Chapter 29 Cole #2
“For a start, it says his first company was Vexo Conglomerate, but I happen to know that’s not true. I know about this guy. I used to work for him.”
She threw me a dubious glance. “You worked for him? In what capacity?”
“I was his . . . handyman.”
“Do you even know what a handyman does?”
“Of course. Handyman things. I hammered nails. Carried large planks of timber around on my shoulder. Sanded wood. You know the kind of thing.”
“Sure. If you say so.” Her gaze dropped over my Armani suit and she raised a sarcastic eyebrow. “You certainly look the part.”
“It’s true. Anyway, this Cole Thorner guy told me his first business was a car-washing gig. He used to go around the neighborhood with his business partner, washing cars.”
She used the coaster to fan her face with casual disinterest. “I heard about that, too. It’s probably not on his Wikipedia page because it was a terrible business venture. He spent so much on equipment he never made any profit.”
“Oh no. He got plenty out of it. He told me it was the best investment of his life.” I leaned in and lowered my voice. Her sweet perfume enveloped me. “Apparently, he had a lot of water fights with his business partner. He often got to see her in a wet T-shirt. You couldn’t put a price on that.”
Her cheeks pinked. Good. Embarrassing her was better than upsetting her.
“I take it you read the part about him being an arsehole?”
“I saw no credible sources. Anyone can edit these things.”
“Probably because there are too many sources to list.” She slipped down from the stool. “If you’ll excuse me. I’m going to bed.”
I grabbed her wrist lightly, holding her in place. “Have you ever wondered why he’s such an arsehole? What made Cole Thorner the way he is?”
“I can’t imagine.” Every inch of her spoke of defiance, apart from her eyes. She couldn’t hide the curiosity flickering in their depths. “Perhaps his handyman, who seems to have such an intimate knowledge, could enlighten me?”
I didn’t do this. I didn’t talk openly about the past. But Charlotte wasn’t just anybody.
I wish my wife had looked at me the way yours does.
If I was ever going to trust anyone, then I could trust her, even if it was difficult.
I had to try, because right now she was looking at me with the same contempt that everyone else showed.
And this animosity was ruining the trip I’d wanted her to enjoy.
She studied my face. Her voice was strained and weary. “I didn’t think so. You don’t know anything about Cole Thorner. Honest communication isn’t my husband’s strength, and you must have been so busy . . . hammering all those nails.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the restaurant. A few people chatted in the corner by the window, but we were more or less alone. “He told me a few things. But if I tell you, then you have to promise not to tell anyone. You ought to know your husband is a private man.”
She lifted back onto the stool next to me. Her earnest eyes met mine. “If my husband knows anything about me, I hope it’s that he can trust me.”
I nodded. “He knows that.”
The few memories I had of Penny filled my head. A gap-toothed smile. Bright eyes. Sleeping-bag races down the stairs. The Thorner dysfunction went back much further than my sister, but that’s when everything had fallen apart.
“There is something that will never be on the Wikipedia page. Cole’s older brother, Lucas, had a twin, Penelope. She was sick for most of her childhood, and sadly, she died young.”
Charlotte stared at me in astonishment before her eyes filled with sympathy. “I’m so sorry. My husband never talks about his family.”
I swallowed past the sudden lump of nerves in my throat.
“I heard the family all coped in their own ways. Lucas went into himself. He locked himself in his room with his experiments until he could disappear to medical school and bury himself in trying to find a cure for the disease that had robbed him of his twin. Theo escaped to the military. The mother numbed herself any way possible, and the father left his broken family behind and replaced them with a shiny new one in New York.”
She leaned into me, tilting her face toward mine. “And what about the other brother? What about Cole?”
Her eyes met mine, and they glimmered with kindness. Her empathy made my blood turn to ice. Never show your hand, boy. I couldn’t risk anyone perceiving me as weak, but it felt good too, like putting down a boulder I’d been carrying on my shoulders.
“He was relieved when his father left. Philip Thorner was a cruel man, but he saved his worst ire for his most disappointing son. Cole wasn’t like the other Thorner boys.
He was . . .” A stab of some old, long-buried despair stole my words.
Speak up, idiot boy. I kept my gaze fixed on the mirror behind the bar and the man reflected back at me.
A grown man, not an idiot boy anymore. But not a man I cared to look at for too long.
Charlotte’s hand covered mine. “He was what?”
The warmth of her touch radiated over my skin.
“He was a serious, sullen creature who didn’t utter a word until he was seven, and then said very little.
He couldn’t read or write. The letters were always mixed up in his head.
He felt stupid and ashamed because the things that came easy for others didn’t come easy for him.
“For a while, he had a stutter. It didn’t matter how he heard the words in his head, he couldn’t say them clearly.
Philip Thorner thought him stupid and an embarrassment.
The Thorner men had a long tradition of attending Eton, but the stuttering child was sent up north to a boarding school so remote no one would have to think about him again. ”
Charlotte squeezed my hand in hers. “His father was so wrong about him. Cole Thorner is the smartest man I’ve ever known. He’s so clever it’s frightening.”
“I’ve heard it said that every kid just needs one adult who believes in them. Cole was lucky that he had a teacher who understood that this strange, quiet boy needed a little patience and encouragement. Cole felt he’d landed somewhere safe for the first time.”
Charlotte looked at me uncertainly. “But he left. If he was happy, why did he leave?”
“Because the time came for Philip to groom an heir for his business, and the boy he’d once thought stupid had worked hard enough to become his best option. Philip threatened him. If he didn’t fall in line, he’d ruin everything Cole cared about. He was definitely capable of it.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened. “That’s blackmail.”