Page 262 of The Rebel Billionaire

“Will you at least move in with me? You can sleep in a different room. I’m not going to put pressure on you until you’re ready, but at least my apartment is safe. You won’t have any fear of being hounded, especially as you won’t have Mitch and Dan across the hall.”

“I will,” she says, looking up at me. “I’m not making false promises as I don’t know what’s going to happen. But if we’re really going to do this, we need to do it properly. I know the stress you were under because of the espionage, and I’m also at fault because I wasn’t transparent with you. I should never have kept night school a secret. It was stupid, but my life was crazy. Secrets have a way of coming back to bite you in the arse. Believe me when I say, my family have enough experience to last several lifetimes. If I come back, I want to give us a real go.”

My lips descend on hers, and it’s like coming home. I deepen our kiss before pulling back and resting my forehead against hers.

“Let’s go and tell my family,” she says. “I can’t promise they’re going to be very happy, and all those spare rooms of yours are likely to be full over the next couple of months, or they may stay at the Frazer Hotel, New York.”

“If they want to come and stay with us, they’ll be more than welcome. Although I’m not sure how Elijah is going to take the news.”

“He’s a pussycat beneath it all,” she says with a laugh. “And I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s him who told me to follow my heart.”

“Then remind me to thank him.”

CHAPTER 79

HARPER

Ifold the last of my clothes into the packing box that will be shipped to Alex’s apartment.

Mum enters with Kat in tow.

“Nearly done?” she asks.

“I am.”

I take in the empty wardrobe, almost the size of the bedroom in my apartment in New York. Oh, how life has changed.

Mum smiles. “I don’t think Sophia and I could ever have foreseen you and Alessandro. Perhaps Kat, being the eldest, would have seemed more likely… but fate has a funny way of weaving her web.”

I sit down in the chair next to the fireplace in my room.

“How do you know Sophia? She would never tell me.”

Mum chuckles.

“We were at school together. Sixth form, it was called back then.”

“It’s more than school. She said she owed you.”

Mum’s smile widens. “I think I’m probably the one who owes her, if the truth be told.”

“For goodness sake, Mum,” Kat says. “Put us out of our misery. There’s clearly a story here.”

“Let’s just say I wasn’t your father’s first marriage prospect.”

Kat and I look at each other and then at our mother.

“What, Sophia?” I ask, then clamp my mouth shut. Dad and Sophia?

Mum nods and smiles.

“Their parents arranged their marriage while they were still children,” she explains. “They wanted a Frazer-St Clair merger. Not just of their businesses, but of their families too.”

“But you and Dad?” I ask. “I thought yours was an arranged marriage.”

Mum’s eyes twinkle. “Oh, it was. Your father was livid when I helped my friend elope with her true love.”

“Edoardo?”