16
EPILOGUE RENEE’S POV (SIX MONTHS LATER)
This is just like I imagined it, I thought happily to myself as my paintbrush hit the canvas, finishing up the last touches to my latest landscape painting. One that I had been working on for weeks. This is truly my absolute dream come true. I am so freaking lucky.
When I used to daydream about painting on some tropical beach somewhere, silence surrounding me, it was nothing more than a fantasy. I didn’t really believe it could come true, but the last six months of my life had shown me otherwise. I really was living the dream here. On this Miami beach, at Stark’s beach house, painting to my heart’s content.
I hadn’t spoken to my dad in the last six months because he still couldn’t believe that I would betray him like that, despite the fact that the business merger with the Vanderbilts seemed to go through without the marriage, so I honestly couldn’t see what the problem was. But I had spoken to my mother a little bit here and there. While I was sure she couldn’t really understand my decision to embarrass the family by becoming “Manhattan’s Number One Run Away Bride,” according to the newspapers, she was slowly starting to come around to accepting it.
Maybe we would never have the close relationship we’d once had, but that was okay because freedom was so much more exciting for me. One day all would be fine, and I held on to that faith. It wasn’t even like the society papers cared about me anymore. If they could forgive and forget about me, then I was sure my family could as well.
My cell phone pinged, almost as if it could sense me thinking about my family and my home in New York. But it wasn’t a message from anyone, it was a news article that my phone decided I might be interested in. An article that showed me what my ex-fiancé was up to these days.
“Billionaire Heir Diego Vanderbilt Recovers From His Heartache With New Bride.”
I actually smiled to myself as I saw a photograph from what appeared to be a Las Vegas wedding, the sort that was way too tacky for a Vanderbilt family member to be considered acceptable, certainly for the likes of Victoria Vanderbilt. But I was sure it suited his very heavily pregnant new wife, Lila Messer, very well. All too well. She had that ring on her finger now, so in her mind, her life was secured. Her family was going to have a comfortable life, wanting for nothing, and would become very financially stable.
I hoped they were happy together, I really did. I hoped that because Diego actually wanted to marry Lila, he would treat her so much better than he ever would have done me. Since I’d gone on to have my own happily ever after, I didn’t want others to be miserable, it wasn’t right. No one deserved that, least of all Lila. I may not have known nothing about her, but I was sure she was a perfectly nice woman who was having a baby with someone she hoped would treat her well.
I dropped my cell phone back on the table beside me, before rubbing my belly. I was four months pregnant with a surprise baby of my own. Something I would have been terrified about with Diego as my husband, but something I was really looking forward to these days. Being a mother with these men was going to be one hell of a journey. An exciting one at that. I was actually feeling very maternal these days. Crazy. I now wanted all the things I never knew I was going to want, all because I’d met the right people.
My shining stars. Beaming down from the skies, making me feel just wonderful.
“Oh, looks like you’re hungry.” I turned quickly at the sound of Wes as he exited the beach house with a plate of food in his hand. “Looks like I’m just in time.”
I might have been holding onto my stomach and thinking about my baby, but my stomach was growling. I was intensely hungry, and I guess I’d forgotten to eat because I was so caught up in my artwork. Luckily, I had lots of people looking out for me at all times.
“Thank you very much.” I grinned as I took the plate from him. “You’re a real star.”
I took a seat at the little table, and he joined me eagerly. We both gazed out to sea, taking in our new surroundings. It seemed that Wes was just as happy as me to be here in Miami, away from the big city. All the guys were happy to be here because they had space to shift and run freely through the sands and in the ocean. It was great for them.
We were all free here. It was liberating in the best way possible.
“What’s going on here?” Toby asked, smiling, as he took a seat with us. “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it? The weather is beautiful. I absolutely love the sunshine here. Don’t you?”
Just another way he was completely different from his twin brother. Trey had settled in rainy England in a monogynous marriage, and we were here, in heaven. We were all together in the best place in the whole entire world. It was just perfect. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. Much less with anyone else. I was starting to see now that everything that had happened to me in my life had happened for a reason. It was all leading me here, to this moment, with them. I was grateful to have experienced all that if it meant I got to be here to where I was happiest.
“When do you think Stark and Lucky will be back from their run?” I asked Wes and Toby. I just liked it better when we were all together. It made me happier to know they were all here and I could reach out and touch them at any given moment. “They’ve been gone a while.”
“It won’t be long,” Wes reassured me.
Toby reached out to squeeze my hand as well. “I know they don’t want to be away for too long. They don’t like it either, being away from you, but I do think they have a lot more pent-up energy here. They need to run it off, you know?”
“Hmm, yeah, because of RedEye Security.” Now that was the one thing that bothered me. Financially, none of them seemed to need RedEye Security to keep them going, but they were missing something in their lives now. They didn’t need to say it for me to see it. “Is there a future plan for RedEye? I’ve asked Stark a couple of times, but he gives me nothing.”
I noticed the guys exchange a look, one that seemed meaningful to me, but that gave me nothing as well. What the hell was going on? It made me stomach twist with nerves. Was something happening with RedEye? Or just their lives in general? Why didn’t I already know?
“What?” I demanded. “What is it? What are you guys not telling me?”
I guess I’d been pretty damn wrapped up in my painting, so I hadn’t so much seen what was going on around me. But there had been something hadn’t there, some tension clinging to the air. Stark was obviously more worried than he was letting on about his business. I knew he was worried about staying in America because of my father’s threats to ruin his reputation. Threats that he could have very easily carried out, given half the chance. But that didn’t mean they needed to keep whatever it was from me.
I deserved to know. Whatever happened to them, it affected my future as well. Surely, they realized that. I swallowed hard, worrying that I was being left out of everything for reasons I didn’t totally understand.
I was just about to tell them as much, but before I could, footsteps approached. Well, paws at first, but they soon became footsteps in the sand. This was exciting because it meant Stark and Lucky were back at long last.
I leapt to my feet, almost forgetting about everything else as I raced into their arms. First Lucky, because he was in front, and then Stark, who held me like he had been away for months rather than a few hours. I loved it though, that feeling of being intensely loved and protected. I slid my eyes closed and just embraced the moment for as long as I could.
Maybe this place was paradise, absolute heaven, but what really made me happy was being here with them. These guys were my home, anywhere with them would make me happy. Even if Stark was eventually going to move back to New York, which was something I probably needed to thoroughly consider. Of course I would go with them, and I would try to find the same happiness there that I had here, even if it did put me in the middle of the city where my family lived.
But my father still wouldn’t be able to control me no matter what happened. I was out of his grip now, out of his control and there was nothing he could do about it. Whether he liked it or not.
Free, I reminded myself fiercely. Wherever I am in the world, I am free.
“Let’s all sit down,” Stark said firmly, real warning in his voice. I hoped this meant he was finally going to fill me in on whatever was going on, but judging by the tone of his voice, I wasn’t so sure if this was going to be something I wanted to hear. It all felt a bit weird.
“Sure, okay. What’s going on?” I darted my eyes around at everyone, but no one seemed willing to give anything away just yet. “Why is no one telling me anything?”
Stark folded his hands together on the table and started to twist them around, almost looking anxious, which had me on edge. We were going back to New York City, I just knew it. While I’d been trying to prepare myself for this outcome, I didn’t know how ready I was for that to actually happen. I just didn’t like the thought of my dad having any access to me at all.
“We have been thinking a lot about our future,” Stark began. “I’m sure you know that RedEye Security can’t ever go back to the way it was. Actually, I don’t think I want it to either. Nor do the rest of the guys. We’re ready for the next chapter in our lives.”
“Oh…right.” I couldn’t quite figure out what this meant, so I kept looking to the other guys for clues. “So, um, what do you think the next chapter in life will be? Since, I guess, it won’t be here…”
God, I really wanted to stay. I liked it here so much. This was my dream come true. This was my life, the one that I’d always wanted, and I was scared to leave it.
“Well, I was thinking we should go somewhere you need to go.” Stark’s eyes were shining brightly, like whatever secret he had locked away inside was about to break free. “We don’t have to leave just yet. You can wait as long as you need to.”
He handed me a brown envelope. My heart was pounding and I could hardly breathe as I stared at it. Secrets and surprises from my family had never turned out well. While I wasn’t in that life anymore, I couldn’t totally shake off the weird fears that remained.
“What is this?” I shook it at Stark, before doing the same to the other guys, but none of them gave anything away. It was getting increasingly frustrating by the minute.
“Just open it,” Lucky finally exploded, like he couldn’t stand the tension any longer.
Lucky made it sound like a fun surprise, and that was enough to have my fingers ripping at the envelope. Nervous as I was, I just couldn’t help myself any longer. I wanted to know what the surprise was.
“What is this?” It was an official-looking piece of paper, which wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was almost too scared to look at it because I didn’t know what I would find, but I couldn’t stop myself from scanning the paper.
The words that jumped out to me were: National School of Fine Arts in Paris. I hadn’t thought about that place in forever. not since I left New York actually.
“What is this?” I repeated, only this time with much less strength to my voice.
“It’s an acceptance letter.” Now Stark could hardly contain himself, his excitement was palpable. “And it’s basically open ended. They want you so much, they don’t mind when you start. After seeing some of your artwork, they were falling all over themselves to get you.”
“An acceptance letter? But I never even applied. I mean, I filled out the application and everything, but I did no more than that. My father would never…”
But it wasn’t about him anymore, was it? Nothing was about him. It was all about me, and if I wanted to go off and paint in Paris, then so be it.
My hand flickered back to my stomach. I couldn’t do anything for myself now, though, because I was going to be a mother. Because I had men by my side who needed me to be a certain way.
Wait, no, of course they didn’t. That was my old way of thinking again. I’d had it drummed into me that I had to be a certain way to be a Vanderbilt wife. But that wasn’t my life anymore. The guys had gone out of their way to organize this surprise for me, which meant they really did want this for me.
“P-Paris?” I stammered out. “Really? Paris?”