Epilogue

EPILOGUE

HARRY WINSTON

Jamie

I t was Monday morning after his quiet weekend with Nora.

Jamie was behind his desk in his office when Monica knocked then stuck her head in.

“I’m sorry, Jamie,” she started when she got his attention. Along with the concerned expression on her face, giving him more indication he wasn’t going to like what she had to say, she came in and closed the door, walking right to his desk before she shared, “There’s a man downstairs who’s demanding to talk to you. I asked security to escort him out, but he’s being difficult, and loud, and he’s claiming he’s Dru’s real father.”

Jamie felt a muscle jump in his cheek.

Chet’s latest meal ticket being in the wind (he was referring to Paloma, who AJ had reported during their phone call had “disappeared”), Jamie wasn’t surprised Chet was now making a direct play.

He was annoyed, extremely annoyed, but he wasn’t surprised.

Normally, Jamie would instruct Monica to have security deal with him and call the police if it became necessary.

But frankly, he was fed up with this shit.

Not to mention, with all that had happened recently, Jamie was also in the mood to be direct. And his version of direct was to deal with every annoyance that was dimming what was a bright future for him and everyone he loved.

And do it once and for all.

“Have him brought up, but ask security to accompany him,” Jamie said to Monica. “Have them remain with you in your office while I deal with him in here. They can escort him out when I’m done.”

Monica nodded and retreated.

As he waited for Chet to be brought up, Jamie considered texting Nora to let her know this was happening.

But he decided against it. He could give her the full story when it was all said and done. If he told her now, she’d fret until she knew it was over, and that was the last thing he wanted.

Two security guards escorted Chet in, and Jamie nodded to them that they could leave, which they did.

Chet stood opposite where Jamie sat at his desk, and he saw what Nora was talking about when she described his appearance.

The man looked rough, like he’d lived five years for every one of Jamie’s. His face was lined and drawn, his once-broad shoulders were stooped, his once-thick hair now lank and fully gray, and it appeared he’d lost at least two inches of height, if not more.

When Chet seemed happy to stand there and glare at Jamie, Jamie started it.

“You’ll pardon me if I don’t offer you a seat.”

“I wanna talk to my daughter,” Chet spat.

Jamie raised his brows. “Sorry, do you have a daughter?”

Red crawled up Chet’s neck. “Fuck you,” he bit.

“Do you think that kind of talk is going to get you what you want?” Jamie asked calmly.

Chet’s nostrils flared. “I got things I wanna explain to her.”

“That’s unfortunate, because I can assure you, whatever they are, she doesn’t want to hear them.”

“So, you stole them from me, both of ’em, and now you talk for her too?” Chet sneered.

“I see you’ve fallen on the strategy of revising history in order to be able to live with the man you are and what you’ve done,” Jamie noted.

Chet threw a hand Jamie’s way. “How was I supposed to compete with the likes a’ you?”

“I don’t know,” Jamie drawled sarcastically. “Perhaps not stalking your ex, not beating her to make her become your ex, and giving that first shit about your daughter in the way a father should, rather than using her to extort money from me.”

Chet moved his head like he was stretching the side of his neck before he proclaimed, “I wouldn’t a’ done that shit if I wasn’t in a bind.”

“You seemed to get in binds quite often. Including recently, taking money from Paloma Friedrichsen in order to cause more harm to Rosalind and Dru by sharing your revisionist history with anyone who might listen to it.”

Chet didn’t reply to that, but his eyes did flash with alarm at hearing all Jamie knew.

Instead, he jutted his chin stubbornly and stated, “I think it should be Drusilla’s decision whether or not she wants to hear what I gotta say.”

Jamie nodded. “You’re correct. It should be. In fact, it is. She’s an adult. She has resources. If she didn’t wish to use those, she knows she can utilize mine. Therefore, if she wanted to find you, she would. That said, I suspect she doesn’t want to see you, not only because she hasn’t, nor has she asked me to find you, but also, considering that decision is now hers, she requested I adopt her officially. And although it’s only a document to make what we already have official, it’s important to the both of us, so we’re in the process of doing that.”

The pain and defeat in Chester Lynch’s face at hearing this news was worth every bane Jamie had endured at this man’s hands.

Not the ones his girls had endured, those Chet could never make up for.

But the ones Jamie had endured, absolutely.

AJ and Paloma’s downfalls had left Jamie feeling morose and hollow. He was lucky, in the midst of all of that, Morgan Rawlins had become a part of his life in a way he was making perfectly clear he wanted a place in it, which shined a bright light through that darkness.

This victory, on the other hand, felt fucking phenomenal.

“She’s the only kid I got,” Chet stated.

“She actually isn’t,” Jamie returned.

Chet blinked in confusion. “What?”

“She isn’t yours, Chet,” Jamie said with studied patience. “She hasn’t been yours since she was five.”

“She’s my blood,” Chet ground out.

“You donated sperm,” Jamie replied. “Congratulations. Other than that, you made her mother’s life hell, as well as hers, every time you reared your head. That’s what she’s got from you. That’s all she’s got from you because that’s all you gave her.”

“I loved Rosie,” Chet said softly, and if Jamie could credit it, there was regret in his eyes.

“That isn’t close to true, considering how you treated her.”

“We were young,” Chet defended.

Fuck this asshole.

Jamie was done.

He stood, and he enjoyed watching Chet’s eyes tip up as he did so.

Jamie’s tone was cold and lethal when he declared, “I don’t give that first fuck how young you were. That’s no excuse. If you, a grown man, don’t know that by now, there’s no hope for you. You don’t treat the ones you love with violence and intimidation.”

“You don’t know my life before Rosie came in it. She caught the brunt of me sorting shit out.”

“I don’t have that first fuck to give about your life either, Lynch,” Jamie fired back. “That’s an excuse too. And like all excuses, it’s spineless and full of shit. And advice, if Dru does decide to seek you out, which is something that will be her choice and at her instigation, I’m not going to tell her about this conversation. She has to want to find you and it has to be her idea. But if that happens, don’t land this bullshit on her. She won’t respond to it very well because she’s highly intelligent and she’ll read it for exactly what it is.”

“It’s all been so fuckin’ easy for you,” Chet scorned and threw his hand again toward Jamie. “Good-lookin’, made a’ money, probably took your first steps on a red fuckin’ carpet.”

“This is part of growing up, something it’s clear you haven’t done. But when you do, you realize, no matter what you think someone else has, they’re living life just like you, and sometimes that life kicks them in the balls. The measure of a man is how he recovers from that.”

“Yeah, and you recovered from Rosie real quick by nailin’ that new, haughty piece of ass of yours,” Chet shot back.

Jamie’s voice was now low and deadly when he warned, “I’m keeping myself in check, Lynch. You’d do well not to remind me you put hands on my woman.”

Chet visibly swallowed.

“Or, another of my women,” Jamie corrected.

Chet said nothing.

“Are we done?” Jamie asked.

“I wouldn’t a’ hurt her,” Chet said quietly. “I took that bitch’s money, but I wasn’t gonna say shit to hurt her.”

“You’re lying. I know you were talking to a news program.”

Another visible swallow.

Oh yes.

Fuck this asshole.

Jamie continued. “Now, I can share with you that I will make it hurt if you try to approach Dru without her initiating it, but I’m assuming, since you’re here, rather than bothering her, you already know that. However, if you’ve heard nothing I’ve said during this conversation, make certain to process that. She’s lost her mother. She’s lost the only blood who mattered to her.

She might be living her life, but she will never stop being devastated by that loss. If you cause her even a second more pain, by God, Lynch, I promise you’ll regret it until your dying breath.”

Chet stared at him but remained silent.

“Am I clear?” Jamie pressed.

“Clear,” Chet grunted.

“Fantastic. Now get out,” Jamie demanded.

He sat behind his desk and turned his attention to his laptop.

Chet hesitated only a second before he walked out on his own.

Ten minutes later, Monica stuck her head in and assured him Chet had left the building.

Only after the door closed on her, did he call Nora.

She demanded they cancel their dinner reservations for that evening so they could have a quiet night in, and Jamie translated that to: so she could look after him.

He demanded that they didn’t, because that was the last time Chester Lynch was going to darken their lives.

His Nora always looked beautiful, even in a designer tracksuit with only mascara on her lashes.

But that night, she’d pulled out all the stops.

Therefore, when Jamie walked into the restaurant at her side, he was so proud, and so looking forward to good food and his woman’s company, Chester Lynch wasn’t even a memory.

In other words, Nora did what Nora was prone to do.

She found her way to look after him, no matter what.

“I’m rethinking this Sunday lunch shit,” Archie muttered, sitting with Jamie and Nico in Allegra and Darryn’s living room.

“Word,” Nico agreed.

Both men took sips of their bottles of beer.

Jamie said nothing.

After being starved of a functional family while growing up and well into adulthood (until he met Lindy), he was always at one with any family time, no matter if the chaos that was currently ensuing at the dining room table was both confusing to follow, and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t have a lot of interest in it.

The results when they came, he was definitely interested in.

The road to get there, not at all.

This was because the women, with Darryn inputting regularly, were poring over some of the preliminary design schemes for the brownstone, at the same time they were discussing a variety of gowns for a variety of events, including Dru’s adoption party. Not to mention, they were dissecting, with minute attention to every detail, plans for said party.

“You don’t seem bored outta your skull,” Archie observed to Jamie.

Jamie tipped his head toward the dining room table. “They’re happy.”

Archie looked that way.

Nico looked that way.

And both men with him settled in after they did, because when your loved ones were happy, that happened.

“Oh my God, Dru! Look at this dress!” Valentina shouted and shoved her phone in Dru’s face.

“Oh my God!” Dru shouted back. “That’s it!” She pulled Val’s phone out of her hand and extended it to Nora. “What do you think?”

Nora glanced at the phone and decreed, “Perfection, dearest. Order it immediately.”

Dru handed Val’s phone back in order to dig out her own.

“They need a bed-length bolster pillow,” Darryn declared.

“You and those bolster pillows,” Allegra replied.

“Baby, they’re the shit,” Darryn said.

“Mom reads, and she says Jamie reads too. They need reading wedge pillows.”

Darryn appeared revolted. “Those are ugly as fuck.”

“They’re useful. Not everything has to be about aesthetics,” Allegra retorted.

“Since when?” Darryn asked.

“I’m so not coming to Sunday lunch when D and A start redesigning Momma Nora’s place,” Archie muttered.

“Word,” Nico said.

As an aside, Nico had taken Jamie up on the offer to move into the brownstone when his courses ended in Vermont so he could keep an eye on it. Jamie was grateful because a home needed to be inhabited for more than safety. Nico was grateful because he didn’t want to interfere with Nora and Jamie’s new situation (even if it didn’t feel new, it was), and it gave him a chance to take time to pick his own place and make it the right one.

The apartment phone buzzed, sharing someone was out front, and Darryn got up from the table to get it.

“Dearest, we need cake, so we’ll have to make a cake tasting appointment, tout de suite ,” Nora said to Dru.

Now they were on about the adoption party.

“We don’t have to have a big, elaborate cake, Nora,” Dru replied.

Nora appeared stunned before she assumed her Now, listen to me, I’m imparting wisdom on you expression.

She then imparted wisdom.

“My beautiful girl, unlike most of the rest of the population, essentially, you’ve managed to be able to have two birthdays. As every woman knows, her birthday is the most important day of the year . More important than Christmas. More important even than her anniversary. It reigns supreme. You get two , darling. And if from this day forward you don’t celebrate yourself to the absolute fullest on both, I’m disinheriting you. We’re having an extravagant cake for your first one. No argument. I’ll set up a tasting.”

Jamie was careful to make note of his woman’s views on birthdays as Nora started scribbling in her Mètier notebook that he’d long-since learned was the nerve center to all Nora’s magic, and Dru turned to look at her dad. His girl’s face was beaming with wonder mixed with happiness at the thought of having two birthdays.

Jamie had no idea he could love his daughter more, or Nora.

But in that moment, he knew he could, because he did.

Both of his girls.

Darryn’s raised voice suddenly cut into the space. “I won’t say it again, back off .”

Everyone’s attention turned to Darryn, but only Allegra got up and went to him.

She put her hand on his back as he listened on the phone, and he shook his head at her questioning look.

“You got some pretty big balls to pull this shit again,” Darryn said into his phone.

At that, Jamie turned his attention to Nora. He tensed when he saw her face had paled.

“Is it Dad?” Allegra asked.

“Yup,” Darryn answered.

Allegra held up her hand. “Let me talk to him.”

“Nope,” Darryn denied.

“Honey,” she whispered.

Darryn’s mouth grew tight, then he said into the phone, “Allegra wants to talk to you.”

He handed over the phone, but he didn’t move an inch out of his wife’s space.

And Jamie was reminded just how much he liked Nora’s son-in-law.

“Dad?” she said. She listened. She listened longer. Finally, she went on, “Okay. I’m hanging up the apartment phone. I’ll call you if they say it’s all right. I’ll text if it’s not, and then you have to promise to go.”

Jamie blew out a sigh which corresponded with Nico mumbling, “Fucking shit,” and Archie grousing, “Fuck me.”

Allegra hung up the phone, turned to the room at large, but homed in on her mother.

“Dad’s downstairs,” she told them something they all knew.

“God! Did you tell him again we’re having our family lunch and that’s why he’s here, messing up our family lunch?” Val accused her sister through a question.

“It shits me to say this,” Nico put in. “But that was me.”

“For fuck’s sake, why? And when?” Val demanded of her brother.

“He called. He’s been calling,” Nico shared. “I’ve been ignoring him or answering and telling him to fuck off. It was stupid, I see that now, because a couple of days ago, in the middle of telling him to fuck off, I told him about lunch. But I did it to rub it in we’re all good when he’s not around.”

“Actually, a boss play,” Archie approved under his breath.

“He says he has something to tell us,” Allegra announced. She turned uncertainly to Jamie. “I’m sorry, Jamie. He said it’s something about AJ Oakley and some woman.”

Fantastic.

Nico stood. “I’ll go down and tell him to kiss off.”

Val stood. “No, I will.”

Nora stood. “No. Allegra will buzz him up, and we’ll hear what he has to say.”

Jamie got an acid taste in his mouth, but he said nothing.

“Mom,” Valentina snapped.

“He’s your father,” Nora reminded her gently.

“You’re too nice to him,” Val returned.

“I love you, my darling girl, so it’s with love when I say, maybe you’re not nice enough,” Nora replied, still going gently.

Val shut her mouth.

Allegra was on her phone.

Seconds later, the apartment phone buzzed again, and she hit the button to let her father in the building.

Jamie got up and moved to Nora.

“I’m all right,” she told him the minute he was at her side.

“I know. Me being at your side is about me staking my claim.”

She rolled her eyes and scoffed, “You hardly have to do that.”

“Do we have to have a certain conversation again?” he asked.

Since he was talking about the one that referred to his cock, he saw her mouth quirk, her eyes flash with humor, and she shook her head.

Roland came in, and along with being happy he’d given Nora a moment of amusement before her ex showed, Jamie was glad he switched locations.

Because the man glanced at his children, but when he saw Nora, his gaze riveted on her, and his expression became ravaged.

“You were attacked?” he whispered.

He felt Nora stiffen, so Jamie moved into her and slid an arm around her waist.

“How did you—?” Nora began.

But Roland shook his head and cut her off. “It doesn’t matter. I had no idea. I…I wanted you back. She told me she felt guilt for…for what transpired, and she wanted to help me do that, and she would, if I helped her get AJ out of financial trouble.”

And the last puzzle piece slipped into place.

“I had no idea she…she’d…” he trailed off, his gaze moving to Jamie, then to Dru, and at that, Jamie knew Roland also had learned that Paloma had set Chet on them, including Chet assaulting Nora.

“This situation has been handled, Roland, so you needn’t trouble yourself with it,” Nora declared.

“I had no idea, darling,” Roland whispered.

At the endearment, Jamie was unable to keep his silence, but he still spoke no words. Instead, he made a low noise of warning.

Roland’s head jerked before he quickly, and surprisingly, said to Jamie, “Not my place, I’m sorry.” He returned his attention to Nora. “I’m so sorry.” He took a step back, looked at each of his children in turn, and again to Nora, he said, “That’s all I wanted to say. In front of you. Our children. I’m sorry. Truly sorry. For all of it, Nora.”

Without hesitation, Nora replied quietly, “Apology accepted.”

Valentina was right, she was too nice to him, but that wasn’t Jamie’s call.

It was also part of why he loved her, that big heart she hid behind the uppity society dame, a heart that led her to him, time and again, over decades, and also led her to waiting for him to get his head out of his ass so they could have what they now shared. Thus, he also couldn’t complain.

Roland looked to Allegra. “I love you.”

She nodded, tears in her eyes.

He turned to Val. “And you.”

His second daughter just stared at him.

Roland finally looked to Nico. “And you, son.”

Nico said nothing, but held his father’s gaze, his own contemplative and not shut down, like Val’s had been.

“I’ll leave you to your lunch,” Roland murmured, then to Darryn, “Thank you for letting me in.”

“Not my idea, man,” Darryn replied, making it clear he wasn’t over it.

Roland nodded, slid his gaze through his ex-wife and children again, and finally walked out.

The minute the door closed, Val launched in. “Allegra, if you told him about what happened to Mom?—”

“I didn’t tell him,” Allegra asserted.

“I didn’t either,” Nico put in.

“Definitely not me,” Archie said.

“Me either,” Darryn added.

“It wasn’t a secret. I reported it to the police,” Nora reminded them.

“Dad hardly has police informants,” Val replied.

“You’re right. What I’m saying is, Mika knew, Tom, Cadence, the first or the last of those undoubtedly told Teddy, which means…” Nora didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to.

Teddy told the G-Force, and probably others, and the news made its way to Roland.

“That was a nice thing to do, Dad coming here and saying all of that. Wasn’t it a nice thing to do?” Allegra, who desperately wanted to be her father’s champion, if he’d give her any cause, asked.

“So he can act not like a dick one time and he gives a minimal shit about the woman who bore his children. Big whoop,” Valentina, who desperately wanted to hold on to her hurt so she wouldn’t get hurt again, returned.

Allegra pressed her lips together miserably.

“It was a cool thing to do,” Nico proclaimed, and everyone looked at him, but he was looking at Jamie. “Right?” he asked, like Jamie could answer, which he couldn’t. “Hat in hand, as it were, tail between his legs, putting his pride aside, making it about what it should be, an apology to Ma, it was a cool thing to do.”

Since no one said anything, and Nico was still looking at Jamie, Jamie had to say, “You’re right, Nico. It was a cool thing to do.”

He felt Nora’s arm wrap around his waist and she squeezed.

He squeezed in return.

“Do I need to break out the vodka, or are we down with deciding bolsters versus reading wedges?” Darryn asked, then he looked down at his wife. “And just to say, reading wedges are never gonna win, baby. I mean, do you know your mother?”

Allegra turned to Nora.

“They are rather unattractive, dear,” Nora said.

“God, I married my mother, in hot-tall-brilliant-guy form,” Allegra complained.

Darryn grinned wide and white.

Nora squeezed Jamie’s waist again.

“Dad, do you want to see the dress I’m going to wear to the adoption party?” Dru asked.

“No, darlin’, when I see you in it, I want you to stun me with your beauty yet again,” Jamie answered.

Dru shot him another beam.

“I love this fuckin’ guy,” Val announced. She then stated, “We’re all good, but you can still break out the vodka, D.”

“Yankees are playin’, man,” Archie reminded Darryn.

“Fire it up, brother,” Darryn replied as he headed to the kitchen for the vodka.

Archie reached for the remote.

Nora let him go, sat back down and reached for the design sheet of the primary bedroom.

Jamie headed back to the living room.

Darryn abandoned interior design for baseball, and the men sat around the TV, watching the Yankees, while the women remained at the dining room table, spending money.

Oh yes.

Jamie loved family time.

Any way he could get it.

Nora

“Someone turn the furnace down.”

I shifted my attention from Jamie, looking resplendent in his dinner jacket, to Byron, who I was standing with.

“In… deed . We’re all about to catch fire,” Bryan, who was also standing with us, added.

Although I felt quite comfortable, I became alarmed. “Do I need to talk to management about adjusting the thermostat? Are you uncomfortable?”

“No, doll,” Ryan joined the conversation. “They’re talking about the lipstick on Jamie’s collar, and the looks you two have been scorching across the room at each other since you got here.”

Jamie was in a very good mood. Jamie had just officially adopted his beloved daughter. Jamie’s son and daughter-in-law were there. Jamie’s grandson was with his cousin Laird being babysat by Elsa’s mother. Jamie’s real father, his wife, and Jamie’s half-brothers were there.

Jamie was in his element.

This being, surrounded by people he loved.

As such, prior to us coming out tonight, things had become rather…

Heated .

Delightfully so.

“It’s not like she doesn’t look at him all the time like she wants to devour him,” Wallace put in.

“Or like she’s remembering having been devoured by him,” Ryan said.

“Or like she’s preening, because he’s staring at her like he wants to devour her,” Wallace added.

“Or like he’s remembering how he just devoured her,” Ryan kept at it.

“I’m jealous, I want a man to look at me like he wants to devour me,” Byron complained.

“Step behind me in that line,” Bryan muttered.

But I was struck.

I turned my attention back to Jamie, only to find him watching me. When he saw my gaze on him, his danced down the length of me, back up to my face, whereupon he smirked in the most delightfully scrumptious way.

Yes, it was like he was remembering devouring me, and he didn’t mind that I got lipstick on his collar when he did so.

Oh my.

“So, do tell,” Ryan said, and as politeness dictated considering he was talking to me, I tore my attention from Jamie to give it to Ryan. “What’s it like having it all?”

There was only one response to that.

Thus, I gave it to him.

“It is, of course, darling, everything .”

Ryan smiled at me.

I smiled at Ryan, and all the boys.

I then moved my smile to Jamie, who was now talking to Tom, Dru had joined him, and father and daughter had their arms around each other.

Yes.

Having Jamie in my life…being able to claim Jamie as mine…

It was everything .