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I pushed the application form in her direction, but she didn’t take it. “I’m here because he’s blackmailing me,” she said. “Holding Harrison Gables to ransom unless I do six months on this intern thing.” I looked at her blankly until she continued. “Harrison Gables is a horse whisperer, from the States. The best.”
“I see.” I pulled the application form back. “In that case thisintern thingisn’t for you. I’ve already got one joyrider on my programme, I don’t need another.”
She pursed her pretty lips. “Verity?”
“Yes, Verity.” I slid the paperwork back in the file. “I’ll tell your father your application was unsuccessful.”
“You’ll what?!”
“I’m serious,” I said. “I turned down over fifty worthwhile candidates for this year’s scheme. Fifty people who wanted it, fifty people who’d have worked hard for it, fifty people who were devastated when they didn’t make it. We have room for twenty on this programme, and right now I have eighteen who want to be here and one who doesn’t. I doubt Verity will last another week as it stands, and I’m not taking on another timewaster.”
“You’ll fire Verity?!” she laughed a bitter laugh. “That’ll be quite a turn up for the books. Princess Verity usually has the whole world fawning at her pretty feet.”
“Not here she doesn’t,” I said. “Not with me.”
“She won’t let you fire her,” she scoffed. “Not with Harrison Gables at stake.”
“She won’t get a choice, believe me.”
Blue eyes looked at me and softened. “I don’t like telling people about my father. I wasn’t trying to lie, or hide anything, I just don’t…”
“Surely you did due diligence?” I said. “When you were scoping out our profile, Rick and I, surely you… checked? Surely you recognised where I worked? Surely you knew? You should have known, Katie, rather than rolling up at some stranger’s house without the most basic idea of who they were.”
“Ididcheck you out. I checked both of you out. I knew you worked for some swanky agency in Cheltenham, some tech thing. I didn’t know you worked with the sperm donor. His office is in Stroud, not Cheltenham. Your company name isn’t even the same as his.”
“It’s a subsidiary,” I said. “Surely you’d have recognised it?”
She shook her head, but I found it hard to believe. “I’m serious,” she said. “I’ve spent most of my adult life trying toforgetabout David Faverley and his stupid life and his stupid businesses. The last thing I’d have been interested in is which stupid companies he owns and which he doesn’t. I couldn’t care less.”
I leaned closer. “Why hate him so much? I don’t understand.”
“Because he’s an asshole! Because he’s a judgmental prick! Because he ruined my mum’s life! Because every time he’s ever looked at me I felt worthless, because of him, because I’ve never been good enough for an asshole like him. And I don’t want to be,” she said. “I don’t want to be good enough for him, not ever, he can go fuck himself.”
This wasn’t the Katie I knew, not that I really knew Katie at all.
“You seem surprised,” she said. “Like he’s a fucking saint or something.”
“Not a saint,” I said. “But David is a great man. A fair man. And he’s not judgmental, I’ve never found him to be judgmental once, not in twenty years.” I held up my hands. “I’m perplexed. I know the story, and I know they’re always tougher in real life, when you’re the one living them, but this, thishate, I struggle to match the venom to the man. Genuinely.”
“He judges alright,” she sneered. “Believe me. You’ve just never seen it.”
I sighed, and thought through my options, figured honesty was the best policy. It usually is.
“David Faverley can’t be judgmental,” I said. “It simply isn’t in his character.”
“So you think.”
“So Iknow,” I continued. “And I know that, because if it was in David Faverley’s nature to be judgmental, if he viewed people through some bigoted, egocentric, self-righteous view of the world, he’d definitely, not in a million fucking years, nevereverhave employed a loser like me.”
“A loser?” I laughed, because it seemed so ridiculous. “You’re not a loser, Carl. You wouldn’t even know how to be a loser. Look at you.”
“Not anymore,” he said. “Your father saw something in me when nobody else would cast me a second glance. He took a risk on a kid with nothing but a big old chip on his shoulder, and he was patient, and kind, and he persisted and tried, and put the effort in until I became something more.”
“I’m sure you’re being overly harsh on yourself.” Iwassure, too. Very sure. But he shook his head.
“A stint in juvenile detention. Petty theft. Carjacking. Vandalism.” He paused. “Fighting. Fights I knew I’d lose. Fights I fought anyway, just because I was on the edge and didn’t know how else to express myself.” He clasped his hands together on the table top. “I had nothing. A couple of ex foster parents who’d already got the next kid in line by the time I left. Some friends not worth shit.”
I swallowed, throat dry. “What did you do?”
