‘Mum will be spinning in her grave. They’re going to have more children! She is going to take away everything that’s rightfully ours.’
And there it was. The true reason for Miranda’s hostility. Her inheritance. Because, of course, if Charles had a new wife and more children, the share that she, Lewis and Holly got would be lower.
‘You’re exaggerating,’ Lewis said. ‘If they have one kid, it will mean we’ll get a quarter each instead of a third.’
‘What about Jasmine’s share? How do we know she won’t persuade him to leave everything to her and this brat?’
My sympathy for her ebbed away.
Miranda went on. ‘On top of that, she might spend everything while Dad’s still around. Expensive schools for their offspring. A mansion on Miami Beach. I can see it all vanishing.’
There was a very long pause, and then Lewis said, ‘You don’t need to worry.’
‘How can you say that? I can see it.’ She put on a terrible American accent. ‘Oh, Charles, we need a new car, a bigger house. Little Chuck Junior needs to go to the best school in the state, and don’t forget about the college fund.’
Lewis laughed. ‘Chuck Junior.’
‘It’s not funny! She’ll bleed him dry, and then, when she’s facing the prospect of living with an old man, of having to take care of him and wipe his arse, she’ll run off with some young stud and take whatever’s left.’
‘I promise you, Miranda,’ Lewis said, ‘it’s not going to turn out like that.’
‘You don’t know that. You probably don’t even care. You’venever been interested in money, although you still seem to have plenty.’
‘You have no idea.’
There was a pause and he said something I couldn’t quite make out but his next words were clear. He said, ‘I’m going to fix it. Trust me.’
I had gone rigid. Earlier, I had decided the overheard phone call was related to a business deal and that Lewis hadn’t been talking to Miranda.
Had I been wrong about that?
‘Why are you standing around in the cold?’ Holly asked, appearing behind me, with Jasmine beside her. ‘Lewis, I assume this trip to the caves is off.’
He and Miranda broke apart. He looked shifty.
‘No, why would it be?’ he said. The smile he aimed at her looked fake, betraying his claim to be a good actor. ‘As long as you’re still up for it, Jasmine?’
‘Sure. Whatever.’
It seemed to me that her motivation for going now was to delay being back at the house with Miranda. But what was Lewis’s motivation?
He caught me staring at him. ‘What is it?’ he snapped. Without waiting for a reply, he said, ‘We’d better get going. Miranda, you’ll have to get a ride home with Holly and Pat.’
‘Where are these caves?’ I asked, feeling deeply uneasy.
He pointed vaguely behind him and upwards, to where the big derelict house was. Shifty was an understatement. I could detect the energy pouring off him, a desperation to get going. ‘That direction.’
I turned my head– and saw a bike coming towards us down the lane. It was Avril. Seeing us, she slowed, then came to a halt beside Lewis’s car. Staring straight at him, Avril narrowedher eyes, and I remembered overhearing her telling him that she hated him.
Now, she marched up to him and said, ‘Mum’s money hasn’t turned up.’
‘What are you talking about?’ He said it with a smile, but I could tell he was growing increasingly irritated. Here was another interruption. Another delay.
‘It always comes at the end of the month. It’s late.’
‘That has nothing to do with me,’ Lewis said. ‘It’s paid through the company, right? You need to ask my dad, or Zack. Shame they wouldn’t let you go on their hunting trip with them.’
‘It’s probably been held up by Christmas,’ Miranda said in a dismissive tone.
