Grayson Manor, Hamptons
"Amanda ..." he whispered, and for a moment he was young again. He and his daughter were standing on the terrace of the beach house; She looked up at him with her dark brown eyes, her blond curls tied together with two butterfly-shaped hair clips.
"I love you sooo much!"
She spread her arms to demonstrate how great her love was for him... He felt his eyes getting wet and closed them to banish the picture from his mind.
"David?"
He opened his eyes abruptly as Victoria stepped behind him. "I thought I had seen Amanda," he whispered, turning to her. "The memory of her still hurts."
"She didn't have a very long life," Victoria said quietly. "But during that time she was happy. I think she really loved Jack Porter. And it meant a lot to her to get to know her sister."
"I wish I'd have come back earlier to get to know her better. We could have made up for the lost time." He glanced at the beach house with a sad expression. "Has she ever lived there?"
Victoria shook her head. "Almost four years ago, Emily moved in after Lydia Davis had lived there years before," she explained. "As fate willed, she fell in love with my son." She rolled her eyes. "They got married, got a son and now live together in the beach house."
He looked at her, frowning. "Sounds to me that you don't like your daughter-in-law."
"Emily is a money-grubbing, power-crazed bitch!" She said scornfully. "She manipulated Daniel because the only thing she was interested in was power and the Grayson name. From the beginning she had been trying to marry into a rich family." She wrinkled her nose. "For a while, it looked as if he had finally realized that she was only playing games with him. But then she became pregnant..." With a theatrical gesture she skimmed through her long, dark hair. "Of course, everything was planned long beforehand if you ask me." She raised her eyebrows. "She's doing nothing without an ulterior motive. And naturally, Daniel couldn't disown his own flesh and blood. So now they live together and play family."
Almost much the same as Victoria's own situation 20 years earlier, it crossed his mind, after she had finished her report. She had decided for Conrad because of the Grayson name and the wealth. She had chosen fame and fortune rather than love. And she still lived in that loveless marriage because she didn't want to live without the amenities. When he looked around the Manor, he could understand why. He should have known at the time that she would never give up her comfort. After all, he'd met her at a party that the rich Graysons had hosted.
"Are you shocked now?" She frowned at him as she didn't get a response from him.
He shook his head slowly. "No. I had to go through so much, nothing can unsettle me so easily," he admitted. He looked at her with a serious face. "Can you show me the place where my daughter was buried?"
Victoria nodded. "She... was buried next to you," she said hesitantly. "At that time we wanted you two to be united in death."
He wiped his eyes from tears, but he couldn't stop them. Slowly they were rolling over his cheeks, were dripping on his shirt and soaking him. Suddenly he felt arms around him and looked up surprised. She had lifted her head at the same time, and when they looked into each other's eyes, he recognized the feelings they felt for each other. "Victoria..." He cupped her chin and then put his lips gently on hers. He had only wanted to taste her lips after this long time, but as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, she lit a fire in him that he could no longer control. He pushed her from the balcony towards the bedroom and began to open the zipper of her dress with unsteady fingers until it slid from her shoulders and fell to the floor. How beautiful she is, he thought, as he felt how his excitement grew from second to second. In a flash he freed himself from his clothes, sank with her onto the bed, tightly embraced and naked, and they were caught in a vortex of emotions.