Coming Home For Christmas
Chapter 4

"MUM!!"

Dayton shouts as he comes running into the kitchen waving my phone around like a caveman swinging his club. "Your phone is ringing, mum"

"Who is it?"

He looks at it briefly before looking back at me.

"It's auntie Abby"

"Oh, thank you honey"

I say as I take the phone from my son.

"Ooh, can I speak to her, mummy?"

Teddy asks and I shake my head.

"No, you three need to go and shower and get ready for bed"

"But mum"

They all groan and I just give them the look which quickly has them doing what I say.

It's not a scary look, it's just an expression which tells these kids not to question their momma.

"You too, Logan"

"Ok, mum"

Logan says with a sigh as he puts his book down on the couch and leaves the room.

I swear that boy has always got his face buried either in a book, his laptop or his tablet.

"Hello"

I answer my phone and smile when I hear the cheery voice of my publicist Abby who is also a really good friend of mine.

I've known her ever since I got signed to her agency five years ago, she's such an amazing woman and has been an absolute godsend to all of us the past few years. We're honestly so lucky to have her in our lives.

"Hey, Lace"

"Hey Abs, how's it going?"

"Everything is just fabulous, babe, especially after what I found out today"

"And what did you replace out today, Abs?"

I ask her as I try to multi-task talking to her and cleaning up the kitchen.

"Well, I found out my favourite client Miss Olivia James just made the New York Times Top Ten Bestsellers list for the fifth year in a row"

"Oh really? well, congratulations to Miss Olivia James, she should be so proud of herself"

I said with a slight chuckle and Abby groaned at me.

"It's so creepy when you do that, Lace"

"Do what? what do you mean?"

I asked even though I knew exactly what she meant.

"When you talk about yourself in the third person, it's so weird"

She says and I shake my head while smiling.

She's so freaking dramatic.

Just in case you're wondering or you're confused, Olivia James is my writing alter ego if you will, it's a name that I created using both my middle name and my father's first name so that I could publish my work without anyone knowing it's me who is writing them. At first, I had no intention of hiding my identity because I honestly never expected my work to take off the way that it did, it was only when in the space of a few months, my fan base exploded and then I got signed to an agency that wanted to release it on hardback that I decided to create an alias and trademark it as well.

There are several reasons why I did this.

The first and most important reason is that when I wrote and released my very first book, I was pregnant with my kids and it was a high-risk pregnancy, I had been put on bed rest during my second trimester by my doctor and he told me to avoid stress as much as I possibly could.

The next reason is because I knew my family had been trying to replace me and even though I had changed my name six years ago from Lacey Carpenter to Lacey Wright which is my momma's maiden name, I wanted to take extra precautions so that I wouldn't be found. I'm not afraid of my family and the reasons why I wanted to stay hidden from them isn't because I'm scared or anything like that, it was more because I didn't want to see my family again or deal with my brother and my ex, especially while I was having a risky pregnancy.

I also didn't want my family or the Black family to see my kids and force an arranged marriage between myself and Logan so that they could save face as well as their reputations.

The Carpenter and Black families are two of the three most powerful and richest families in New York and they're all about their reputation and protecting it at any cost even if it means at the expense of their kid's happiness and I refuse to allow them to do this with me and my kids.

"Anyway babe, guess what I've arranged for you for your fifth anniversary?"

Abby asks in a sing-song voice and dread immediately fills me.

"Please don't tell me you've arranged another blind date for me, Abs? I haven't recovered from the last guy you tried to set me up with"

I say and she chuckles.

"That was six months ago, Lace"

"Exactly and I'm still recovering"

I say while rolling my eyes.

"Anyway, what have you arranged for me?"

"Well, in honour of my besties anniversary and all of her success, I've arranged a party for you which will also double as a New Year's Eve party"

"What? why would you do that, Abby?"

I ask annoyed.

I know I probably sound super ungrateful right now but that's not the case, I hate parties with a passion and I haven't attended one since my engagement party.

I don't even attend book signings or launches because of the anxiety it gives me.

"Because you need to start being proud of your success and being the face of your own brand Lacey which means meeting with your fans and socialising with them, they're all dying to meet the infamous Olivia James who has been setting her reader's hearts and loins on fire with her hot and steamy books"

She says and I chuckle.

"Besides, you need to move on from the past, Lace...you deserve to be happy and you can't be happy when you're hiding from your past"

Urgh!!.

"You're right"

"Of course, I'm right"

I let out a sigh as I sit down on my couch and run a hand through my hair.

"So, where's this party going to take place then?"

I ask expecting to hear somewhere expensive in London because Abby doesn't do cheap and I just knew that if she's organised a party then it's gonna be a rich and luxurious affair.

It was only when Abby started to stutter and was hesitant to answer me that I started to feel nervous and I didn't have a good gut feeling about this.

"Well, erm...you see I erm...I wanted this to be the biggest, baddest event of the year and one to remember"

"OK"

I drag out feeling my nerves getting stronger and more prominent.

"Well, there's only one place in this whole wide world that can pull off a party like that, Lacey Lace"

Oh no, don't you say it, please don't freaking say it, Abigail Walters.

"NEW YORK, BABY!!"

Oh hell no.

"You've got to be kidding me, Abs, there's no way I'm going back to New York"

"Oh, come on Lace, it'll be fun"

Fun?.

Did this b***h just say it'll be fun?.

"Abigail, you do remember where I'm from, right?"

"Yeah, you're from New York and what better place is there for you to flaunt your success than in your home city"

"I can't do this, Abby, I can't go back to New York"

"Yes you can, Lacey babe, you're..."

Abby said but was cut off by someone in the background who was saying something I couldn't quite make out.

"Sorry babe, I've gotta go, I'll call you tomorrow, ok"

"Abby"

"Bye Lace"

"ABBY!!...Abby, don't you dare...hang up on me"

I said the last bit with a groan when she hung up on me before I could finish my sentence.

I sighed in frustration as I once again run a hand through my hair and tugged on it.

I can't believe this.

I can't believe she's not only arranged a party for me which I don't want but she's arranged for it to take place in f*****g New York. "MUMMY!!"

My daughter shouts for me and I head upstairs accidentally knocking over the pile of letters on my cabinet as I did.

I ignored the mess and went upstairs to deal with my kids who had all had their baths and had gotten changed into their pyjamas.

I first checked in on my daughter and read her a bedtime story until she fell asleep, I then switched off her light and put on her unicorn night light. "Night, night princess"

I give Teddy a kiss on her head before leaving her room.

I then went into the boy's room and I wasn't surprised to see Dayton on the floor playing with his toys and Logan laying in bed reading a book.

"Boys, why aren't you asleep yet?"

"Because I wanted to play with my toys, mum"

"And I wanted to finish reading this chapter of my book, did you know that there are six hundred muscles in the human body?"

"Really?"

I ask faking being shocked.

"Hey Logan, did you know that the human body has seventy-eight organs in it and right now, this momma wolf wants her big boy to rest that big one in his head?" "Ok, fine"

Logan groans as he puts his marker in his book and puts it on his bedside table.

"Night, baby"

I give Logan a kiss and he smiles.

"Night, mum"

As soon as I turned around, Dayton had already put his toys away and had gotten into bed.

I give him a kiss and bid him goodnight before turning off their light and putting on their night lights as well.

I then go into my bedroom and I had a quick shower.

Normally, I'd like to have a bath after a long day but I'm just so exhausted and I want nothing more than to have a nice glass of wine to wind down enough so that I can sleep.

After blow-drying my hair and putting it into a couple of braids, I head downstairs and groaned when I saw the mess that I had made earlier.

I knelt down to pick the letters up and that's when my eyes landed on the letter I received this morning which I honestly forgot all about.

I really didn't wanna deal with this right now because I'm way too tired and I've got absolutely no energy to not only deal with the contents of this letter but also the questions surrounding how my grandfather found out where I am and where I'm living.

In the end, I decided to just bite the bullet and open the letter because I was gonna have to eventually and it wasn't going to help my anxiety by prolonging it.

I quickly opened the envelope and unfolded the fancy stationery before I chickened out but to my surprise, it wasn't a letter like I had originally thought it was, no it was something else which I also wasn't expecting and my eyes widened when I realised what it was and also whose names were on it.

This has got to be a joke.