A PERFECT RENDEZVOUS

A Pressing Interview

In a Chicago penthouse overlooking Lake Shore Drive, Zayn's former neighbor and best man, Liam Payne, looked up as his young daughter raced into the room, followed by her mother, and plunked herself on his lap. With her silky blond hair and blue eyes, Marissa's resemblance to her mother, Meredith, was already so striking that Liam grinned as he looked at both of his girls. "I thought it was nap time," he said to his daughter.

She looked at the glossy stock prospectus he'd been reading and obviously mistook it for one of her story books. "Story, Daddy. First. Please."

Before answering, he looked inquiringly at Meredith, who was president of Bancroft & Company, a large chain of exclusive department stores founded by her ancestors, and she gave him a helpless smile. "It's Sunday," she said. "Sundays are pretty special. I guess naps can wait a few minutes."

"Mommy says okay," he said, settling his daughter onto his lap as he thought of a story. Meredith saw amusement spark his eyes as she curled up in a chair across from the pair, and she realized the cause of it the moment Liam began his story:

"Once upon a time," he said in a very serious voice, "there was a beautiful princess who sat on a throne at Bancroft & Company."

"Mommy?" Marissa chirped.

"Mommy," he averred. "Now besides being beautiful and wonderful, this princess was very smart. But one day," he said in a tone of dire gravity, "she let a wicked, wicked banker talk her into investing some money into a company that—"

"Uncle Parker?" Marissa asked, grinning.

Meredith smothered a laugh at Liam 's description of her former fiancé and said hastily, "Daddy's joking. Uncle Parker is not wicked."

"This is my story," Liam argued with a grin, then he continued. "Now it so happened that the princess's husband, who happens to know a lot about investing money, warned the princess not to listen to the wicked banker, but she did it anyway. In fact," he added in a deep, emphatic voice, "the princess was so sure she was right that she made a bet with her husband that the stock would go up, but it didn't. It closed down two points on Friday. And do you know what happens now that the princess lost the bet to her husband?"

She shook her head, smiling because he was smiling.

Sending a speaking look at his wife, Liam finished meaningfully, "She has to pay up. That means the princess has to take a long, long nap with her husband today."

"Mommy has to take a nap!" Marissa chortled, clapping her hands.

"That's exactly how I feel about it," Liam said.

Standing up, Meredith reached for Marissa's hand, but her warm smile was for Liam. "A wise mommy," she told her daughter, "Only makes bets that are nice to lose." The cozy atmosphere was interrupted by the arrival of Joe O'Hara, the family bodyguard/chauffeur, who regarded himself—and was treated like—a member of the family.

"Liam," he said, looking anxious, "I just saw on the television in my room that Harry Mathison, the man Zayn took as hostage, is going to give a press conference. It's starting right now."

Meredith had never met Zayn Malik, he'd already been sent to prison by the time Liam and she got together, but she knew the two men had been fast friends. Now she took one look at Liam 's grim expression as he turned the television on and said quickly, "Joe, would you take Marissa to her room for her nap?"

"Sure thing. C'mon, sweetheart," he said, and the pair walked off hand in hand, a giant of a man and a little girl who regarded him as her personal teddy bear.

Too tense to sit down, Liam shoved his hands into his pants pockets and watched in taut silence as a pretty young man stepped up to the bank of microphones, wearing a simple white wool dress shirt with gold buttons at the collar and cuffs, his long dark hair caught at the nape in a pleated bow. "God help him," Liam said, referring to Zayn. "He looks like Snow White, which is going to make the whole damned world scream for his blood for kidnapping him."