Mending Fate (The Scottish Billionaire Book 3)

  Mending Fate

  The Scottish Billionaire Book 3

  M. S. Parker

  Belmonte Publishing, LLC

  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 © 2020 Belmonte Publishing LLC

  Published by Belmonte Publishing LLC

  Contents

  Free Book

  The Scottish Billionaire Reading order

  1. Alec

  2. Lumen

  3. Alec

  4. Lumen

  5. Alec

  6. Lumen

  7. Lumen

  8. Alec

  9. Lumen

  10. Alec

  11. Lumen

  12. Alec

  13. Lumen

  14. Lumen

  15. Alec

  16. Lumen

  17. Alec

  18. Lumen

  19. Alec

  20. Lumen

  21. Lumen

  22. Alec

  23. Lumen

  24. Alec

  25. Lumen

  26. Alec

  27. Lumen

  28. Lumen

  29. Alec

  30. Lumen

  Office romances by M. S. Parker

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  The Scottish Billionaire Reading order

  Thank you for reading Mending Fate, the final book in my series, The Scottish Billionaire. I highly recommend reading the books in this order:

  Prequel – The Scottish Billionaire

  1. Off Limits

  2. Breaking Rules

  3. Mending Fate

  One

  Alec

  When I’d woken this morning, I’d felt like everything had changed. Some of it made me uneasy, but in other ways, it was as if a weight had been lifted.

  I had told Evanne last night about my dyslexia and explained that the mistakes on her homework had been my fault. It seemed that Lumen had been right when she said that a good portion of the reason Evanne had been upset had been because she hadn’t understood what happened. Telling my daughter the truth hadn’t made me any less in her eyes. In fact, she’d hugged me and told me that she loved me.

  I had spent my entire life focused on making money to improve the lives of those I loved. When Evanne was born, she had simply shifted my focus to her being the most important person in my world. Now, I saw that I could have so much more. Not only a relationship with my daughter but also one with a woman I could see myself with for a long time to come.

  Perhaps forever.

  The fact that I could even think forever just proved how much I had changed over the last couple months.

  Forever could wait, however. Right now, I needed to pick up Evanne from school. I smiled at the thought of mo chride, with her long dark brown curls and blue eyes.

  “Mr. McCrae.” My assistant, Tuesday, appeared in my doorway. “You asked me to remind you about leaving a few minutes early so you wouldn’t get caught in traffic again.”

  “Aye, thank you.” I closed my desk drawer.

  “You’re a good father, you know.” She smiled warmly before heading back to her desk.

  I really hoped she was right because I intended to see a lawyer tomorrow regarding a new custody agreement. After I talked to Evanne last night, I’d sat down with Keli and explained that our short experiment hadn’t worked. She and I would never be the family she wanted us to be.

  At least she’d taken it better than I thought she would. No tears or yelling. Just a simple, “If you’re sure that’s how you feel,” before she’d headed to the guest room she’d been using. I supposed she’d be more upset once it sank in that it wasn’t a family, in general, I was rejecting. It was just a family with her.

  I’d wait to tell her that I’d invited Lumen to move in with me until after I’d gotten all the legal custody issues out of the way. No need to rock that particular boat.

  First, I intended to speak to Evanne about how things would be now that her mom was back in Seattle. That was a conversation best had over pizza. We’d stop for her favorite on our way home. I took a moment in the school parking lot to place my order.

  Once that was done, I went inside with a handful of other parents and staff who were here for their children or their charges. Judging by some of the looks I received, questions were still circulating about what had happened to Vice Principal Cornelius Harvey during the meeting two weeks ago, and my name was linked to the incident.

  Then again, it might have been something more than that. Who knew how much anyone here knew about Lumen and me seeing each other…or about the way we’d first met.

  I frowned as I remembered one of the things Lumen said last night during our argument. Principal McKenna and the vice principal knew that Lumen had once worked at a massage parlor. Granted, she’d shown them that she had put Real Life Bodywork on her resumé, and then she’d explained that it was a legitimate business, but that didn’t mean someone hadn’t spread all sorts of rumors.

  Someone. There was only one person who would do something like that…Cornelius Harvey, the school’s vice principal.

  The man was a first-rate bastard.

  I pushed thoughts of him out of my head and smiled as I reached Lumen’s classroom. The chaos of kids swept past me, and I scanned them for Evanne. She was tall for her age, which should have made her easy to see, but she wasn’t with them. That didn’t surprise me, though. Evanne liked her teacher as much as she did her classmates.

  Speaking of Evanne’s teacher…

  My eyes met Lumen’s, and her entire face lit up. I went a few steps into the classroom, and that was when her expression shifted to one of puzzlement.

  Dammit, Keli.

  “I came to pick up Evanne, but based on your face, I’m going to guess that Keli already did and neglected to tell me.”

  I blew out a long, frustrated breath. Somehow, I didn’t think this was a mere slip on Keli’s part. More likely, she hadn’t been as accepting as I’d thought, and she was trying to make my life miserable now that she knew she wouldn’t be the part of it she wanted to be.

  The concern on Lumen’s face deepened. “Alec, what are you talking about? No one picked Evanne up. She didn’t come to school today.”

  I frowned. “What are you saying, lass?”

  Lumen came over to me, lowering her voice so that the few remaining students around us couldn’t hear what she had to say. “Keli called the office and said that Evanne wouldn’t be in today. I assumed she was sick.”

  “I had an early meeting, so I asked Keli to bring Evanne this morning. She didn’t say anything about Evanne being sick.” The sinking feeling in my stomach told me that this was worse than her simply not telling me that Evanne had taken ill. Something was wrong.

  My phone buzzed just as Lumen’s phone rang, and we both reached for them, hoping that at least one of them would have answers for us.

  “Brie? What’s wrong?”

  That didn’t sound like anything that had to do with Evanne, but the text on my phone certainly did.

  I’m assuming by now you know that Evanne isn’t at school. I refuse to lose my daughter just because you found someone different you want to fuck. When you come back to your senses, we can discuss things again.

  “Fuck, Keli. What did you do?” I muttered as I
hit the option to call her back.

  It went straight to voicemail.

  No surprise there.

  “Keli, what the hell do you think you’re doing? If you want to talk things out, then we do that, but this is not the way. Call me, and we’ll meet.”

  I hung up just as Lumen turned toward me, her face pale. “Soleil’s missing.”

  Something in her voice told me I should know who Soleil was, but I had more important things on my mind. “I think Keli took Evanne somewhere.”

  Lumen appeared equally distracted. “Brie can’t find Soleil anywhere. She didn’t go to school today, and no one knows where she is.”

  “What are you talking about?” I barely stopped myself from yelling at her.

  “Soleil’s the foster girl I’ve been spending time with.” Lumen blinked, her hand coming up to cover her forehead. “Sorry. It’s just that she’s been going through a lot lately, and Brie’s worried.”

  “What?” Had Lumen gone daft? My child was missing, and she didn’t care? “Keli took my daughter.”

  Lumen frowned. “Evanne’s with her mom, so she’s okay, right? I mean, Keli’s not dangerous or anything.”

  I scowled. “That’s not the point. Evanne is supposed to be here and then home. With me.”

  “Look, I don’t have the time to do this,” Lumen said, her tone dismissive. “I have to go find Soleil.”

  “I don’t care about some runaway!” I snapped, vaguely aware that people were looking at us. “We have to find Evanne!”

  The look of shock on Lumen’s face should have given me pause, but it didn’t. She was worried about some girl she barely knew when Keli could have taken Evanne anywhere. How could she not see what was more important?

  “Soleil could be in real danger.” Lumen’s voice was soft, but the look she gave me was piercing. “At least Evanne is safe with Keli. I’m not saying you shouldn’t look for Evanne, but I have to find Soleil.”

  What was she saying?

  “I dinnae care about some random girl. I care about my daughter, and I canna understand why you’re all worked up over this near-stranger.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket. “Finding Evanne is the only thing important to me.”

  A thousand emotions passed over Lumen’s face, and I couldn’t read a single one of them.

  “You want to know why I care?” Her azure eyes glinted with something fierce and foreign. “I care because Soleil doesn’t have a family to make her their top priority, and I know what that feels like.” She turned and grabbed her bag off the desk. “Not all of us have families, Alec.”

  And then she was gone.

  Two

  Lumen

  I hated leaving like that, but I’d meant what I said. Soleil didn’t have anyone else to make her the priority. Me not going with Alec didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about Evanne or that I didn’t feel sick over how upset Alec was. I wanted him to find her. It was just that we both knew Keli wouldn’t hurt their child, and there were so many people who could – and would – hurt Soleil.

  Last week, Soleil had gotten caught stealing a pregnancy test, and she’d had security call me. After I’d picked her up, and she told me what she’d taken, I’d bought a test for her myself and waited while she took it. Fortunately, it had been negative. Right then, I’d made a promise to myself to find out who’d she’d been sleeping with, but I hadn’t been able to get it out of her yet.

  What if the guy was, as I’d feared, an adult? Could he have convinced her to run away with him? I knew all too well how many kids in the foster system were trafficked that way. Some adult convinces a kid that they’re loved, and that kid will do anything the adult wants.

  Most of the time, that leads to the adult not only abusing the kid themselves but loaning the kid out to friends. From there, kids end up working the streets, being sold to other predators, forced into making pornography, and the majority never make it out alive.

  My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat. I swallowed hard but didn’t slow down. I needed to get to the bus stop before the bus left, or I’d have to wait twenty minutes until the next one came by. I’d given Soleil my address, so stopping by the apartment first made sense. During the ride, I’d make a list of places to check, places that most foster kids knew about, even if they’d never go there.

  I’d been fortunate enough to make it through the system without being abused, and I’d never run away, but I wasn’t naïve. I’d listened to other kids, remembered things they’d said.

  I knew some places where desperate kids would go, places that even caseworkers and foster parents wouldn’t know to look. I didn’t even want to think about her being in any of those places, and I clung to the hope that when I arrived home, she’d be waiting for me.

  But I knew I had to be realistic, which was why, even as I hoped, I made a mental list of the places I’d go and of how I’d get there. Having to rely on public transportation meant I needed to figure out the best ways to get different places based on how much I needed to walk and where the bus stops were.

  Not for the first time, I wished I had a car. It would have made things much easier.

  I was up on my feet the moment the bus rolled to a stop, slipping past the other passengers and hurrying down the stairs. I grimaced as a gust of wind blew cold rain into my face, but I didn’t let it slow me down. My pace made my shoes pinch my toes, but that didn’t slow me either. I needed to get home.

  Soleil wasn’t in the lobby when I arrived, and she wasn’t in the hallway either. The moment I realized she wasn’t sitting outside my apartment, the hope I’d allowed myself to feel died. I didn’t bother trying to convince myself that Mai could have let Soleil inside.

  Besides the fact that I knew Mai was at work and that she would have texted me the moment the girl showed up asking for me, I simply didn’t have the energy to hope again, just to have it dashed in seconds. Rollercoaster emotions were a bitch.

  When I opened the door, I was glad I’d made that decision because the apartment was dark and empty. I flipped on the light and kicked off my shoes, dropping my bags on the closest table. I stripped out of my dress clothes as I went and tossed them toward my laundry hamper when I entered my room. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from my dresser, quickly dressing and putting together what I’d need.

  Despite my desire to get going as quickly as possible, I knew I had to be smart about this. Whether Soleil had left under her own power or not, I needed to be prepared to deal with some unsavory people in unsavory places. That meant I needed money and protection.

  I didn’t have much of the first, but I gathered what I had. As for the latter, Mai and Hob had bought me a taser for Christmas the previous year. For legal reasons, I couldn’t carry it to and from school, so I’d invested in pepper spray for my commute. Both were going with me.

  Maybe I was overthinking this entire situation. I supposed it was possible that I could get a call any minute saying Soleil had shown up back at the home, or I’d find her simply walking around. I might never need any of the things I was putting into my bag, but if I did end up in a situation where any of them were necessary, I’d be glad to have them.

  A couple bottles of water and some protein bars finished things off. I jotted a note to Mai, telling her what had happened, and that I didn’t know when I’d be home, and then I started toward the door before stopping and turning back. I added a postscript in the hopes that she wouldn’t completely freak out at the thought of me wandering around Seattle by myself at night.

  P.S. DON’T FREAK OUT! I know what I’m doing.

  Yeah, that should do it.

  I slipped on my tennis shoes and headed back out into the shitty October weather. This was not going to be a fun way to spend the rest of my day.

  At least if I was focused on trying to find Soleil, I wasn’t thinking about how badly Alec’s words had hurt me. He hadn’t verbally attacked me, exactly. He’d been upset and worried about Evanne, so his reactions had been understandable
, but that hadn’t made the content any less painful.

  He’d dismissed Soleil as unimportant only because of his little girl. Logically, I knew that. He wasn’t unfeeling. Evanne just took precedence, and I could hardly fault him for that.

  Except logic did nothing to relieve me of the all-too-familiar cold indifference that came with dismissal. No matter the explanations behind it, I knew what it was. I’d spent my entire life having it directed at me for one reason or another. Some understandable. Some not. All bullshit when it came down to it because neither side could truly understand what it meant to be the other one.

  I would never know what it was like to have a family looking out for me, putting me first, being concerned with my well-being. Alec would never know what it was like to not have family. Even if he lost power and money, nothing short of being a horrible person would cause his family to walk away from him, and even then, I wasn’t so sure.

  When I climbed on the bus, I put all that behind me. I wouldn’t do to Soleil what Alec had done. I wouldn’t make my personal life take precedence over her safety. I could do what he could not. I could make her the important one.

  And the way it started was by me going to the abandoned bowling alley that kids sometimes used when they needed a night away…or a place to meet someone they weren’t supposed to be meeting. I was hoping the former was all there was to this.