The Arrogant Artist : A Billionaire Boss Romance (International Bad Boys Set Book 2), стр. 57
“Keep teasing me like that, Miss Chapman, and I’ll bend you over this table and fuck you in front of everyone to make sure they all know you are mine.”
I swallow hard. Damn, that is hot.
“Would you two cut it out? Us single people don’t want to lose their appetite before dinner,” Georgia groans but gives me a quick wink.
Oops, she totally heard Louis’ dirty threats.
Louis ignores my friend and pulls me closer, then kisses me, making my friends and Daniel gag.
Not long later, dinner is served and, of course, it’s spectacular. Gabriel made a traditional Provençal. We all ate way too much and drank too many bottles of wine, but the conversation around the dinner table never faded.
“Daniel, did you know Emily’s mother is French and also an artist,” Louis tells his brother. He’s tipsy, we all are. I notice the girls look over at me a little shocked that Louis knows about my family’s past.
“Really? I guess it must be in her genes.” Daniel takes a sip of his wine. He’s lost his suit jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, and Ava hasn’t stopped flirting with him all night. Where did this confident woman come from? Ava rarely makes the first move on guys.
“She lives here, too, somewhere.” Louis waves his arm around the room.
The girls look over at me again, questions lacing their faces going by their raised eyebrows and widening eyes.
“Have you seen her since you’ve been here?” Gabriel asks.
I shake my head. “I haven’t seen her since I was five.”
The table goes to quiet contemplating my confession.
“Would you like to meet her?” Daniel asks.
I shrug because I’m not really sure.
“The reason I ask is that I know people, who can, you know…” his voice lowers, “… find anything.”
My eyes widen as do Ava’s.
“They could find her?” I look over at Georgia and Rosie who are staring at me with their mouths open.
“Yeah.” Daniel waves his hand. “I could have her address by tomorrow if you want.”
Holy heck, that’s quick.
Is this what I want?
My pulse quickens—it doesn’t give me much time to process it all.
“You wouldn’t have to meet her, but you could write her a letter if you had her address,” Louis adds.
He’s right. Maybe I could write her a letter to start off slowly. That way, if she rejects me, it’s not face-to-face, and she ends up devastating me.
“Okay,” I whisper.
A hush falls across the table.
“Are you sure, Emily?” Rosie asks.
“I think I need to know why she didn’t keep in touch, especially after Dad died. She’s had so many chances, and I guess I just want to know. Maybe then I can have some closure on that part of my life.”
My friends all nod in agreement. They’ve been through all of this with me throughout my entire life. They know what my family was like growing up.
Louis kisses my forehead. With him by my side, I feel like I can conquer this last hurdle in my life.
34
Louis
We have dropped the girls off at my apartment. Thankfully, Daniel organized cleaners to tidy the space since I haven’t been there in months. The last time I was there was during one of my many benders, so I can only imagine what the place looked like.
“We need to talk.” Daniel looks serious as I take a seat in his office. “It’s about Emily’s mother.”
“Is she dead?” I ask.
“No. But…” Daniel is fidgeting, he never fidgets. “You have a connection to her mother.”
I look at Daniel. Is he high? Then panic fills me. Fuck! Did I sleep with her mother? During those four months of darkness there were some rich older ladies that I slept with and, oh fuck! How could we move on from that?
“I didn’t sleep with her, did I?” Daniel bursts out laughing at my question, which can only mean I didn’t. Thank God!
“Seriously, Louis?”
“Look, I was in a bad place.”
“Not sure if it’s worse than that, to be honest. But anyway, Emily’s mother is Ellie, or also known as Eloise.”
Oh shit.
“Victor’s wife?”
Daniel nods.
I stand and begin to pace. I’ve spent more time with Emily’s mother than she has. Shit. I still catch up with Eloise and Victor, not that much since my hiatus. I rake my hands through my hair.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Should we tell her?”
“I don’t know, Louis.”
“Eloise never said anything about having kids. She and Victor would always say they’re devoted to their art, and that the artists they mentor are like their children. Shit, Daniel! How can I keep this from her?”
“Give her this weekend with her girlfriends, then maybe slowly broach the subject afterward.”
“If Emily doesn’t want to know… then how can I keep this from Eloise and Victor?”
“This isn’t your secret to tell.”
“Yeah, and if that were true, then we would never have met.”
Daniel and I share the same father but different mothers. I grew up as an only child to a single mother who struggled to make ends meet. Apparently, the apartment we lived in was paid for by my father, but that was as far as his generosity went. Just before Daniel’s mother passed away, she confessed to Daniel that he had a brother a year younger than him, his father having had an affair with his secretary. She was sworn to secrecy by his father, not wanting to destabilize his company with the bad press an affair would cause.
He threatened Tina, Daniel’s mother, that if she ever told anyone he’d divorce her and leave her penniless. So, she told his secret on her death bed, when he couldn’t blackmail her anymore.
Daniel looked for and found me, ignoring my father’s request which meant giving up his family legacy by choosing me. He has no relationship with our father, and I’ve never met him, but at least I got my brother out of the whole messed-up situation,