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“She can be quite foreboding when she wants to be,” I replied, instinctively checking over my shoulder.
“I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Rupert tells her what he knows. We may have another heart attack on our hands.”
“Not another one,” I groaned.
“Just work on staying upright,” Minty laughed as we rolled through the gates. “Then you’ll be fine.”
Rupert
I was staring out of the window watching Minty’s car sail down the drive when Hector cleared his throat. I turned to face the doorway and my beating heart solidified at the sight of Iris’s body taking up only a quarter of the doorway, despite her presence filling the room.
“Mother,” I said, striding towards her. Tears filled her eyes and she closed the gap, threading her thin arms around me. It was the most she’d touched me for as long as I could remember. I glanced sideways at Hector who looked like he was about to throw up. Elspeth had paled, perhaps finally realising what a hornet’s nest she’d flown into.
“My boy.” Iris sobbed against my chest.
Against every instinct I put a hand to her back and patted it.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Mother,” I said quietly.
Iris blinked up at me with suspiciously dry eyes. “You,” she whispered. “You’re all I have now.”
Hector coughed again and I caught him staring wide-eyed and unimpressed.
“No, we are,” I said with a forced smile. “You still have me and Hector.”
She continued as though I hadn’t said a word. “You are the head of the family now, Rupert. You have to fix this. Get that business back up and running, keep the Consortium in our family name. It’s all yours now, my boy. Do me proud.”
I swallowed a series of horrified truths and pulled her head to my chest. “I will, Mother. I promise.”
Hector gawped at me, while Elspeth looked on with morbid curiosity.
“What happened?” Iris asked, finally pulling away from me and staggering to the nearest chair.
I took a deep breath recalling the story we’d all prepared.
“I was on my way to the labs. I wanted to see Ossian – I’d had some ideas about how we can get more supply. I hadn’t even turned onto the road up to the lab when everything went up in flames. I tried to get into the building but it was impossible, Mother.”
Her face lit up. “Are you sure Ossian was in there?”
I nodded sadly. “He told me he was on route there himself a short while earlier. We’ve got footage on him entering the premises. Once the fire started the camera feeds failed. The fires burned for hours – the labs have...” I made a show of struggling to get the words out. “They’ve gone. Completely. And… Ossian never left.”
Iris swallowed but held her composure making me wonder what exactly it was she was made of. Titanium? Nothing seemed to make a dent in her hardened exterior.
“And Sinclair? What happened?” Her voice was devoid of emotion but she chased the words with a suspiciously forced sniff.
“I came back here as soon as I could, Mother. I knew he’d want to know. I didn’t realise his condition had become so severed. I should never… um…”
I closed my eyes and tried to summon something resembling sorrow. “He…”
“He didn’t take it very well,” Hector said, walking over and putting a hand on Iris’s shoulder. Anyone would have thought we’d rehearsed this conversation.
“His heart failed. We tried to save him but it all happened so quickly. I’m sorry,” I said again, avoiding Iris’s gaze.
She pressed a bony hand to my chest. “It wasn’t your fault, son,” she said firmly. “I can’t imagine what you must have been through these last twenty-four hours.”
“Thanks Mother,” I said quietly.
She tapped her spindly fingers against my shirt. “You need to call a meeting with the Consortium.”
