Starr Destined (Starr Series) (40 page)

And then one morning, Sera had suddenly woken up in a dreadful panic.

“It’s Nana,” she’d exclaimed, as she sat bolt upright in bed.  “I have to go to her.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”  I’d muttered, still half asleep.  “Relax, you’ve just been dreaming.”

I’d tried to pull her back into bed, but she’d thrown the covers back and jumped up, just as her m
obile phone had started ringing.

It had been her cousin Aoife, calling to say that their grandmother had been taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack.  It seemed that Sera’s dream had been some kind of weird premonition.  I didn't question this, because over the years, I'd found these kind of things just happened from time to time with her family, and I’d learned to just accept that they defied normal logic.

So Seraphina had rushed over to Ireland on the first available flight, in her haste forgetting to take her contraceptive pill until much later in the day than usual.  And as we’d made love the night before, that was all it had taken for her to get pregnant.

Sera
blamed me for this. I’d been the one who’d insisted she should change to a low dose mini pill, because I’d been concerned about her health when she was on the higher risk combined pill.  Sera was always so meticulous about remembering to take her pill at the same time every day that I couldn’t see how the marginally less reliable mini pill would pose any problems, especially when I didn’t think it would exactly be the end of the world if she got pregnant anyway.

She’d also
had blamed her grandmother, because she’d been strongly hinting for ages that it was about time we got on with producing a great-granddaughter for her, to add to Aoife and Sean’s twin boys.  So when it turned out that she hadn't had a heart attack after all, just a bad case of indigestion, Sera declared her witch of a grandmother had orchestrated the whole thing with the sole purpose of getting her pregnant.

“Don't be so ridiculous,” I’d argued, even though at the back of my mind I wouldn’t have put it past the old biddy.  And if Nana said we were having a daughter, then I’d put money on that being the case.

Because she’d still been taking her pill, we’d only realised Sera was pregnant when she fainted at work and I insisted on taking her for a check up.  When the doctor finished examining her and called me into the consulting room, I had no idea what to expect.

“I’ll give you a moment alone with your husband, Mrs. Starr, so you can tell him your news,” the doctor smiled as he left the room.

It’d never occurred to me that Sera might be pregnant, so when she told me I was going to be a father, to say I was shocked would be an understatement.

I was over the moon - Sera less so. 

But she soon came round to the idea, and agreed it’d been a happy accident, as otherwise she would probably have put off starting a family for years, waiting for the ‘right time’ to come.

Naturally, I worried about Seraphina’s health and about her giving birth, but it turned out that she sailed through pregnancy, and then had a normal, straightforward birth, much to my relief.  That didn't stop her swearing and cursing at me while she was in labour, vowing that she was never going to let me anywhere near her again, because she was certainly never going to repeat this painful pro
cess ever again.  The midwife had winked at me and mouthed
“They all say that.”
  It didn't stop me feeling helpless and guilty, but as soon as the baby arrived and was put in her arms, all the angst was forgotten.

The day I held our daughter for the first time was the proudest day of my life, surpassing even our wedding day.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I wept as I cradled this perfect new life we’d created.  I was humbled, because my beautiful newborn daughter was so small and helpless, and totally d
ependent on us, her parents, to take care of her.  I vowed that I would do everything in my power to always keep her safe and protect her.  Seraphina was equally as protective of our daughter, so I knew she’d be relieved when we got news that our old adversary would never again pose any kind of a threat to our family

Scott Franklin was dead.  He’d been murdered.  Stabbed with a knife that had somehow been smu
ggled into the prison. 

How ironic was that?  Scott had been killed in the same way that he’d planned to kill me.  Quite fi
tting really. 

Sera voiced a suspicion that maybe I’d had a hand in things, that maybe I'd sought revenge and had taken the law into my own hands. 

As I told her, how could I possibly have had any influence inside a top level security prison?  The fact that Scott had made an enemy of some thug in prison, one who’d decided to settle the score by stabbing him in the back, was nothing to do with me, was it?

I think I managed to convince her, but in any case, no one could argue that the world was a better place without an evil fucker like Scott Franklin.  Whatever it had taken, my conscience was clear, and I had no trouble sleeping at night.  More to the point, neither did Sera.  No more nightmares about Scott somehow manipulating the system and getting released early after serving just a few years. 

God moves in mysterious ways.

Justice had been served, one way or another. 

We never considered employing a nanny, preferring instead to juggle our commitments and work from home as much as possible, so that we could manage our childcare arrangements between us.  Naturally, in the early days,  the lion’s share of looking after the baby fell to Sera, as obviously I didn't have the necessary equipment for breast feeding, but I did my fair share of changing nappies, and supported Sera in as many other ways as I could.  My usual role was to deal with Evie after her feed, because Sera maintained she always settled better for me, something to do with our daughter feeling secure against my broad chest.  The only other person we ever trusted to look after her was Aggie, who had become like a grandmother to Evie, and happily stayed over to look after her if ever we needed her to.

“There you are, Evie.  How did I know this would be where I’d find you, even though you know you’re not meant to disturb Daddy when he’s working?  Sorry Liam, I just took my eye off her for a second while I was getting lunch ready, and of course she was off like a rocket to find you.”

My office was just across the hallway from the kitchen, so it’d only taken a matter of seconds for Evie to make her escape and find me.

Sera frowned as she leant against the doorway of my office with her arms folded, preparing for a
nother battle with our errant daughter.  Even just wearing jeans and a T-shirt, my wife looked even more beautiful now than when I first met her, hard as that would have been for me to believe at the time.  Her body was just slightly curvier and rounded thanks to having a baby, which I loved, even if she wasn’t so keen.

Knowing that her mother had come to retrieve her, Evie curled herself up tightly against me, igno
ring Sera’s black look.

“Oh leave her be, I don't mind.  I was just Skyping Jamie, so she’s not interrupting anything impo
rtant.”  I smiled as I hugged Evie, and was rewarded by my baby girl laughing and throwing her arms around my neck to kiss me.  She smelled so good that I couldn’t stop myself from inhaling to get a deep fix of her sweet baby scent.

“That’s not the point, Liam.  You let her get away with murder,” Sera argued, but even she couldn’t help smiling at Evie’s delighted giggles, because our daughter was just totally adorable and irresist
ible.

“Uncle Jamie,” Evie squealed, as she noticed Jamie’s face coming into focus on my laptop screen.

We spoke several times a week these days via Skype.  He’d settled out in Australia with his partner Jessica, after he’d helped her to make a success of her bar in Melbourne.  We’d met Jess when she’d accompanied Jamie on his last couple of visits back to London, and she’d struck me as a strong- minded character, a fiery red head a few years older than him.  She seemed to be exactly what he needed, as she’d made it plain she wouldn’t stand any nonsense from him.  I had to admit that, much as I missed him, I was proud of my little brother for finally standing on his own two feet, out of my shadow and making a go of things on the other side of the world, about as far away from me as it was possible to get. 

The role I’d always envisaged him occupying at Starr Capital as my right hand man was now filled by Toby Harris. 

Toby had always been a hard worker - he’d got a 1st in his degree compared to Jamie's 2:1, and he’d turned out to be a natural at spotting new business potential.  I’d given him a position in my company when he’d decided not to return to Australia with Jamie after our wedding.  He and Abbey had got back together, just as Seraphina had predicted they would.

  Now I increasingly relied on Toby, to allow me to spend more time away from the office and be with my family.  The truth of the matter was that although I was still very involved in keeping my company as successful as possible, I’d lost a lot of my hunger and ambition - we had more than enough money for whatever we wanted, and time was now the most precious commodity.  These days, getting Evie to use her potty successfully gave me more of a sense of achievement than any deal.

No one ever lay on their deathbed and wished they’d spent more time at the office, but many deeply regretted not spending more time with their family - time it was impossible to get back once they had grown up and left the nest. 

Aggie’s words of wisdom, not mine.

“Hello little Princess,” Jamie beamed back at her.  “Is that Hettie I can see there?”  Evie’s favourite toy rabbit had been a gift from him and Jess soon after she’d been born, sent all the way from Australia.  

Evie laughed and waved her toy rabbit at Jamie.  She’d met her uncle a few times in the flesh, b
ecause Jamie came back to London twice a year, but she was more used to seeing him on screen in this way.  He’d put on some weight and filled out a bit these days, and his hair was shorter, but otherwise my little brother looked pretty much the same as always.

“I just wanted to say Jamie, those figures you emailed over look fine to me, so if you can secure the deal at that price, I’d go ahead,” I told him.

“Great, I thought it looked like a winner, but decided it wouldn’t hurt to have you cast your eagle eye over it before I went ahead and signed us up.”

Jamie often asked my opinion on business matters since he’d taken over that side of running the bar.  Jess saw to the day-to-day practicalities, an arrangement that seemed to be working well for them.

“Hi Jamie.  How’s things?  And how’s Jess doing?”  Sera came over to join in the conversation.

“Well hello there, Mrs. Starr.  Nice to see you.  Jess is good, thanks.  How are you?  I was just thin
king, isn’t it about time you got on with giving my niece a brother or sister?” he winked. 

He often called Sera ‘Mrs. Starr’, knowing full well that she rarely used her married name day-to-day, much to my disappointment, although I’d made sure all our legal papers and documents were in her married name of Seraphina Starr. 

Sera shot me a look, but I shook my head to reassure her that I hadn't told Jamie about us trying for another baby. 

We’d agreed we didn't want Evie to be an only child, and assumed Sera would fall pregnant more or less straight away, as she’d got pregnant so easily the first time around.  But after a couple of months of trying, it hadn't happened yet.  I wasn’t complaining though, because naturally our sex life had quietened down considerably after Evie had been born, so now we were making up for lost time with lots of great baby-making sex,  since our daughter was finally sleeping through the night on a regular basis.

“Evie keeps us plenty busy enough, Jamie.  And anyway, isn’t it about time you made an honest woman of Jess by getting down on one knee and popping the question?”  Sera probed, skilfully deflecting any further questions about us extending our family.

“No way.  Neither of us is interested in any of that,” he scoffed.  “Getting married would just ruin a perfect friendship.”

“Not necessarily.  Look at Abbey and Toby,” Sera pointed out.

Toby and Abbey had finally got around to getting married. 

Abbey’s fashion label had really taken off, and these days she was a very successful designer who specialised in producing unique one-off wedding dresses.

Since Toby had taken over from me as her business mentor, he’d been instrumental in ensuring the smooth running of her business, enabling Abbey to concentrate on the creative side of things.  They still seemed a rather odd couple to me, but it appeared to work for them.  Knowing Abbey as I did, it didn't surprise me that there were rumours floating round about them enjoying kinky threesomes, but whatever went on behind closed doors to satisfy their particular sexual predilections was none of my business. 

“Toby always was a soppy fool as far as Abbey was concerned, so it doesn’t surprise me that he let her talk him into getting married, just because she wanted an excuse to show off her fancy wedding dress designs,” Jamie replied. 

Sera had told me that he and Abbey had never really seen eye to eye, and she reckoned it was sour grapes, because he felt she’d stolen his best friend away from him.  Personally, I thought she was reading too much into things. 

“Jamie!  What a nasty cynic you’ve become,” Sera exclaimed.