by Sadie Grubor
I grabbed his face. "I wouldn’t!" Holding his face with both of my hands, I continued. "I don’t want that. I want this, us."
He crashed his lips to mine.
Fall arrived and the weather was still latching on to some of its warmth. I had hoped that the weather would stay decent for Halloween and, luckily, it did. The twins were dressed up as Raggedy Ann and Andy, looking ridiculously adorable.
Aidan made sure that he was home so that we could take them to visit family before heading to an orchard out toward the Hamptons. Everyone was going. Jason and Maggie were dressed as vampires. Abby dressed as Dorothy and Ryan was Toto, it was adorable. Jimmy was dressed as a pumpkin, completely stuffed to look like a fat pumpkin.
James and Aidan were lining a wagon with blankets for the kids while Elora and I grabbed extra jackets and one diaper bag of necessities. They would start off walking around with us, but would eventually get tired.
The orchard was decorated for Halloween. They had a corn maze that we all walked through, a small play area filled with hay for kids to climb through, some old cement tunnels and a swing set. There were large wooden cutouts like you would see at a fair, where you stick your face through the hole for pictures. One was a farmer and his wife, which we all took turns standing behind. Then there was a cat and a pumpkin, a ghost and a witch.
Little stands paraded the area, offering popcorn, fire roasted apples with caramel to dip them in, apple cider, hot dogs, fresh French fries, homemade pies and cookies. It was definitely a day for fattening food and treats.
As I watched the little ones play in the straw pile, Aidan arrived with French fries and apple cider. He straddled the bench and I scooted close to him, my right leg over his so that his chest was against my right side. We sat laughing at the kids and eating fries.
Elora and James returned from the trail ride they went on and we all headed over to the hayride, grabbing Jason, Maggie and Abby along the way.
After the hayride, we all sat down for face painting. I made Aidan get a pumpkin face and James got a puppy dog. After they were all made up, Elora and I refused to do it, laughing at the two of them. Of course Aidan gave me the pout face and I sat down. When the face painter was finished I was surprised at how quick it was, sure that he only touched my cheek. Looking into the mirror that was next to me, I saw ‘property of Aidan Iverson’ in large, red letters on my cheek.
"You loser." I laughed out at him and playfully smacked his chest. I grabbed a napkin.
"Ah, ah, ahhhh…it stays until we get back." He smiled, proud of himself.
I grabbed the paintbrush from the table next to me and put a large black L on his forehead. Laughing, I took off and he chased me until he caught up to me, tackling me into the mound of hay. Kids and parent’s looked at us with amused looks on their faces.
"I love you." He said as he leaned in and kissed me.
"I love you more." I said after he pulled away.
"Not possible." He stated as he stood up, offering me a hand.
Once everyone was exhausted and the kids were all falling asleep in the wagon, we headed back to Viola’s family house in the Hamptons. We spent the weekend there, just having a fun family get away.
Thanksgiving was upon us and we had invited everyone to our house. It was Thanksgiving Eve when I heard footsteps approaching the living room.
"Hey, should we have...?" I looked up, thinking I would be looking at Aidan. It wasn’t.
"Lilli." Henry said in a low tone.
Immediately I stood up. "What are you doing here?" I hissed. "You need to leave immediately."
"Please, I…I wanted to apologize, for everything." I could see tears on the edge of his eyes as he sniffed.
"Henry, what you did was so manipulating and…"
"Unfair, stupid, heartless…" he continued. I nodded. "I am so sorry, more so than I have ever been in my life."
"Are you truly sorry for what you did, or are you just sorry you got caught and lost your job?"
Henry looked at me with a sincerely hurt expression.
"It’s true that I lost my job, but that’s not what this is about. I’ve lost my family, my wife, my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. I’ve lost my brother, Viola, Aidan and you. You were all my family and I never truly realized how much it all meant till it was gone."
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
"I am forever sorry for what I did to you and Aidan. I admit that I did it with, what I had thought, were good intentions, but that doesn’t excuse how wrong I was."
"I don’t understand how you could do something like this to Aidan. I mean, I get that I’m not your family, but Aidan?" I shook my head lightly.
"I suppose that my jealousy of my older brother, Aidan’s father, had carried over to him and it blinded my ability to make better choices."
I furrowed my brow. "I forgive you, but I cannot speak for everyone else."
"I know, but you are who I should’ve apologized to first. Though, I will admit, I apologized to Anne first. Not that she will speak with me."
I sighed. "Would you like to see the twins?"
His face lit up a little and he nodded with half a smile. I led the way.
We were both sitting and talking about the whole situation while the twins played in front of us when Aidan appeared.
"What the hell is he doing here?" I stood quickly, as did Henry.
"Aidan…" I moved toward him and he wrapped his arm around me, pulling me behind him.
"Get away from my children." He ordered and Henry immediately began to walk out of the room.
"Aidan, your uncle came to apologize and I accepted…"
"How can you even talk to him?" Aidan turned and grabbed onto my shoulders.
"I can’t handle the tension and the separation in your family any more. You need your family."
"He is not my family." Aidan glared at Henry who put his head down and walked out of the room.
"Aidan, it’s your choice to forgive him or not. I’m not saying to forget, but it’s time to forgive. Let go of all of that and move on." I kissed his lips lightly and pulled back. "I have forgiven him, that’s my choice."
I walked back over to the twins who were looking at us curiously. Aidan stood frozen for quite some time, seemingly thinking things over. Then he joined the twins and me on the floor to build castles out of blocks.
By Thanksgiving, I had invited Henry for dinner. Aidan was still very ‘iffy’ with him, but agreed to let it all go. He would never forget nor would he fully trust him again, but it was progress. Henry understood.
When Christmas arrived, Henry and Anne were on their way to reconciliation. Aidan and I forgiving him seemed to be the starting point for Henry’s acceptance. Elora was still slightly cold with him, but she could tell that James was happy to have his father back in his life. He was his father after all. Henry was an amazing grandfather to Jimmy. It was an amazing turn in his personality. I had never seen Henry interact with children before, but he was great with him.
This Christmas brought us a six months pregnant Phoebe. Since she was so tiny, her belly was all you could help but notice on her. Phoebe wanted to be surprised, so they didn’t find out the sex. She was positive though that it would be a girl. She had already decided that her name would be Adeline Lee Emerson, Lee was Oscar’s middle name.
The New Year brought with it so many changes. While some were difficult, more were amazing.
Maggie was accepted to Dartmouth. Jason bought her a promise ring and with it the promises that they would make their separation during college work. Abby was starting her junior year of high school and was in the running to be valedictorian with the grade point average that she was holding. Ryan had turned two and was a beautiful and bright little boy that Liam and Viola treated as their own son.
Oscar proposed to Phoebe when she was seven months pregnant. March came with the arrival of a beautiful, little Adeline. Phoebe took to motherhood like she had been doing it all her life. She h
ad only been home for a month when she started working with Celia on the dress fittings for the wedding. I was ridiculously jealous of how quickly she had lost all of her weight.
Dixon and Celia’s wedding took place in May. They married in the Central Park Gazebo with one hundred and fifty guests in attendance. It was so beautiful and perfect for them. Celia had finished college and was currently the top engineer for a car company. Dixon and Celia were so perfect for each other, Dixon in a female dominated career as an RN with his boisterous and welcoming personality while Celia worked in a male dominated career as a car engineer with her stand-offish and bitchy personality. It was like ying and yang.
Warm summer air rolled in with June and I was excited to get the twins out of the house. Aidan had been expressing his desire for more kids for a few months now. After much consideration and relenting, I was in my second month of pregnancy and tired.
When I surprised Aidan with the news that we were having another child, he rearranged his schedule for the rest of the workweek and swept me away to the cottage he had given me for our first anniversary. Our whole time there we stuck to the no clothing rule, applying it to both of us. My legs were so sore when we returned, I planned on heading straight to the welcoming jets in my bathtub.
Once we were home, we greeted the twins and played with them for about an hour. Then I headed for the bathtub, finding my mail on the table next to the bedroom door. Absent mindedly, I picked up the stack and started going through the envelopes.
I came upon a thick standard envelope. There was no return address and the postmark said Germany. I furrowed my brow and flipped it over. In big, bold letters, the word ‘Please’ was scrawled on the back. I put all of the other mail down and opened the envelope.
"I thought you were going to take a bath?" Aidan came in and wrapped his arms around my waist, placing his chin on my shoulder, his hands over my stomach. "What’s that?"
I swallowed hard as I unfolded the letter and looked for any indication of who it was from. Then I choked out. "It’s from Loreley."
Chapter Ten
Headlines and Events
Lilli
I know that none of this excuses or washes away what I have caused so many people, but I need you to know that my love and friendship for you was the first real thing for me.
I am sorry and only hope that this brings you and your family some answers and closure.
Thank you for all of your kindness, even when I didn’t deserve it.
Forever your friend,
Loreley
As I finished reading the letter, I wiped my eyes and sniffed. Aidan was pacing back and forth in the room as I sat on the edge of our bed reading the letter out loud.
"Jesus, Aidan…" He stopped and looked at me intently. "You…" he cut me off.
"Lilli, I am so, so sorry!" He started to cry. "I didn’t even realize that Gideon would go ‘that’ far…I mean, fuck…his own daughter. He used my…fuck, Lilli, I am so sorry!" He buried his head in my lap.
I ran my hand through his hair.
"We need to find her." He looked up at me, shock written all over his face. "We need to help her and the baby." I felt the warm tears start to slip over my cheeks again. "He’s your son, Aidan. Regardless of how, it’s not the child’s fault and I will be damned if Gideon gets his hands on that innocent child."
"You are so amazing." Aidan grabbed my face and kissed me fiercely. "I’m going to call Liam, James and Henry…" he looked at me with uneasiness on the last name and I simply nodded to him and smiled, "we need to meet as a family and discuss all of this." He sighed.
"I’ll call Devlin. He should be here as well. He may want to bring the authorities.” I stood quickly and went for my cell phone.
Once everyone had arrived, Jay brought a tray of coffee into the dining room and began to serve everyone. Once he reached me, he put a glass of milk in front of me. I smiled up at him and he smiled back kindly. It was strange, but it was like Jay had been in my life forever. From the moment we walked into this house, Jay and I seemed to be on the same page about everything. His smirks and knowing smiles were priceless to me.
The letter was being passed around as Aidan paced around the table explaining what we had learned.
"What if it’s just another ploy?"
I looked up at James intently. "It’s not." I felt all eyes fall on me.
"Lilli, this could be just another…" I cut Henry off this time.
"It’s not." I stood up, my chair screeching against the hardwood floor. Aidan moved quickly toward me. "I will not allow this poor, innocent boy to be manipulated and used for Gideon’s satisfaction. I want to find them and if you don’t want to help me, then I will do it myself."
"Baby, please calm down. I don’t want you to upset yourself." Aidan pushed my chair back and sat me down, placing his hands on my shoulders as he stood behind me. "I am going to help Lilli find them."
"Aidan, you need to be careful, we now know how far Gideon has possibly gone with his own daughter." Devlin shook his head and took a deep breath. "We also know how far he has manipulated you, so I think you need to assume that he is not above doing worse."
I felt Aidan’s hands start to massage my shoulders lightly, obviously he felt my tension.
"I think we all know that he is a cold-hearted, manipulating asshole, but what I want, aside from finding Loreley and the child, is to take Gideon down." He released my shoulders and moved so that he was standing next to me.
The room was silent for a long moment, everyone thinking over the information that was in front of them.
"I’m helping." My head snapped up to see Aunt Anne looking around the table. To say I was surprised would be the understatement of the year.
"You know that you don’t even have to ask me." Viola sat back in her chair eyeing me. "We all know where I stand with innocent children."
"Obviously, I would never leave my wife unsupported." Henry took Anne’s hand as he finished.
"James…" Elora spoke with authority.
He shook his head.
"This could get dangerous for all of us, but fuck it…let’s find Loreley and figure out how to get rid of Gideon." Elora leaned into James and kissed his cheek, leaving her head to rest on his shoulder.
Using what Loreley had sent to him and Liam, Devlin set to digging up as much information as he could on Gideon. Viola, Anne, Elora and I met with a couple of private investigators, hoping they would be able to find Loreley through the letter’s postmark and date.
I knew finding her was going to be difficult. I also knew that once we did find her and her son, my life would be forever changed. I was not the only one to have Aidan’s children. I would be lying to myself if I said that it wasn’t hard to think about. Or that it wasn’t going to be hard to deal with, for that matter.
How did we make this work? She and the child would need to be kept safely away from Gideon. Did that mean that they would live in this house with us? Wouldn’t that be slightly uncomfortable and awkward for all of us? I sat, thinking about moving Loreley into the pool/guest house.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli
Being six months pregnant meant that I could sleep again. I loved this trimester. However, when my cell phone started ringing in synchronization with Aidan’s during my love affair with dreamland, I couldn’t help but let a particular ‘F’ word fly out of my mouth in a large groan.
Aidan chuckled but quickly grabbed his phone. "Hello." He croaked out, his voice still thick with sleep.
He cleared his throat as my phone rang again. I sat up and grabbed it, noticing that it was four in the morning.
"What?" Aidan jumped out of bed and ran to the television. "When?" His free hand was fisted into his hair.
"Aidan?" He turned his wide eyes on me. "What? What’s wrong?" I felt the nervousness and panic start to rise from my chest into my throat.
He turned the television so that it faced the bed and not the sitting area. There, on the screen, was a p
icture of Loreley and Gideon, an old family photo. It wasn’t the picture that shocked me, it was the large scrolling headline beneath.
‘Father and daughter found dead’, ‘Both found with multiple gun shots to their bodies’, ‘Prominent New York Businessman found dead with his daughter.’
I gasped and climbed off the bed.
"We are watching it now." He spoke into his phone while mine continued to ring on the bed.
"Oh my God”, I shrieked as a thought pummeled its way to the forefront of my mind. "Aidan!" He snapped his head to me, looking me over. "Where’s the baby?"
His eyes widened. When he registered the sobs that had erupted from my chest, he dropped his phone to the floor and pulled me into his chest.
"Shh…we are going to find out what happened. I promise, we will. Cole will be found." He kissed the top of my head over and over, trying to soothe me.
Two weeks later we were dressed in black and sitting in a large brown and cream colored room. The amount of flowers that covered the room could almost make you forget that they surrounded a casket, almost.
We found out a week after the bodies were discovered that Loreley had returned to Gideon’s home to either confront him or to find incriminating evidence. He found her in his house and apparently flipped out. Stories from the staff varied from him screaming and throwing her around, demanding to know where the child was to Loreley simply waiting to kill him.
In the end, the autopsies and the investigation were concluded to Gideon having shot Loreley first. The shot wouldn’t have been fatal if it had been treated immediately; however, Loreley pulled out her own gun and shot back. Gideon’s injury was immediately fatal, a bullet straight in the heart. The remaining shots that killed Loreley had been inflicted by Gideon’s security guard, Felix. Felix had been caught and was awaiting his trial. His other guard, Lawrence, could not be found. Only his gun was found.
Tears flowed freely down my face as I listened to the words spoken by other people on their behalf. I had wanted to speak on Loreley’s behalf but I just couldn’t compose myself. Feeling disappointed with myself, I hadn’t even noticed that Aidan wasn’t sitting next to me any longer. It wasn’t until I heard his voice that I realized that he had gone up to speak. I raised my head.
