Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (67 page)

Once we were home, we greeted the twins
and played with them for about an hour. Then I headed for the bathtub, finding my
mail on the table next to the bedroom door. Absent mindedly, I picked up the
stack and started going through the envelopes.

I came upon a thick standard envelope.
There was no return address and the postmark said Germany. I furrowed my brow
and flipped it over. In big, bold letters, the word ‘Please’ was scrawled on
the back. I put all of the other mail down and opened the envelope.

"I thought you were going to take a
bath?" Aidan came in and wrapped his arms around my waist, placing his
chin on my shoulder, his hands over my stomach. "What’s that?"

I swallowed hard as I unfolded the
letter and looked for any indication of who it was from. Then I choked out.
"It’s from Loreley."

Chapter Ten
Headlines and Events
Lilli

I know that none of this excuses or washes
away what I have caused so many people, but I need you to know that my love and
friendship for you was the first real thing for me.

I am sorry and only hope that this brings you
and your family some answers and closure.

Thank you for all of your kindness, even when
I didn’t deserve it.

Forever your friend,

Loreley

As I finished reading the letter, I
wiped my eyes and sniffed. Aidan was pacing back and forth in the room as I sat
on the edge of our bed reading the letter out loud.

"Jesus, Aidan…" He stopped and
looked at me intently. "You…" he cut me off.

"Lilli, I am so, so sorry!" He
started to cry. "I didn’t even realize that Gideon would go ‘that’ far…I
mean, fuck…his own daughter. He used my…fuck, Lilli, I am so sorry!" He
buried his head in my lap.

I ran my hand through his hair.

"We need to find her." He
looked up at me, shock written all over his face. "We need to help her and
the baby." I felt the warm tears start to slip over my cheeks again.
"He’s your son, Aidan. Regardless of how, it’s not the child’s fault and I
will be damned if Gideon gets his hands on that innocent child."

"You are so amazing." Aidan
grabbed my face and kissed me fiercely. "I’m going to call Liam, James and
Henry…" he looked at me with uneasiness on the last name and I simply
nodded to him and smiled, "we need to meet as a family and discuss all of
this." He sighed.

"I’ll call Devlin. He should be
here as well. He may want to bring the authorities.” I stood quickly and went
for my cell phone.

Once everyone had arrived, Jay brought a
tray of coffee into the dining room and began to serve everyone. Once he
reached me, he put a glass of milk in front of me. I smiled up at him and he
smiled back kindly. It was strange, but it was like Jay had been in my life
forever. From the moment we walked into this house, Jay and I seemed to be on
the same page about everything. His smirks and knowing smiles were priceless to
me.

The letter was being passed around as
Aidan paced around the table explaining what we had learned.

"What if it’s just another ploy?"

I looked up at James intently.
"It’s not." I felt all eyes fall on me.

"Lilli, this could be just
another…" I cut Henry off this time.

"It’s not." I stood up, my
chair screeching against the hardwood floor. Aidan moved quickly toward me.
"I will not allow this poor, innocent boy to be manipulated and used for
Gideon’s satisfaction. I want to find them and if you don’t want to help me,
then I will do it myself."

"Baby, please calm down. I don’t
want you to upset yourself." Aidan pushed my chair back and sat me down,
placing his hands on my shoulders as he stood behind me. "I am going to
help Lilli find them."

"Aidan, you need to be careful, we
now know how far Gideon has possibly gone with his own daughter." Devlin
shook his head and took a deep breath. "We also know how far he has
manipulated you, so I think you need to assume that he is not above doing
worse."

I felt Aidan’s hands start to massage my
shoulders lightly, obviously he felt my tension.

"I think we all know that he is a
cold-hearted, manipulating asshole, but what I want, aside from finding Loreley
and the child, is to take Gideon down." He released my shoulders and moved
so that he was standing next to me.

The room was silent for a long moment,
everyone thinking over the information that was in front of them.

"I’m helping." My head snapped
up to see Aunt Anne looking around the table. To say I was surprised would be the
understatement of the year.

"You know that you don’t even have
to ask me." Viola sat back in her chair eyeing me. "We all know where
I stand with innocent children."

"Obviously, I would never leave my
wife unsupported." Henry took Anne’s hand as he finished.

"James…" Elora spoke with
authority.

He shook his head.

"This could get dangerous for all
of us, but fuck it…let’s find Loreley and figure out how to get rid of
Gideon." Elora leaned into James and kissed his cheek, leaving her head to
rest on his shoulder.

Using what Loreley had sent to him and
Liam, Devlin set to digging up as much information as he could on Gideon.  Viola,
Anne, Elora and I met with a couple of private investigators, hoping they would
be able to find Loreley through the letter’s postmark and date.

I knew finding her was going to be
difficult. I also knew that once we did find her and her son, my life would be
forever changed. I was not the only one to have Aidan’s children. I would be
lying to myself if I said that it wasn’t hard to think about. Or that it wasn’t
going to be hard to deal with, for that matter.

How did we make this work? She and the
child would need to be kept safely away from Gideon. Did that mean that they
would live in this house with us? Wouldn’t that be slightly uncomfortable and
awkward for all of us? I sat, thinking about moving Loreley into the pool/guest
house.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

Being six months pregnant meant that I
could sleep again. I loved this trimester. However, when my cell phone started
ringing in synchronization with Aidan’s during my love affair with dreamland, I
couldn’t help but let a particular ‘F’ word fly out of my mouth in a large
groan.

Aidan chuckled but quickly grabbed his
phone. "Hello." He croaked out, his voice still thick with sleep.

He cleared his throat as my phone rang
again. I sat up and grabbed it, noticing that it was four in the morning.

"What?" Aidan jumped out of
bed and ran to the television. "When?" His free hand was fisted into
his hair.

"Aidan?" He turned his wide
eyes on me. "What? What’s wrong?" I felt the nervousness and panic
start to rise from my chest into my throat.

He turned the television so that it
faced the bed and not the sitting area. There, on the screen, was a picture of
Loreley and Gideon, an old family photo. It wasn’t the picture that shocked me,
it was the large scrolling headline beneath.

‘Father and daughter found dead’, ‘Both
found with multiple gun shots to their bodies’, ‘Prominent New York Businessman
found dead with his daughter.’

I gasped and climbed off the bed.

"We are watching it now." He
spoke into his phone while mine continued to ring on the bed.

"Oh my God”, I shrieked as a
thought pummeled its way to the forefront of my mind. "Aidan!" He
snapped his head to me, looking me over. "Where’s the baby?"

His eyes widened. When he registered the
sobs that had erupted from my chest, he dropped his phone to the floor and
pulled me into his chest.

"Shh…we are going to find out what
happened. I promise, we will. Cole will be found." He kissed the top of my
head over and over, trying to soothe me.

Two weeks later we were dressed in black
and sitting in a large brown and cream colored room. The amount of flowers that
covered the room could almost make you forget that they surrounded a casket,
almost.

We found out a week after the bodies
were discovered that Loreley had returned to Gideon’s home to either confront
him or to find incriminating evidence. He found her in his house and apparently
flipped out. Stories from the staff varied from him screaming and throwing her
around, demanding to know where the child was to Loreley simply waiting to kill
him.

In the end, the autopsies and the
investigation were concluded to Gideon having shot Loreley first. The shot
wouldn’t have been fatal if it had been treated immediately; however, Loreley
pulled out her own gun and shot back. Gideon’s injury was immediately fatal, a
bullet straight in the heart. The remaining shots that killed Loreley had been
inflicted by Gideon’s security guard, Felix. Felix had been caught and was
awaiting his trial. His other guard, Lawrence, could not be found. Only his gun
was found.

Tears flowed freely down my face as I
listened to the words spoken by other people on their behalf. I had wanted to
speak on Loreley’s behalf but I just couldn’t compose myself. Feeling
disappointed with myself, I hadn’t even noticed that Aidan wasn’t sitting next
to me any longer. It wasn’t until I heard his voice that I realized that he had
gone up to speak. I raised my head.

"Loreley wasn’t necessarily raised
to be ‘friends’ with my family. None the less, my wife took Loreley in when no
one else would, without question. Loreley was truly a great friend to my wife
and loved her very much. For that, I am thankful to her and proud to say that
my wife was her best friend."

Aidan sat back down next to me. I
immediately kissed him.

"Thank you." I whispered
against his lips. For the remainder of the service he wrapped his arm over my
shoulders and placed his hand on the active bundle of baby inside of me.

Another two weeks had passed and we
still had yet to hear anything about Loreley’s son. We had sent investigators
back to her aunt’s house, but there was no one there and, by the looks of it,
hadn’t been there for a while. I felt defeated, only find solace in the fact
that Gideon couldn’t get his hands on him anymore.

During a small family gathering, a
celebration for Elora and James who were were expecting their second child, Jay
interrupted an active conversation.

"Dixon will not be in there this
time." James chuckled. "Been there and done that, not
happening." Elora laughed and patted his leg.

"Excuse me, Mr. Iverson?"
Everyone turned to see Jay standing in the doorway.

"Come on in, Jay." Liam was
inviting him to sit with us.

"Thank you, sir, but I’m afraid we
have a visitor." Jay’s eyes shifted to me and then back to Aidan.

I stood up and headed toward the door,
Aidan quick on my heels.

"Who is it, Jay?" Aidan asked.

Stopping in the foyer in front of a
small plump gray haired woman, I smiled. Less than a second later, I noticed
the baby that she was holding. Taking a sharp intake of breath, I felt
realization consume me.

"Mrs. Iverson?" I nodded.
"I’m Beth. Loreley’s aunt." I nodded and felt the tears slip over my
cheeks. She turned to Aidan. "Mr. Iverson, I presume?" She nodded to
him.

"Y-yes…" I knew that he was as
focused as I was on the little boy in her arms.

"May I?" I breathed out and
motioned toward the boy. She nodded and handed him to me. Once he was in my
arms, I sunk to the floor, cradling him and crying. Aidan wrapped his arms
around us as he sat behind me.

"Oh, Aidan! It’s him…it’s Cole."
I cried out, relieved and happy.

I looked up to Loreley’s aunt.

"Thank you for letting us know that
he was okay." I sobbed out. "I was terrified that something
happened…" she cut me off with a couple of large envelopes.

Aidan reached up and took them. He stood
up and then helped me to stand while still holding Cole.

"She left these for you both. There
is also a letter for Cole…" she looked nervous, "I’ve been reading it
to him every night before bed." I watched tears slip down her face.

"You must be exhausted from
traveling. I’m so sorry!" I exclaimed. "Please come." I grabbed
her hand and pulled her with me to the living room.

Everyone turned when we walked in and
Aidan helped Beth to a seat.

Viola was on her feet and in front of me
immediately.

"Is this him?" She breathed
out. I nodded and heard Elora and Anne both gasp.

"But…how..?"

"Loreley left instructions for me,
if something were to happen to her." Beth said in a thick German accent
and wiped her face. Liam immediately handed her a white handkerchief from his
pocket. "Thank you." She whispered.

Viola took Cole into her arms and
snuggled him while Aidan and I sat with Beth. She told us about the first
moment that a very pregnant Loreley arrived home and then the last night she
saw her. She had woken up to a note and a lot of envelopes. Cole was in the
large bed next to her but Loreley was gone.

She had wanted to be at the funeral, but
was afraid that someone may try to take Cole. So she opted to go on vacation
for a while before coming here.

Aidan started to pull out the documents within
the envelopes. All of the documentation necessary for Cole was enclosed, along
with an envelope addressed to me. I opened it, finding Lorely’s perfect script.

Dearest friend,

If you are receiving this letter then it
means that things went the way I feared they would. Please, never let him
forget how much I loved and still love him. He will forever be the best thing
that ever happened to me.

I want you to take care of my beautiful boy,
Lilli. I am sorry to ask so much of you, but I know that you will love him as
if he were your own. You are the kindest and most caring person that I have
ever had in my life. For that, I thank you!