TWENTY FOUR
Mia
I know something’s up the moment Luke finally gets back. For starters, when he comes into the apartment, he doesn’t come to bed. I listen to the soft sound of the door opening and closing. The tap runs and a few noises come from the kitchen, but then nothing. Tegan went out for drinks with a work friend of hers, and she told me she’s not planning on coming home until late, so it’s not her.
I’m not asleep. I went to bed early, but I haven’t been able to get to sleep yet. I reach out and find my phone on the floor to check the time. Ten thirty.
Slipping out of bed, I pad out to the living room. Luke is sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands. He looks up when he hears me. “Hey. Sorry. Did I wake you, baby?”
I shake my head. “No, I just came to make sure you’re OK.”
He sighs. “Yeah. I’m fine.” He sets aside the glass of water by his feet and gets up. “I’ll come to bed. Come on.”
He tries to steer me towards the spare bedroom, but I’m not having it. Something is wrong and I’m going to get to the bottom of what it is. I used to give Oliver a wide berth when he got like this. If I didn’t, he’d snap my head off, so it was never worth pushing it.
Luke’s not Oliver, though. Thank God.
Gut instinct tells me he needs to offload whatever this is.
“Hey.” I plant my hands on his shoulders and push. I’m not strong enough to move him if he doesn’t want to be moved, but he sinks back onto the sofa and I climb into his lap. I take his face in my hands and direct his gaze to me. “There’s something up, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
He sighs. “Come on, Mia. You’re tired. You have to work tomorrow. Let’s get some sleep.”
I shake my head. “Uh uh. No way. Now do I have to kiss it out of you? Or tickle it out of you?” I shove my hands under his shirt and run them up his firm abs and he squirms.
“Really, Mia! I didn’t want to worry you.” The effect of his words is somewhat spoiled because he’s laughing and squirming under my questing hands. This is fun!
“You know what worries me?” I stick my finger into his belly button and he yelps. “When there’s something wrong with my man and he won’t let me help.”
“Mia...” He catches my hands in his and stills them. What he says has the laughter dying on my lips. “It’s your dad.”
“Huh?” I blink at him. He’s gone very still. So have I.
“Your dad got my number. He sent me a message to meet him. That’s where I went. I should have told you, but I thought it could wait until morning.”
I frown. “What did he do that for?”
Luke sighs again. “To warn me. Threaten me, really. He says has a case against my parents and he told me he could make it go away, but only if I stopped seeing you.”
“He what?!” I hold my hand to my mouth, unable to breathe for a moment. I never thought my father would do something like this. “He said that?”
“He told me not to tell you if I wanted him to help my parents.”
I scowl. This clearly has nothing to do with an offer of help. “Oh, my God, Luke, I’m so sorry.”
“Baby, it’s not your fault. I would never think that.”
“But if you’d never gotten involved with me, this never would have happened. I don’t know how, but somehow Dad’s gone looking for this case. This can’t just be a coincidence.”
He pulls my hands into his and over his heart, pinning me with a serious expression. “Mia, I would never give up what we’ve shared—what I still want to share with you. Not for anything. My parents haven’t done anything wrong. We’ll just... we’ll prove it. You’ll see.”
I nod. “Of course. But I know my Dad. He’s ruthless. I just never thought he’d be this unethical. There’s got to be something behind this. I’m not saying he’s right, but there has to be a case, or he wouldn’t risk coming to you with it. At least, I don’t think so.”
Luke frowns. “But I can’t think of anything.”
Then I remember what my Mum said. He’s just your summer mistake. But it’s winter. She wasn’t talking about now. She must have been talking about ten years ago. Only they never knew. Did they?
I horrified by the thought that they’ve harboured some grudge all these years. I have to admit I thought it was odd that they packed us up and had us back in Sydney days before we were due to leave town. And then they suggested I go overseas...
“If only we knew what she claims happened,” Luke says, breaking into my awful train of thoughts.
An idea occurs to me and as soon as it does, I know I won’t be able to let it go. I have the keys to the office and the security code. My father is just old school enough he keeps paper files on all his cases. “We can check his records.”
“How?”
“I’ll go in tonight. There won’t be anyone there this time of night. We’ll go and look through his files. At least then we’ll know if there’s anything substantial to his threats.”
Luke gives me a grim smile. “You’d do that for my family?”
“Of course.” I step back from his lap. “Let me get dressed and we’ll go right now.”
What I find the second I pull the file from the drawer in my dad’s office makes the nausea rise like bile in my throat. “A woman called Margaret Nguyen.” I keep scanning, pushing the papers around on the wooden surface of my father’s desk. “Seems like a workplace injury that’s developed into a chronic condition. She’s suing for negligence.”
Luke’s eyes widen. “Margaret? She only worked at Inlet Views for a few months.” His frown deepens. “Then she left suddenly.”
Pulling out my phone, I snap a picture of her contact details. It’s completely unethical. These files are strictly confidential. I figure it balances out against what Dad did anyway.
“Do you know her?”
Luke shrugs. “Not really. As far as I know she still lives in Rosella Bay. Her daughter works in the local primary school.”
I think, chewing on my lip for a moment. I snap a few photos of the rest of the case notes and replace the file, closing and locking the filing cabinet. “I’m going to read through Dad’s notes more carefully in the morning, but there’s always two sides to the story. I’m sure we can make a case if we work out what this woman wants, and why she thinks your parents are at fault.”
I might never have spoken in a courtroom, but I know the ins and outs of a civil lawsuit. I’m used to preparing evidence.
“Maybe if I can talk to her in person, feel her out... I don’t know. Maybe she’ll reconsider...”
Luke nods. “That’s what your Dad was saying. Something about settling.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. Maybe, if we’re lucky, I can convince her to drop the case. It’s a risk for her. She could be facing some pretty steep legal fees if she doesn’t win.”
He nods. “Yeah. That all sounds reassuring.”
I chew on my lip again. “I’ll have to get to her quickly before things progress any further.”
Luke runs a hand through his hair. “How will you talk to her in person? Don’t you have to be at work tomorrow?”
I fold my arms across my chest. “You know what? No. I don’t have to be at work tomorrow. Or any day after that. I quit. If Dad thinks I’m working another day for a firm that’s going to pull this kind of stuff, he’s got another think coming!”
Luke places a large hand on each of my upper arms, looking deep in my eyes. “Mia, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support on this, but is that what you want? Really?”
I give him a firm nod. “It is. If being with me has created problems for you and your family, then I’m going to put that right. Starting tonight. I’m done. I’m done with Sydney, and I’m done with my family. If they can’t support me, I’m done with all the things getting in the way of what I want.”
Luke pulls me into a huge hug, the kind that cracks your spine and squeezes the breath from your lungs. When he draws back, he’s grinning, and the lighthearted spark is back in his eyes. “Well I won’t complain if I get to take you home with me. When do we leave?”
“Now!” I look down at my phone and wince. It’s almost midnight. “OK, first thing tomorrow. I’ll grab my stuff from the apartment and we’ll head back to Rosella Bay and get this sorted.”
We go back to Tegan’s apartment, sneaking in, though it turns out she’s still not home. I spend a restless night drifting in and out of sleep, worried about my decision. But every time I come back to it, I can’t see any other way out. I need to help Luke’s family and resolve this legal case. And I can’t stomach continuing to work at Sinclair Law. Not after this. Not that it was ever what I wanted to do.
If only I could make a living from my art. That’s always been a pipe dream, though. No, I’ll find a way to put my law degree to use in Rosella Bay. Job opportunities might be more limited than Sydney, but they exist. I’ll find something.
I finally get a few hours of deeper sleep when Luke rolls over and flings his arm around me, holding me close. When I wake, my mind is completely made up.