Grayson Manor, Hamptons

One week later

"If you want me to accompany you to the reading of the will, all you have to do is ask," Emily offered Daniel as they all sat at the breakfast table.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Victoria interjected without being asked. "It's about Conrad's legacy, and I hardly think he left anything in his last will for you."

Emily admonished herself for control. She wanted to dump her tea in Victoria's face. She had hoped that there would be some kind of truce between them now that she was together with her father. But she had been wrong. Victoria was still cool and reserved towards her and never missed an opportunity to make snappish remarks. And apparently, her commentary was just to show that she still hadn't accepted Emily as part of the Grayson family.

"Mom!" Charlotte gave her mother a reproachful look. "Was this really necessary? Emily's statement was addressed to Daniel and not to you."

"Well, I knew that." She picked up a croissant and buttered it before continuing. "Emily doesn't need our fortune. She has money herself."

"That's not what this is about," Daniel intervened. "As a member of the Grayson family, Emily has a right to be part of the reading of the will, just like each one of us."

"Whatever you say," she sulked. "I just think it's superfluous, because she won't inherit anything anyway."

Emily was tired of Victoria's taunts. She pushed her chair back and got up. "Please, excuse me. I'm going to check on Julian." She didn't wait for a possible answer, but left the dining room with hasty steps. She was about to take the stairs when she heard footsteps behind her. Immediately she stopped and turned around.

"She doesn't mean it like that." David walked slowly towards her. "She didn't sleep well last night because she was nervous about the meeting with the notary."

Emily raised a hand to interrupt him. "I know Victoria. And what she said to me has nothing to do with the fact that she slept badly." She shrugged. "She hates me. It's as simple as that."

"Amanda..."

"Please, Dad, don't call me that! That's why she hates me and still doesn't trust me. Years ago, when I came to the Hamptons with a false identity, seeking for revenge, I just lied to everyone. She still hasn't forgiven me that and probably never will."

"She will realize that you have become a completely different person," David contradicted. "She just needs time."

Emily forced a smile and put her hand on his arm. "It's okay. I can live with it. The main thing for me is that Daniel trusts me again. I don't know if I could live with him together if he still had doubts."

"He adores you very much. Everybody can see that." He winked at her. "Well, since I'm not welcome to the notary as well, we both have to guard the house."

"I would like to go to the beach. Do you want to come along?" She pointed upstairs. "I'll get Julian. He can sleep in his stroller while we swim a few laps in the ocean."

"Like in old times?" He looked at her with a loving, fatherly look.

"Like in old times," Emily confirmed and grinned all of a sudden. "You can also look after me that I don't swim too far out this time."

"Agreed." David nodded eagerly. "Then let's go upstairs and get ready for the beach."

"Emily... David... where are you going?" Victoria suddenly stood in front of them. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and frowned.

"Swimming," David replied curtly. "Amanda... I mean... Emily and I are going to the beach with Julian. It's such a beautiful summer day. We want to make use of it while you're at the notary."

"You don't come with us?"

Emily noticed the disappointment in Victoria's face and she waited nervously for her father's response.

"Why should I?" He frowned. "I hardly believe that Conrad left something for me."

"Probably not, but I thought you might still want to be there when Conrad's testament will be read or just to support me," Victoria said.

"You have Daniel and Charlotte who will support you." He put his arm around Emily's shoulder spontaneously. "Just go with the others. I intend to spend time with my daughter and grandson today." He tilted his head slightly and looked at Victoria with a curious look. "I hope you don't mind?"

"No... no, why... should I?" She stuttered and then cleared her throat. "Just go to the beach. I'll see you later."

Emily stifled a grin as she saw Victoria turning around and stalking off on her high-heeled shoes.

"That was mean," she told her father and grinned. "She doesn't like being contradicted or when someone thwarts her plans."

"She'll have to get used to it," he said, shrugging casually. "I've lived alone for too long to dance to a woman's tune."

Emily laughed. "You shouldn't let her hear that. She will do everything she can to manipulate you."

"And then she'll quickly realize it's too late for that." He took Emily's hand and pulled her up the stairs.

Grayson Manor, Hamptons

Emily had just finished laying Julian down for his nap, when the door to the nursery opened and Daniel hobbled in on his crutches.

"Is he sleeping?"

Emily nodded. "He just fell asleep. The fresh air on the beach made him tired." She smiled. "It was really nice spending time with my dad again. We had so much fun. I completely forgot how this feels."

"Can we talk?"

Only then did she realize how tense and nervous he was. "Everything okay?" She asked worriedly and left with him the nursery to go to the bedroom.

"If you really want to know the truth... no." He sat down in an armchair and stretched his leg.

"Do you feel any pain? Should I call the doctor?" She leaned down to him and touched his injured leg.

"It's not that." He gently pushed her away. "The leg is fine. It has to do with Dad's last will."

Emily straightened up and looked at him in confusion. "I don't understand what you mean."

Tired, he brushed a strand of hair from his forehead. "Shortly before his death, he had changed his testament," he filled her in. "As if he knew he was going to die." He raised his head and looked at her with a serious face. "His kidnapping and the fact that my mother had a secret affair with your father apparently made him change his will." He spread his arms wide. "All this, Grayson Manor, the estate, and everything belonging to this... it's ours," he finished his report.

"Us?" Emily echoed confused.

"You and me, in equal shares. He wanted our kids to grow up here." He sighed deeply. "He also left me the company, which was not really a surprise for me. I guessed he would do that."

"And what about Charlotte and your mother?" Emily asked, still surprised by the news that she had become the new owner of the Manor.

"They are financially supported until the end of their lives," he explained. "In addition, Charlotte inherited our residence in Paris. Maybe he thought she was going to live there someday."

"Your mother didn't inherit nothing else than the obligatory share?"

"No." He shook his head and laughed bitterly. "That was his revenge for her betrayal. She wants to challenge the will, of course, but I don't think she will get her right."

"He didn't want her to live here anymore," Emily said thoughtfully. "That's why he left Grayson Manor to you and me."

"Not only that. He took everything from her that ever was important to her: her home, her honor, the right to carry the Grayson name."

"Now she'll hate me even more," Emily sighed. "But I never intended to take away her home."

"I wish we could just pack our things, take Julian and then start a new life in Paris," Daniel said out of the blue. "Just as we had planned."

"You want to give it all up and leave?" She looked at him incredulously. "What about Grayson Global and your home? You can't just give up everything. Your father expects you to fulfill his last will."

"I didn't ask him for that," he said sharper than intended. "He knew that I didn't want the company. We talked about it often. I don't have the 'killer instinct' with which he ran Grayson Global. I already noticed that years ago. And I didn't like the way I changed over time while running the company."

Emily remembered and had to agree. Her relationship was broken then. "You could sell the company," she suggested.

"Selling the company that my grandfather founded once?" He shook his head. "I can't do that. I suppose I'll have to do what he ordered me to do."

"What will happen to the 'Voulez'?"

"Margaux is there, too. And it's easier for her to find a new chief editor than I someone who can manage Grayson Global."

"That's it!" Emily suddenly exclaimed excited as a thought flashed through her mind. "You don't need to sell your father's company. You just have to find someone to run it."

"Should I post an ad in the paper?" Daniel asked, amused by Emily's suggestion.

"Maybe that's not necessary," she muttered as she suddenly remembered the conversation with her father that they had just before he had led her into the forest, to Conrad's dugout...

"You may not believe me, but I didn't mean to hurt him. I would have threatened him that I would have his family killed, which I never would have done, but I think that alone would have been enough to bring him to his senses. I would have given him a new identity, and he would have been able to start a new life somewhere else. Conrad Grayson would have been dead to the people here, kidnapped and murdered."

"You wanted him to go through the same as you?"

"With the difference that I would have been on the other side. I had the fortune, the wealth, Grayson Global, Victoria... Why did you have to get involved? I was so close to the goal..."

And now he was with Victoria. Wouldn't it solve all her problems if he also took over Grayson Global? "I have to go," she said, bending down to him and kissing his cheek.

"Where are you going?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Taking care of something important," she replied cryptically, smiling at him once again before leaving the bedroom and making her way to her father.

Grayson Manor, Hamptons

Late in the evening

"You don't guess what Aman-Emily proposed to me?" David said as he took off his clothes in Victoria's bedroom.

"What did she propose to you?" Victoria asked rather indifferent, while she sat down in front of the mirror, taking off her jewelry and then reached for the hair brush and brushed her hair.

"You know that Conrad bequeathed the company to Daniel," he began. "But it looks like he has no interest in it."

She dropped the brush and quickly turned to face him. "What do you mean, he has no interest in it?"

"He doesn't want it." David shrugged. "He believes that he isn't the right person to run the company."

"Did he say that to you?"

"He confided it to Emily," he confessed. "He's unhappy with his inheritance and would rather continue to work as chief editor at the 'Voulez'."

Victoria frowned. "But he can't. Who should run the company then?"

A sly grin appeared on David's face. "What would you think if I became the new head of Grayson Global?"

It took Victoria a moment to consider his proposal. But then her mouth curled up in a grin, too. "I would think that's a great idea," she agreed fervently. "You were a senior executive under Conrad back then. Who else knows the company better than you? You are almost predestined for it!"

"I haven't expected so much praise and approval," he said smiling and wrapped his arms around her waist. "But I have to admit that I liked the idea the minute when Emily made me the offer. Although I'm pretty sure Conrad is tearing his hair out in his grave right now."

Victoria rested her head on his shoulder. "That's what you call retributive justice," she said thoughtfully. "He couldn't make up for what he did to you during his lifetime. Now is the moment where you get back what he took from you once."

Carefully, he brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and kissed her tenderly. "Most importantly, I wanted you back, because I never stopped loving you," he said softly.

She gently pushed him over to the bed with a coquettish smile. "Then show me how much you love me," she whispered.

"Your wish is my command," he said with a grin and covered her body with kisses as he sank down with her onto the bed.