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“To do what?”
I shrugged. “Anything.”
I didn’t really have financial worries. I had not told Lauren the extent of my personal wealth, but it was substantial. I had inherited a large amount from my father, most of which had been invested. As I’d been living with my mother in the family home, I’d not had to buy a property and had not wasted my inheritance on flashy parties or overseas trips. I’d been investing in the stock market, playing with trades and betting on some rather wild ventures. Some didn’t pan out. But others did. If I was careful, I didn’t have to work, ever again. Neither did she.
“I took the job as CEO of Egal for my mother’s sake. But she went too far, with you. And then trying to turn the board against me. That was a low blow.”
“What about the family name, the Waterstone legacy?”
I put my hand on her belly.
“This is the Waterstone legacy.”
I saw her blinking at me.
“I don’t think my father intended for the company to become the kind of toxic environment it has become, a place where the family fights, like dogs with a bone.
I took a breath. “From what I remember about my father, he was more playful, not that serious. Take the accident that killed him? It was his passion that plane. But he had not that long before received his pilot’s license. He could be reckless sometimes.”
“What happened, with the plane?”
“I don’t know, we think he accidentally flew into power cables. The plane crashed into the ground. There was a fire, his body was burnt beyond recognition.”
“That’s terrible.!”
“I once overheard my cousins joking that maybe it wasn’t him at all. That maybe he’d staged his death to get away from my mother, the family, and the fighting about the company.”
“Your mother?!”
“I know…” I didn’t really know what they meant, and I couldn’t ask them. But over the years, I had often wondered if my mother’s description of their marriage and relationship was not a little idealized. One of the board members, BillBouvier, had over the years made references to my father’s drinking. He’d said on occasion that my father was fond of making rash business decisions late at night, halfway through a bottle of bourbon. He also said my father was always picking hobbies that took him away from work. I didn’t like the sound of that.
“What did they mean about the fighting about the company?”
“I asked my Uncle Albert once; he didn’t like talking about it. But it seemed that he’d been the CEO of the company originally. But when my mother’s father invested in the company, one of his conditions had been that my father take over the day-to-day running of the business.”
“Your uncle must’ve hated that.”
I knew he did. Even though Albert had always been friendly towards me, he was reluctant to talk about my father. When I became CEO, I suggested he become chairman of the board, a powerful position that he seemed to enjoy. Perhaps he was ready to take over again. Or maybe he would encourage Will to fill the position. I found that I didn’t really care,one way or another.
“I feel as if the company has controlled my life for long enough,” I said. “I’m ready to start something new.”
“You won’t miss it?” Lauren asked.
“I don’t think so. The last few days have been very liberating,” I gave a laugh and kissed her again, feeling my good mood from earlier returning. “Being away from it, and with you, is the happiest I have been in ages. I don’t want to give it up.”
“If it is up to me, you don’t have to,” she said with a tender smile.
We spent the day in bed, ordering room service and talking about the past.
We connected in a way we had never been able to do before. Away from our families, from the company and all the responsibilities that always seemed to overshadow us, we could be together without any impediments. We had sex, talked, drank non-alcoholic champagne, and thought up names for our baby.
“I suppose you’ll have to give a family name?” Lauren said. “I’m not sure I like Cynthia though.”
I shook my head. “God, no.”
I thought about my grandmother and the cookies she had baked for me after my father’s death. Batch after batch of rather hard, inedible cookies that were her way of trying to cheer me up. I could see now that they probably didn’t know how to deal with me. They had lost a son too and were in mourning too without having to deal with a moody grandson.
“What about Elizabeth?” I said, “My grandmother’s name?”
