AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, so… you need to do something that she’ll appreciate, that proves you know her. So no fancy meals at the golf club or pretentious days out to the races.”
“Can’t say either of those options had entered my mind,” I mutter honestly.
“She loves art. What about a day in London visiting the galleries? Has she been?”
I shrug, hating how little I know about her.
Raine has confessed to living in multiple foster homes, she could have lived in and experienced almost every corner of the country for all I know.
“Okay, I’ll find out her birthday and you figure out the plans. If it’s soon then you could do a weekend. If we’ve got a little more time, then half-term is only just around the corner. You could take her away for the whole week. Pretty sure she’d be up for that. No expensive hotels though. That’ll make her run.”
“Got it. Find the worst hotel I can,” I joke.
“Not the worst,” Millie chastises. “Just not The Ritz or something stupid. Make her feel comfortable, not like she doesn’t belong. She has enough of that here.”
We both manage to force a second slice of cake down before leaving Dessert Island. I take Millie back to her dorm, and despite desperately wanting to go and check in on Raine, I force myself to walk back out of the building.
I said that I’d give her the night to think about everything I said, and for once, I’m going to do the right thing and give her the space I promised.
“Look out, lover boy returns,” Oakley sings like the wankstain that he is when I walk into the Chapel.
“Fuck off. Where are the girls?” I ask, noting their absence. The days of it just being the boys here seem like a distant memory now.
“Doing homework, or yoga or some shit,” Reese mutters before Oak throws the remote at his head. “Ow, fuck. What was that for?”
“When my sister talks, you listen, bellend.”
“I listened,” he argues. “But I also forgot.”
“Where have you been?” Elliot asks, ignoring the bickering idiots.
“Took Millie for cake.”
“Nice. She doing okay?”
I tell the three of them what happened yesterday during lunch seeing as I couldn’t track Raine down.
“Yeah,” I add. “She’s fucking blaming herself though.”
“That’s bullshit,” he snaps fiercely. “It’s not her fault your father is a cunt.”
“Exactly what I told her. I fucking hate it. I just know that he looks at her and sees Mum.”
“I wish there were more we could do.” Pure hatred burns in his eyes, and I know he’s not just talking about our sick prick of a father, but his own too.
Johnathon Eaton might not be beating little girls, but he’s just as big a monster as Anthony Ashworth. And irritatingly, just as untouchable.
I know what Elliot has told us about his life barely scratches the surface of what he’s suffered through.I’m pretty sure he’s going to take the depth of what he’s endured to his grave. It’s going to take someone pretty fucking incredible to dig under the layers of armour he’s built up around himself and find the man who lives beneath.
Out of all of us, Elliot is the one who needs the façade of the Heirs the most.
Reese, Oak, and I love the status that comes with the title, but Elliot needs it. He needs the identity, the power it gives him in a totally different way to us.
“Their time will come,” I say.
I hate lying to my best friends. I wish I could tell them everything I know, everything I’ve been planning. It’s not that I don’t trust them.
I do.
