Master of Fortune (13 page)

And having had an affair at work before, she was afraid of what the future held for her. Not just here with Henry—though if this relationship ended it would be very painful—but also with the musicians she’d come to know.

Finally the waiter left and Henry turned his attention to her. “I think you’ll like the food here.”

“I doubt it,” she said.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m nervous. What did Kaye want?”

Henry leaned back in his chair. “I’m not sure how to say this except to just say it straight out.”

“Go ahead then,” Astrid said. She clenched her hands tightly on her lap. Even when Daniel had broke up with her, she had never dreaded the words that might come from a lover’s lips. That said it all, didn’t it?

“Kaye is pregnant and she believes I am the father.”

Shock made her speechless. He couldn’t have said he was going to be a father. “I’m sorry.”

“I…I don’t know what to do. Of course I can’t just walk away the way Malcolm did. I want to be more to my kid than a check once a month and gifts at birthdays and Christmases.”

His words were a death knell to her. Henry was exactly what she expected him to be. When she’d told Daniel was pregnant, he hadn’t wanted any part of her life or her child’s. When she’d lost that child, he’d fired her for attendance. And she’d walked away, feeling her faith in the goodness of men shaken. Somehow it wasn’t surprising that Henry was the exact opposite.

“I can understand that. What are you thinking?” she asked.

“I’ve asked her to have a paternity test just to make sure the child is mine.”

“Do you think there’s a chance it might not be?”

Henry shrugged. “We were both dating other people as well as each other. So I’m not sure. I figure if Kaye came to me, she has to believe there’s a good chance I’m the father.”

“That makes sense. She wouldn’t want to hit up her ex-boyfriends indiscriminately,” Astrid said. Hoping she didn’t sound bitter or angry, she knew she was. She’d found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with and had been trying to figure out how to move their relationship to the next level and now…now she had no idea what was going to happen.

“If the child is mine, we’re going to have to marry, she and I.”

He kept talking after that, but to be honest she didn’t hear another thing he said. Why was he going to marry Kaye?

But she knew why. Henry had told her how he’d felt when Malcolm had largely ignored him, and she knew he wouldn’t want his own child to grow up feeling that Henry hadn’t wanted him.

But what about them?

“I can see that this is important to you…and I admire the fact that you are doing the right thing by your child.”

“Do you?” he asked. “You seem like you don’t care, Astrid.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, very aware that she was holding on to her emotions, just barely. She wanted to cry or yell at him that marrying anyone for a child was a dumb mistake. But she couldn’t do that because it was very clear Henry wanted to make up for his father’s mistakes.

“I want—hell, I don’t know. I want to know that it matters to you—that I matter to you.”

“You matter more than you can imagine, Henry, but I know that you aren’t a man who changes his mind. If you have decided to marry Kaye, then that’s what you’ll do.”

He nodded. The waiter brought their food and Astrid had a surreal moment as she realized that life went on. Even though it felt as if her world had just ended, it was still going on around her.

“I can’t do this,” she said, standing up.

“Do what? There’s no need for you to leave,” Henry said.

“Yes, there is. I can’t just sit here pretending that nothing has changed when everything has. Listen, Henry, this has been nice, but I should never have let this develop into more than a working relationship.”

“You didn’t let anything happen. We did it together. There is no reason to walk away. Kaye hasn’t determined anything. We can continue as we have been,” Henry said.

She shook her head. Continue? Until what? “Think about what you just said. You plan to marry another woman
and
continue a relationship with me?”

Henry shook his head. “I sound like an idiot when I say that. But I don’t want to give you up, Astrid.”

“I can’t do this,” she said again. “I understand where you are coming from, but I can’t live with a broken heart. I’m going to have to figure out what to do next.”

Henry stood up, tossed some bills on the table and led her out of the restaurant. A part of her wanted him to make a big gesture, to say that he’d figure out a way to be involved in Kaye’s child’s life while still staying with her.

But she reminded herself as he pulled up to her building that she didn’t believe in little-girl fantasies anymore. She was a real woman living a real life. And it seemed for her there was no happy ending.

“Where to, love?”

She gave the cabbie Bethann’s address and sat back in the seat, unable to believe she had once again fallen for her boss. This time was so much worse. This time she knew she really loved Henry. An emotion that she’d tried to convince herself she felt for Daniel, but the words had always sounded hollow. Now she knew that with Henry it was the real deal.

How was she going to go on?

“Here you go, miss,” the cabbie said.

She paid him and got out of the car. A light rain had started to fall as she stood on the street looking at her sister’s townhouse. It was almost eleven, but she didn’t hesitate as she walked up to the door and rang the bell.

The light came on over the door and a minute later she heard the key in the lock of the inner door.

“Who is it?” Percy asked.

“Astrid.”

The door opened a minute later and Percy took one look at her face and sighed. “I’ll get Bethann.”

“Thank you,” she said, following him into the sitting room.

He went up the stairs and less than a minute later Bethann came flying down the stairs. She wore a light blue nightgown with brown polka dots on it and her hair was in disarray, but the look on her face was fierce as she opened her arms and hugged Astrid.

“What happened? Do I need to get on the phone to his attorney and threaten him with some kind of lawsuit?” Bethann said.

Astrid shook her head. “No, Bethy, not that. He…”

She started crying as she tried to talk. She hated the way her voice deepened and the words just wouldn’t come out. This was so not what she wanted from her life. She should have stayed firm in the vow she’d made to herself—no more men. That was what she’d said but somehow Henry Devonshire had managed to slip past her guard and into her heart.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Tell me everything,” Bethann said. She maneuvered them across the sitting room to the loveseat and drew Astrid down to sit next to her.

“His ex-girlfriend is pregnant and if the child is his, he is going to marry her.”

“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

“I know. I understand why he’s doing it—”

“I don’t. I thought he was involved with you.”

“He is,” Astrid said. “But he won’t give up a child of his. He doesn’t want the child to grow up not knowing his father the way Henry did. I get that part of it. But the fact that he’s going to marry her….

“It is a noble thing to do,” Bethann said. “Stupid but noble.”

“He did say he’d like things to continue with me until he knew if he had to marry Kaye.”

“Please tell me you said no.”

“I’m not an idiot. Of course I did.” Astrid felt tears welling in her eyes again. “The really dumb thing is I love him and I don’t know how I’m going to stop.”

Bethann hugged her close and rocked her in her arms. “Stopping will be hard. You need something to concentrate on.”

“Work. I am a career woman now,” Astrid said.

“You were a career woman before,” Bethann reminded her.

“But it’s all I have now. I have to be focused on my job.”

“Can you do it?”

Astrid thought about it long and hard. “I’m not sure but I have to try. I’m not about to lose another job because I fell in love with the wrong man.”

Bethann agreed and then made up the sofa bed so that Astrid could spend the night there. After her sister went upstairs she heard the sound of her talking quietly to Percy and Astrid started to cry again, knowing that she wasn’t going to have a man like that in her life. That she wasn’t going to have Henry in her life anymore. And she knew she’d never be able to trust another man again.
Burn me once, shame on you
, she thought,
burn me twice, shame on me
. And she’d learned the hard way that love wasn’t in the stars for her.

But work was. She was damned good at her career and if she played her cards right she’d be able to turn her job as Henry’s assistant into one as a first-class producer. Nothing would keep her from achieving her goals…not now.

He knew that he was risking breaking the morality clause in Malcolm’s damned agreement, but he didn’t care. He simply couldn’t marry Kaye to win a business deal. Business at the end of the day wasn’t more important to him than family.

He dialed Kaye’s number.

“It’s Kaye.”

“Hello, Kaye. I’ve been thinking a lot the past twenty-four hours about the baby and our possibly marrying.”

“I’ve been thinking about it, too, Henry. I am so happy that you stepped up and did the right thing.”

“I would never let a child of mine grow up without being a part of his or her life,” Henry said. And those words were true. He had no doubts about being a father to Kaye’s child.

That was one thing he’d realized about Malcolm and his mother’s relationship—he didn’t have to marry Kaye to still be the child’s father. And unlike Malcolm he didn’t see a personal life as an impediment to a successful life. In fact he thought that children would enhance his life and make it richer. His only doubts were of being a husband to the wrong woman.

“Great. I thought we could get married in Italy. I have a friend there who will lend us his villa. I think it will photograph nicely. I contacted a few friends at
Vogue
, and they have agreed to do a spread on us.”

“No,” Henry said. Finding the words to tell her he wouldn’t marry her was harder than he expected.

“Well, fine. We can get married at your mum’s place then. She has that fabulous country estate—”

“Kaye, stop. I’m not going to marry you.”

“But you just said you wanted to be a father to my child.”

“I do. I will. But I will not be doing it as your husband. We don’t have to be married to raise a child.”

“Henry, you
have
to marry me.”

“No, Kaye, I don’t.”

“If you don’t I’ll make you regret it.”

“Do your worst,” he said and hung up the phone.

He wasn’t too worried about Kaye. He’d called his solicitor and asked the man to draw up a paternity agreement and a visitation schedule.

He spent the rest of the night trying to think of a way to win Astrid back. He knew he’d hurt her and he was determined to make it up to her. The next day he was surprised to receive a call from Edmond.

“We need to talk,” Edmond said.

“Sure. Is this about the fact that my unit is outperforming the others?” Henry asked. He’d seen the financials. He was clearly the winner in the competition that Malcolm had set up for them.

“No, it’s about Kaye Allen and you. Have you seen the papers this morning?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“There’s a photo of Kaye with a prominent baby bump and the caption The Devonshire Legacy Lives On. Another Devonshire Is Refusing to Marry His Baby-Muma.

Henry cursed. His phone rand and he glanced at the caller ID. “Can you hold?”

“I’d rather not.”

“My mum’s on the other line.”

“I’ll wait,” Edmond said.

Henry answered the call.

“Hi, Mum.”

“Don’t hi me, Henry Devonshire. I’ve spent the last thirty years doing my best to make sure that the world saw you as Henry Devonshire and not simply Malcolm’s love child and then you do something like get a woman pregnant and refuse to marry her.”

“Mum, we’re not even sure the child is mine.”

“What? Why not?”

“We had an open relationship.”

“Does Astrid know?”

“Mum, I told her everything. I had intended to marry Kaye but then realized I couldn’t marry one woman when I wanted to share my life with another one.”

There was silence on the line and then he heard her sigh. “Fine. But fix this and make it right.”

“I will.”

He hung up with his mum.

“Edmond?”

“I’m still here.”

“Give me a few days to fix this. If I can’t become CEO of the Everest Group, that’s fine. But I’m not about to marry the wrong woman just to stave off gossip.”

Again he hung up. He went downstairs and got the papers, reading them. Unfortunately Kaye’s announcement had reawakened the frenzy that had started with the birth of him and his brothers.