“Have you tried asking him if there’s a problem?”
“No. I’ve not had the opportunity, or it has felt awkward. When I first came here, we got on really well, but now it’s like there’s a problem. I know I need to ask him about it, but I’m hesitant. What if he sacks me or something?”
“He is not going to sack you. And if you need someplace else to live in the meantime, you can always stay here. I have spare rooms galore in my home.”
“Why have you bought a home far too large for you, Aidan?”
“The address and the prestige. Park Avenue looks very nice on my business cards.”
“I shouldn’t imagine the people who live around here would be very pleased about your association with making adult entertainment.”
“You’d be surprised.” I told her and the tiniest blush caught her cheeks.
“Oh, Amelia. You need to get that embarrassment under control if we’re going to visit Club S.”
“Can’t I wear a mask, or disguise?” She retorted.
“Only on Friday nights.” I told her.
“God, I feel so naive.” She said, her foot kicking against the edge of a desk.
“Amelia, you’re like a breath of fresh air in Manhattan, lovely lady. Don’t be embarrassed.” I swiftly changed the subject. “Italian still?”
After dropping her home to get changed, we headed to the restaurant where I’d (well actually my assistant had being truthful), made reservations. We chattered amiably over dinner and I learned more about her upbringing as she learned more about the business. I told her little of my own past as to be honest, I didn’t think she was all that interested. Her hunger for information on H shone through, and I would have had to be blind to not see the crush she had on him. Eventually, after several glasses of wine she admitted to it.
“It was a silly infatuation, like you get with a pop star. He was like some kind of mystery Prince Charming who had whisked my sister off her feet. Hey,” she added, alcohol loosening her tongue. “How much do you know about Henry, about when my sister died?”
“I know he lost a child, too.” I told her, “if that’s what you are hinting at.”
“I didn’t know that.” She admitted. Her eyes widened, and she looked very young and vulnerable. In that moment I imagined what the young Amelia, nursing a crush for her prince, would have looked like. “I found out last week.” She confessed. “I had to call my mom to ask her why I’d never been told.”
“And what did your mom say?”
Amelia began to tear up. “I’d better not say.”
“Amelia.” I placed a hand on hers. “I’m here if you want to talk, and I won’t betray your secrets.”
She took a deep breath.
“My mom told me that neither her nor Vee’s father had known she was pregnant. She’d not told anyone but Henry. But she let Henry believe that they knew.”
“Why would she do that? It makes no sense.”
“Because she wasn’t happy she was pregnant.”
“How would you know that, if she hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant?” I was shocked. Though H had spoke of his past very little, sometimes when alcohol was in his system he’d opened up, and he’d always spoken of how in love he and his wife were and how they’d been so excited about the baby they’d been expecting.
“My mom told me that Vee kept a diary. Right fro
m being young, she’d written one. My mom went in her room one day before she passed and saw it poking out from under the bed. She’d continued to write in an old one occasionally.”
“I see.”
“She’d written that she was confused. That Henry had wanted them to try for a baby but she’d continued taking contraception until a slip up had led to a pregnancy. That he was overjoyed, but that she didn’t want to be home with a baby. She loved to work. She wrote that she hadn’t yet told anyone else because she didn’t want to hear the congratulations because she didn’t feel happy about it yet. That she was waiting for the first kicks and then maybe it would all seem more real and she’d become as excited as Henry.”
A tear ran down her face.
“My mom feels tremendous guilt that she didn’t ask Vee about how she was feeling, instead deciding it was between Vee and Henry. Now I know this, Aidan. I can’t tell Henry, it would destroy him.”