—and save her man.
She prepared to march into Enrico’s office and turn the tables on them both by quitting first.
Without Gwen to use as a pawn to move to Milan, Enrico would be forced to tough it out with Marcello and let Andrew keep his job. His New York job. The job she knew he loved.
He’d been through so much. Andrew deserved to get his life back. Gwen just hoped he still wanted her to be a part of that life.
In Prada’s lobby, Gwen rushed to the turnstiles with her access card in hand. At the guards’ desk, she spotted a beautiful older woman bundled in an ivory wrap trimmed in brown leather looking quite annoyed while the guard made a call. Gwen’s feet moved toward the woman as if she were being pulled by a magnet.
The woman turned in Gwen’s direction and her carbon colored eyes lit up. “Gwendolyn?”
A bubbly feeling spread through her stomach. Gwen absorbed the woman’s features, particularly the nose and faint lines around the mouth. “Yes?”
The woman held out her hand. “I’m Sarah Morgan, Andrew’s mother.”
She just met her baby’s grandmother. The only grandmother the baby would have. Gwen choked up and thrust her hand out. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Oh, dear.” Sarah’s inky black bob, the same color as Andrew’s swayed against her high cheekbones. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s because you look... I mean Andrew looks so much like you.” Except the height. His father must be tall.
“Gwen dear, this is my husband William, Andrew’s dad.”
The man stepped around a pillar dropping a phone into his pocket and her jaw dropped. Crippling good looks must be a dominant gene in the Morgan family.
Gwen tucked a hair behind her ear with trembling hands. “Hello, Mr. Morgan.”
“Call me Will.” His handshake felt firm and warm. “It’s good to meet you.”
Andrew’s parents gawked at her for several seconds. How much did they know? They looked too chipper to know about her health scare and not ecstatic enough to know about the baby.
Sarah glanced at her watch and asked, “Working today, dear?”
“Yes,” Gwen answered. “Does Andrew know you’re here?”
“This new guard has been trying to reach him.” Sarah folded her hands. “Don’t let us keep you.”
Gwen opened her mouth to ask if they wanted to come up with her, except her cell phone rang.
“Excuse me.”
She looked at the screen and her heart fluttered. Dr. Jesse. The flashing name knew her fate. So soon. That can’t be good. She couldn’t bear to have bad news go to her voicemail, sitting there to listen to again and again.
She tapped the green phone icon. “Hello?”
“Ms. Foley? This is Sylvie from Dr. Jesse’s office.”
Gwen clutched the edge of the guards’ desk. It was Sylvie! “Yes?” Her heart pounded in her ear.
She missed most of the message, other than the lump came back benign. She was fine. There was something about another surgery to clear out margins of the same tissue, but that could wait. “Thank you. Um, yes, okay. I’ll make an appointment in the New Year to discuss next steps.”
“Happy New Year, Ms. Foley,” Sylvie said and hung up.
Happy indeed!
“Dear, is everything all right?” Sarah stood behind her and softly placed a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.
“Yes. As a matter of fact.” She dropped the phone back in her pocket, relieved enough to do a happy dance. “I’m great. And I want you to know... I am so in love with your son.”
Sarah smiled tugging at her heart, and Will cupped his wife’s elbows.
Gwen approached him. “Mr. Morgan, you and Mrs. Morgan have raised such a wonderful man. I just hope that I...” She broke down and couldn’t continue.
“Oh dear!” Sarah moved toward her and held her.
A mother’s arms around Gwen shot through her the sensation she’d not felt in almost seventeen years. Not just warmth or love or safety. There’d been plenty of affection from her father and even Greg. A mother’s hold felt different. A mother/daughter bond was sacred.
Gwen squirmed out of the embrace, but only because she was shaking. “Thank you.”
“Excuse us for a minute, dear.” Sarah squeezed her arm once more and then nudged Will away a few feet.
Gwen grew too anxious to wait anymore. She needed to be with Andrew, but didn’t want to rudely ditch them.
“Mr. and Mrs. Morgan?” Gwen called out to them. “I do need to get upstairs to see Andrew. We have a lot of things to talk about it.”
Sarah whispered into Will’s ear one final time. He pursed his lips looking at his wife, but nodded.
“You should take this with you then.” From her Prada purse, Sarah removed a perfect square of a box.
Teal blue and tied with a creamy white satin ribbon. Tiffany’s.
Gwen stumbled back. “Wha—what’s that?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Will said, with what looked like tears in his eyes.
“But how...when?” she asked.
“We’re already ruining the surprise Andrew’s had for you since Christmas Eve,” Sarah said.
“And he’ll probably kill us for this.”
“Kill you.” Will nudged his wife. “This was your idea.”
“Christmas Eve?” Gwen took the box in her hand. “He wanted to give this to me on Christmas Eve?”
“It was still in its original setting then,” Sarah said, nodding, and she brushed Gwen’s cheek. “The stone was my mother’s. It’d been in a Wall Street safe deposit box for years.” Her emphasis on the time frame made Gwen step back. This ring would be hers and only hers. “My son didn’t have to ask me twice if he could give it you. He went to Tiffany’s yesterday morning and picked out a beautiful new setting. This ring is now yours, Gwendolyn.”
All the dates lined up perfectly. Andrew had intended to give her his grandmother’s ring on Christmas Eve. Before he knew about the baby. She wasn’t forcing his hand. At all! “So...how do you have it?”
“The jeweler set it yesterday as a favor to me, so Andrew could pick it up the same day. He never made it there for some reason and this morning he had some kind of work emergency. He called me and asked me to pick it up and bring it here.”
“This was at Tiffany’s yesterday. Ready to be picked up?” Gwen asked in a flat voice, unbelieving almost.
That’s why he wanted to stop there after the biopsy. When he’d dropped her off at the office yesterday morning, he had asked her to trust him and she would know everything. She never
expected...something like this.
Nodding, Sarah stepped closer and closed Gwen’s hand around the box. This is now yours. “Now go find my son already, and let him give this to you properly, for Pete’s sake.”
Gwen hurled herself between Andrew’s parents and hugged them both. “Thank you. Thank you.”
Andrew had intended to propose all along. Before the baby. Before the biopsy. He wanted her.
Just for her.
“ANDREW, ENRICO WANTS to see you,” Thalia said, standing by his office door.