A Model Mother

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Helen

Things really kicked off when Miles’s mother, Helen, saw the first picture of Rose with her baby on the front cover of a well-known national magazine famous for news and gossip. Helen knew immediately that she was looking at her grandchild and a sturdy good looking boy he was too.

She was mesmerised by the photograph, she could have been looking at a photo of Miles as a baby. Already big, he looked set to at least match his Dad’s 6’4’’ frame. Helen noted the large khaki green eyes fringed by luxurious sooty lashes; they were from Rose and promised to make him every bit as devastatingly good looking as they did his mum.

Helen had met Rose just the once and although she had never discussed her with her son, she had warmed to her at once. In a world of celebrity worship where gold-digging was a given, she had thought her a breath of fresh air. She had her own money and ran her own business and though her wealth was a drop in the ocean compared to the Seton millions, her independent financial status gave her an edge and she was no pushover that was for sure.

She was very unlike most of the precious beauties that Miles had brought home before her and had not balked at helping Helen out with the preparations for a large charity gala that Helen was hosting the following month. At the same time she had entertained Helen with stories about her previous career on the international catwalks and was happy to spend time with Helen browsing through the Seton family albums – an activity that Helen gained comfort from ever since she had lost her husband two years earlier.

Helen had had a strong feeling that Rose was going to be “the one”. Miles didn’t even try to hide how smitten he was. Helen might well have passed comment on her liking for her had not she and Miles suddenly bust up in spectacular style, their split splashed across all the international glossies and starting an international media frenzy.

Even now, Helen was not certain what had really happened and Miles absolutely refused to talk about it, keeping all the legal fallout confidential to their family lawyers Campbell and Gray.  Helen had respected Miles’s privacy to date, she could tell that he was hurting really badly but the Seton stubbornness would never allow him to admit it in a million years. Instead he had thrown himself into the family business, working long, long hours and travelling manically around the world.

 Shortly after Rose’s visit to see Helen, she had told Miles she was pregnant. That much Helen knew to be a fact. Miles had quickly and very publicly denied that the child was his and Miles’s actions had been so out of character Helen was perplexed by the whole affair. She had considered secretly contacting Rose but was worried that if Miles found out he would never forgive her.

When Rose had her baby Miles had again gone public via his lawyers and announced that he would not accept paternity until a blood test confirmed it. At this point  Rose had completely gone to ground, allegedly letting it be known that she would bring up her son, now known to be called Lloyd, by herself.

And indeed no more had been heard from her leading the media to of course ponder for months whether she had withdrawn because indeed she knew that her son would never pass a blood test or that she was as good as her word and had decided to say “get stuffed” to the rest of the world, including Miles and just bring her son up alone.

Now of course Helen could see beyond a shadow of a doubt that Rose’s son was indeed Miles’s son too. She wondered if Miles had seen this photo. She knew that Rose must have (in her opinion very sensibly) taken legal action to prevent photos of Lloyd being published so that she could get some peace and quiet from the press, this photo must have been taken from a concealed position. It was a beautiful and touching snap of a private shared moment between mother and son, totally natural and unstaged – Lloyd beaming toothlessly at his proud and smiling Mummy.

 Not for the first time, Helen wondered if Max and Francesca had had some part to play in this drama. Helen had always loved Francesca as if she were her own daughter and their relationship had survived the break up between her and Miles. But maybe Francesca had after all harboured some strong resentment against Rose, whom Miles had left her for. 

Max, a far more complex and difficult person than his sister may also have felt their break-up more keenly that he had let on as he had been absolutely over the moon about Francesca’s and Mile’s romance. In fact Helen had hardly seen him since Miles and Francesca had split up although she knew from talking to Miles that they were still close.

She had heard a couple of rumours that Max may have been gambling again. She hadn’t mentioned it to Miles as he was always so busy and distracted these days, but she made a mental note to follow up on what she had heard.

She had had to get Max out of more than one financial scrape in the past and he had always begged her not to tell Miles as he had hero worshipped him since they were both young boys and couldn’t bear for Miles to think badly of him.

Helen had always known that underlying this hero worship Max had a rather less than healthy envy of Miles, no doubt stemming from Max’s loss of his own parents whilst a young teenager and at a very sensitive age. However, she had never taken steps to probe or expose Max’s feelings, always hoping that by providing unconditional love and support to both him and Francesca it would help to ease the pain of their loss and help to provide some kind of family life for them when their parents had died.

Tired of speculating, Helen threw the magazine down on the sofa. Instead she started to plan how she was going to get to meet Rose and this gorgeous grandson of hers.

 Hi, this is my very first story on wattpad. Hope you like it. Do please send me some comments. I will post the second chapter soon.