Reunited by Their Secret Daughter

by Emily Forbes

  ‘How do you figure that?’

  She swallowed and took several deep breaths as she tried to slow her heart rate. Tried to stop her hands from shaking. ‘We’ve known each other for eight weeks and half of those weeks were four years ago. We know nothing about each other. Not really.’

  ‘I know we have amazing chemistry.’

  Chloe shook her head. ‘Passion like that isn’t sustainable. It would burn out and then what would we be left with? We’d be two strangers who had a child together.’

  ‘You can’t believe that.’ He held her hands in his and finally the shakes subsided. ‘We are so much more than two people. We are two halves. We’re meant to be together. I know you feel it too.’ He lifted her hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers. ‘I should have asked you to stay all those years ago. We could have avoided all of this. We could have been together.’

  ‘But you didn’t.’ She had waited for him to ask. She would have stayed if he had asked her to. But he’d said nothing. Done nothing and so she’d left. Nursing her heart. Carrying her secret.

  ‘I couldn’t. I had nothing to offer you. My life had not gone in the direction I had hoped and I was struggling to process all of that. I was recently divorced and waiting for that magical five years post-diagnosis. I was damaged. Hurting. I was angry.’

  ‘Were you still in love with your wife? Did she break your heart?’

  ‘No. She didn’t break my heart. My ego was bruised. I was disappointed and damaged. I grew up in a close-knit family and I always imagined I would have that too. That was how I pictured my life. A wife and kids. I know I rushed into my first marriage. I was caught up in living my dream and when it came crashing down, instead of turning to my family for support I turned away. I couldn’t handle watching their happy lives. I had a lot of soul searching to do. I’ve spent years trying to find meaning in my life, trying to tell myself that I loved my job and that was enough for me. That it was fulfilling. And it is, in its way, but it’s not enough. I need more. I need you.

  ‘I didn’t fall in love with my first wife across a crowded room but you took my breath away the moment I saw you. I felt an instant connection. I was sad when my marriage ended. I was disappointed, lost, but I was adrift when you left me.

  ‘She bruised my heart, you repaired it. She damaged my spirit and you healed it but then I let you go. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you. Marry me, Chloe. Be my wife.’

  This was what she wanted but she couldn’t let herself believe that it could be her life. That she could be happy. That she could get the ending she had dreamt of. ‘We don’t have to get married.’

  ‘I want to.’

  ‘Marriage is just a piece of paper.’

  ‘Not to me,’ he said.

  ‘How can you say that? You’ve already been divorced once.’

  ‘That wasn’t my doing. I took my marriage vows seriously but I couldn’t stay married. Her affair was a deal breaker. But I’m not sorry that I got divorced. It left me free to meet you. I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to find another person I could love and then I didn’t realise it was you until you’d gone. I let you go once and I’m not going to let you go a second time. I couldn’t be lucky enough to find you a third time. I don’t believe in coincidences but there’s a higher power working for us. We’d be silly to ignore it. I love you, Chloe. Do you love me?’

  ‘I’m scared.’

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘Of giving you my heart and it not working out. Of you making promises that you might not be able to keep. Of you feeling like you have to marry me because we have a child together. I’ve seen it all before. It doesn’t work.’

  ‘Is this about your parents?’

  She nodded. ‘They got married because of me. And they shouldn’t have.’

  ‘What happened between them?’

  She took a deep breath. It was time to tell him everything. Time to expose all the secrets. Maybe then she could move forward.

  ‘My father had just broken up with his girlfriend when he started dating my mother. She fell pregnant unexpectedly and my father did the “right thing” and married her. In hindsight that was a mistake. A pretty big one. They stayed together for a few years, long enough to have my brothers as well. Long enough to make things really difficult for Mum when Dad left.

  ‘He moved out just after Tom was born. Apparently he’d started seeing his old girlfriend again, the one he’d broken up with before he met Mum. He said he’d never got over her and if Mum hadn’t got pregnant he would never have married her but would probably have patched things up with his ex. I don’t understand why he waited so long to call it quits. I get that he thought he was doing the right thing, but he shouldn’t have made a life with Mum, shouldn’t have spent all those years with us, only to leave. He left us all. Just walked out. And then he was killed before they got divorced but I can’t forgive him for leaving us in the first place.

  ‘And so, you see, I don’t believe people are truly capable of making a commitment to each other and keeping it. I think we’re setting ourselves up to fail. Even if one person is committed, it takes two. Even if they’re in love it isn’t always enough to keep a marriage going and a child is no guarantee either. When I found out I was pregnant I dreamt of finding you and of us being able to work it all out but I never really believed it. I would never have pressured you into anything but I must admit I did, briefly, imagine a happy family situation, but I realised there are no guarantees of that. We had insane chemistry but I knew that wasn’t enough.’

  ‘I promise you, I’m not going anywhere. I won’t leave you.’

  ‘You’re going home,’ she said.

  ‘Home?’

  ‘To Australia.’

  He shook his head. ‘That’s just for a visit. I want to introduce my family to you and Lily. Home is where you are. My two girls. I’ve applied for a permanent position here, with the air ambulance service. Eloise has resigned. She and her husband are moving to Spain. My maternal grandmother was English. I can stay here. With you. I want us to be a family. You, me, Lily. From the moment I saw her I knew she was mine. She’s a miracle. My miracle. The child I thought I’d never have. But even if she wasn’t biologically mine I wouldn’t care. She’s a part of you and that’s enough for me. I’m not asking you to marry me out of obligation. I’m asking because I love you.’

  He placed her hand on her chest, over her own heart and wrapped his arms around her. ‘Close your eyes and tell me how you feel.’

  She had fallen hard for him four years ago but she’d convinced herself that such powerful feelings couldn’t last. They would have to burn out. People fell in love all the time but obviously those feelings didn’t last, otherwise there wouldn’t be divorces. But Xander had already been divorced—if he still believed in love and marriage maybe she could too. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat keeping time with her own. ‘I feel safe,’ she said. ‘I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.’

  ‘Trust your heart,’ he said as she opened her eyes.

  ‘It’s not my heart that’s the problem. It’s my head. I have spent years believing that true love can’t last but you make me want to change my mind.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I fell in love with you all those years ago but I talked myself out of it.’

  ‘You loved me?’ he asked. ‘Could you love me again?’ he asked when she nodded.

  ‘I never stopped loving you,’ she told him. ‘But I don’t know if love is enough.’

  ‘Of course it is. What else is there? What we have is special. I can’t compare it to anything else I’ve known. Trust me on this. We can make this work. I haven’t felt like this in four years. Maybe ever. I feel at peace. It’s not a coincidence that you fell pregnant. It’s not a coincidence that we found each o
ther again. It’s fate. We are meant to be together. I love you. I love our daughter and I want us to be a family. Please believe in me. Believe in us. Will you be my wife? Will you marry me?’

  She loved him. She knew that much.

  She’d been waiting for him all her life.

  This was her chance. She had to take it. She had to trust him. She had to trust in them.

  ‘Yes,’ she said as she kissed him. ‘I love you and I will marry you.’

  EPILOGUE

  CHLOE SAT IN an upholstered tub chair and gazed out of the window. She felt as if she was living in a dream. This morning she had woken up in London, and now here she was, fourteen hours later, sitting in a hotel room in France looking out at the lights and turrets of a make-believe castle.

  They were fifty kilometres east of Paris but she felt as though she’d been transported into her own personal fairy tale. It felt like a dream and she knew that was what the creators of this fantasyland were trying to achieve; she just hadn’t expected it to be so effective.

  She watched as Xander opened the doors onto the Juliet balcony and the curtains billowed in the spring evening breeze, bringing in the scent of jasmine.

  She jumped, startled out of her reverie, as Xander popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.

  ‘I don’t have any gin but I thought champagne was a more fitting way to celebrate our engagement,’ he said as he poured two glasses and handed her one just as the first firework burst in the sky above the iconic castle.

  Chloe gasped. ‘I had no idea we’d be able to see the fireworks from our room. Did you book this especially?’

  He nodded. ‘Do you like it?’ He looked well pleased with himself, as he should—the view was spectacular.

  ‘I love it! Lily would too.’

  ‘Shall we wake her up?’

  Chloe shook her head. Lily was fast asleep in an adjoining bedroom. She was exhausted from the travel today and then an afternoon spent exploring the theme park and racing from one magical princess-themed ride to another. Although admittedly she had barely walked—Xander, a devoted father, had carried her on his shoulders for most of the day—but Chloe didn’t want to spoil tomorrow by having an overwrought three-year-old to deal with. ‘No. She can watch them tomorrow. She’ll be unbearable then if she gets up now and I want her, want all of us, to enjoy the princess breakfast you’ve booked.’

  ‘To tomorrow.’ Xander tapped his champagne flute against Chloe’s and reached for her hand. He pulled her off her seat and into his lap. She nestled against him and sipped her champagne as the last fireworks lit up the sky and the clock edged towards tomorrow.

  * * *

  ‘Good morning, Your Royal Highnesses. Sleeping Beauty. Anna.’

  Chloe sat up to find Xander standing at the foot of her bed, which she’d climbed into in the early hours of the morning so that Lily didn’t find her in the bed next door, with Xander. There was time enough for that once they were married.

  In the bed beside her Lily sat up, rubbing her eyes. ‘Who’s Anna?’

  ‘You, of course, Your Majesty,’ Xander replied as Lily giggled.

  ‘Why are you dressed like that?’ she asked.

  He was wearing a pair of black trousers with a white shirt. There was nothing startling about that, but over the top he had a jacket in a royal blue fabric with gold buttons and heavy gold embroidery. He had a frilled collar placed over the front of his shirt. He looked like a footman from any number of Disney movies.

  He placed a tray on the bedside table as he said, ‘Every princess gets a hot drink brought to them in the morning by the royal tea maker. A cup of tea for you, Sleeping Beauty, and a hot chocolate for Princess Anna,’ he said as he handed out mugs. ‘And then it’s time to get ready for breakfast.’

  ‘Is the princess breakfast today?’ Lily squealed.

  ‘It is. We have forty minutes to get dressed and be downstairs. Drink your hot chocolate and I will see to your clothes.’

  ‘Where on earth did you get that jacket?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Some mice made it for me in the night,’ he replied with a wink before he spun around and left, going back through the door into the adjoining room. Chloe frowned—what was he up to? Lily’s clothes were in the wardrobe in their room.

  He returned seconds later and laid a garment bag across the foot of Lily’s bed.

  ‘What’s in there?’

  ‘If I told you that I’d ruin the surprise. All the princesses will be in their best dresses this morning and I thought Lily should have something new to wear too.’

  ‘Is it for me?’ she asked as Chloe reached over and took Lily’s hot chocolate from her before her bouncing emptied the contents of the mug all over the bed, Lily and the bag.

  ‘Can I open it?’ Lily was clapping her hands with excitement.

  Chloe nodded and Lily slid the zip down to reveal a dress with a dark green velvet bodice, soft cap sleeves and a pleated cream and green embroidered skirt.

  ‘It’s beautiful, Xander.’

  Lily leapt up from the bed and threw her arms around Xander’s neck. ‘Thank you, Daddy, thank you!’

  ‘You’re welcome. I’ll leave you to get ready,’ he said, and as he turned for the door Chloe was almost certain she saw tears in his eyes.

  * * *

  Lily could barely stand still. Dressed in her costume she couldn’t stop twirling around in circles as they waited in the line for breakfast. She had insisted on walking to the restaurant between Chloe and Xander, holding their hands, but the minute they got to the queue she had let go and Xander had slipped Chloe’s hand into his instead.

  The line moved forward, bringing them level with two thrones, a pink and gold one on their left and a red one to the right. A photographer was taking pictures, filling up time while people waited to be greeted by the hostess, who was dressed as Belle.

  ‘Bonjour!’ The photographer welcomed them and led them to a throne. ‘Une famille très belle.’

  ‘Merci,’ Xander said as Chloe beamed.

  They were a family.

  And their family was about to get bigger.

  She smiled as the camera flashed, thinking of the news she planned to share with Xander tonight.

  She kissed Xander’s cheek as the camera flashed again, capturing the moment. She was getting her fairy-tale ending. Her own happily ever after.

  She had everything she wished for.

  * * *

  Welcome to the London Hospital Midwives quartet!

  Cinderella and the Surgeon

  by Scarlet Wilson

  Miracle Baby for the Midwife

  by Tina Beckett

  Reunited by Their Secret Daughter

  by Emily Forbes

  A Fling to Steal Her Heart

  by Sue MacKay

  All available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A Fling to Steal Her Heart by Sue MacKay.

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  A Fling to Steal Her Heart

  by Sue MacKay

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘ARE YOU CERTAIN you aren’t still in love with him?’

  ‘Couldn’t be more certain.’

  Isabella Nicholson held back on saying more. Admitting the truth that she doubted she’d really loved her ex enough in the first place would be embarrassing, even if Raphael Dubois was her best friend.

  Best as in she’d usually tell him everything, whenever the urge took her, even in the early hours of Sunday morning, which it was right now. Four a.m. here in Wellington, four p.m. Saturday in London, where Raphael worked at his dream job in obstetrics and gynaecology at
the Queen Victoria Hospital.

  Wait a minute. He’d texted to see if she was awake, and knowing she currently suffered insomnia it was a no-brainer.

  ‘Hey, why did you call? Not to ask about Darren, surely?’

  ‘Izzy, is that the absolute truth or are you afraid of the answer?’

  Typical. The man never missed a beat when it came to asking the hard questions, whether of her or his patients. Yet he always ignored her questions whenever it suited him.

  Two could play that game. Though she’d try once more to shut him down. ‘Don’t I always tell you the truth?’ Minus some niggling details in this instance.

  ‘You’re good at leaving out the specifics when it suits,’ he confirmed, chuckling so she knew he was letting go the subject of her failed marriage.

  ‘So what brings you to call in the middle of Saturday afternoon? I’d have thought you’d be at a rugby game with the guys.’ One of them had found the niche they were looking for—and it wasn’t her. Two years ago she’d returned home to New Zealand with her new husband, full of hope and excitement based around Darren’s promises for what lay ahead, and with the intention of finally stopping in one place and surrounding herself with family and friends. Instead, twelve months later, her marriage had crashed badly, leaving her dreams up in the air. The friends had been all his, and her parents were always busy with their own lives. Since then she’d gone back to what she was good at—moving around the world from job to country to anywhere enticing, only for a lot shorter periods than previously. A fortnight ago she’d finished a volunteers’ job in Cambodia and returned to visit her parents while deciding where next. Only she couldn’t bring herself to go just anywhere this time.

  Find something more permanent kept popping into her head. Go solo on that dream of settling down.

  ‘I’ve been delivering triplets,’ Rafe replied. He’d settled in London, been there nearly three years, bought a house, was keeping some distance from his claustrophobic family at home in Avignon as he grappled with his own demons. He seemed content in a quiet way, which was not the Raphael she’d known most of her life.