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I can see her brain almost clicking to put it all together.
Get a grip. Help her out. This is all your fault.
Don't lose her because you held out on your secret identity this long.
You know she's been itching to ask you about the Hank and Hendrik story that Craig let slip to her. You know it.
“I had already been considering selling the company before Carly revealed to me that she had stage four cancer. My Vader and those advisors I mentioned are the only people who know that I promoted the company under an alias. Carly called Hank Enders my pen name. She said all that was missing was for me to write a book and use the name on the cover. Papa says that Hank Enders is my stage name. We don't talk about it much anymore since, of course, I've sold the company. He always thought it was sort of amusing for the shy founder of a multi-billion dollar company to use a stage name. I only let the name get out so that the press and the financial community would just let me be. I had no use for them. My attorneys were the go-between but could not possibly arrange an appointment with Mr. Enders for anyone at all. Hank Enders doesn’t exist.”
I looked long and hard at Beatrice. I could see that she was torn between tears and smiles. She kept looking up at the ceiling so she wouldn't cry. Then she would cover her mouth with her napkin to hide her smile.
“All right, my Lady Fair. Tell me everything that's on your mind. Empty your brain into my lap.”
I remember like it was this morning that she used those very words to me in the hospital.
And she finally pulled herself together to speak to me. “When Craig let slip the name Hendrik without using the name Endersson with it, and then reverted to the name Hank, well ... I had a lot of confusing and conflicting emotions about it. I mean the first thought that I had was how many people in technology even in a city this big are called Hendrik?”
I smiled ruefully at her. She went on, “Then my mind went back to my college breakup with a guy who couldn't tell me the truth if his life depended on it. I was betrayed by him and I thought … that I would have to swear off men for the rest of my life ifyouhad betrayed me too by not telling me the truth about who you really were.”
I took her hand. I kissed her palm. I looked her in the eye. “I have never lied to you. But now you know there are simply some things I didn't tell you. I have spent over fifteen years not telling people lots of things. Even Jared and his men don't know this about me.”
But I held up a finger before continuing because I had to think about that.
Did Jared or any members of his crew know that I had been the founder of the multi-billion-dollar company MetriCooks?
I’m not sure they'd even heard of the company when it comes to that.
“Let me just say I don'tbelieveany of them know who I really am or what I have done in the business world. I love them like brothers, as you have seen. But I love you too, and I never told you my secret identity until just now.” I looked closely at Beatrice’s reaction.
She just responded, “Jared and Trey seemed very grateful for the education you were able to provide to them or encouraged them to get. I guess I don't know much about your relationship with them, either!”
“Well, my beauty, you now know how secretive I have been. And this is the big secret that I hope you will help me perpetuate. I have had a very good life as the unknown, uncelebrated, underestimated Hendrik Endersson!”
I looked at her quizzically. She gave me the same look back. And we both cracked up with laughter.
Thank goodness. It has never felt so good to laugh as with this wonderful, gorgeous, sexy woman!
Chapter 44
Beatrice
Afterwe’veeaten,Hendrikdecides that it’s time I came with him to his home of over fifteen years. He's not saying a word about it. But all these weeks since Craig's slip of the tongue, I have had a new picture—and new doubts—about Hendrik.
“You really have been a Mystery Man to me in many ways, Hendrik. I did wonder—before Craig’s blunder—if you maybe didn’t live alone, that you had a woman in your house that I couldn’t been seen by. Or worse! A wife! Then I thought, oh no, not another Jimmy who has a different girl every night.”
Hendrik responds by shaking his head. But he’s not smiling.
“But after Craig’s slip of the tongue, I thought okay, I’m just not Uptown enough for you to take home—that you lived in a penthouse suite, or in a 20-bedroom mansion on five acres of land. Or you were living at the grandest hotel of the city since(Gah-ahh-ah-ly!)you could afford to do so.”
I cut myself off as I saw, to my surprise, we were headed back toward my former neighborhood.
To my further surprise, we passed the club where I picked Hendrik up a couple of years ago.
And where you went to try to uncover more information about your mystery man.
To my continuing surprise, Trey’s driver pulls up in front of a dilapidated-looking building and parks.
And what a brazen hussy you were that night! While it certainly wasn't the first time you initiated sex with a man, it certainly was the first time it was with a total, absolute stranger!
