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CHAPTER TWO
Summer
‘GRAN’SDONEWHAT?’
I leap a little in my seat at Edward’s outburst. I’m not sure what’s worse: his initial greeting or his response to the will.
Not that I can blame him for either.
And I’m just as stunned. Speechless, in fact. Not a trait I’m experienced in, let alone know how to handle. But I’m still struggling to believe we’re in the same room together...never mind the unbelievable news Mr McAllister has just delivered.
‘Would y-you like me to re-read it from the beginning?’
McAllister dabs at his forehead, his wrinkles deepening. Poor man. Edward is fierce. Like, seriously fierce. The sharp cut of his deep blue suit adds to his severity, and his carefully groomed brown hair is unmoving in its swept-back style, the hard angle to his designer stubble precise and accentuating his prominent cheekbones and strong jaw.
Gone is the twenty-year-old I met all those years ago. The clean-shaven, ex-public schoolboy with his foppish hair, quiet, reserved smiles and sweet nature.
This is a man with the full weight of his years, wealth and success behind him. Not to mention his obvious dislike of me...
‘No. No, I don’t need you to read it from the beginning, Charles. I understood. I just—’
His chocolate-brown eyes flit to me, razor-sharp, and my heart gives an involuntary flip. I don’t even have time to recover before he’s looking back at McAllister, accusation flaring in his depths.
‘She can’t have been thinking straight. You were supposed to...’ he waves a hand at the man ‘...make sure she was in her right mind when she made such decisions.’
‘Edward!’ I erupt, driven by my innate need to defend her. ‘Don’t you dare question Katherine’s mind; she was perfectly sane.’
‘Really?’
His eyes return to me and I can’t breathe for the emotion I see there. Anger. Hatred. Pain...
He clenches the end of the armrest closest to me, the veins in his hand popping, his entire body emanating a physical strength he didn’t possess before.
‘And what would you know of her mind when you haven’t seen her in twenty years?’
Bullseye—he might as well have thrown a dart straight through my grieving heart.
‘I’ve always been around,’ I say quietly, my cheeks burning with the direct hit.
‘Around?’His mouth lifts into a chilling one-sided smile. ‘Is that what you call it?’
‘Now, now...’
McAllister comes to my rescue. I half expect him to add children to the end and inwardly cringe. I don’t need him to fight my battles. Especially in front of Edward—against Edward.
‘Can we focus on the necessary? Katherine knew this would come as a...how shall I put it?...a shock. But she was very clear in her request, and felt it was in both your interests to see the conditions of her will through to fruition.’
His voice softens and yet strengthens as he speaks, as if he’s warming up to the idea as he watches us closely. I don’t know what he sees in us to warrant such sudden positivity. Maybe there’s more than just water in the crystal glass he’s drinking from.
I take a sip from my own glass, wishing it really was something stronger.
‘You were friends once,’ he adds into the strained silence. ‘I think Katherine thought you could readily be so again.’
‘And what if we can’t?’ I say, ignoring the pang his words evoke. ‘Stick to the terms, I mean?’
Beside me Edward makes a sound behind his fist—was that a snort? I give him the side-eye, but his gaze is fixed on McAllister.
‘Yes. What she said...’
