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‘Ethan’s been at the hospital with Merida since last night. Apparently, she’s in labour.’
‘Thank you.’
Abe didn’t ask for details.
He already knew more than enough.
Ethan had married Merida a few months ago, though only because she was pregnant. Abe had, along with his father, signed off on the contract that would ensure that the new Mrs Devereux and her infant would be well provided for when they eventually divorced.
But as clinical as a contract sounded, it had its merits—Abe hoped to God it ensured that the baby would be treated better than he and Ethan had been.
He could not think of that now.
Abe closed his eyes on the glorious December view.
It wasn’t even nine a.m. and it was already proving to be a long day.
He had Sheikh Khalid testing his limits and the Middle East contract on the brink of collapse.
As well as that, in the hospital a few streets away from this very building he had his brother’s wife giving birth in one wing...
And his father dying in the other.
No.
He corrected himself—his father was fighting for his life in the other.
His mother, Elizabeth Devereux, had died when Abe was nine. She hadn’t been in the least bit maternal and Jobe had been far from a hands-on father. In fact, a fleet of nannies had raised the Devereux boys—but Abe greatly admired his father and was not ready to let him go.
Not that he showed it, of course.
For a second so brief it was barely there Abe considered discussing the Middle East issue with him. Jobe Devereux was the founder and the cleverest man Abe knew. Yet Abe quickly decided he could not stress his father while he was fighting just to survive.
Only that wasn’t the real reason that Abe didn’t head to the hospital now—Jobe had never shied from giving his view after all.
It was more that Abe had never asked for help in his life.
And he wasn’t about to start now.
But before he could tackle the work waiting, his private phone rang and Abe saw that it was his brother.
‘A little girl,’ Ethan said, sounding both tired and elated at the same time.
‘Congratulations.’
‘Merida was amazing!’
Abe made no comment to that. The fact that Merida had just had a baby did not suddenly make him a fan of hers. ‘Have you told Dad?’
‘I’m heading over to tell him now,’ Ethan said.
Usually they called their father Jobe, as it helped with the business side of things, but this, Abe was fast realising, wasn’t business.
Oh, there might be a watertight contract in place and the marriage might all be a charade, but a little girl had been born this morning. And that moved him. He thought of his father, about to hear the news that he was a grandfather.
‘Will you be coming in to meet your niece?’ Ethan asked.
‘Of course.’ Abe glanced at the time. ‘Though not until later in the afternoon.’
