tris could tell Rachel was trembling. To his satisfaction, Natalie didn’t appear to notice or be listening.

  In the next instant she hugged him around the waist with surprising strength. “I’m so glad you’re okay now, Dad!”

  “I’m even more thankful I have a daughter. Now that we’ve found each other, we’ll have the rest of our lives to be together. But your mother has a point. You weren’t born in Switzerland, and you may not feel like it could be home to you. So I have another suggestion until we’ve worked out a permanent solution.”

  “What is it?”

  “Why don’t you both come for a vacation? I’ll pay for everything. It’s my right as your father after
all. You’ll be able to meet your grandparents, check out the area. See what you think. Maybe you’ll decide you’d rather live where you’ve been raised.”

  “Could we come tomorrow?” She hadn’t heard anything else he’d said. That was fine with him.

  “I wish it were possible,” he said before Rachel could protest. “But if you don’t have a passport, you’ll need to apply for one first. If you put a rush on it, they might arrive within a week. In the meantime you can start getting packed.”

  He could hear her mind absorbing everything. As for her mother, Rachel had been ready to throw him out long before now. “Since the two of you have a lot to talk over, I’m going to leave.”

  “Could I come to your hotel with you?”

  “I’m sorry, petite, but I’m headed for the airport.”

  “How come?” she cried in panic.

  “I’ve been away from business for the last two weeks and need to get back to Montreux.” He’d made a promise to Alain and couldn’t disappoint him.

  Natalie didn’t look the least bit happy with the news. “I was hoping you’d be able to watch my game tomorrow. I wanted my friends to meet you and everything.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s all going to happen whether we live here or in Switzerland. Before long I’ll be attending all your hockey matches with Alain. Expect a call from me tomorrow night. I’ll want to know how it went.”

  “Okay, but I wish you didn’t have to go.” She sounded a lot like Alain just then.

  As they hugged one more time, Tris got a perverse thrill out of seeing the turbulence in a pair of stormy green eyes staring at him in pain and rage.

  Join the club.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  RACHEL watched him disappear out the door.

  He came, he saw, he conquered, she thought hysterically. Tris had won the war by the divine right of fatherhood.

  Without waging any kind of battle, he’d simply laid down the terms of surrender. She could live in his home for a year where Natalie would be totally won over and never want to leave him.

  If that proposal wasn’t acceptable, he would make his home in Concord, two doors away from them.

  Either of the above would fulfill their daughter’s dreams.

  How shrewd he was.

  He knew normal visitation wasn’t to be considered. Natalie wanted her father with every particle of her being, but she would never be able to stand living apart from Rachel. By calling on all of his wisdom, he’d thought up the perfect solution without having to wage a custody battle Rachel would lose.

  Whatever was decided, he would get what he wanted and Natalie’s world would be complete. Never mind that Rachel’s life would forever be conflicted.

  “Mom?” The pleading in her daughter’s eyes haunted her. “Can we send for our passports after my game tomorrow?”

  “The passport office won’t be open until Monday.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  She took a steadying breath. “I’m thinking that your father hasn’t changed one iota from the younger man he once was. He’s a fighter. Now that he knows he has a daughter, he wants you in his life.”

  “He’s invited you to stay with us, Mom.”

  Stay with us?

  Like her father, Natalie concluded that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line, period. In her daughter’s mind she was already living in Switzerland with Tris on that lush green mountaintop overlooking Lac Leman.

  In theory the plan was perfect. Rachel couldn’t fault it. A strangled sound escaped her throat. “It’s not that simple, honey.”

  “I know,” she said, sounding very grown up just then. “Did you tell Steve that Dad’s here in Concord?”

  “Yes.”

  “I bet he was upset when he found out.”

  “I think surprised would be a better word.” Rachel was the one upset, alarmed, shocked. What if she never recovered? That’s what was terrifying her.

  “Now that you’ve seen Dad, do you still love him?”

  Oh, Natalie…

  “You said you could never love another man the way you once loved my father.”

  “Honey—” Rachel was trying frantically to make sense of her chaotic emotions. “I cherish Tris’s memory, but I’m not in love with him now. There’s an old saying that love has to be fed.

  “We’ve been apart twelve years. I’m a different person than I once was. So is he. I have no doubts he’s involved with someone else. And don’t forget—he’s raising his nephew.”

  “He still invited us to live with him,” Natalie persisted. “Dad told you Steve could come and visit whenever he wanted.”

  Tris had known exactly what he was doing when he’d insisted Natalie remain downstairs to hear everything.

  Rachel struggled for breath. “That’s ridiculous. For one thing, Steve’s a busy man with an insurance business to run, honey. For another, he would never stay in your father’s home.”

  A hurt look broke out on her face. “Dad was just trying to be nice and make it easier for you, Mom.”

  Pain ripped Rachel’s heart apart. Natalie didn’t have a clue about the man who ran the Monbrisson empire. She was too blinded with joy over being loved and claimed by her long lost father to understand the tactics he’d used to create this monumental upheaval in their lives.

  “Natalie—you have to understand your father’s angry with me because I never tried to look him up and let him know about you.”

  “How come you didn’t?”

  “You know why. I told you the reason a long time ago.” She expelled the breath she’d been holding. “But maybe you’re finally old enough to understand, so I’ll explain it again.

  “After two months of not hearing from him, I believed I’d only been a girl he’d had fun with on the ship, nothing more.

  “No woman wants to beg a man for his love. If he doesn’t want to be with her of his own free will, then it’s pointless. That’s the way I felt.

  “The trouble is, I’d fallen in love and had made the mistake of sleeping with him when I knew better. I thought we’d be together forever. Getting in touch with him after you were born to tell him he had a child wouldn’t have made him love me. Just the opposite in fact.

  “He was a professional ice hockey player with dreams of rising to the top. I was afraid that because he lived in Switzerland and we lived here, you’d only get to see him once a year, if at all. My only thought was to protect you from being hurt. I thought it best that we went it alone. Can’t you see that?”

  She averted her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Look—I don’t blame him for being upset right now. Tris has just found out he has a daughter. It’s obvious he’s prepared to do anything to make you a part of his life.

  “But my living in his house is out of the question. As for him uprooting his life to move to New Hampshire—well, it—it’s absolutely ludicrous.”

  “What does ludicrous mean?”

  “Crazy!” she said for want of a better word.

  “Why?”

  Rachel hugged her arms to her waist. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you about him.”

  “Like what?”

  “You would have to see where he comes from to begin to understand.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve heard of the French Riviera and Monte Carlo where a lot of movie stars and royals live and vacation in the South of France?”

  Natalie nodded.

  “Well, Montreux is like Monte Carlo, full of palaces, yachts, movie stars and royals. People call that part of Lake Geneva the Swiss Riviera of Europe. You need a fortune to even vacation in such a fabulous place.

  “Your father’s family has lived there for generations. They’re prominent and wealthy. With his brother gone, and his father getting older, Tris has the weight of the company on his shoulders.”

  Natalie squinted up at her. “What company?”

  “They’re hoteliers. If you want to know just how important a
figure your father is, type in the name Monbrisson Hotels on the Internet. When you see the results, you’ll begin to get an idea of what I’m telling you.”

  In a lightning move, Natalie bounded up the stairs to the third bedroom they’d made into a study. Rachel followed.

  Her daughter was a whiz on the computer and could navigate the various search engines without problem.

  After a few minutes Rachel heard, “Oh my gosh—”

  She moved behind her daughter. Putting her hands on her shoulders, she leaned over to look at the screen with her. Each hotel had been a former palace. All were different and luxurious.

  “Your father’s the one responsible for the expansion beyond Switzerland.”

  Natalie turned her head. “How do you know?”

  “Because I’ve checked this Web site now and again, wondering whether I dared call him to tell him about you. There’s a business profile of him, plus pictures of your grandfather and former Monbrissons. You can click on it from the home page.

  “A year ago I came close to phoning his office, but at the last minute I hung up because I didn’t know how he would react when he heard the news. I guess I didn’t want to go through the pain of finding out in case you could be hurt.”

  Natalie brought up the article on her father. The picture of him was several years old. He looked more like the younger Tris. Since then, sorrow over his brother’s death had added lines to his arresting features.

  “I’m glad he called you on his own,” her daughter declared. “Now I know he really loves me and wants me.” She turned in the swivel chair. “I want to live with him, Mom, but I want us to all be together. Can we go there for a vacation like he said?”

  Rachel straightened, knowing what she had to do. “Once our passports arrive, we’ll fly over there for a week.”

  “But—”

  “It’s all I can promise,” Rachel broke in. “I can’t just leave my job without making arrangements.”

  “Steve will have a cow when he meets him.”

  Rachel groaned because she’d forgotten all about Steve. It was as if he’d never existed. “What do you mean?”

  “Mom—” Natalie rolled her eyes. “Kendra and her mother will die when they get a look at Dad. All my friends are going to be so jealous! I’ve got to call her and tell her what’s happened!” She reached for the receiver.