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HARRY

I sit at my desk for hours after Ruby and Celia have left, staring at the window without seeing anything. Celia is simply trying to cause trouble, for whatever reasons she has for keeping us apart. That’s what I tell myself, but now that the seed has been sown, I can’t help replaying every moment since I met Ruby over and over in my head.

The ice rink. When I catapulted myself over the top of her, she wasn’t skating, but she was watching Alessandro on the ice surrounded by his adoring fans. She left with him too, accepting his impromptu invitation to his birthday party, while I was changing her tire.

It means nothing though. It doesn’t make her a gold digger.

When Alessandro came to me and said that he wanted to impress her, I helped him set up the library, and even chose the rare first edition Wuthering Heights . If it was money Ruby was after, she’d have sunk her claws into Hollywood’s rising star and never let go. Wouldn’t she?

Ruby didn’t even know that I’d already made my first million a couple of years ago. She came to the hospital because she was worried about me and stayed until her mom came and dragged her away.

During our trip, she never asked me for anything. I booked the first-class tickets; I chose the George Hotel in Edinburgh; I chose the diamond ring. An image of Ruby’s face when she was naming the cows on Alastair’s farm pops into my head—if I’d suggested that we stay in Scotland, buy a cottage by the sea and live the rural life, she would’ve been happy. She wants to get married in a forest for fuck’s sake.

So, why am I allowing Celia’s comment to get under my skin?

The woman is clearly manipulative and controlling.

But then I recall Ruby’s comment about the news report that brought her to the hospital when I was injured: “ Two eligible bachelors involved in a car wreck .”

She knew who I was before she came, arriving just as the blizzard got hold of Chicago. Had she planned it that way, hoping the staff would suggest that she stay? Was Ronnie’s arrival a spanner in the works, throwing her plan askew? Was it part of Ruby’s game to play it coy, pretend my first proposal was the medication talking, keep me dangling until I couldn’t wait any longer?

Oh God… Was Celia in on the whole thing?

My brain is scrambled, my pulse racing as I relive the special moments from our trip again, only this time, putting the gold digger slant on them. How a different perspective can alter things! I imagine Ruby calculating the cost of the trip, watching me, waiting for the right time to take things further, teasing me until she knew I was fit to burst.

She even made me believe that it was her first time.

Heat floods my face and cheeks. Did she really take me for a fool all along? Did she help me back onto my feet on the ice, thinking that I was a suitably gullible target?

Was that planned too? Ruby just happened to fix her laces as I was skating past—now it seems too much of a coincidence to be true.

My office door opens, and Lizzie’s face appears. “Harry, Carlos Russo is asking to see you. Shall I show him in?”

I inhale deeply. “Please do.”

“How are you feeling?” Carlos asks as he fills the space in my office with his booming voice and that huge Russo charm. “When did you get back?” He shakes my hand and pulls me into a warm bearhug.

“This morning.” It feels like it was an age ago.

“Where were you? You disappeared after the funeral. I’ve been worried about you.” He sits in the seat across my desk and folds one leg over the other, comfortable in his own skin.

It occurs to me then that my own father wasn’t worried about me, but here is Carlos Russo checking up on me when he is still grieving for his younger brother, and my heart reaches out to him.

“The UK. Scotland. I… It’s a long story.”

“Does it begin with a girl?” The smile is so wide that I can see a gold filling in one of his back teeth.

I can’t help returning the smile. “It does.”

I haven’t even told Ronnie that I’m engaged to be married to Ruby Jackson, but the urge to speak to someone who will be rooting for us right now is too strong to resist.

“I bought her a ring. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She’s the one, Carlos. She’s the one.”

He is on his feet, marching around my desk and hugging me so tightly I fear for my ribs. “Congratulations, Harry. I am so happy for you. It is about time you found a good woman to complete your life.”

He sits back down, leaving me reeling and my ribs crushed by his exuberance. It is more than I could’ve hoped for after what he and his family have just been through.

“You will realize that your life is only just beginning and all this—” he waves a hand around my office “—is nothing without her. We are all simply playing along until we find our soulmates, do you know that?”

I nod, grinning, my earlier insecurities still nudging at the corners of my mind but suppressed for now. “Thank you, Carlos. It means the world to me.”

“Hey!” He narrows his eyes briefly. “I know what you are thinking, but you must not feel guilty for living your life. You are still here for a reason. Don’t ever forget it.” He pauses. “Who is she, this woman who has claimed your heart for her own? And why did you never mention her before?”

“Her name is Ruby Jackson. I-We met at the skating rink on Alessandro’s birthday.”

I swallow. Carlos thought that his little brother had met his match in Ruby, and I’ve realized too late that he might not be quite so free with his blessings when he discovers who my fiancée is.

“Ruby Jackson.” He rolls the name across his tongue with his soft lilting accent. Then understanding creeps in. “Did Alessandro have dinner with her the night before…?” His voice breaks, his emotions playing out behind his eyes.

“Yes.” I shouldn’t have mentioned it.

I had no idea that Alessandro had spoken to anyone about his date with Ruby—he hadn’t mentioned it to me, Ronnie, or the rest of our group. Again, I’m stabbed in the gut by my conscience. Alessandro seemed off the following morning, and I’d let it pass without trying to find out what was bothering him. If I’d only tried harder, he might still be here…

Carlos turns his attention to the window. “Alessandro came to my room after his date with Ruby.” He speaks slowly, without looking at me. “He… He was worried that he had crossed a line.”

“Crossed a line?”

Still, Carlos keeps his eyes fixated on the world outside the window. “He liked the girl. He thought she liked him too, but it seemed that he had misread the situation. Alessandro never struggled to find women. He must’ve assumed that Ruby was like all the others, looking for a good time, no strings attached.”

He turns to face me then, and he appears to have aged visibly since stepping into my office.

“It’s okay, Carlos. I don’t need to know what happened.” My fist is clenching and unclenching along with my heartbeat, trying to prevent an image of Alessandro ‘crossing a line’ with Ruby.

He rubs his face with both hands as if checking the length of his stubble. “I am not making allowances for him,” he continues, regardless. “He should’ve had more respect for women. Perhaps this is something he would have learned in time. But my concern was that he was afraid she might leak her story to the press and ruin his career. Do you understand what I am saying?” His brown eyes hold mine, not letting go.

I nod. It explains everything. Alessandro’s strange mood the day he died. His drinking. The fight at the amusement park.

It dawns on me then… Ruby didn’t say a word about the date.

“So, if you and Ruby have found love, you have more than my blessing, Harry.”

Now I understand Carlos’s mixed emotions. He is embarrassed by his brother’s behavior but cannot say the words out loud because it is wrong to speak ill of the dead. Instead, he is giving us his best wishes in the hope that it will atone for Alessandro’s actions.

“Ruby never spoke about it.” One blessing deserves another, and I hope that it will help Carlos to remember the best of his brother.

“Thank you, my friend.” A gentle smile this time, no teeth. “I am glad to see that life is working out for you. And now, I hear through the grapevine that you need some assistance.”

There is no fooling Carlos. He is devoted to his family, but he is also an astute businessman with contacts around the globe.

“Talk to me, Harry.”

“I appreciate your concern, Carlos, but it is nothing I can’t resolve.”

He inclines his head, a low chuckle rumbling in his throat. “I do not doubt it for a moment. But I am here, and I want to help.”

I tell him that my largest debtor is experiencing problems with a new venture that isn’t performing as well as they’d hoped. “They’re using me to bankroll their own company.”

“How much?”

“Twenty million.”

Carlos doesn’t flinch. “Is that it?” He already knows there’s more.

“Looks like I just missed the boat on two takeover bids that should’ve been done deals.”

I haven’t looked into this yet, but I’m trying to ignore the niggling feeling that my dad allowed them to slip through his fingers. Everything was in place before the car crash. The sellers had agreed to hand over once the creditors had been informed. The problem is, I’d poured a lot of money into keeping them afloat until we’d signed on the dotted line.

Carlos stands up and offers me his hand to shake. “Leave it with me.”

“I-No, Carlos, I can’t possibly accept?—”

“Consider it an early wedding gift.” He doesn’t let go. “Deal?”

I smile as the weak winter sun casts a gentle glow across the room. “Deal.”

He leaves, and Lizzie brings in a pot of coffee and some cream. “You look like you could do with some caffeine.” She doesn’t wait around.

I sip my coffee, sit back in my seat, and try to piece together what happened between Alessandro and Ruby. Whatever it was, she doesn’t want me to know, and I wonder how much of this is out of respect for my friend.

The longer I dwell on it though, the more certain I am that Celia was lying about her own daughter. Ruby had the perfect opportunity to either take things further with Alessandro or to blackmail him with spilling the beans about his behavior. And she chose neither.

The actions of a woman who was out to make some easy cash? I don’t think so.

By the time I’m staring at the bottom of an empty cup, I’ve also realized that it was Celia who asked me to replace Ruby’s tire at the skating rink, almost as if she saw me as an obstacle to be removed.

I pick up the phone and buzz through to Lizzie. “Can you get me the number of the finest neurologist in Chicago?”

I stay in the office until late, the city streets coming alive with the nighttime ritual of people flocking to wine bars, nightclubs, and strip joints for their next fix, sexual or otherwise. With Carlos taking care of the bigger issues, I’ve managed to trawl through the rest of the paperwork that was sitting on my desk, and now, with the lonely night ahead of me, I don’t want to be here without Ruby.

I don’t need to be here without Ruby.

I could take the next flight out of New York City and be in Chicago by midnight. I won’t disturb Ruby after the day she has had, but at least we will be in the same city, breathing the same air, and gazing up at the same stars.

Before I can stand up and grab my suit jacket, the phone rings. It’s a direct call, bypassing Lizzie. I pick it up and swivel my chair around to face the window.

“Mr. Weiss. I have some information that might interest you.”

I’m on my feet, dragging the telephone cable with me, my pulse thrumming as I eagerly anticipate this new information that I requested. “Have you found her?”

“I have a lead that checks out so far. I’ll fax some images through to you now.”

“Where is she?”

“Diablo Lake, Washington State.”

“Diablo Lake? What is she doing there?”

I had instructed a Private Investigator to locate my sister when I made my first million. A gift to myself. After years of not knowing what happened to her, I hoped that if we couldn’t be reunited, it would at least bring me closure.

It was three months before he caught his first lead in a medical clinic in Florida. My sister was working there as a nurse under an alias with a fake ID. By the time my flight landed the following day, the woman had disappeared, leaving behind no forwarding address.

That was the first lead.

Every other lead has been the same—my sister always one step ahead of me— like she’s paying the same PI to tip her off each time he gives me a lead to follow.

“She’s working at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center.”

The fax machine trundles to life, and I wait for the images to print off. Blurry, they are of a woman who vaguely resembles my sister, with hair cut into a short bob and dyed blond. I often wonder if I would even recognize her after all these years, and studying the photographs now, I can’t be certain that I would.

I thank the PI and end the call, staring at the vague images. I hold the same debate in my head every time: do I follow it up, chasing the illusion of my sister Melanie around the country, or do I ignore it? I already know the answer.

I have enough guilt to live with.

I make another call first though. I get put through to the ward where Graham Jackson is currently being treated and ask to speak to his daughter.

It’s several long minutes before Ruby comes to the phone, and when she does, her voice makes my heart jump. “Hello, Harry.” How has her voice become as familiar as my own in such a short space of time?

“How is your dad?”

“He’s … okay. Paralyzed down one side, but the consultant said he’s lucky.” Her voice dips like she doesn’t believe it. “Thank you. I don’t know how we’ll ever repay you.”

“Repay me for what?” I’m smiling at the ceiling, eyes closed, picturing myself standing right next to her.

“You know what.”

My heart knocks to tell me that she’s still there. My Ruby.

“What did the neurologist say?”

“That he can get him walking again.”

My shoulders slump with relief. “I’m glad.” As I pause, I’m certain that I can feel her breath on my cheek. “I miss you.”

“I’ve only been gone a few hours.”

“Are you counting?”

It’s Ruby’s turn to pause. “No.”

I don’t believe her. “I was going to catch the next flight into Chicago, and before you say that I don’t have to, I’m doing it because I want to, so humor me.”

“Are you always so bossy when you’re in the office? Or has the suit gone to your head?”

I chuckle. It sounds way more nervous than I intended. “Always. Do you like it?”

“Hmm, I guess I could get used to it.”

Yes! I punch the air with my fist.

“Harry…”

“Ruby…” We both speak at the same time.

“Your turn.” Ruby gets in first.

“Okay. I’ve had a lead on Melanie. She might be in Washington State.”

“You must go. Call me when you get there.” Ruby ends the call before I can object.