Page 13 of A Secret Scottish Escape

Now it was David’s turn to shift on the opposite quilted couch.

I flapped the letter in mid-air in disbelief. “He wanted both of us. Was I the only idiot not to know what was going on?”

“You’re not an idiot,” assured David in hushed tones. “Mac was an expert at managing to keep his private life private, even when his novels became a big success.”

I waved the letter savagely. “You’re telling me!”

David lifted a manicured finger and pointed to the letter. “Please. Layla.”

My shoulders slumped in defeat and I turned back to Mac’s slanting, black scrawl.

I know there is nothing I can say to apologise for my behaviour, so that is why I have named you as the sole beneficiary of my book royalties.

Lois will receive the advance for my last novel, Improper Justice.

My hand flew to my throat. “What is this? Mac has left me his royalties?”

“Yes,” confirmed David. “The whole lot. It’s one hell of a back catalogue, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”

Waves of shock swamped me. What was this? Some sort of bribery from beyond the grave?

“That amount of money” carried on David, “excluding the sales from Improper Justice, which will be included later after its release, will be in the region of—”

“I don’t want it,” I choked. “It’s guilt money and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“Layla, I know Mac behaved like an utter idiot, but he was adamant he wanted you to have it.” He leaned forward, his side sweep of grey hair catching watery sunlight through the window. “It will ensure you have a very comfortable future.”

I felt like laughing. “What future? I thought I had a future with him.” I slapped the letter back on the table in front of me. “If I accepted that money, I’d be condoning what he did.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You know that after Mac was diagnosed with his heart condition—”

I slumped back on the hotel sofa, winded. “What heart condition, David? What are you talking about?”

His jaw sagged. Alarm shot through his eyes. “Oh shit. Don’t tell me you knew nothing about this either? Mac said he was going to tell you…”

I folded my arms, anger and pain ready to erupt. “Well, he didn’t.”

“You have got to be joking.” David rubbed his face. “I’m sorry. I assumed you knew.”

“Well, evidently not.”

“Mac was diagnosed with a heart condition a few months back.”

“This just gets better and better,” I gasped, momentum gathering. I felt as though my insides were being squeezed.

My attention fell to Mac’s letter on the table. “First, I find out he’s been sleeping with his ex-wife the whole time we were together and he left me a pile of cash out of guilt. Now I discover he was ill and never told me!”

“He wasn’t ill,” clarified David. “But he was supposed to take things easier and be mindful of his condition.”

My hands balled into fists on my lap. “And he did that by energetically shagging Hannah and killing himself in the process?”

An awkward blush swept up David’s cheeks.

“Does Hannah know? About his heart?”

“No,” assured David emphatically. “Mac was adamant he wasn’t going to be treated differently, so he kept it quiet.”

“Even from Lois?”