Epilogue
Two Years Later
Molly
“Are you feeling all right, Miss Molly?” William stuck his head into the living room as I sat on the edge of the couch, reading the latest pregnancy book.
“I think so.” I glanced down at my watch. “My contractions are still about ten minutes apart. Is Alfie on his way?” Nerves tore up my insides. I wasn’t due for another three weeks, but it would seem little Daniella was on her way early.
After a blissful year of marriage, Alfie and I finally decided to start a family. He wanted two kids, and I wanted ten. The playful fight we had over it all of the time was only compounded in hilarity by the fact that all of the staff at the estate wanted ten or more little kids running around too. Poor Alfie was quite outnumbered, but something told me that he didn’t mind so much.
He was going to be a great father, much like he always wanted to be.
We’d worked hard as business owners over the last nine months to promote the right people into the right places, thereby allowing me and Alfie to have much more time at home together. We were building a future, not just a business anymore.
The employees were thrilled with us taking co-ownership of the company, and even expanding into the Chinese markets. We’d opened a new branch office, which was thriving.
My mind raced with memories as my stomach tightened, and I found it hard to breathe.
“Miss Molly?” William knelt in front of me with a wet hand towel and a glass of ice water. “Are you all right? I’m not a father, but I do believe we might want to get you loaded into the car for when Alfie arrives.”
Elizabeth, my maid, walked into the living room and reached for me. “Come on. William is right, madam. Let’s get you into the car and ready so that when the master arrives, we can get the two of you off.”
I took her hand and stood, wobbling a little. They both reached for me, and we all shared a nervous chuckle. “And if he doesn’t get here before my water breaks?”
“Then I’ll take you to the hospital, of course.” William nodded, always so good and faithful to me and Alfie.
“And I’ll go with you.” Elizabeth beamed. She had several children of her own, but they were all grown. She was almost as excited as I was about Alfie and I having our first baby.
“Where is she?” Alfie’s voice boomed through the house as the front door slammed.
“In here, sir!” William called out.
“I’m fine.” I turned as Alfie jogged into the room and reached for me.
“Lass, I told you I should have stayed home today. I had a funny feeling about you going into labor.”
“Well, let’s have the two of you chat about this on the way to the hospital, shall we?” Elizabeth put her hand on the small of my back and walked me toward the side door which led to the garage. “William and I will take another car and meet you there. Sophia will be in charge of the house, and you both need to focus on this time. It’s precious and fleeting. Everything else will be handled by us.”
“I love this woman.” I nodded back to Elizabeth as Alfie grabbed my hand and walked with us through the kitchen.
“William. Grab the bag, please?” Alfie called out and looked down at me with love in his eyes. “I’m so fucking excited I can hardly stand it.”
“You know you can’t be cursing around the baby, right?” I teased him as if I were some sort of saint. My jovialness turned to a grimace as another contraction hit, and I bent over a little and cried out.
“Mol?” Alfie moved in front of me, his expression filled with concern. “Do you need me to tote you, baby?”
“No,” I panted through the contraction. “Just move and let me go a little faster. The contractions are getting closer and closer.”
He moved back, and I walked with Elizabeth to the car. Once she had me settled inside of it, I let out a long sigh and leaned back. I was grateful for the Mercedes. It was much roomier than some of Alfie’s sports cars that he loved so much. I could just see myself getting down into one of the leather seats while I was trying to keep the baby inside of me.
“You okay, baby?” He got in and shut his door before leaning over and kissing me several times.
I swatted at him as my body tightened again. “No kissing me. Just get me there!”
He laughed, taking my angst quite well. “Anything my girl wants, she gets.”
“Good, then you have the baby.” I gripped the sides of my arm rests and let out a long growl as another contraction hit. “Go fast, baby. I’m not sure why they’re coming so quickly, but I don’t want to have the baby in the car.”
“Got it.” He pulled out of the driveway and drove like a bat out of hell. Just before we reached the hospital, we were forced to stop at a red light. He reached over and took my hand, lifting it to his lips and kissing my knuckles. “I love you so much, Mol. You’re everything to me. Thank you for this gift, lass. For every good gift your love has provided me over the last few years. I’m so honored to be your husband.”
Tears filled my eyes. “Don’t be so sweet right now. I’m having a hard time holding it together. I’m scared and worried about the baby. She’s three weeks early.”
“And she’s going to be just fine, lass. Don’t worry about a thing. Just concentrate on your breathing and focus on me.”
“You’re going to be right beside me the whole time, right?”
“Yes. I’m not going anywhere. And Logan and Peyton will be flying in later today. I contacted them on the way back to the estate.” He turned his attention back to the road and hit the gas, causing the car to jerk a little. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I leaned back and closed my eyes, forcing myself to think about mine and Alfie’s best friends. The day he proposed to me, they met, and within six months, they were engaged too.
Peyton was six months pregnant with a little boy, and we couldn’t have been happier for them. I was a little surprised that the doctor was letting her fly, but I was beyond grateful that she was coming to support me. She was my only friend in the world at one time, but not anymore. I’d made many friends at work and in the community in Devon where we lived.
Life couldn’t have been better, and Alfie and I were in the perfect place in our lives to bring in a little one. I prayed she had Alfie’s eyes and his perfectly straight nose, but more than anything, I just wanted her to be healthy.
“All right, lass. Let’s go.” Alfie got out of the car and walked around, helping me out, too. “Just hold onto me.”
I wasn’t surprised to see Elizabeth and William pull up behind us, both of them running toward the car and telling us to go in. They would get our bags.
“I love them.” I glanced up at Alfie. “They’re such a blessing in our lives. We should give them a raise.”
He laughed. “They already make more than my executives, doll, but if that’s what you want…so be it.” He kissed the side of my head and reached down to pick me up as I buckled under the pressure of another contraction.
From that moment on, everything moved so fast. I found myself on a bed with people hooking me up to various monitors as they rushed about. Alfie stood to my left, bent over the bed with his face in mine. He gave me something secure and steady to focus on: him.
“Remember when you first came to Devon with me? How awkward it all was?” He brushed his nose against mine. “I knew I wanted you, but I was so conflicted because of the stuff with Harry.”
“You’re a good man.” I reached up and touched the side of his face. “The scoundrel you were in University is long gone.”
“I don’t know if I would say that exactly.” He laughed. “He shows up when you bend over a couch, a bed, or a kitchen counter.” His eyes darkened a little, and I laughed.
“Are you trying to sex me up in the middle of the birthing room?”
He glanced around and then back down to me. “I guess I am. I often forget where I am and who’s around when you walk into the room. You have far more power over me than you know, lass.”
“I like the sound of that.” I pulled him down for a long kiss.
“All right. Time to push, Molly. Grab Alfie’s hand, and let’s get this little one out.” The doctor touched my knees and smiled up at me.
“Okay. Let’s do this.” I took Alfie’s hand and pushed as the doctor told me two. Three pushes later, I was drenched in sweat, pale as hell, and shaking, but a sound filled the air that changed my life forever. By the look on Alfie’s face, it changed his too.
A small cry filled the air. The doctor held up a tiny baby and laughed.
“It’s a healthy, beautiful, baby girl.”
“You did it, love.” Alfie leaned over me and kissed my forehead. “You did it.”
“We did it.” I pulled him close and closed my eyes. My future looked nothing like I thought it would, and for that, I was forever grateful.
BILLIONAIRE AND THE AMISH GIRL
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Claire Adams
Chapter One
Grace
When I walked out of the front door of my apartment building, I realized that this morning was one of those perfect, Chicago summer mornings. The temperature was warm, the humidity was low, and the whole city was awash in the lush greenery that made slogging through the cold, wet winters totally worth it. I smiled as I smoothed my new, red sheath dress and bent to wipe a bit of dirt off of the matching pumps I'd bought on my last trip to my favorite boutiques on Michigan Avenue. I dug into my bag, looking for my sunglasses, and quickly found them, then checked to make sure I had the presentation I was drafting for next month's meeting. When I was certain that everything was where it was supposed to be, I turned and headed toward the L, breathing deeply and feeling cheerfully optimistic.
A half an hour later, I stepped inside the large, glass and steel office building where I worked as a CPA for a large tech company. I stopped for a moment and thought about how far I'd come and how different my life was from my rural upbringing in northern Indiana. When I was a child, I couldn't have imagined living in this city or working at a job like the one I had now. The only thing that I had known back then was scripture and dutiful service to the community.
I shook my head, trying to let go of the memories that hovered in the recesses of my mind as I waved at Gertie, the security guard who sat watching the front desk, and headed for the bank of elevators that would take me up to the 37th floor.
I punched the up button and thought about how I loved my family and missed them all terribly, but from the time I was a young child, I knew that following the traditions of the Amish had never felt right to me. Thankfully my parents had been accepting of my differences and had supported me when I announced that, after my rumpspringa, I'd chosen not to be baptized, but instead would be applying to the University of Chicago so that I could pursue a degree in finance.
The car arrived and I stepped into it, holding the door for a man who was consulting a piece of paper before choosing a floor. I smiled and recalled how the next spring, against all odds, I'd received a letter of acceptance from UC and an award from the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund covering the cost of tuition and room and board for all four years. That summer, my sister Faith got engaged to Samuel Yoder and I spent the entire time before I left for college helping plant celery and get the house ready for the October nuptials. I felt sad that I'd be missing out on such a happy celebration, but Mamm reassured me that there would be others and that I would always be welcome in our family home.
We stopped on the 25th floor and the man got out. I recalled how tensions rose in the community when word got back to the bishop of our district who also happened to be my father's older brother. He'd warned Dat and Mamm that if I left, I'd not be welcome back in the church unless I agreed to be baptized. Dat had stood firm against the edict and told his brother that all of his children, baptized or not, were welcome in their own home at any time. My uncle didn't take the news well and it made things tense when I'd return home for a visit.
The elevator dinged as I reached the 27th floor, and when the doors opened, I found myself standing face to face with my boss, Mike Killian.
"Good morning, Mike!" I said as I waved and headed toward my office.
"Morning, kid," Mike grunted as he sipped from a Styrofoam coffee cup and scanned the screen of his phone. "Oh, hey, Grace, I need to talk to you about the New York presentation. Come by around ten, will you?"
"Sure thing, Mike," I said as I pushed open the glass doors that led to the front lobby of Riser Tech. "I'll drop my things off and come down to your office." Mike simply nodded before disappearing into the elevator.
I said good morning to the front desk staff and then headed back to my own office, tucked away in the back of the accounting department. The year before I had been promoted and made assistant to the director of auditing. Our department examined potential new client accounts and reconciled the books before Riser Tech did any business with them, and then advised them on what technology they'd need to adopt in order to complete a seamless transition with the Riser Tech team who would manage their IT needs. Riser Tech had suffered a major blow the year before when it took on a client who was not entirely solvent. The company then went bankrupt after we'd signed all the contracts. Now that Riser was poised to merge with Mija-Walco, the CEO and executives who all worked on the 28th floor had made it a priority to avoid repetition of the mistake and had spent time formulating a plan to prevent it from ever happening again. I was now part of a six-member team whose sole focus was vetting clients and laying out their options.
I spent the better part of the morning reading and responding to email as well as dealing with questions from the accounting staff that ran reports for our team. I had just finished putting together a presentation that I was scheduled to make later in the week when the alarm on my computer went off letting me know it was time to get down to Mike's office. I saved the file I was working on and grabbed the file on the Mija Oil account and headed out.
"Mike?" I said tapping lightly on his door as I peered into his office. He was on the phone and waved me in pointing toward one of the chairs across from his long desk. I crossed the room and took a seat facing the floor to ceiling glass windows that overlooked the Chicago River. No matter how many meetings I attended in Mike's office, I never lost the sense of awe and wonder I felt the first time I looked out those windows and saw the sunlight sparkling on the water. Mike joked about how they'd put him in this office because it was out of hearing range of anyone who mattered, but the reality was that he worked harder than anyone else at the company and spent more time at the office than he did at home. This office, and every piece of uniquely crafted furniture and artwork in it, was Mike's reward for a job well done.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," he said nodding impatiently as he looked at me and rolled his eyes dramatically. "I will. New York will be the shit, I promise, Big Guy. Okay, gotta run! Yeah, you, too. Bye!"
He sighed heavily as he slammed the phone down then raised his hands over his head declaring, "Touchdown!"
"What was that about?" I laughed as I watched him pull a can of lime seltzer water out from the small refrigerator he kept under his desk and then pop the top.
"The boss is riding my ass about the Mija-WalCo merger," he said before taking a long drink from the can. "He's worried that Mija and company are going to walk away from the deal unless we come up with something to knock their socks off with. I keep telling him that we are solid, but he's been listening to those useless wankers on the board again."
"That must be frustrating," I said as I tossed the file of papers toward him. The folder made a satisfying thwack on the desk as it landed. "Here are the numbers for Mija Oil. Jess and I stayed late, running them twice. They look good on paper, and their investment portfolio is impeccable, but when we look at their current technology, there's a problem."
"Oh, and what's that?" Mike asked as he grabbed the file and began thumbing through it. His cell phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket, glanced at it, and tucked it away again before looking up at me expectantly.
"We're not sure yet, but there's something off," I said shaking my head. "We're going to pull it apart today and check everything before we make any recommendations. I don't want to draw the wrong conclusions based on sketchy evidence, but I don't want us okaying them if there's something wrong."
"Good thinking," he nodded as he continued reading the report. "Will you be ready by the time we meet with them?"
"Next month? Yes, we should have had more than enough time to track it all down and figure out what's going on," I nodded. "Jess is going to head out on the road this week and interview a few of their subsidiaries. I think that will give is a well-rounded picture of what we're looking at."
"Great job, Grace!" Mike said as he looked up from the file and smiled at me. At fifty, he was an attractive man with a thick head of black hair, a tendency to stylize his facial hair so that it looked like he had a perpetual five o'clock shadow, and a penchant for wearing wild colored shirts under his Brooks Brothers suits. He was tough, but kind and had looked out for me since I joined the company six years before. I considered him my mentor, but if I was honest, I also had a bit of a crush on him, too. "By the way, nice dress! You've developed good taste, kiddo!"
"Thanks, Mike," I said blushing slightly as I looked down at my watch and saw that I was late for my meeting with Jess and the director. "Oh shoot! I have to go!"
"Okie dokie!" he said as he winked at me and motioned to the door. "Go get 'em, champ! Check in with me later; I might have some feedback about this report."
I nodded and rushed out the door. Back in my office, I grabbed a second copy of the Mija file and headed down to the director's office for my second meeting of the morning. We spent an hour hashing out how to divide up the research and by the time we were done, both Jess and I had been assigned a list of tasks ranging from important to urgent. I passed on Jess's invitation to have lunch together and headed back to my office where I ate my sandwich at my desk while I organized the tasks on my list and prioritized my plan of attack.
By the time I looked up again, the sun was beginning to sink as the last rays of light hit the windows of the buildings on Wacker Drive. I thought about how much I loved living in the city, and how alive I felt every time I walked down the city streets and mingled with the thousands of people who inhabited the offices and apartments here.
I had never felt this way back in Corner Grove, Indiana where my family had lived and worked for generations. In fact, despite the vast acreage that my family owned and farmed, growing up I had often felt trapped. The Amish traditions and expectations were a heavy mantle for a young girl who wanted to explore and experience. There were so many things I read about in the books and magazines I checked out from the public library, but when I'd ask my parents or my teachers about them, they would direct me back to the scriptures and remind me of the importance of patience, obedience, and living a life of devotion to God and the community.
When I finally packed up my few belongings and headed to Chicago for college, I felt like I could finally breathe. The adjustment to college and city life was enormously difficult, but after a year of living in the dorms, I'd shed my skin and adjusted to college life. I'd bought new clothes and cut my waist length hair into a fashionable bob so that I wouldn't stand out as much. But what had been most freeing was the ability to move around the city anonymously.
In Corner Grove, I was Eli and Rebekah Miller's oldest daughter, Bishop Amos Miller's niece, "that nice Miller girl who works at the grocery store," and Gabe Yoder's sweetheart. In Chicago, I was Grace Miller, college student. No one knew anything about me unless I told them. There was absolute freedom in anonymity.
At times, it was painfully lonely, though. There was no way to contact my parents unless they made the trek down to the phone booth at the end of the dirt road where we lived, but the difference in my schedule and theirs often made it difficult to arrange, so I had to be content with a monthly letter that summarized everything that was going on. Once a year, I would go home and visit, but the minute the train pulled into Corner Grove, I would start to feel homesick for the city.
When I finally graduated, no one from my family was there to share in the joy of my accomplishment because they couldn't get away from the farm or the store. Dat offered to send Gabe up to sit with me while I received my degree, but I couldn't think of anything more humiliating than having an Amish man sticking out like a sore thumb when very few of my friends knew about where I came from and what I'd left behind.
I ran my fingers through my hair and inhaled deeply as I tried to shake the memory of that very lonely day. After graduation, I had landed an entry level accounting position with Riser Tech, and after six years I was making enough to be able to afford a down payment on a small but comfortable condo just north of downtown. I had a wardrobe that made me feel good myself, and only one of the plain, ugly Amish dresses tucked in a drawer for when I went home. Mamm and Dat were happy to have me come home, but their one rule was that I had to dress Amish while I was there. It seemed like a small price to pay for the time I got to spend with them, so I followed the rules and wore the hated dress.
It was dark now, and most of the people in the office had gone home, so I packed up my things and headed for the L. Out on Randolph Street, I stopped at the bridge and looked out along the river. Lights were coming on in the buildings that lined the waterway and the street lamps cast a golden glow on the water. I sighed as I took a deep breath and said a small prayer of thanks for the beautiful life I was living.