‘I wasn’t asking you. I was asking my daughter.’
Miranda glared at me. ‘He’s lying. Lewis didn’t say that at all.’
‘Then what did he say?’
‘I don’t remember. Something about how everything would turn out for the best.’
I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt because she had just lost her brother, but I was 99 per cent sure she was lying, about that and the phone call.
Charles must have read it in her body language. Or maybe it was because my testimony was much clearer. But he appeared to believe me over his daughter.
He clamped a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Thank you for being brave enough to tell me.’
Then he faced both Miranda and Holly. ‘Do you really think Jasmine is going to “steal” your inheritance?’
‘No, Dad, of course not.’ That was Holly. ‘We were shocked, that was all, when she told us you were married already.’
‘And planning to have more kids,’ Miranda added. ‘And move to Florida.’
He took half a step towards his two daughters and they both shrank away. It was the first time I’d seen it: their fear of him. Suddenly, the pair of them looked like children, cowering in their father’s shadow. I was certain Charles was going to explode, yell at them for being greedy and selfish and spoiled. I was prepared to step in, to protect Holly. I had my argumentprepared. How could he expect them not to be worried when he had sprung Jasmine on them, lied about being married, not told them his plans?
But he didn’t explode. Instead, in that calm voice that was somehow more chilling than a shout, he said, ‘I’ve always looked after you. I sent you to the best schools. I’ve given you everything you’ve ever wanted. All the things I never had. You have nothing to worry about. Even if Jasmine and I had ten kids there would still be plenty to go around. Especially now, with everything that’s about to happen.’
Zack nodded.
‘I gave Lewis everything, too,’ Charles went on. His eyes were dry. ‘I tried so hard with that boy. My only son. You know I wanted him to take over the company from me, to be my heir. When he finally gave up on all his stupid dreams of being a writer or an actor or a fucking poet, I gave him a job. Gave him the chance to prove himself. To be a man.’
There was ice in his voice now. Holly and Miranda listened in silence. Holly had told me that neither she nor Miranda had ever wanted to be involved with the business, but all this outdated stuff about sons and heirs must still have rankled.
‘I tried so hard. Coached him. Gave him responsibilities. I got Zack here to mentor him, too. And your brother– he screwed it all up, made mistake after mistake. Letting him go from the company was the hardest thing I ever did, but he was doing too much damage.’
Zack said, ‘You have to be cruel to be kind.’
‘Exactly. When I told him I wasn’t going to bail him out any more, that he needed to find his own path to success, pay his own way, he actually cried. He begged me for another chance, for more money, going on about how much debt he was in, despite the very generous salary I’d been paying him.It was disgusting. But it was the right thing to do. Don’t you agree?’
There was no response.
‘Well?’
‘Yes, Dad,’ Miranda said.
Holly just shook her head, eyes closed, tears leaking on to her cheeks.
Charles sat down, as if his speech had winded him. There was still no sign of tears. There seemed to be an awful lot of regret, even guilt, hidden in the speech he had made but, of course, anger was the second stage of grief. And here he was, lashing out at the dead, and I realized it was because I had given him a reason to do so. I had told him that I thought his son had been planning to kill his wife.
I moved closer to Holly, but as I went to touch her arm she stepped away from me, my hand connecting with air.
‘This is unbelievable,’ she said. ‘Tell them, Zack. You knew Lewis. You probably saw him more than any of us.’
‘I didn’t see him that much.’
He sounded like he was lying.
‘You worked with him, though, right?’
‘Yeah.’ Zack seemed distinctly uncomfortable now. ‘But it wasn’t like we were mates. In fact, I’d hardly seen him at all in the two years since Charles fired him.’
Holly frowned. Had she detected that he was lying, too?
