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‘This is your office—you might even splurge on that new desk I never got around to getting. Nobody suspects, do they?’ She nodded towards the door, behind which there was the gentle hum of laughter.
‘Not a thing.’
‘I must be a much better liar than I thought.’
No one had had any problem accepting that a philanthropist who wanted to remain nameless had appeared, and that he was willing to not only fund the shortfall, but very generously fund the expansion of an annex and playground they had always dreamt of, and send Kat on a management course. And why shouldn’t they? Everyone loved a happy ending.
Sue’s reaction to the full story had made her realise that in most people’s eyes she had her own happy ending. She was an heiress; she was living the dream. The dream of so many children living in care.
Not hers. Maybe she just didn’t dream big. She had never thought of castles...just somewhere small, enough money to pay the bills and a mum. Her little fantasies had never contained any male figures; her own father, she knew, had walked out before she was born, and the men in her mother’s life afterwards, well, the moments of peace she remembered coincided with their absences.
The only male figure who had been a reassuring presence in her life had been her foster father, but when he had died completely unexpectedly she had seen first-hand how devastated his wife, Nell, had been.
So the options, it seemed to Kat, were between being involved with a man who turned out to a bastard who abused or deserted you, or a man who, to quote dear Nell, you ‘loved so much you became half a person after you lost them’. Those heartbroken words had stayed with Kat, as had the haunted, empty look in her foster mum’s eyes.
Neither of the above seemed an option anyone with half a brain would voluntarily choose, though maybe falling in love removed the choice?
She was open-minded about the power of love, but it was a power she had never felt and she didn’t feel deprived. Actually, she’d started to wonder, if you had to have a relationship—and the world did seem to be constructed for pairs—a relationship without love might be the way to go?
A choice made for common-sense reasons with someone you knew was nice and dependable—like Mike?
It was ironic that lately she’d even been contemplating saying yes, the next time he asked her out. Though that wasn’t going to happen now.
Mike picked up her case. ‘You sure about this?’ he asked, his expression concerned.
‘Of course she is—it’s like a fairy tale and she’s the princess. Aren’t you excited? Your life is going to change.’
Fighting the impulse to yell, I liked my old life, she lifted her shoulders in a delicate shrug, smiling to take the edge off her words.
‘I quite liked the old one. I’m still a bit in shock,’ she added, feeling she had to defend her lack of enthusiasm as she returned Sue’s hug and gave a sniff. ‘Stop that,’ she begged the weeping Sue. ‘I said I was not going to cry.’
She did, a little, and Mike, being tactful, didn’t comment on her sniffles as they drove along. Instead, he kept up a desultory anecdotal conversation that required nothing from her but the occasional nod and smile until they reached the private airfield.
A barrier lifted as they approached, and they were waved through to a parking area that appeared empty apart from two limousines parked at the far end.
Mike lifted her case from the boot and turned to where she stood waiting, her slender shoulders hunched against a chill autumnal breeze. ‘I’ve done some research, and your grandfather, Kat, he’s mega wealthy.’
Kat nodded. She too had looked up her grandfather’s name and seen the results that spilled out. Knowing that her mother had lived the life afforded by such unimaginable wealth and privilege and then been reduced to such a miserable, degrading existence somehow made her fate worse, and intensified the anger Kat felt towards the man who had refused, up to this point, to acknowledge he even had a granddaughter.
‘So, I suppose we’re never going to have that movie and take-away night.’ Underneath the lightness of his words she glimpsed a genuine sadness that made Kat experience a pang of guilt, acknowledging her own selfishness.
She’d turned to Mike for help, knowing that he wanted to be more than a friend, and had not spared a thought for his feelings. Maybe Zach had been right: she was like her grandfather.
Horror at the thought made her respond with more warmth than she might have otherwise shown as she threw her arms around him in a spontaneous bear hug.
‘We can keep in touch.’
* * *
Zach emerged from the limo to see the embrace. He tensed, his teeth grating together in a white unsmiling barrier as the pressure of outrage building in his chest increased. Waving away the driver and his bags, he kept his eyes trained on the couple, ignoring the whisper in the corner of his brain that suggested his reaction to Katina having a lover was a bit OTT.
The soft sound of her laughter reached his ears, low and intimate, he silently translated, feeling the rush of another nameless emotion that pushed him into action, and strode across the concrete. It was nothing to him if she had a lover or a string of them, but the information, he told himself, might have been useful. It wasn’t like Alekis to leave out such a detail, so presumably he didn’t know about this man either.
He did not doubt that Alekis would manage to separate them, but he found he could see a quicker and more efficient way to facilitate this.
‘Good afternoon.’
Furious with herself for jumping guiltily away from Mike at the sound of Zach’s voice, she laid a hand on Mike’s arm.
