by Haley Oliver
"Consider it your severance pay," he says.
It's like someone has just dumped a bucket of ice water down my back. I strain to listen for a further explanation as my pulse roars in my ears. Severance? What is he talking about?
"I think this amount should take care of you and your family for years to come. Don't you agree, Miss Brown?"
"I don't know what I'm supposed to be agreeing to," I reply. "Mr. Sway, I'd prefer it if you just came out and told me what it is you want."
"I want you to turn your focus back your own family," Gabe says. "And not my brother's. To put it frankly, Miss Brown, I want you out of Daniel's life. I want you to resign as his secretary. Most importantly, I want you to remove yourself from the nannying position."
"You're paying me to leave," I say, unable to disguise my bewilderment. "You're actually..."
"Oh, that reminds me." He now pushes an envelope toward me. The flap is already open, and I can clearly see that it's a plane ticket he intends for me to accept. "This is also for you. Your ticket home."
"This is for tomorrow," I state. "The wedding is tomorrow."
"You weren't going to make it anyway," Gabe says. "Were you? Not until you convinced my brother to bring you along."
"I didn't convince Daniel of anything." Hot tears sting my eyes, but I battle them back. I am not about to dissolve into a puddle of weeping secretary in front of this man, no matter how backed into a corner and hopeless I feel.
"On the contrary, I think you convinced him of a great deal," Gabe says. "I think you convinced my brother that he is in love with you."
"I... I did not..."
"Are you in love with him?" Gabe asks me point blank.
My throat goes dry. The words stop before they can rise up and defeat this sudden assault against me. Against Daniel. I know that I feel them, so why can't I say them now? It's because there's only one person I want to confess the depths of my heart to, and it's not the person sitting across from me.
Gabe clearly takes my silence for confirmation that he's right. He pushes the envelope closer to me. I want to sweep it off the table, or take it outside and cast it off the balcony in a dramatic gesture that will prove to him once and for all how I really feel about this entire situation. I do neither. I stare at it, eyes swimming. "I don't think you're the villain, Miss Brown," Gabe reassures me. "On the contrary, I think you're a smart woman. I think you'll take what I'm offering you. I've looked into your past. Done a bit of digging. You've struggled most of your life, and look how far you've come. Now I'm inviting you to go further. Give up this charade you've concocted. Walk away from my brother and his son. Henry will be better off with a real nanny in the picture... and a real prospect for a mother."
I'm numb. My senses are dulled. I barely hear what Gabe is saying to me, but nothing he says lands as a surprise. This is what I feared, deep down. What I suspected. We've been living a fantasy. Daniel knows where I come from. But as soon as he has to live that reality? He'll reject it. He'll reject me. He'll do what's best for him and his son and find a woman who is his equal in society. He'll give me up eventually.
And the longer I stick around, the more that inevitable severance will hurt Henry. I should know. The home I came from was as broken as they get, despite my lifelong efforts to piece it back together again. Making that decision now, and not waiting for that eventual outcome, would be a painful but worthwhile sacrifice to the man and to the little boy I've grown to love.
I touch the envelope between us, and draw it to me. For the first time that afternoon, Gabriel Sway smiles at me. It isn't a mean smile. It isn't a nice smile.
It's a smile of victory.
* * *
"What are you doing?"
I turn, my hasty ponytail falling over my shoulder. Henry stands behind me, his soccer ball tucked into the crook of his hip. His hair is getting long. I reach for him without thinking, and he comes over to me. I brush those unruly bangs of his aside and settle him on my knee. As far as I know, I'm the only person capable of this. He refuses to let Daniel cuddle him this way. I told Daniel to give it time, to allow for that closeness to unfold organically, but now...
Now, all three of us are out of time.
"I'm packing." I can't find it in my heart to lie to him, not even when I know it would spare him. I brush his hair idly again as he frowns.
"Why are you packing? Aren't you going to the wedding?"
"Something came up." I hug him close. "But I promise I'll see you again, okay?"
Gabe Sway can't take that away from me. I think of the check I left behind on his desk, but it's a cold comfort with Henry's warm little body braced against me. Better to give it all up now than later.
Right?
"We'll go to the park again sometime." I try to muster a smile, but even I know how stretched and tired it must seem. Henry looks introspective. I jog my knee to try and get a response. "Okay?"
"Did I do something bad?" he asks me.
I gasp, quietly, and pull his face in against my shoulder. Now the tears that I had held back in front of Gabe come gushing down my cheeks. I try to keep my breathing even, try not to alert him to the fact that I'm crying now as though I'm the child.
I'm going back to the life that belongs to me. I'm returning home to my family.
But, then why does it feel as though what I'm leaving in Tahiti is both—my life and my family?
Chapter Fourteen
Daniel
"Daniel!" A woman in white dashes toward me as I step out of the limo. Actually, what's rushing toward me is more dress than woman. I turn quickly and shield my eyes to block out the beautiful, bustling view.
"Ah! Amanda!" I remark in surprise. "Isn't there a rule about the bride being seen before she walks down the aisle?"
"Being seen by her husband to be, and last I checked, you're not him!" she exclaims.
"Fair enough." I turn back around. I'd love to keep the joke going, but there's a frantic edge to her voice that I can't ignore. "What's wrong? Owen get cold feet? Want me to go find him and knock some sense into him?"
"It's not Owen that's gone missing." Her eyes, rimmed by dark, natural lashes that have been given some extra lift, flutter anxiously. The panic in her beautifully made-up face stops me dead in my tracks. "It's Valerie. I can't find her anywhere. I was hoping she came with you."
"And I was hoping she came with you. I haven't seen her since last night. I thought the plan was for her to arrive with the rest of the bridesmaids." I try to keep my voice calm. It's no use further frightening the bride on her big day.
"That was the plan!" Amanda emphasizes. Her eyes dart past me suddenly, and then I remember. Henry. I turn to find my son leaning out of the limo behind me, his hair a mess and his tie askew. I had hoped to locate Valerie to correct my failed attempts at parenting him into some semblance of presentability before the wedding.
"Valerie's gone," he says in a small voice.
I turn more fully and lay my hands on his shoulders. "No. No." I rub his tiny arms as I try to convince us both. "She's just... late. That's all."
"She's not late," Henry replies.
"Valerie's never late," Amanda chimes in behind us. "Especially not for something like this."
I turn back to the bride, wishing I could express to her without words that I'm trying to keep Henry calm in this moment... but Amanda isn't Valerie, and we've no uncanny means of exchanging ideas without saying a thing aloud. Jane comes up beside her, dressed in soft, sunshine yellow. I had been looking forward to seeing Valerie dressed the same. For once, my brother's secretary looks completely at a loss of what to say. The expression on her face tells me all I need to know. Jane has no idea where Valerie is, either.
"I know where she went," Henry pipes up behind. "She went to the airport."
The three adults turn their heads as one to scrutinize the young detective. "What?" I say brilliantly. "The airport?"
"Henry, how do you know that?" Jane comes up beside me and leans into th
e limo, bracing her perfectly manicured hands on her knees. "Did she tell you she was leaving?"
"No." Henry shakes his head. "But I saw her packing her suitcase. She told me not to worry, but I still did a little." He turns to look at me, and his expression of trusting confusion nearly breaks my heart in half. "I wanted her to fly home with us, Dad."
"So did I." I exchange looks with the two worried women beside me. "If this is true, where and when did she get a ticket?"
"Valerie can't afford a ticket home," Jane says. "Not on her own." Amanda looks astonished, and Jane takes her arm. "Don't feel bad, Amanda. She never wanted any of us to know. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know that I know. Valerie didn't grow up with much, and the money she does have she uses to help her siblings and parents. She lives sparingly." Jane darts me a significant look. "But Daniel got her out here."
"I... but I should have known!" Amanda protests. "Jane, I grew up poor. Why didn't I notice? Why didn't I think? I would have paid for her flight..."
"But now somebody has," I interject. If what Henry guesses is true, then our time is running short. It's my turn to fix Jane with a significant look. "My brother."
"But why?" I can tell it's her instinct to protest on Gabe's behalf, but she's too smart to deny he's the only viable culprit. "Why would he want Valerie to leave before the wedding?"
"Because it isn't just the wedding he wants her to leave."
I fold myself back inside the car, and Henry scoots over to make room for me. "The airport," I instruct our driver.
"Bring her back!" Jane calls as we pull away from the curb.
I want to shout a reassurance, but my heart is lodged in my throat, and showing no signs of returning to its proper place in my chest. I can't bring Valerie back with me if she doesn't want to come. Her sudden abandonment hits me full-force, and I turn to look at my son. He's sitting beside me peacefully, serious expression trained forward, his suit and tie still awaiting the steady hands of the woman we both love. If Henry can have that kind of faith, then so can I. I turn to face the front.
"Step on it," I instruct our driver.
* * *
When we pull up at the airport, I stop only long enough to sling Henry out of the car behind me and take his hand. For once he lets me tow him along. I try to go slow enough for his short legs to keep up, but in the end, I hoisting him on my hip.
All the while my heart is speeding by the second. Henry's an observant kid, and I trust that his intuition about Valerie leaving for the airport is correct. But when did she escape, unnoticed by everyone, and what time is her flight?
I halt in front of the board, set Henry on his feet, and squint at the outgoing flights. My vision blurs the names and numbers together. I'm so angry at my brother it's all I can do to keep myself focused on the task at hand. Later, I promise myself. After you get Valerie back, you can lay into Gabe. Henry squeezes my hand, grounding me back in the present, and I squeeze back.
"There she is, Dad!"
I turn, following the line of Henry's stubby, pointed finger. Sure enough, I see Valerie across the terminal, walking with purpose away from me… and out of our lives. She joins a line, and I realize the boarding call is for her flight back to New York.
There's no more time left to lose.
"Valerie!" Henry and I both run for the gate. I'm just glad at this point that the airport in Tahiti is smaller and a little more straightforward than the one back home. She turns when she hears her name called. Her expression falls.
"Daniel… Henry! What are you doing here?" she exclaims.
"I told on you," Henry says pointedly. "I told them you were going back home before everyone else. I'm sorry I didn't keep your secret."
Valerie's expression twists. "It's okay. I didn't ask you to keep it a secret." After a long moment of considering the hopeful face of the little boy between us, her eyes lift to mine. "Daniel, I…"
"I don't know what my brother said to you," I interrupt her quickly. Valerie can reason herself out of, and into, anything if I let her. And I don't want reason getting in the way anymore. "But whatever he said, those aren't my words or feelings. I want you to hear both from me."
"Daniel…" Valerie appears at a loss for words. The attendant calls for final boarding behind her, and she turns anxiously. I step toward her, and Henry moves aside. I tilt my secretary's stubborn chin back toward me gently.
"Val."
"What are you doing?" she asks me, her voice breaking. "How can something like this work? It might have worked for Amanda and Owen, but we… us…"
"Valerie, I love you. For years, I've loved you," I say. "And Henry loves you too."
Valerie's eyes well with tears as she looks between us. "I…"
"Say you love us too, Mom!" Henry exclaims. By now I'm peripherally aware that the plane has stopped boarding, and every pair of eyes in the vicinity is trained on us… but none await Valerie's answer more raptly than myself and my son.
"I do…I love you both." The words tremble on her lips, but I've never seen her stand more erect, every muscle in her body imbued with sudden, indomitable strength. "From the moment I met you Daniel, and you, Henry, I felt like…" Tears spill from her eyes, but she doesn't turn away or raise a hand to stop them. "Like you were the family I had been wanting my whole life."
"Valerie." I can't hold myself back any longer, not when the woman I love more than anything has just bared her all. I pull her into my arms. Her neck curves, her chin tilts, and I capture those lips I've spent far too much of my life longing for already. I kiss her in full view of the world as Valerie presses her lips to mine just as fervently. I lose track of time and place, a joyful fire overwhelms me as, at last, we give in to the passion that has always simmered between us.
"Dad!" Henry is tugging the corner of my suit. I pull away with a gasp, but keep Valerie firmly gripped in my arms.
"What is it, son?" The shock of Valerie's lips has given me post-crash amnesia. I glance down at Henry, mildly bewildered, as he tugs at me again.
"We have to go," he reminds me.
"Oh!" Valerie gasps, and her hand flies to her mouth. Rather than hide her tears, she tries to hide her smile of elation. "I completely forgot!"
"If you'll excuse us, we have a wedding to get to!" I shout. The airport bursts into raucous cheers and applause. Cell phones are held up, pictures are taken, and videos are recorded as I lift Valerie into my arms.
"Yeah! We're going to the wedding!" Henry celebrates loudly beside me. He latches onto the corner of my suit as the three of us make our way, proudly reunited, through the throng.
I feel the scorching heat of Valerie's blush before I actually look down to take it in for myself. "Daniel, they think I'm a runaway bride. They think we're all going back to our wedding."
"Let them think that." I plant a kiss to her burning forehead, relishing the soft weight of her settling in my arms, unwilling to give her up even when we are back out on the curb and about to board the limo. "It will make for some interesting press. Press I'm certain my brother Gabe will love."
"Daniel!"
"What?" I grin as I hitch my secretary closer and lose myself contentedly in her eyes. "Maybe they aren't so far off in their speculation."
I don't wait for her cheeks to light up. I swoop in and catch those protesting lips with my own, instructing her in the next lesson her heart so desperately needs to learn: I am not letting her go. Neither is Henry. No more running away, and no more losing those closest to us.
Love for these Sways is here to stay.
Epilogue
"Get the ball, Dad! You gotta hustle for it!"
"Oh, do I?" Daniel laughs breathlessly as he jogs after Henry's escaping soccer ball. Daniel shoots a look at me, and I just shake my head at their exchange.
"Don't ask me to save you," I reply to Daniel's psychically-projected plea. "What good is all that working out if you can't keep up with a five-year-old?"
"Yeah, Dad!" Henry chimes in. "Why do you work out so
much, anyway?"
"So I can stay nice and toned for my lady." Daniel throws a salacious wink back at me. I roll my eyes, mainly so I have no chance of noticing the way my own cheeks obviously heat at his words. It seems completely unfair that a woman who tries to take herself as seriously as I do should be cursed with such frequent blushes. Maybe it's all to do with the man I've fallen for.
"Yuck." Henry sticks his tongue out. "I don't like ‘ladies'. I don't like any lady very much except for Valerie."
"Me neither, son, me either," Daniel laments as he half-heartedly chases the line Henry's soccer ball cuts through the green park grass.
I've heard enough. As soon as the ball rolls near me, I leap up off the bench and juggle it between my office flats. The boys' mouths drop in collective astonishment as I kick the ball up over my shoulder and catch it again with the inside of my heel. "Catch!" I laugh as I pass it through the air back to them. Henry captures it in his arms, blinking rapidly. Then he grins.
"Wow, I told you she was Wonder Woman, Dad."
"I have to agree with you there, Henry."
Daniel wraps an arm around my shoulder and I lean into him, relishing a stolen moment pressed against the hard expanse of his chest. We are officially together now, though keeping our relationship something of an ‘open secret' back at the office. Gabe obviously doesn't approve of our union, but the oldest Sway keeps himself as aloof as ever, evidently no longer seeing any reason to descend from above to try and interfere in a blooming office romance.
I turn my face into Daniel, inhaling discreetly. I have very much come to appreciate his aroma of cinnamon and sandalwood. Daniel turns his head into me, and after a moment's deliberation, plants an affectionate kiss on my forehead. His fingers fish between us to catch at mine.
"Valerie!"
I turn and extract myself from Daniel as Jane jogs up the path towards me. The redhead waves in salutation, grinning from ear to ear, the apple of each high-boned cheek jumping into prominence. There's a blonde girl I've never seen before taking more measured strides behind Jane. Her slick, black-framed glasses wink in the sunlight, and she pushes them up her nose with a practiced motion to better observe me. I smile first in greeting, and the blond returns my greeting with a surprisingly shy smile of her own.
