Falling For You

by Nicole Taylor

  With this in mind, he began scouring jewelry stores looking for the perfect ring. What he knew about Leiliana so far was that she didn’t go for anything gaudy. She was an elegant, classy woman and her jewelry tended to be limited to real gemstones and pearls. He also remembered that she had once told him she bought her jewelry from London Jewelers. He looked up the location and found that, ironically, the stores were all located in New York.

  He made it a point to go there, and he asked to speak to the store’s manager. He told the man that he was shopping for an exceptional lady who was a client of theirs. He explained that she was a very prominent figure, and it was an engagement ring, and no one was to know. The reason he was sharing this was that he needed his advice on what would be a good selection, plus he wanted to make sure he got her ring size correct. The man assured him that he held the confidence of his clients in high esteem and that he would in no way compromise this. When Gabriel shared who the ring was for, the man bowed slightly. “Beautiful woman and one of our favorite clients. I would be happy to guide you on a selection, sir, and you can be assured that I am the soul of discretion. No one but me will know who it is for.”

  The man suggested three. In the end, Gabriel chose a cushion-cut sapphire diamond halo ring. Something about its regal look reminded him of Leiliana.

  Ring in his possession, he mulled over the right way to propose to Leiliana. She had returned to London, and he was back and forth between there and Dublin to see her on weekends. He didn’t want this arrangement to last much longer. He really wanted to get this woman with him permanently.

  She was coming to meet him that weekend, and he had booked her at the same hotel in Dublin. He planned it down to a tee. He even had his friend in town prepare a vegetarian dinner and deliver it to his home.

  They sat by the fire, and he got the hot chocolate. He made the suggestion they play a trivia game like they had that stormy night.

  They asked each other questions, and when he came to his final question, he looked up from his phone and said. “Will you marry me?”

  She stared at him for a second.

  “Wh…what did you say?”

  He sank down on one knee in front of her and bringing his hand from behind his back, cracked open the box.

  “Leiliana Lamport, will you marry me?”

  Her eyes bugged out of her head, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Gabriel!” she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Gabriel!”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Yes! Yes!” she said, laughing and crying.

  Chapter 24

  I mmediately after Gabriel received the loan from Lamport Holdings, he wired the funds to Lebedev. A few days later, he received confirmation from Lebedev that the loan was settled.

  Gabriel and Leiliana began to make plans in earnest for their wedding. Leiliana wanted to get married in Ireland, which to Gabriel, was both a surprise and a delight. He had been sure she would want to get married at Belfield Manor. Instead, she told him that since they would be living in Ireland primarily, she wanted to get married where they would begin their married life. He couldn’t argue with that.

  They engaged the services of a wedding planner, a woman by the name of Marilyn Seymour. They had an initial meeting with her, during which she encouraged them to settle on the guest list. Leiliana struggled to keep the guest list at a decent level, given the size of her extended family. Gabriel, instead, was almost embarrassed that he really had no family members to invite at all. His grandparents were dead. He and his brother were still estranged, and his father was a fugitive from the law.

  As he mulled over this sorry state of affairs, the Holy Spirit convicted him that before he started a family of his own, he needed to reconcile with his only living relatives.

  He decided to begin with Patrick. He invited him to a coffee shop in Manhattan, near Patrick’s home. Patrick walked in, looking like he had already had a drink, and it was barely 10 o’clock in the morning. He took a seat, and the first thing he did was order an alcoholic beverage.

  “How are you?” Gabriel asked.

  Patrick laughed as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “I’m great. Doing very well. You?”

  “Things are good.”

  “I’ll bet. I read in the newspapers how you and Leiliana Lamport will be tying the knot. Good for you!”

  “Thank you.”

  “I guess you’ll never have to worry about money again. You’ll have all the money in the world now to fund your projects.”

  Gabriel didn’t like Patrick’s insinuations. He decided, however, not to take the bait. He would focus on the reason for the visit.

  “I came to ask you to forgive me,” Gabriel said.

  That seemed to catch Patrick by surprise. He cocked his ear as though he hadn’t heard Gabriel correctly.

  “Say again.”

  “I’m asking for your forgiveness.”

  “For what?”

  “For not being a better brother to you. For being caught up in my own world all these years and not noticing the insecurities you were struggling with. For not listening to your advice more, even though I claimed I valued it. For not being the leader I was supposed to be.”

  Patrick stared into the bottom of his glass for a long time. Eventually, he raised his eyes.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry,” he said softly. “I…I was angry at you because you showed me up. You showed up my flaws. It seemed like you did everything so well, so effortlessly. I wanted so badly to be like you. To have the respect of others, especially dad. I envied how you just stuck to your principles. You were never afraid to oppose dad if you didn’t agree with him. After you fired me, I spent a little time wallowing in self-pity and despising you. I’ve thought about things since then. I realized you were right. I did get you into a mess. I was wrong. There’s no excuse for what I did.”

  “Why do you believe you were wrong?”

  He looked at Gabriel with confused eyes. “What do you mean? Because it didn’t look good for your business with Lamport Holdings. It impacted your merger. It could have cost you a relationship with Leiliana Lamport.”

  “What about the dirty money, Patrick? Don’t you think it was wrong to use ill-gotten gains to grow our business?”

  Patrick shrugged. “I guess I don’t feel as strongly about it as you do.”

  Gabriel sat forward. “Think about how the Lebedevs get their money.” He began ticking off his fingers. “Prostitution, drugs, illegal gambling, fraud, smuggling. Surely, you don’t think that any of these things are noble, Patrick.”

  He looked sheepish. “Well…if you put it that way.”

  “Patrick, when are you going to give your life to the Lord? I’ve been asking you for three years. Your life is not joyful. Women, alcohol, parties. These things are temporal. The feeling, the high, won’t last. You’ll need another fix the next day. But, Pat, I’ve found a joy that lasts. A joy that isn’t dependent on circumstances. A joy that flows from within.”

  Patrick ran a hand over his head. “Gabriel, I can’t do what you do, okay? I can’t be this religious person. I want to be free. I don’t want to be bogged down by rules.”

  “Yet, you’re really not free, are you?”

  Patrick looked up at him.

  “The moment you got here, you ordered a drink. You are dependent. You have shifted your drug dependency to alcohol. You always seem to need some kind of crutch to get through life. I am here to tell you that you don’t need that crutch. What you need is a savior. You are drowning brother. Take the lifeline that’s being offered to you today.”

  Patrick’s eyes filled with tears.

  He turned and looked out the shop window at the people passing. “I just wouldn’t know where to begin. My life is such a mess.”

  Gabriel leaned forward and grasped his hand. “Begin by surrendering to the One who made you. The One who loves you.”

  ~*~*~*~

 
; Gabriel tried to argue with God that he couldn’t reconcile with a man who was a fugitive from the law, but God wouldn’t let up. Eventually, he flew to Switzerland to visit his father, Barry.

  When Barry met him at the airport, Gabriel was somewhat surprised. The last time he had seen his father was for that brief time after his surgery. He had lost a significant amount of weight then. In the intervening years, it seemed as though he had regained his weight and added on some extra pounds besides.

  Barry had never been a thin man. He had been broad and inclined to put on weight. What had saved him was that he was active, playing squash a few times a week. It didn’t appear as though he was keeping up an exercise regimen in Switzerland, though. Honestly, it seemed to Gabriel as though all he did was eat, drink, and watch TV. Not that he was obese by any means, but he did have a paunch.

  He looked happy to see Gabriel if his bear hug was anything to go by, Gabriel was reminded of how effusive Barry had always been.

  Later that day, Gabriel asked Barry how things were really going.

  “I’m pretty good. I’ve made friends here. There’s a community of expatriates I hang out with. We meet twice a week, you know.”

  “Do you ever miss the States?”

  “Of course. That’s my home. I wish I could go back, but I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  Barry looked at Gabriel as though he had lost his mind. “You know why not. Do you want me to get arrested?”

  “I would like you to own up to what you did.”

  “And what exactly did I do?”

  “Do you know this is why I didn’t want to come to see you, Dad. This charade. These lies. This constant denial of the truth as though you think you’re talking to an idiot. You think I went to the feds because I was looking for excitement. I went because I knew what you had done in the name of Barry Walsh and Company, and I knew it needed to be confronted. Why can’t you simply be honest with me, with yourself? I am sick of these lies.”

  Barry was silent for a while. Then he softly said, “You think life is so simple, don’t you? You act so high and mighty. Like I’m this monster. You don’t know the facts, Gabriel.”

  “Tell me. I came all the way over here because I want to hear your story. I want to understand why you made the choices you did.”

  Barry spoke softly so that Gabriel had to strain his ears to listen. This was what he said.

  Barry was born to an Irish family in Dublin. His parents were working-class people who emigrated to the United States when Barry was four years old. His family opened a jewelry store in Queens and was soon doing very well. Eventually, they achieved tremendous success by importing magnetite and goethite, the minerals used to make steel. By the time Barry had reached school age, his parents were able to send him to the best preparatory private school.

  After high school, Barry gained acceptance at Princeton University due to his parents’ growing wealth and connections.

  It was during this time that Barry met Orson Van Wilder. They became great friends. It was through Orson that Barry met Lily Van Wilder, his cousin. Lily was classy and attractive, and she fitted in with Barry’s image of the perfect wife who would help him climb the social ladder.

  During his final year of college, Barry went to Ireland on a trip. He was desirous of exploring his ancestry before he was to enter the workforce.

  It was there that he met Mary Everdeen.

  “She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,” he said to Gabriel. His eyes took on a faraway look, as though he had been transported to that time. “She was the daughter of the owners of the inn where I was staying. I was simply captivated by her. She was unlike any girl I had ever met. She was not only lovely to look at, but also sweet-natured and caring.”

  Before Barry knew it, he had fallen in love with Mary. He was confronted with this reality one day when her father pulled him aside. He told him that he had observed what was happening between him and Mary and cautioned him that Mary was not a girl to be trifled with. She was a decent girl brought up in a Christian home. Barry would either make a commitment to her or leave her alone.

  Barry wrestled with this for days. He knew now that he loved Mary. But marry her? He was already engaged to Lily. It had all been decided. Her uncle was setting him up at his company as a trader as soon as he finished college. Besides, Mary, beautiful though she may be, was unsuitable. She was uneducated, having barely completed secondary education with no ambition of pursuing anything more, content to work at her parents’ inn. Mary was simple in her ways too. She was not interested in high society or anything grand, she liked the simple life. Barry suspected that Mary would not fit in with New York's high society. And that was the society for which he was destined. More than anything in the world, he wanted to be respected. He felt that marrying into the Van Wilder family and getting set up in the company would gain him that. He could not allow sentiment to divert him from his goals.

  Barry decided to cut his trip short by a week. The night before he left, he met with Mary. He told her he had been called back home. She cried, and he was deeply moved. He kissed her. It was only intended to be a farewell kiss, but it wound up being more than that. They ended up going further than they had ever gone before.

  Upon his return home, Barry went to work for the Van Wilder LLC. At Van Wilder, Barry became a dealer in metals, learning about the raw materials market and commercial trading with poor nations. He helped run the company’s operations in Cuba, Bolivia, and Russia.

  A year after he joined Van Wilder, he married Lily. A couple years later, they had a son whom they named Patrick. Patrick looked just like the Van Wilders, he was small in stature with blond hair and pale blue eyes. He was often sick, and Lily was extremely overprotective of him. She would often protest that many of the physical activities Barry wanted Patrick to participate in were too rigorous for him.

  Despite achieving much financial and career success at Van Wilder, Barry began to feel that he would do much better on his own. Ten years after joining van Wilder, he left to set up his own company, which he called Barry Walsh and Company.

  A year later, Barry had reason to be in Dublin on business. He was setting up a subsidiary of Barry Walsh and Company there to trade in coal. Something drew him to that old inn. He thought to enquire after Mary and catch up with her. He had always felt bad about how things had ended. Still, he felt sure that after twelve years, a beautiful woman like Mary must have gotten married and had a bushel of kids by then. He thought he’d talk about old days with her and do a little flirting.

  When he arrived at the inn, he found that Mary’s parents were still there running the old place, which looked a little worse for wear now. In fact, they had also aged considerably. He remembered that they had had Mary late in life, which meant they must now be in their seventies. But it wasn’t that they looked older, they were also wary, almost hostile. He enquired after Mary and was told tersely that she had died.

  Barry was shocked to the core. His beautiful Mary, who would have been 31, now dead? He asked how it had happened. He was given no reply, just accusatory looks. He realized he would get no response to his queries from those two. He determined to enquire around, though. As he turned to leave, a little boy burst into the inn calling excitedly for granddad and asking who was driving the jaguar he saw outside. Barry, who loved a jag, had rented one for his stay.

  “I took one look at you and knew the truth at once. You were the spitting image of me. It was like looking into a mirror.” Waving his arms in the direction of Gabriel’s body, he remarked with a chuckle, “I could see that you had my build, you were already tall and broad. You also had the same thick dark hair, not to mention the Walsh nose and chin.” He appraised Gabriel with a look of fatherly pride on his face for a short while.

  Gabriel felt strangely overcome by emotion at this. Unexpected tears pricked the back of his eyes. To hide his embarrassment, he excused himself with the pretense of having to refresh his drink.

&nb
sp; When he returned, his father was gazing out at the mountainous landscape.

  He handed over the requested beer to Barry and settled back down beside him.

  After consuming a few gulps of his tonic water, Gabriel glanced across at his father. “So, after you discovered me, I guess the rest was history as they say.”

  “It wasn’t as simple as that. I didn’t get the impression your grandparents would have told me anything if I hadn’t discovered the truth myself. Your grandfather and I had very high words.” He hesitated here as though he didn’t want to relive the experience.

  “About what?” Gabriel pressed him.

  Barry looked into his eyes and then glanced away. “He blamed me for your mother’s death.” He said quietly and then was silent.

  After a while, Gabriel asked. “Do you blame yourself?”

  He didn’t look at his father as he said this, but when Barry didn’t respond, Gabriel looked across at him. To his surprise, a tear was coursing down his father’s cheek.

  Gabriel quickly looked away, once again embarrassed.

  “I do blame myself,” Barry whispered huskily. “I shouldn’t have left her.”

  “Even if you had been there, you couldn’t have prevented her death. She caught an infection.”

  “Well, maybe if she was in a proper hospital in New York instead of some backwoods hospital in Howth, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Dad…” Gabriel said feebly. It seemed counter-productive for his father to go on about this. Still, it revealed he had a conscience, and there was hope for him. Perhaps he might have regret about other choices.

  Barry swiped angrily at the tears and shook his head. “Anyhow. That’s in the past. So, after a while, I was able to convince John that he should let me see you. I think your grandmother was able to take him down, she was always the more gracious of the two. But he told me straight and plain that he was allowing me to see you because it was the right thing to do, not because he liked me.” Barry shrugged. “I figured that was fair enough. When I asked to take you back to New York, though, that was where I expected a fight. Surprisingly your grandparents were supportive of the idea. On reflection, I think it was because they knew that with my wealth, I could provide you with advantages they never could.”