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She beams a bright smile at me, stepping forward to pull me into her arms just as Noah’s phone rings.
He slides his hand into his pocket and checks the caller before shrugging. “I’ve got to take this.” Then, without moving, he answers with a sharp salutation.
As he presses his ear into the receiver, I hold Mum close to my chest and meet Summer’s eyes across the patio. Jake’s loud guffaw peels through the tense night air, and I glance in his direction.
“Shut the fuck up, Milano!”
Noah jerks his phone from his ear and barks the order. In typical Jake fashion, he parrots Noah in a deeper-than-usual tone, earning a chuckle from Beau.
Hanging up the call, Noah turns a flushed face towards me, then shifts his gaze to Summer before his lips raise in a semblance of a smile that sends a shiver of foreboding right through me.
“I underestimated you, Caden.” Noah’s voice is a deep intonation meant for my ears alone.
Mum steps out of my hold when Noah addresses me. His tone is harsher than she would be used to, and she frowns uncertainly.
He curls his top lip as he levels me with an unrelenting stare. “Frankly, I didn’t think you were intelligent enough to figure things out…” he trails off to lift his phone up, shaking it. “But Eduardo tells me certain records pertaining to your deceased wife were recently accessed, and, well…no one else gave enough of a shit about her to actually bother to look beyond the surface.”
Eduardo? As in from HSD?
“I thought he was recuperating from an accident. In a coma or something!”
“You think what Iwantyou to fucking think, Caden. Have you not realised that yet?”
My eyes blow wide when I realise what Summer meant.
The house is tapped–because it’s secured by HSD. So he must have an inside man there!
“Yes…you’re joining the dots. Keep going…”
The words are a whisper as they leave my mouth. “You own him.”
He snorts, glancing sideways across the patio when my father and Summer move closer to Beau and Jake.
“I owneveryone.” He shrugs indifferently. “You see, there’s nothing moneycan’tbuy, young North. I had none of it growing up. All I had was a deadbeat slut for a mother and a father who wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence. I watched your father live the life that should have beenmine, and I swore I’d never go without again.”
“You have plenty now. And all the power. All I want is to live my life with the people I love.” My brow creases with my plea, attempting to appeal to the man I thought he was. The man Ihopeis still somewhere inside of him. “You can keep everything. All the royalties. All the copyrights. I’ll pay the fees to get out of the contract. And you’ll never hear from any of us again.”
“I can’t trust you now, Caden. Don’t you see?”
I shake my head, having no idea what he’s talking about.
“Eduardo told mepreciselywhat files were accessed. I know you know more than you’re letting on.”
“I know nothing. I swear, Noah. I admit it, Ididlook into you, but your record was clean as a whistle.” I hold my hands up, glancing at my mother, who’s stood listening in silent disbelief. “I found nothing. I have nothing on you. Ipromise.”
He narrows his eyes in thought before turning his head across the patio.
“You!”
His bark echoes across the open, almost empty space, and all eyes shift towards my unravelling manager as he spears Summer with a hateful glare.
“You should have stayed a-fucking-way. Iwarnedyou if you ever came back, there’d be repercussions.”
Summer meets his stare head-on with an impenetrable one of her own, tilting her chin in silent defiance. Refusing to be cowed.
Noah barks a harsh laugh. “You should have stayed gone, Summer. Everything was playing out perfectly. Layla left him the forged letter that broke his little heart. I removedthisgem…”
He dips into his pocket, extracting a glinting silver necklace. It takes a second for me to register the locket Summer always wore before she left as it dangles from between Noah’s thumb and index finger.
