Shadow wolves: Virgin mate (Book 3) - Complete

Prologue - Saying goodbye

Star

One more high society function. One more night of female “He bought me a holiday villa in …” One more night of incoherent conversations, stuffy rooms with champagne flowing, and people standing way too close to each other everywhere … Was going to make me vomit. Why did he have to do that? It was such a cliché. The rich had some fancy over the top event to “donate money” to some cause. I bet if you asked any of them what the cause they were donating to, they wouldn’t even be able to tell you. I hated these functions and Brandon expected me to be there, looking chic and be by his side, “assisting” him. Well, I didn’t actually need to do much but smile and be nice to the guests. I knew most of them. His close personal friends or business associates.

I would have preferred to spend the night in my colourful bedroom, watching a sci-fi movie. All this black and white, dark bling dresses and ladies wearing diamonds flashing in your eyes was really depressing. Always the same old crowd, trying to outdo each other. We went to see his doctors earlier in the day and the prognosis was not good. His health was deteriorating fast, and it seemed he didn’t have as much time as they previously thought. I was there to help him when he was sick at night, cook what the doctors said he could eat and clean his bed when he had an accident.

He always told me my reward was that he had the chance to spoil me with a new dress, shoes, jewellery, time at the spa, and then he could show me off to high-class society as the most beautiful woman in the world. The woman all men wanted and couldn’t have and the one all women hated but wanted to be.

“Yeah right! If they found out what it took to stand here, they wouldn’t want to be me.” That was my standard answer when he said things like that. We were comfortable with each other. He had grown used to my sarcasm and I had grown used to his chauvinistic jokes. We just jelled that way, but it never went beyond a friendship between employer and employee. I lived in his house to be able to be there at night when he was sick and needed help.

It was one of those nights where I just knew he was going to be up all night. He looked pale and walking took all of his strength. But he refused to excuse himself from the event. Who ended up dealing with him? Oh, Brother!! If I had known it would be his last night, I think I would have made more of an effort to make it special for him. But we never know when death will come for us.

That morning we went shopping and when we got home, we were laughing, even after we had seen the doctors. He only started looking sick later in the evening when the last guests said their goodbyes. I helped him upstairs. In his room, he put on his pajamas and washed his face while I hung around just in case he needed help to put on his clothes, which rarely happened. He walked out of the bathroom and climbed into bed.

“Good night sweet Star.” He said his last words.

“Good night sweet Brandon.” I said, as I switched off his light and closed his door.

I sat in my black dress thinking of that night. How stuffy and irritated I was at the benefit, and now Brandon was gone. He had passed away a week ago, and it was his funeral today. It looked as if it was the funeral of a film star. Many, of course, thought I was his girlfriend, seeing the way he always treated me with so much respect and the fact that I was by his side at each event. My heart was broken. We had become close, but as friends. We had been told his time was almost up, but I never really thought of it that way when the doctors told him. He was so full of life most of the time. If we weren’t sailing, we were jetting off somewhere, or he wanted me to arrange a benefit for some or other forgotten or unknown charity.

He had left everything to me in his will and that made things even harder for me. I didn’t look after him for the money. He was my friend. After the funeral, I saw his attorneys to make the arrangements to transfer the properties into my name. When everything was settled, I arranged for the jet and went on a retreat to his … Well, I guess it was mine now … My beach house. I spent days on the beach or on the patio reading, or just walking on the beach thinking.

I had become an instant millionaire, and it made me nauseous. Yes, it was nice to just arrange the jet and come to the beach house, but it was not me. I liked helping people. Organizing their lives to make things easier for them. I didn’t want all this money. I called my employment agency to let them know I was available again, and my attorneys to ask them to prepare the necessary information to sell all the properties left to me by Brandon. What I didn’t tell them yet, was that I was planning on giving all the money to charities. I knew that is what he would have wanted, that was why he left everything to me, because he knew I wouldn’t keep it.

I went back home and was lucky enough to find employment within the first month of being back. She was an author, and she sounded a bit odd. But then I could work with odd. I could finally just be me and colour my hair all the colours of the rainbow again. By the sound of it, she wasn’t very conventional. It was a live-in position, so I gave up my apartment. All the properties were sold and the money from the sales was donated to charities. I kept a little for myself for emergencies. This was hopefully going to be a new adventure. I needed something to get my mind off Brandon.