Chapter 33 Rafael #2
I look around the room, my eyes settling on a sideboard with a picture of him and his wife on their wedding day.
‘Twenty-five years,’ he comments.
‘Congratulations,’ I reply without enthusiasm.
He slurps the soda from the can, leaning back against the counter.
‘How are things?’ he asks.
‘Things are good,’ I reply. ‘How about you? You been out to the cottage recently?’
He pushes a hand back through his silvery hair, his eyes crinkling with a smile. ‘Nah, not as much as I’d like. We’re renting it out as an Airbnb.’
‘Really? Since when?’
He shrugs. ‘Few months.’
‘Is that so?’ I murmur. ‘You never told me that.’
He chuckles. ‘I know you didn’t come over here to talk about holiday homes. What’s eating you, Rafe?’
‘Actually, I did want to talk holiday homes. When did you last go there?’ I ask.
Dom’s brows hitch with intrigue. ‘Is this about that hot little blonde you were with last time I saw you?’
I clench my fists at the way his eyes gleam. ‘Aurora.’
‘Aurora,’ he purrs. ‘How old is she?’
‘Twenty-five.’
Dom chuckles. ‘You lucky bastard.’ He puts his soda down and holds his hands out.
‘Sure. As soon as the guests are gone, the place is yours. Have some time away from the city with her. Get the champagne out in the hot tub after dark. Must be the bubbles that makes the girls horny. Always works.’ He winks.
‘Even when they’re not your wife, eh? What happens at Larkhay stays at Larkhay,’ I say.
He grins like I made a joke. ‘Exactly. Aurora will love it there.’
‘Did Ella?’
He narrows his eyes, like he’s not sure he heard me right. ‘Who?’
‘Ella,’ I repeat, looking him dead in the eye.
It’s the name I saw on Aurora’s paperwork before I left my house. The woman who was about to file a sexual harassment complaint against George Thorne before she left the company and disappeared.
The one who mentioned Larkhay in her email.
He runs a hand around the back of his neck with an awkward chuckle. ‘She, um . . . yeah, she liked it there. How’d you know about her? Does—?’
‘Your wife doesn’t know. Or if she does, then she didn’t hear it from me.’
Dom’s shoulders loosen as he blows out a breath. ‘Thanks. I—’
‘Don’t thank me. I’m not keeping it a secret for your benefit. I only found out this morning.’
Dom shrugs, looking uneasy. ‘You know what it’s like, Rafe.
These young women come to work and hang off your every word, eager to learn the ropes.
Then they’re working late, trying to get ahead.
Batting their eyelashes at you and telling you they’re so grateful for your help.
And they’re wearing these tight little dresses, and .
. . fuck, you’d have to be a saint not to indulge a little, you know? ’
My jaw clenches. ‘Pretty sure that’s called dedication to their career. One they probably work twice as hard as their male colleagues to earn the same respect at.’
Dom scoffs. ‘Come on. You’re bedding a twenty-five-year-old. You can’t tell me you’re immune. I saw her. She’s got a body on her, that—’
‘Talk about her again and I’ll rip your tongue out!’ I snarl, advancing on him and grabbing the neck of his shirt in my fist.
‘What the hell’s got into you? It was a joke.’
‘Do you see me laughing?’ I spit.
Dom locks eyes with me, and I stare back at the man I once had immeasurable respect for.
‘She took the money, didn’t she?’
Dom’s lips thin into a stern line.
‘Answer me!’ I yell, shaking him.
‘All right! Yes!’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t bloody know!’ he splutters. ‘I think to get back at me when I told her I wasn’t leaving.’
‘She thought you’d leave your wife for her?’ I snort at the pathetic cliché of it. I bet Dom told her whatever she wanted to hear in order to get his dick wet.
‘She did after . . .’ He looks to the side, unable to meet my eyes.
‘After?’ I growl.
His Adam’s apple strains against my grip as I tighten it to make him look at me.
He swallows thickly. ‘After she told me about the baby.’
Jesus Christ.
I drop him like a sack of shit, in disgust. ‘You have a beautiful wife who loves you, with whom you’ve built an entire life . . . You have grown children, for fuck’s sake.’
‘I didn’t plan on getting her pregnant. Jesus,’ he hisses, rubbing at his throat.
‘So you let an innocent man take the fall? They had evidence. How did they fucking have evidence, Dom?’ I roar.
‘I have access to every staff member’s log-in. It didn’t take much to remove Ella’s details as the last one who accessed the company account. I didn’t know George Thorne was the last one before her, I didn’t—’
‘You didn’t bloody think! Or care! You just wanted to cover your own arse.’ I grip my hips, breathing heavily, sinking my fingers into the fabric of my trousers so I don’t stride back across the kitchen and murder Dom with my bare hands.
‘The guy’s going to get out on appeal soon.
The evidence was flimsy at best. He’ll be back living his life like none of this ever happened,’ Dom argues.
‘And you’ll get your money back once the insurance pays out.
Bet you’re glad Fairfax Guardian aren’t the ones who cover us,’ he adds, attempting a stab at heinously inappropriate humour.
I shake my head in disgust. ‘To think I used to look up to you.’
He holds a hand up. ‘Listen, Rafe. This stays between us. You know my secrets, and I know yours.’
‘Are you threatening me?’ I snarl.
‘Just reminding you of the facts. We’ve been friends for years. We’ve always had each other’s backs. After losing Wyndham, I helped you land other clients. Helped bridge the void you’d have been left in without them.’
‘For which I’m grateful, you know that.’
He eyes me warily. ‘I know. And I’d also be grateful if this stayed between us. Plus, there’s that other thing Aurora doesn’t know about. She told me George Thorne’s her father.’
I advance on him again and he throws his hands up in front of his chest.
‘Relax. I’m just saying.’
‘You’re not just anything!’ I hiss.
‘My lips are sealed. But I’d have thought you wiser than to get involved with his daughter.’
I suck in a sharp breath. I can barely stand to look at him. But he’s right. He’s bloody right. I have no business starting a life with Aurora until she knows everything. Not just about my accident and how screwed up I am.
But everything.
‘I’m going to tell her,’ I grit.
Dom chuckles. ‘Sure. Let me know how that goes. But take it from me, the last woman I upset stole millions from the company I’m on the board for, and disappeared without so much as a “fuck you”.’
‘Aurora’s not like that. I haven’t been lying to her and leading her on.
’ But even as I say the words, I wince. Because it’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
It started as revenge, spending time with her to find out where my money went.
Then it became obsession. And then it turned to love.
I can’t imagine even being able to breathe without her, nor wanting to.
Dom sighs like he feels sorry for me. ‘Ella was in love with me too. Or so she said. Now she’s gone. And she took my baby with her. I don’t even know if I have a son or a daughter.’
The sudden emotion brimming in his eyes has a niggle of empathy twisting in my chest. But what Dom knew about the money . . . and how it’s affected Aurora . . . what it led to me doing that she still doesn’t know about . . .
‘And the sexual harassment email? Why not just delete it?’ I ask.
Dom shifts uneasily, his hands curling around the countertop either side of his hips.
‘Dom?’ I bark. ‘You son of a bitch!’ I snarl. ‘You changed it from your name to George Thorne’s. Why?’
‘Ah, that happened before . . . She told me she’d written an email to send to HR.
I think she wanted to have something over me.
Well, I couldn’t delete it while she was still here; she’d have realised I had access to her account.
So, I just changed the name.’ Dom looks away.
‘But then she was gone. And so was the money. And with all that going on, I forgot about going back to get rid of it.’ His voice cracks.
‘Rafe, you don’t understand. She was so angry, saying I’d used her, that I’d lied to her.
But I never lied. She knew I was married.
I might have told her I loved her. I mean, I did love her.
But, look, I didn’t know it was George fucking Thorne who was the last one to access the account. I mean, what are the chances?’
‘Pretty fucking high if they’re working on the same client together!
Jesus! With that and the email, you put the nail in the damn coffin.
Because they didn’t brush it off, did they?
’ I yell, fighting the voice in my head that’s telling me to go and wring his stupid, lying, cheating neck.
‘They convicted him. The guy’s in bloody prison! ’
‘I know!’ Dom shouts back. ‘Don’t you think I know?
I don’t think Ella even knew him. The client they started working on together wasn’t brought up at the last board meeting, and Ella never mentioned it.
But their client . . . it was a big one.
They both had access to a lot of information, and a lot of money, Rafe. A lot of bloody money.’
‘Jesus,’ I utter, pinching the bridge of my nose. George Thorne took the fall for something he didn’t do. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘I even thought maybe it was him to start with, until I realised Ella had disappeared. I’d never have put his name in that email if I’d known what she was going to do, I swear.’
‘What would you have done? Put some other poor bastard’s instead?’ I snort.
I shake my head as Dom stares back at me, his expression heavy with guilt.
It’s exactly what he would have done. No matter what, Dominic was always going to make sure he came out of all of this shit without scars.
He’s pathetic. The man I idolised and considered a father figure is a ruthless piece of shit who only cares about saving his own skin.
Bile rises up my windpipe and I have to press a fist to my mouth to chase it away.
Dom’s words are hollow. ‘I didn’t know what was going to happen. What Ella was planning. You were meant to land a huge payout. That investment was solid. Listen, Rafe . . .’
I wince hearing my name from his lying lips.
‘I don’t care about the bloody money,’ I whisper.
Dom snorts. ‘Two hundred and forty million, of course you bloody care. Don’t try to act all holy about it.
You wanted that money. You wanted to show your father what you were capable of.
And like I said, Thorne’s in a white-collar prison.
He’ll be fine. And he’ll be out soon enough.
But if any of this comes out . . . Just think about it.
I’m not the only one who has something to lose here. You’re involved too.’
The growl in my chest builds. The threat’s there, lying dormant in the undercurrent of his tone. Insidious and poisonous. Dom knows what happened with the Wyndham account. He’s the only one who knows the whole story. A story he swore to me he would never tell my father.
But my father’s respect isn’t the only thing I stand to lose.
Aurora.
Dom’s words send a wave of realisation racing through me like acid.
‘Fuck!’ I snap, pushing my hands back through my hair as the enormity of my other secret hits me like a sledgehammer. How it played a part in Dom’s huge fucking charade.
I charge at him, rage boiling the blood in my veins. ‘You knew all this! You were the one who put my name forward! Encouraged me to do it! “Stand up for what’s right,” you said. You bastard! You made me a pawn in your sick and twisted little game. You—’
The front door closes, followed by the scamper of claws on hard floor, and I stop inches from Dom, fist drawn back, ready to drive it into his face.
I stare at him, vibrating with barely contained rage.
Dom’s dog jumps excitedly at our legs, but his eyes remain fixed on mine, glossing over with a hardened shutter of self-preservation as he parts his lips and slowly enunciates each word. ‘Down, boy.’
I drop my fist, glaring at him as his wife walks into the kitchen.
‘Oh, hi, Rafe,’ she trills, placing her handbag on the counter, unaware she arrived just in time to stop me from smashing her husband’s nose to the back of his skull.
I break Dom’s gaze and give her a friendly smile, portraying normality and calm so well it’s like I’m working towards winning a goddamn Oscar.
‘Hi, Kate.’ My eyes drop over her outfit, specifically the floral jacket she’s wearing. ‘You look lovely.’
‘Flattery will get you everywhere.’ She laughs. ‘Oh, Freddie, get down, you silly boy,’ she scolds.
I bend, curling my palm around the little dachshund’s head and petting him. ‘Hey, boy,’ I say, earning myself a lick across the palm.
Kate calls him again and he runs over to her, his tail wagging.
‘Would you like to stay and have something to eat with us?’ she asks, bright and welcoming, the way she always is.
‘No, thank you. I have things I need to do.’ I look at Dom, my jaw clenching. ‘I’ll see myself out.’