Frederick's mind went blank upon seeing her. It was Anne Elliot, there was no doubt. And yet, she looked so different.
A second later his mind registered that she had arrived with a kid. And that kid had run towards Charlie and had called him Dad.
No, she could not be his friend's wife. He would have remembered if Charles had mentioned her name.
His knuckles turned white around his crutch. Life sure liked to play games with him.
After his argument with Anne, Frederick had walked under the rain for what had seemed like hours. He was so angry with her. Angry because she had not fulfilled her promise and had been easily persuaded to change her mind to take a path away from him. He felt left out, abandoned once more.
And she had said she loved him.
At that moment, he could not reconcile his anger and his love for her. So, he took the easiest way out, spent the night at his old apartment, gathered all his things while she was out, and left for California.
Jonathan was surprised by his sudden appearance and after a deeper look, he knew that something was not right with his friend. Eventually, Frederick told him what had happened with Anne and his friend had been the first one to point out that he had done wrong.
First of all, maybe unintentionally, he had put pressure on her by staying longer in Boston, and then a lot more pressure when he had asked her to choose him and not her career. Sure, she was not faultless, but he was not either.
Frederick's hurt pride got in the way and made him not accept his guilt nor call her to try to amend things. Years later, he would accept that he had been blind and thoughtless, just as Sophia had said to him, but with more strong words. Knowing his sister, Frederick had asked her not to reach his ex-girlfriend and Sophia had agreed unwillingly. After all, it was his life and his decisions.
Frederick was determined not to dwell more on what had happened so he worked non-stop in his start-up.
Some time after Frederick's arrival to Los Angeles, he and Jonathan had their first meeting with a potential investor. During a drunken night, when they were thinking about their future, they thought about developing a job hunting social network, a place where people could post notices about jobs they knew were available, and where people could network directly to potential employers.
They had their business plan ready, and with their initial financial resources, they had already a working website with some beta users and with the participation of a small number of local businesses.
Their first pitch did not go so well, but the investor was nice and gave them comments to improve and even asked them to try again.
They took the advice to heart, made the corrections and tried again. And this time, they assured the investment.
That meeting was the first of many, and when they secured the amount they needed, they finally hired more people and prepared for the launch of their website.
The reception to the site was good and their start-up grew faster than expected. Neither Frederick nor Jonathan expected to be so lucky, but they never took anything for granted and continued to work hard.
Two years later, when their company was valued at thrice its initial value, they accepted an offer from a large company to acquire their website. They did not want to give up "their baby" as they often called it, but they felt they had accomplished what they wanted with it. In consequence, both at the age of 23, Frederick Wentworth and Jonathan Harville earned their first millions.
After a long due celebration, they planned what to do next. Jonathan wanted to work and develop more of his own ideas while Frederick was more interested in investing and supporting other young entrepreneurs.
They reached an agreement and founded WH Tech, a company where both could achieve their objectives. In order to manage their company better, Frederick decided to go back to school, at least part-time, and obtained an MBA from UCLA.
Not all their projects were successful, but the ones that were, did give them more opportunities, more outside support and, of course, more money and fame.
Jonathan used that fame to his advantage and it was not uncommon to find him with models, actresses and other female celebrities. That lasted for a while until he met Lillian, a fellow computer scientist, and married her almost right away.
Frederick's private life had taken a different path. At first, he had tried to follow his friend's steps and date all the women he could. Years had passed since the breakup, and yet, he wanted her to know that he was happy, successful, and above all, that he was over her.
But soon, he discovered that was not the path from him. It did not make him feel any better; he still thought her every now and then. He still missed that they had had.
Frederick found a refuge in sports, particularly extreme ones. He started doing skydiving, kayaking, snow boarding, among others. In fact, that last one was the reason he was using a crutch. He had broken his left leg three weeks ago and that was why he was in Boston.
Sophia had met and fallen for Michael Croft, a very successful lawyer in Chicago. They had met during a school function that Michael had attended with his sister. It turned out that Sophia was his niece's teacher.
They had dated for a couple of years until he proposed and she said yes. Michael was offered a partnership in a large firm based in Boston and they had recently moved to the city.
Upon hearing about his recent accident, because it was not the first one, Sophia had called her brother and demanded that he stayed with her. She did not want him alone, back in his penthouse in California while he recovered.
Frederick had reluctantly agreed since he did not want to return to that city, but his sister did not really give him much choice. And, now because of that, he was in front of Anne.