“Have a safe trip.” Hugues’s eyes were full of all the love he felt for her, no matter how difficult she had been for the past six months. “I’m looking forward to graduation, and your party when we get home.” He didn’t mention the wedding, since it was such a sore subject with her. And this week and the following one were all hers. And as usual, her mother wasn’t coming to her graduation. Heloise had invited her, but she was on vacation in Vietnam with Greg, and despite a year’s notice, Miriam said she had been unable to change her plans. It was always the same story with her. Heloise didn’t care as long as her father was there. And he walked her out of the hotel, where a car and driver were waiting for her to take her to the airport.

“Thank you, Papa,” she said quietly. She had seemed to calm down in the last few days. She was excited about her graduation and felt very adult suddenly. Working in the hotel, even for her father, had taught her a multitude of new skills. It was different than just running around as a kid. She had real responsibilities now, occasionally challenging situations to handle, and supervisors to satisfy, who were sometimes stern with her and always demanding, even if they’d known her for years. She had to meet the Vendôme standards now, not just those of the École Hôtelière. “See you Friday,” she said, slipping into the car, carrying her graduation dress in a garment bag, and she waved as they pulled away from the curb. He looked pensive as he watched the car drive away, thinking of all the years they had shared and the strange life they had led, safe in the cocoon of the hotel. He knew how hard it was for her to include someone else in that life, which made him more tolerant than he might have been otherwise with her behavior of the past many months. He knew that underneath her anger and upset over Natalie, she loved him, just as he loved her. It was hard for him to believe that she was grown up now and almost twenty-one, and about to be a graduate of the same school he had gone to. He smiled thinking about it as he walked back into the hotel.

When Heloise got to Lausanne, she met up with her classmates of the year before. All of them were equally excited to be graduating, and full of stories about their internships around the world. Heloise’s had been quieter than most, in her own familiar world, which made her happy that she had had six months before that at the George V. And she saw François for the first time in six months. He had a new girlfriend with him, which ruffled Heloise’s feathers. Several of them had brought significant others along. She hadn’t been dating anyone since her return to New York. Working double shifts at the hotel, she hadn’t had time.

They all went out to dinner at local restaurants every night, including the ones on campus and the two student-run bars, and attended final seminars and a rehearsal for graduation. It was an emotional time. Some of them had signed up for an additional two years in the International Hospitality Management Programme, and still others were planning to go on for a master’s degree at the school after that. But Heloise was ready to go home and get the rest of her training at the Vendôme.

And on Friday her father arrived and checked into the hotel attached to the school, which it ran as a learning experience for its students. It was a treat for any visitor to stay there, and Hugues had worked there himself for a few months as a young man. It was always fun for him to come back here and see how things had changed. His own time at the École Hôtelière had been among the best years of his life before his career began. He couldn’t help wondering as he walked around the familiar, immaculate campus if one of his grandchildren might even come here one day. It was hard to imagine, but with Heloise’s deep love for the business, he could almost see that happening sometime in the distant future. He suddenly felt like the head of a dynasty as he thought about it, and not just the proprietor of a small hotel.

“What were you thinking about, Papa?” Heloise asked him as she caught up to him. She had seen him walking along alone when she went looking for him. She had put her nuclear weapons away for these few days, particularly since Natalie wasn’t there. It was almost like old times.

He looked up and smiled when he saw Heloise and put an arm around her. “It sounds silly, but I was thinking that maybe your children will come to school here one day.” He had never expected her to do so, and suddenly it had become a tradition as she followed in his footsteps. He wondered what his parents would say. This had never been their dream for him, but it had been a good life and a career he still loved.

“I don’t think I want children,” she said pensively, as they walked along arm in arm, and he was surprised to hear it. He had always expected her to marry and have babies, even now that she would be working at the hotel.

“Why not?” he asked, watching her eyes.

“They’re too much work,” she said, brushing the idea away, and he laughed.

“So is a hotel. And let me tell you that no matter how much work children are, they’re worth it. My life would be nothing without you.” The emotion he felt for her was strong in his voice.

“Even now, with Natalie?” Heloise was haunted by her. Her eyes were sad when she looked at him, and he nodded emphatically.

“Even with Natalie. That’s not the same thing. I loved your mother very much, and I love Natalie. But the love you feel for a woman, or a man, is not the same as what you feel for a child. It doesn’t even compare. My love for you is forever. Love for a partner is there for as long as it lasts, sometimes it lasts a lifetime, sometimes not. My love for you is to my grave.” It was a serious thing to say, and she was quiet for a long moment as they stopped walking, and she looked into his eyes.

“I thought that had changed,” she said quietly, and he shook his head.

“It will never change. Never. In my entire lifetime.” She nodded then and looked relieved. It was hard for him to imagine that even as grown up as she seemed to be, she was only a child who thought she would lose her father to someone else, or already had. It explained her rejection of Natalie. And it wasn’t so surprising since at the age of four she really had lost her mother to a man. But in Miriam’s case, Heloise had never had her. Her mother had only been on loan for a brief time. The defection and abandonment of her mother had been the ultimate betrayal, which had made her fears about Natalie, and her resulting anger at him, so much worse. He understood that better now. And he was glad he had come alone. He held her tightly in his arms for a moment, stroking her long silky hair, and then they walked back to his hotel arm in arm with a feeling of peace. He had said everything she needed to hear. It hadn’t been enough to know it, or assume it, or hope it; she had needed the words, and she had needed to hear them from him.

The eve-of-graduation dinner that night at the school-run hotel was a festive event. It was held in an auditorium that had been festooned and decorated, and a number of the students as well as the director of the school gave speeches, some of them very emotional. And afterward most of the students went to small nightclubs and bars around Lausanne, and the bars on campus, for a last time. Heloise went out with her friends, and she was genuinely sad to leave them. After this they would all be scattered around the world, although two of them said they were doing internships in New York, but neither of them were people she knew well. And she heard that François had secured a job in Paris at the Plaza Athénée, which he preferred to working at his family’s hotel in the South of France. From now on they would all be crawling their way up the corporate ladder in the hotel business, satisfying their supervisors and serving their clients’ needs. It wasn’t an easy business, they all knew by now, but it was the path they had chosen, and they couldn’t wait to get started. Only two people had dropped out, one because of family illness and the other due to pregnancy and a shotgun wedding, but even she had promised to return. There were a hundred and seventy-eight students graduating in Heloise’s class, and fewer than two thousand in the school, including graduate students. It was acknowledged to be the finest hotel school in the world and a major coup to graduate from there.

And the graduation ceremony was very moving the next day. It followed all the school’s venerable traditions and hadn’t changed a bit since Hugues had graduated more than thirty years before at her age. Prizes were given, and Heloise got two honorable mentions. The crowd in the auditorium stood up and applauded them at the end of the ceremony as an orchestra played, and then a huge cheer rose from the students and the crowd, and they were distinguished graduates of the illustrious École Hôtelière de Lausanne. There were tears streaming down Heloise’s cheeks and in her father’s eyes as she found him and they embraced.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said in a choked voice, and there was no one in the room for her, or in the world, except the two of them at that moment. And he was glad once again that he had come alone. He had needed to share this with her, and to confirm his dedication to her and his love. He was deeply sad for her that Miriam hadn’t come. She was such a fool and had missed the boat with Heloise all her life. She had absented herself from every major occasion, just as she had this time. She cared about no one but herself. He was sorry he had given Heloise such an inadequate mother, and he hoped that she and Natalie would be friends one day. It was too late to act as her mother, but it would be good for her to have a staunch, mature female friend, other than Jennifer, Ernesta, and Jan, all of whom had been good to her. But Natalie would be family now. He had tried to be everything to her, mother, father, mentor, adviser, but he still felt she needed a woman in her life, and he was sorry he hadn’t provided one before this. In some ways he had waited too long, and now instead of welcoming it, Heloise resented it and had declared war on Natalie. He hoped there would be a truce one of these days, but he didn’t mention it to her in Lausanne.