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Time slowed, as I imagined Sophie happily digging through the books in my office, content to linger over spreadsheets, discovering this.
And I hadn’t been there to tell her I hadn’t known about it.
I hadn’t told her I loved her before I’d left either.
Instead, I’d given her the equivalent of a pat on the head and went on my merry way.
Now, she was somewhere in Scotland, convinced that another man was just using her for her money.
I stood, frozen, as sadness mixed with rage in my gut.
But she’d left me anyway, just like I’d thought she would, hadn’t she? Instead of asking me about this paperwork, which I could have readily told her that I had no knowledge of and would have happily torn up in her face, she’d judged me and found me wanting. Sophie MacKnight was a coward, I realized, and my lip curled with anger. She honestly thought that I would participate in something like this? The same man who wouldn’t let her pay for dinner and refused to let her spend money on unnecessary improvements to the castle? How could I love a woman who clearly didn’t know me at all?
And it seemed I didn’t know her either.
“Lachlan!” Graham slapped a hand on my shoulder, and I realized that he’d been calling my name for a while now as I’d stood frozen, my thoughts tumbling over each other in rapid succession. When I raised my eyes to his, what he saw there caused his face to pale. “Man, stay with me. We’ve got bigger problems. The Kelpies.”
I turned to see the Kelpies forming by the island—in broad daylight—and I knew that Loren Brae was in trouble. Racing from the room, I grabbed a sword that I’d placed by the door and ran, full speed, down the drive to the edge of the loch. Once there, I saw people screaming and running for their houses, doors being slammed, and on the wind, one tiny, furious howl carried to me.
My blood chilled as I turned to see Sir Buster, his furious body paddling rapidly in the cold waters of the loch. Without another thought, I dove in after him.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
sophie
Ididn’t make it far.
It seemed that driving the truck on a single road with no traffic was much easier than navigating things like roundabouts and driving on the opposite side of the road. I’d barely made it to the next town over before I’d found a small B&B willing to take me in on a moment’s notice. I’d fallen into bed, the adrenaline rush from the drive and the overwhelm from my discovery sending me into an exhausted sleep that saw me well into late morning. When I’d awoken, blinking in confusion at my surroundings, I peeled myself from the bed at the gentle knocking on my door.
“It’s time for checkout,” the woman had informed me with a polite smile on her face.
“Can I book another night? And do you have Wi-Fi?” I’d paid for another night on the spot and given her extra to deliver a simple lunch of soup and bread. Frankly, it was all I could stomach, as I tried to work through the pain that currently was immobilizing.
I didn’t want to leave Lachlan.
I didn’t want to leave Scotland.
I loved Loren Brae.
I felt like a different person there. I didn’t want to have to go, but how could I stay, knowing what I now knew? Torn, I’d spent the last hour looking up flights and trying to decide what to do.
If I left, I couldn’t go back to my job for at least a year. I’d even called Harold to read me the terms of the will again, and they were exacting and very clear. No job for one year. No thirty million dollars if I left MacAlpine Castle.
Not that I really cared that much about the money, but I also wasn’t stupid. It was the kind of money that I could really make a difference with, and I shouldn’t make whatever my next decision was lightly. Feeling trapped, I paced my room, stopping when my phone rang.
Seeing Lachlan’s name on the screen, with a little heart emoji after it, felt like a knife in my gut. I stared at the screen, immobilized, until my voicemail finally picked up. Dropping to the bed, I buried my face in my hands.
I didn’t know what to do.
Was this what Arthur had sent me here for? I felt like he’d been cagey in his dealings and now I wasn’t sure what to think. He’d already set me up to teach me a lesson about my mother, and now was this his sneaky way of teaching me about my own worth? Even for Arthur, this seemed a step too far.
Two hours later, I was no closer to a decision, though I’d all but worn a path in the rug on the floor with my pacing. True to form, I’d opened a spreadsheet on my computer and had started a pros and cons list to try to help me make my decision. When my phone rang again, my heart leaped.
Agnes’s name flashed across the screen and this time I did pick up.
“Where are you?” Agnes shouted, and my heart jumped into my throat.
“What…what do you mean? What’s going on?” I tried to play it cool, but already tears filled my eyes.
