Forever and a Day. Sophie Love
incoming call.
“It’s Amy,” she explained. “I’d better take it.”
“Amy? From high school?” Roy asked, raising an eyebrow.
Emily nodded. “We’re still friends,” she informed him. “She’s a bridesmaid. She’s helping with a lot of the wedding preparations.”
Emily dashed out of the speakeasy and took the call.
“Em, we’re so sorry,” Amy began. “The call took ages and now we’re both too exhausted to drive. We’re going to have to stop here over night. Don’t hate us.”
“I won’t,” Emily told her, secretly relieved that her friends weren’t going to interrupt the reunion with her father.
“We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Amy added.
“Honestly, Amy, it’s fine,” Emily said. “Some stuff’s come up here anyway.”
“What stuff? Wedding stuff? Daniel? Sheila?” She sounded concerned.
“It’s nothing like that,” Emily explained. Then she took a deep breath. “Amy, my dad is here.”
There was a long silence. “What? How? Are you okay?”
Emily didn’t know how to answer that, and she really didn’t want to go into it too much now. She hadn’t fully absorbed it yet. She needed time to untangle her emotions and make sense of it all.
“I’m fine. Let’s talk about it when you get here.”
Amy didn’t sound convinced. “Okay. But if you need someone to talk to, call me right away. See you tomorrow.”
Emily ended the call and went back to the speakeasy, to the joyful laughter of Roy and Daniel. Old bosom buddies back together again.
“Well,” Roy said, draining the last of the liquor from his glass. “I think it’s probably time for me to make myself scarce. Looks like you have guests to attend to.”
Emily felt panicked at the thought of Roy leaving. “I have staff, they’re covering everything. It’s fine for us to spend time together. You don’t have to go.”
Roy noticed her panic-stricken appearance. “I just meant that it might be time to retire. To sleep.”
“You mean you’re staying?” Emily said, surprised. “Here?”
“If you have space?” Roy said meekly. “I didn’t mean to be presumptuous.”
“Of course you can stay!” Emily exclaimed. “How long are you planning to be here?”
“Until the wedding if it’s not a problem. I could help out a bit with preparations if needed.”
Emily was stunned. Not only was her father here, but he was planning on being here for over a week! It really was a dream come true.
“That would be wonderful,” she said.
They went upstairs and checked Roy into the room beside his study. Emily knew he’d want to go in there at some point, probably alone.
“Will this room be okay?” she asked.
“Oh yes. It’s quite lovely,” Roy replied. “And right beside my secret staircase.”
Emily frowned. “Your what?”
“Don’t tell me you never found it,” Roy said. There was a glint of mischief in his eye, one that revealed the brush with madness he’d once had, the spiraling downward that had turned his playful nature for treasure maps into secrecy and locked vaults with hidden combinations.
“Do you mean the staircase to the widow’s walk?” Emily asked. “I found that. But it’s on the third floor.”
Roy clapped loudly then, as though suddenly delighted. “You never found it! The servants’ staircase.”
Emily shook her head. “But I’ve seen the schematics of the whole house. Your speakeasy was the last hidden place on there.”
“Something’s not hidden if it’s on schematics!” Roy exclaimed.
“Show us,” Daniel said. He seemed excited, like he had been when the bar had been discovered.
Roy led them into his study. “Didn’t you wonder why there was a chimney breast against this wall?” He knocked it, and it let out a hollow sound. “All the other chimney breasts are on external walls. This one is internal.”
“It didn’t even cross my mind,” Emily said.
“Well, it’s behind here,” Roy said. “If you wouldn’t mind giving me a hand, Daniel.”
Daniel readily obliged. They removed what Emily saw now was a fake wall, papered to be the same as the rest of the room. And there it was. A staircase. Plain, nothing particularly beautiful to look at, but it was its very existence that excited them.
“I can’t believe it,” Emily said, stepping inside. “Is this why you chose this room as your study?”
“Of course,” Roy replied. “The stairs were a shortcut for the servants to get to the sleeping quarters without being seen by the people in the house. It just goes from here down into the basement, which is where the servants would have slept back in the day.”
“And this is the only way in,” Emily stated, realizing now why she hadn’t found it. The basement still contained rooms unexplored to her, and her father’s study was the room she’d messed with the least.
Roy nodded. “Surprise.”
Emily laughed and shook her head. “So many secrets.”
They headed out of the study and Roy went into his bedroom. Emily went to close the door behind him, but he reached out for her and gave her a kiss goodnight.
Emily stopped, stunned. Her father hadn’t kissed her for so many years, even well before he’d walked out of her life.
“Good night, Dad,” she said hurriedly.
She shut the door and scurried to her room. Once safely inside, Daniel immediately wrapped her up in a much needed hug.
“How are you holding up?” he asked softly, gently rocking her in his arms.
“I can’t believe he’s really here,” she stammered. “I keep thinking this is a dream.”
“What did you guys talk about?”
“Everything. I mean I know I’m still processing everything but it was cathartic. I feel like we can put all the hurt behind us now and start afresh.”
“So those are happy tears making my shoulder wet?” Daniel joked.
Emily drew back and laughed at the dark patch on Daniel’s shirt. “Oops, sorry,” she said. She hadn’t even realized she’d been crying.
Daniel kissed her lightly. “There’s nothing to apologize about. I get that this is going to be tough. If you need to cry or laugh or shout or anything, I’m here. Okay?”
Emily nodded, so grateful to have such a beautiful human in her life. And now with her dad here, she felt like everything was really slotting into place. At last, after so many years living an unfulfilling life, she felt like she was now finally going to get to live the life she deserved.
Her wedding was only a week away. And now, for the first time, with everyone around her whom she loved, she felt truly ready for it.
Now it was time to get married.
CHAPTER TWO
The next morning Emily awoke earlier than usual, feeling elated. She skipped downstairs to make breakfast, cooking up a feast of eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes, humming happily to herself the whole while. Daniel came down with Chantelle a little while later. Emily looked at the clock as time passed, becoming worried that her father hadn’t yet made an appearance.
“Why don’t you knock on his door?” Daniel suggested, clearly having picked