Page 61 of Leafpoint Lighthouse

“Give him another chance,” a man said.

“Lady, the man loves you,” a teenager agreed.

“Well, he shouldn’t have cheated on me with my boss, should he?” I snapped. A crowd was forming, and I guessed that was what Cale wanted. I was ready to crawl out of my own skin to escape this.

“Lyra, I was a fool. Serena was a mistake,” Cale begged.

“Oh, I see!” I exclaimed. Cale smiled sadly. The names I was calling him in my head weren’t polite by any means. “It was a huge accident that for a period of three years you kept tripping over and shoving your dick into Serena. Damn, Cale, that’s clumsy of you!”

“Mate, you cheated for three years? Yeah, you are on your own,” the teenager said and sauntered off.

“Lyra, let’s attend relationship counselling,” Cale suggested, stunning me into silence. Seeing an opportunity, Cale capitalised on it. “We’ll go home to Dagenham, get a new flat; hell, we should live in Rainham or Epping, whichever you prefer. You’re not a country girl,” Cale coaxed, stepping closer.

“Sell up and buy a nice place where you came from,” a woman urged, and I rolled my eyes.

“What part of ‘none of the land can be sold’ didn’t you understand?” I retorted. “Jesus, how many times do you people need telling?”

“Just sell!”

“Oh, grow up. Sell your own home!” I suggested. I began to move away, but Cale suddenly dropped to his knee. No! He wouldn’t dare!

“Lyra, I love you. Whatever it takes to fix us, I’ll do it. Please come home, and I’ll break my back fixing this. Babe, I can’t live without you. You seemed so remote that I doubted you really had feelings for me, and I cheated to make you jealous. Now I understand how much you loved me. Marry me,” Cale proposed, holding out a small box. He flicked it open, and I saw a flashy diamond ring. The crowd gasped.

“If she accepts, we might get rid of her,” someone said.

“She’ll sell if she goes home,” somebody replied.

Cale didn’t know, but I’d seen that before. I began laughing, which caused Cale consternation.

“You’re asking me to marry you with a ring you bought Serena?” I hugged my ribs as my laughter turned slightly hysterical.

“What? No!” Cale exploded, looking insulted, but his eyes knew he’d majorly messed up.

“Liar! See, I know you brought that for her because Serena showed me and bragged about it!”

“Wow. That is low! I don’t like her, but no one deserves that.”

“Yeah, that’s really bad.”

“What a total loser.”

Cale’s jaw tightened as the crowd began turning.

“Lyra, we belong together. Nobody wants you here, babe, and I love you. Sell up; we can invest the money, and you won’t have to work. I’ll take care of your finances and you,” Cale said.

A woman’s eyes narrowed in hatred. “You’re being greedy, holding out for more money. Accept Keating’s offer and let this young man look after you.”

That’s when I made a fatal mistake. “Do you actually have any idea regarding the amount of money I have? My grandmother alone left me eight figures. And the Jasper estate? That’s valued at slightly under nine figures. You suspect that I’m being greedy? Think differently. Just because I want to live simply doesn’t mean I’m poor.”

“You’re worth how much?” Cale asked in a strangled voice. I closed my eyes. Oh no.

“If you have that amount of money, sell the lighthouses and leave!” a woman cried.

“Say that again,” a gentleman demanded.

“Spoilt cow, she’s lording it over us!” an old man cackled, annoyed.

“Shut up! I didn’t grow up rich; I grew up poor. You all assume that I’m a spoiled brat! Wrong. I only got this inheritance through my father’s side of the family. My mother worked three jobs to keep a roof over our heads and to feed me. You think I’m some wealthy bitch? I knew nothing about the Jaspers until invited to a will reading.