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“Who’s asking?”
Will did an exaggerated look around the room.
Jiao popped a hip, a choreographed ‘you’re really annoying’ gesture. “If it’s Will Parker, CEO of Parker Corporation there’s one answer. If it’s Will Parker, ‘what I need most is to be alone’, there’s another.”
Will stood. He’d noticed a suitcase standing by the door. “Oh I see. I can’t be both?”
“No. You already told me that, by being here, by not looking after yourself, by cutting yourself off. So the answer is, Pete’s in Sydney on business.”
“What business?”
She went for the suitcase and pulled up the handle. “What do you care?”
That stumped him. She was right. That was his old life.
“Bo is outside. He’s going to take me to the airport.”
“You knew I’d ask you to leave.”
She trundled the bag behind her down the hall. “Of course.”
Will followed. “And if I’d wanted you to stay?”
She laughed, put her hand on the doorhandle and turned back to look at him. “They made you prettier, but you haven’t changed that much, Will Parker.”
He followed her out to the front of the house. Bo was parked in the driveway with the seat reclined, snoozing. The two of them had clearly been talking. He tapped on the bonnet and Bo opened his eyes, popped the boot, and got out to take Jiao’s bag.
“I tried to keep her away, Will. I’ll have the window fixed.”
Jiao was already in the car. He wanted to be alone, but this felt wrong. This woman cared about him. So did this man. He wasn’t angry with them but he was upset. It was
n’t the burn of an angry scream in his chest. It was the agitation of sadness. He reached for the passenger side door to open it, but fumbled. He’d forgotten to get help with the bandage.
Jiao rolled the window down. “What?”
He lent down to look in the car. “Thank you for coming. I’m sorry I’m being difficult.” He looked over at Bo, now in the driver’s seat. He was sorry. The difference between today and the day he checked out of hospital was that he was sad, not angry, sorry, not mad. But he still wanted to be alone.
“I need to know why Peter is in Sydney.”
Jiao and Bo exchanged a look. There were teeth. They were both trying to hide smiles.
“That company you wanted to buy. Avalon,” said Jiao.
“They’re trying to buy you,” finished Bo. “When I come back, want to visit Confucius?”
Will nodded and straightened up. Yes, he wanted to visit the temple. He wanted the hit of its tranquillity, and he had a few favours to ask.
He watched the Audi pull out. He shouldn’t care about Parker. He’d given it to Pete way back in Quingpu, and he’d not wanted to know what was happening to it since. Parker and Darcy. It was the same strategy. He was no good for either of them, so better to be apart than risk further damaging them.
But a reverse takeover; Avalon buying out Parker? Once he’d have said they’d have to bury him before he’d let that happen. But he’d been buried and he was still alive and so the idea should’ve been a soap bubble, shimmery, glossy, momentarily fascinating; then gone. It was more like a soapbox, something to stand on, an issue to take a position with.
But he wouldn’t even be able to read the various bits of documentation associated with it, so what was the point thinking he should get involved?
He went back into the house, his companion confusion joined by sadness and melancholy. He needed something to do to fill the time till Bo got back. He sat on the sofa and thought about Jiao, so fierce, so definite. Bo, loyal beyond cause, and Peter doing his best with the situation he’d been handed, as much a victim in this as he was.
He got up and got a glass of water. He’d let sadness in, and now he could think about Darcy. She’d been as fierce as Jiao, as loyal as Bo, doing the best she could with what he dished out. She’d reached out to him, and he’d made her a victim too. He had to hope she’d be able to heal.
Jiao had called him “fucking crazy, a dumbass”. He knew it suddenly, the sound of the meaning in his head as clear as the water in the glass.
