Chapter1
Sitting on a low hill, surrounded by towering sixty-foot pine trees, looking out onto a gray and tempestuous Pacific sea, stood a massive mansion. It was made of many levels, and there were balconies and patios set at different points on the different levels. There were wide and tall windows over the seaside of it, and only slightly fewer windows on the wooded hillside of it. A four-car garage sat at the base of it, while it was topped with a master bedroom that overlooked all the area around the house. There was a small orchard and garden off to one side of the house, and an indoor and outdoor swimming pool and hot tub. A delicate flowering vine covered part of the front of the house, hugging one side of the door. There were no neighbors within a mile of the home in any direction.
The mansion was made of massive gray stones, looking almost like a modern-day castle, and for that it was named Graystone Manor. It was the home of the Ellison family, who had lived there a long while, and who were one of the wealthiest families in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
The Ellison family had once been headed by Edward Ellison, who had maneuvered the stock market with a genius which knew a rare peer. He had married his college sweetheart, Georgia, and together they had given life to one son, Henry. Edward had passed away shortly after Henry had graduated from college, and in taking the reins of the business and family wealth, Henry had turned the multi-million-dollar estate that his father had built into a billion-dollar estate through aggressive advancements in the technology industry he based in nearby Seattle.
Ellison Incorporated had become one of the cornerstones of solid wealth in the area, and it seemed to the family and to everyone else that it was only going to grow. The loss of his father had devastated Henry, but he was relieved to still have his mother in his life and to be sharing a home with her.
Georgia was sitting across the dining room table from Henry, pushing the fruit around on her plate with a fork. She was watching him intently. The last of the steam drifted from her full cup of Earl Grey tea and it sat neglected in the saucer that had been served to her.
“Henry, we have to talk about something important,” she began after a lengthy silence.
He was a handsome man, some said devastatingly so, while others called him sweet and charming. Henry had inherited his father’s height and good looks; he was six and a half feet tall with a sturdy and strong build, though he wasn’t bulky, he was certainly fit, and he kept himself in excellent health. His mother often told him how much he looked like his father, but that he had more of her strong adventurous personality, her stubbornness, her determination, and sheer willpower.
He looked up at her, his sandy brown hair curled in waves around the top of his head, his hazel eyes framed by thick, dark, long lashes set on her. He gave her a smile; his clean-shaven cheeks rounding out the chiseled square lines of his jaw.
“Of course, Mother; what is it that you want to talk about?” He lifted his brows slightly and brought his coffee cup to his mouth.
She leaned forward just a little and folded her hands together. In her youth, she had been extraordinarily beautiful, and that beauty had stayed with her, softening over the years of her life, but it had taken a toll in the months leading up to that moment, and it was obvious on her face and in her blue eyes. Her blonde hair had become streaked with white, and the lines around her eyes and mouth had deepened.
“You know that I’m so very proud of what your father has given us, and I’m equally proud of what you’ve done with it, but that’s not what means the most to me. What means most to me is you, Henry. Nothing in this world means as much to me as you do. You’re a good man; you’re dedicated and smart and you have an enormous heart. I couldn’t be happier that I am lucky enough to have you for my son. But with my recent health issues, there is a growing concern that is at the forefront of my mind.” She sighed and gazed at him meaningfully.
The smile vanished from his face. “Mother, your health is my number one concern. Cancer is nothing to put second. There’s nothing about me that should come before that. Your life is being threatened by that cruel disease, and we have to focus on that and nothing else.”
She frowned at him and narrowed her eyes. “The cancer that is trying to kill me is exactly why you are at the front of my mind. I’m going through chemo; I’m doing everything I can to fight it, but you know that the doctors aren’t giving me much time to live. You know that my days are flying by, disappearing one by one faster than I can count them.”
Henry looked away from her, shifting his eyes to the half empty plate in front of him. “Mother, your illness is my only priority. We’re going to do all that we can to beat the cancer that you’re fighting. Nothing else is important. Nothing else matters.”
Georgia sat up straighter. “There is something else that matters to me. It matters more than anything. I’m fighting the disease, but that isn’t what’s most important to me. You are the most important thing in the world to me, and your future is important. You haven’t settled down, Henry. You haven’t gotten serious about any woman, and I am extremely concerned about it.”
He frowned. “What? You’re worried because I’m not in a relationship? Mother, you know I haven’t gotten serious about anyone since…” He held off quietly for a moment, not wanting to speak her name. “Since I was in college. I thought I was going to get married. I thought it was going to happen just like you and Dad, and it didn’t. She wanted someone else and she took the ring with her and left me with a shredded heart. I don’t need to be in a relationship. Our business is my relationship. I don’t have anyone on the radar for romance, and I don’t want anyone in my life like that. I’m fine just like I am. I don’t need to have love in my life to be happy. Please don’t worry about that.”
She pursed her lips and put her hands on the edge of the table, pushing herself up carefully. Georgia made her way around the dining room table slowly, her eyes on her son the entire time. When she reached the chair beside him, she pulled it out and sat down in it, facing him.
“Henry, it isn’t only your love life that I’m concerned about. I know that you’re independent and strong and that you are focused on the business, but the business doesn’t keep you warm at night, it doesn’t give your life the same kind of meaning that a real love could,” she told him earnestly.
He opened his mouth to protest again, but she held her hand up to stop him. “Please, darling, listen. I know how much richer your life could be if you had real love in it. I don’t want you to give up on that. I want you to give it a try, and I want you to do it soon, because your love life isn’t the only thing that I’m focused on.”
Georgia’s gaze became piercing. He looked away and sighed. He knew that he couldn’t argue with her. With a sigh, he turned his attention back to her. “What else are you thinking of?”
A smile made its way upward at the corners of her mouth. “I was thinking of grandchildren,” she said quietly, and let the words linger in the air between them.
Henry’s jaw dropped and he stared at his mother. “Grandchildren?” he barely whispered back to her. It took him a full minute before he could shake his head and look at her sternly. “Mother, I’d be glad to give you anything you want, and I can… I could literally give you almost anything that you want, but… how can you even think to ask about grandchildren? Mother, I’m not in a relationship at all, and I don’t even have a woman in my life who I’d consider dating, let alone marrying and having children with. Children couldn’t be further from my mind! I can’t believe you’re bringing them up at all. I just… I can’t even believe you’ve mentioned it.”
She shook her head. “You listen to me, son. I love you more than anyone in the world, and you know that your happiness is very important to me, but I see how you are about dating, and I worry. I’m afraid that this cancer will take me and you’ll be alone, and then you’ll never find anyone, and you’ll never have children. I’m afraid that you’ll grow old alone, and that is not what I want for you. I want you loved, well loved. I want you looked after and cared for. I want you to have a wife and a family. I want the very best for you.”
He shook his head and opened his mouth to argue with her and she closed her eyes and held her hand up again, unwilling to hear it from him. A moment later she spoke once more. “Darling, I want all of that, but I also want grandchildren. I don’t have much more time on this earth, and I don’t want to pass away not having ever seen my own grandchildren. I want them, more than anything else in this world. I want to see your babies and hold them in my arms. I need that, Henry. I need to see my grandchildren before I die!”
Her voice had grown adamant, and he felt his gut clench. He shook his head slowly and gave her a sorrowful look. “Mother, you’re asking me for the one thing that I can’t give you. There’s no way that I’m going to be able to get into a relationship serious enough to bring children into the world, especially in the time frame that the doctor’s say that you have left. It’s just not possible. They’ve said you wouldn’t have much more than a year to a year and a half. That’s not enough time. I don’t even know anyone who I would consider starting a family with. This is the most unreasonable thing you’ve ever asked of me. I wish I could give you what you want, but I just can’t this time. It’s just not possible.”
“It is possible. A baby takes nine months,” she said quietly, watching him. “With any luck, you could have two before I pass away, if you hurry. That’s not too far out of the ballpark.”
He furrowed his brow. “Mother, it’s a completely unreasonable request. You know I love you and that I’d do anything for you. I appreciate that you have my best interests at heart and that you want the best for me, but I just can’t get that serious with someone, with anyone, fast enough to give you grandchildren. We don’t have that much time. Please… don’t ask me that.”
“I am asking you that,” she said quietly, looking at him seriously. “I want to see my grandchildren before I leave this world. That’s all there is to it. I want to see you happy and settled down. I want to see you in love, and I want to see my grandchildren. That’s what I want. It’s what I need. Please… give me that. Find a way to give me that.”
Henry closed his eyes and sighed. His mind was going a million miles an hour. He wished that he could think his way out of what his mother was requesting of him, but he knew better. He knew that her heart was set on it, and that there would be no changing her mind. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way out.
He looked back at her and rested his hand on top of hers, speaking with a kind and heartfelt voice. “Mother, I love you with all of my heart, but this time I can’t give to you what you’re asking of me. I wish I could. I wish it was possible for me to do it, because I’d do it in a minute if I was able to, but this is the one thing that I can’t give you, and it breaks my heart to tell you no, because I know how much it means to you. There’s just no way for me to give you that. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”
With that, he let go of her hand and stood up from the polished dark wooden table. She looked up at him imploringly. “Henry… I’m dying. It means everything to me to see your children. Please… at least try. Try to find a way. Somehow…” She looked as if her very life depended on it.
He sighed and nodded, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “I’ll do my best, mother. I love you.”
Turning from her, he walked out of the room feeling as if the weight of the entire world was bearing down on his shoulders. He had no idea what he was going to do about her request, but he knew that there was no real way that he could do it. He hated to break his mother’s heart or to deny her anything, as she so seldom asked for anything, but there was just no way in the world to do it. That he knew to be true.
***
The soft glow of light from a massive crystal chandelier gently reached through the darkened corners of the elegantly decorated room, subtly caressing all that it touched, from red velvet cushioned seats to thick hand carved mahogany tables, and the carefully styled hair and perfumed skin of many a well-dressed lady and gentleman.
It was one of the finer restaurants in the Seattle area; a little tricky to get to, but it had a stunning view of the city before it, and the Puget Sound beyond it. It was the perfect place to take a date for a romantic sunset meal, but it wasn’t quite sunset, and it wasn’t going to be anything like a romantic meal.
Henry smiled as the couple sitting at the table he was headed for stood up and greeted him warmly. The man, a slightly heavy gent with dark hair, dark eyes, and a genuine smile, reached his hand out to Henry and half hugged him as he spoke his name in welcoming tones.
“So good to see you Henry! Glad you could make it,” David Carlton said to him as he released his hand. David was one of the best attorneys in the city, though he didn’t look like a shark. He had a pleasant air about him; a friendly and accepting demeanor, a sharp mind, and a cracking wit. He was able to win most of his cases with intelligent, well thought out and meaningful points, rather than a nasty fight.
The woman beside him reached her arms out and closed them around Henry’s neck. She gave him an honest grin. The blonde curls of her hair were pulled up in a carefree but pretty knot at the back of her head, leaving loose tendrils around her slender neck and shoulders. Her blue eyes shone and a dimple formed in one cheek as the creases at the corners of her eyes deepened when she smiled.
“Hi Henry!” She looked upon him as if he was someone dear that she was thrilled to see, and he hugged her in return and gave her a grin. She always greeted him that way, whether things were good or not, whether she had seen him recently or not for a little while, it was always the same with her. She had a heart of gold.
The three of them sat and ordered their drinks and dinner, and Henry looked at David. “How goes the world of law these last couple of weeks?”
David shrugged and laughed, looking downward with a slight blush on his cheeks. “Well, it’s law, right? Win some lose some, I guess.”
“You’re telling me you actually lost some?” Henry raised one brow subtly and eyed his best friend with mirthful doubt.
David gave his head a little shake. “Not really, no. It’s been a good week. Saved the good people, put the bad people where they go. That’s my job.” He waved his hand in the air.
“And you, Marina?” Henry turned his gaze toward David’s sweet wife. “How are you doing? What have you been up to?”
She brightened and her excitement was catching to both men. “Well, we went to a little community concert and one of the people who I play violin with in the city symphony was bragging about me to the art museum director, and the director asked me to come and play for a special private event that they’re having to reveal some Impressionist works of art that have never been shown in this country before! I’m so thrilled I can hardly stand it! I’m really looking forward to it.”
Marina seemed to gush, but in a charming and endearing way. Both men shared her joy. She looked back at Henry.
“What about you? What’s going on in your world?” she asked happily.
“Oh, well the tech industry moves faster than the speed of light all over the world, so you know they all keep me hopping. New toys, new innovation. It will never end, it will only continue to keep changing.” He shrugged and laughed, and both David and Marina chuckled with him.
She tilted her head to one side and eyed him curiously. “How’s your mother doing? Is she still getting chemo treatments?”
Henry stopped short then. “Yes… she is. It’s an aggressive form of therapy, but it hasn’t changed the diagnosis. They’re still saying there’s no way that she’s going to make it past two years. They say a year and a half at best.”
He was quiet and looked down at the glass of wine in his hand, swirling the red liquid and watching it turn in the crystal embraced in his fingertips.
David frowned and leaned further over the table toward Henry. “Henry…” he began slowly, eyeing him. “What’s going on? Is there something new? Is something going on that we don’t already know about?”
Henry sighed woefully and glanced at the people in the room around them. There were people of varying adult ages huddled around candlelit tables, murmuring in conversation. All of them settled into the moments of their lives; the bubbles in which they lived, none of them thinking of the other bubbles around them, so near to them, that were almost intertwined with their own lives. None of them paying attention, none of them listening or looking.
He turned and drew nearer to David and Marina. “Well… there is one thing,” he began with a deep breath. “She just brought it up, and I’ll be honest, I’m totally stumped. I really don’t know how to handle this. I don’t know how to give her what she’s asked for. I wish I could… I really do, but there’s just no way for me to do it. It’s not possible. I’ve never had to tell her no for any reason before, but she just asked for the impossible, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Both of his friends sitting across from him grew puzzled. “What is it?” David asked in wonder.
Henry’s shoulders slumped. “Grandchildren. She’s worried about me being alone. She’s worried that I will grow old without anyone, and she wants to see her grandchildren before she… before she has to go.” He stumbled over the words. He swallowed hard as tears stung at the back of his eyes. He didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to hear his own voice give any kind of life or power to the words he was thinking.
David nodded with a sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he shook his head and looked at Henry sadly. “I wondered if that was going to come up. I have to be honest: I’ve kind of been wondering the same thing. You haven’t had a serious relationship in a long time, and I know you haven’t wanted one since-” he saw the sharp look that flashed over Henry’s face, and he cleared his throat and continued, “since college… but you aren’t doing anything about starting a family, and your parents were so big on family. It was so important to both your dad and your mom. I know my parents have brought up the grandchildren conversation with Marina and me a few times already, and they’re not backing down. They want to see them and spend time with them while they’re able. I could imagine in your mother’s case, that’s exponentially important. She won’t have much time with them at all, or she wouldn’t, even if you started today. I’m sorry it’s come up like it has, especially right now, but I’m not surprised at all.”
Henry raked his fingers through the sandy brown waves on his head, and then unceremoniously dropped his hand down to his lap and looked back at David and Marina. “I wish that I could give her a grandchild, or several, not only because she wants them, but because I do want to carry on our family name and bloodline. I just… I don’t have anyone in my life with whom I’d be ready to start a family. There’s no one… not even close. I feel like she brought this up out of the blue and caught me off guard, but yet at the same time, there’s another part of me that knew that it was coming because of exactly what you just said, David.
“My mom and dad did put family first, and I knew that they would both be wanting heirs from me. I knew that the longer I pushed it off, the more important it would become. I knew that when my father passed away and left my mother and me alone that it would become a priority for her. Then, when we found out that she had cancer and the doctors said that she didn’t have long to live at all, the worry of creating a next generation in our family sort of fell to the back of my mind, and I thought it must have fallen from hers as well, because our only concern was her illness and the dark day that we both know is coming all too soon.”
Marina bit her lower lip and wiped a few tears from her eyelashes. She and David sat and watched Henry as he spoke. Neither of them interrupted him or said a word to him about it. They just sat quietly and listened.
Henry continued, “I haven’t thought about since her diagnosis and her treatments. I’ve been much too concerned with her health and… everything… to worry about finding a wife and carrying on the family line. I’m… I’m fine with the way that things are. I don’t want any of it to change. There’s no one that I want in my life that way. I used to want a family, and I guess that I still do, except that it’s not a priority for me right now. She is my priority right now, her and the business. There’s nothing else in my life. Now she comes to me out of the blue and begs me for grandchildren? What am I supposed to do about that? I’d give her the moon if she had the notion, but I can’t give her that. I can’t find someone and fall in love right away and get married right away and get my wife pregnant right away and in less than a year produce a baby that she may know for six months to a year if she’s even that lucky. It’s just not possible. I wish so much that there was some other way to do this… to help her and give her what she wants, but it’s just not realistic.”
David’s face twisted into uncertainty. “I guess adoption is probably out of the question. That’s all I can think of as far as instant kids.”
Henry shook his head. “It’s about our family line with her. She wouldn’t be opposed to adoption, but she’d want our own flesh and blood right along with it. There would need to be a child that was descended from my father and her. She would want that.
Marina sniffed and wiped at her nose and eyes with a tissue she had pulled from her purse, as she shook her head. “It’s so sad, you know… it’s just so…” she paused in the middle of what she was saying and looked up at Henry with widening eyes.
He frowned a little and tilted his head curiously at her. “What? What is it?” he asked, furrowing his brow slightly.
She reached her hand toward him, though it was still closed around the tissue. “Actually, I might be wrong about that!” she said as hope and something akin to excitement began to dawn on her face.
“What do you mean you’re wrong? You’re not wrong, Marina. I don’t have time to find a wife and have a baby before she’s gone.” His mouth turned downward sharply.
Marina shook her head as David stared at her. “Honey, what on earth are you talking about?”
She looked from Henry to David and then back to Henry again. “Listen… I might have a solution for you and her, just… just hear me out.” She leaned close to them both, almost conspiratorially.
Lowering her voice, she spoke her thoughts. “What if you didn’t have to get married? What if you just had the baby or babies?” she breathed with a growing thrill that was building up in her like the swell of a huge tidal wave.
Henry gave his head a shake. “I don’t know what you mean… Can you explain what you’re talking about please?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Yes, I can definitely explain.” She held her hands up as a smile began to grow over her face, beaming like sunshine through dark clouds.
“So, there are companies out there, fertility companies, that can help people have children. What if you found a company that was able to help you that way somehow. You contribute your… biological part of it, and the doctors or specialists or whatever they are, they have someone carry a baby for you, or multiple babies… I guess that is a common occurrence with invitro fertilization pregnancies, you don’t have to get married or find a wife or anything, and in nine months… voilà… you are a father to your own biological children, and your mom has her grandbabies. She can spend time with them while she has it, you have someone to leave your family legacy to, and you don’t have to get married. It’s kind of perfect really.” She smiled and lifted her chin, quite pleased with herself that she had come up with what she was certain was a viable solution.
He stared at her. “I can’t…” he began, but as her words floated into his mind in a jumble of “No” and began to reconnect into actual thoughts, his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. Every word that she had said had begun to fit together like a puzzle piece, forming a picture that was beginning to make sense to him in his head. “Can I?” he whispered in disbelief.
David turned fully in his seat and looked at his wife. “That’s a brilliant idea! I love it! I think you might have actually come up with a viable solution!” He turned back to Henry then and gazed intently at him. “What do you think, Henry? That’s a pretty solid idea, actually. I can’t see any holes in it, and it’s my job to look for holes.”
Henry stared off into space thinking about it. It’s not a bad idea, he mused to himself as every possibility coursed through his mind. He, too, tried to find the pitfalls of it, but there didn’t seem to be any. It seemed that Marina had in fact come up with a solution that just might work.
If he could produce his own children without having to find a wife and get married, his mother could have her grandchild, or grandchildren, and the only downside for her would be that he still wouldn’t have anyone to grow old with, but then he reasoned that he wouldn’t have to grow old with a partner. He could instead grow old with his own children. It dawned on him that nothing could be better than that.
He looked back at David and Marina with bright eyes. “You’re right, David, it’s a brilliant idea! I think it just might work. The only thing that I think might be an issue is me raising the child or children on my own when they’re babies,” he finally answered aloud.
Marina shrugged and waved her hand in the air dismissively. “Oh no, no. Don’t worry about that. Just hire a nanny to help you take care of them. David and I have been talking about possibly starting our own family soon, so our children could grow up together, yours and ours, and we’d be there for one another as we raise them. Really, if you think about it, it’s kind of perfect. It’s really ideal.” She glowed as she talked about it, bubbling happily about how things could be.
David nodded as well and seemed to light up. “I’ll tell you, Henry, the more I think about this crazy scheme, the more I like it. I think it would work well for all of us to tell you the truth. You just need to find a girl to do the pregnancy for you, and then the rest is easy going after that.”
Henry thought about it carefully some more as he listened to his friends. “You know, I think I’m going to look into this, but I do think that I’m going to see if there’s someone who could do a pregnancy for me and then help me raise the children, at least for the first couple of years or so. I don’t know if I’d want a nanny, and after my mother… after she isn’t around any longer, it would be difficult to know how to do it on my own. I think a nanny would be too impersonal. I feel that the natural mother of the child, or the children… I think I’d really want a multiple birth situation ideally… I think that the natural mother should be around to help raise them for a little while. That way there would be a genuine love for the babies, and not someone there just because I’m paying them to be there.”
Rubbing his fingers over his chin thoughtfully, Henry considered it with even more detail than he had. “I really like this idea, Marina. I think you may have just solved my problem. Thank you.” He grinned at her and she smiled right back at him.