Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Daisy
Downstairs in Sauvage’s dining room, even the delicious food isn't enough to draw me completely out of my melancholy thoughts, and my lowkey panic about meeting with the cops tomorrow.
But it’s necessary. I need to help my guys, and the first step in doing that is to help myself. The police watching me is just another complication I could do without and I need to get this guardianship thing gone. I need to make Andy listen to me.
Mav and Blake are at the club tonight, so the table is very quiet without them despite Sauvage spending the meal telling me stories about where he grew up in Paris, and making sure I'm entertained. I think he might miss me when I move out of his hotel.
After I’ve eaten the chocolate mousse I was looking forward to, I go back to the penthouse.
I find Shade up there waiting for me. We cuddle on the couch for a while with a movie on and then take a shower.
Afterward, he spreads my legs and devours me for his dessert.
It’s nice and it’s familiar. When I come, it’s relaxing and muted and it’s exactly what I need after the past few days. We fall asleep in each other’s arms.
In the morning, I wake early and go to the gym. Mav appears around nine and we run together on the treadmills until our legs feel like Jell-o.
When we get back into the penthouse, there's a chocolate muffin waiting for me on a plate. Mav makes himself a coffee. He gets me a cup of tea at the same time, and we sit in companionable silence while we breakfast.
'Do you need to go to campus today?' he asks.
I glance at him. 'Actually, I'm going to the Novelle estate, and I have to see the detective afterward.'
‘The detective?’ He puts his coffee down.
‘Yeah,’ I sigh, ‘but Shade is having his lawyer meet me there.’
Mav doesn’t look happy.
‘It’s necessary,’ I tell him. ‘Otherwise they’ll think I have something to hide.’
He snorts. ‘You have several somethings to hide.’
‘Yeah.’ I start pulling my muffin apart. ‘But their somethings and my somethings aren’t the same, so as long as I don’t act suspiciously, they’ll probably just think I’m sorta stupid.’
‘Is that the card you’re going to play?’ he asks, and I get the sense that he’s upset on my behalf that I have to pretend to be what I’m not.
‘I don’t mind,’ I say, looking at him. ‘Might as well use it to my advantage.’
I pop a piece of muffin in my mouth.
Mav regards me with a frown on his face, but he drops the subject.
‘And Andy?’ he asks. ‘Do you really think he’ll change his mind?'
‘I don’t know, but I want to see if I can appeal to him about all this stuff, the marriage to Marcus, and the fact that he sees me as some kind of mentally challenged person in constant need of care.
It’s just bullshit John put in his head.
Maybe if I can show him that it's not true, I don't know, maybe he'll go through the court and have the guardianship bullshit overturned even if it’s only so he doesn't have to waste Novelle money on me. Maybe I can even get him to call the lawyers in NYC so they’ll talk to me about my own business. '
'Who's going with you to the house?' he asks.
I give him a look, the same one I gave Shade last night. 'I'm a full-grown woman. I'll be fine.'
'Will you?' he asks, his eyes seeing a lot more than I’d like.
'If I want to talk about what happened there, I will,’ I say, giving him my full attention, ‘but I don't right now. We could go around in circles forever. I just want to be free and to find out what I'm being kept in the dark about.'
'Okay,' he says. 'Just make sure you have your phone, and if you have any problems, call us. Okay, Tulip?'
He rises and cups my cheek with his large hand.
'Shade was going to take me there,' I admit. ‘He was going to wait in the car, though.’
Mav grins at me, shaking his head.
‘What? I just wanted to make sure you know I’m my own person.’
He puts his hands up. ‘Okay, okay.’
‘You can drive me if you want,’ I offer. ‘Shade won’t mind.’
‘I want,’ he says and kisses the tip of my nose before hugging me tightly.
'It's going to be okay,' I say. 'What else are you going to do today?'
He shrugs. 'Classes. The gym for weights later, maybe start a fight or two. Just kidding, that's Blake's thing.'
'Where is Blake?' I ask.
He picks up his coffee and sighs again. 'Cartel shit. He's being real tight-lipped about it.'
'Yeah,' I say, remembering what he told me the night before last.
'I think it's worse than what he did for Kormak, which is saying something.'
I nod, but don’t tell him what Blake told me. If he wants Mav and Shade to know the specifics, he’ll speak to them himself.
'Want to get the Novelle stuff over with?’ he asks suddenly, standing up.
‘Definitely,’ I say.
‘Come on,' he says, grabbing his keys. 'I'll take you in my truck and I'll wait outside. You won’t even know I’m there unless you need me. You said Shade knows?'
'Yes,' I say. 'I spoke to him about it yesterday. I didn't say exactly when, though.'
Mav pulls out his phone.
'Do you mind if I tell him?'
'Go right ahead,' I say. 'I'm not trying to hide anything. I'm just trying to get shit done.'
***
The drive to the Novelle house drags. The weather is gray and the gate looks ominous and stark, grinding a little as it opens.
‘You’ll be here?' I ask, looking up at the stone steps and feeling the trepidation creeping in.
He nods. 'I'll be here. Call me if you have any problems, okay?'
‘I will.’
I get out of the car and go up the steps, pushing away any response my body has to being here alone.
John is dead, I remind myself. Joe is dead. Nasty Nurse is dead. I'm just here to see my stepbrother who’s, at most, an annoying, rich prick these days.
At the door, I knock, annoyed at the reminder that Stevens won’t be answering the door. He would have known that I was here and let me in before I could even touch it.
I wait outside for over a minute in the cold before it finally opens. The new butler, Lurch, stands in the doorway. He just looks at me expectantly as I freeze on the doorstep.
'I'm here to see my stepbrother,' I say.
He just stares at me.
'Andrew Novelle?’ I enunciate, not bothering to hide my impatience.
He hesitates before he moves to the side, allowing me to enter.
'Where is he?' I ask.
'I will take you to him, ma'am,' he says in his fake accent, as if I don't know my way around the house.
I snort as I follow him down the hallway to John's old office. He opens the door and announces me.
I enter and find Andrew sitting behind John's old desk, as he was the other day when Shade and I arrived. When he sees me, he stands up.
'Marguerite. I didn't expect you. Are you in my calendar? Is Jack with you?'
'I just thought I'd come visit,’ I say. ‘Jack isn’t here.’
His face stays blank, but then again, maybe I'm just not noticing his expressions. I try harder to pay attention to his face.
'Please, sit. What can I do for you? Would you like a drink? Oh, of course, Banderville women aren't allowed.'
He doesn't say it with any kind of inflection. I suppose it's just a logical fact.
'I'm not a Banderville,' I say. And I never will be. 'But no, thanks. It's a little early for me.'
'Sure, sure, of course. Have to say, I'm a little bit confused as to why you're here. I'm a little surprised to see you without my brother. Aren't you guys pretty much joined at the hip?'
I’m not sure if he’s insinuating anything, so I just shrug to be on the safe side.
'Your dad did tell him to babysit me,' I remind him.
'True,' he murmurs. 'True.'
He sits back in his chair, looking at me.
'My father’s inbox had a message from Doctor Stoke in it,’ he says casually.
My skin prickles. He sounds like John before he’d start yelling. I suppress a shudder.
‘I guess news of his passing hasn't made it across the pond yet,’ Andrew continues. ‘Apparently, my father had you taken back to The Heath for your own good, but you disappeared.’ He tuts. ‘Is that true?'
'Sort of,’ I say, not sure how much to tell him.
'And my brother helped you, right?'
'Yes, but—'
'You know he's not doing you any favors,' he interrupts.
'He's in your head, making you think things that aren't…
He's not good for you at all. And as your stepbrother, it's important for me to look out for you.
This is why I think the marriage to the Bandervilles is such a good move for you.
They'll make sure you're taken care of.'
In a padded cell, probably.
'I don't need to be taken care of,' I say sharply.
He sniffs.
'With respect, Marguerite, you—' He pauses. 'I remember how you were at school, the tantrums, the throwing stuff around… killing my friend.'
'I didn’t do that,' I say faintly, kind of shocked that he's talking about it so openly.
He throws his hands up. 'Well, the cops thought you did it. My father thought you did it. Hell, even your own mother thought you did it.’
I say nothing.
‘Why are you here?' he asks, folding his hands and putting them on his desk. 'What do you hope to achieve from this meeting?'
‘I don't—'
He gets up from the desk and walks around the office. I sit up straight. I don't look at him. This is some kind of intimidation tactic, isn’t it?
And then I hear it. The metronome. He's flicked the needle, and now it's making the tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick sound. The sound of it hits me viscerally, because I didn’t expect it, didn’t know it was coming.
'I don't want this guardianship,' I grind out, trying to block out the noise. 'I don't need it. I am an adult woman, and I do not have mental challenges.'
'I disagree,' Andrew says, coming to stand behind me and putting his hands on my shoulders lightly. ‘I mean even the sound of that little box is driving you crazy. I can see that it is and, no matter what my brother has made you believe about yourself, it isn't normal, Marguerite.’