Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
YOU FORCED MY HAND
Mathilda
Dominic’s secretary leapt up at my approach and rushed to open the sleek wooden door to the corner office.
“We’re so happy to see you here. Congratulations. The office is buzzing with Mr Hanswick’s news.” The man beamed as he ushered me in. I’d met him before when I’d visited my dad, and if he’d simpered around me then, he was doubly obsequious now.
From his desk, Dominic glanced up, his phone in his hand. He murmured something to the caller, replaced the handset, and smiled at me.
Smiled. The nerve.
“I’ve been expecting you. Did you get your picture taken outside the building?
It’s been nothing but paparazzi hounding the reception all day.
” The door clicked closed behind me, and he continued, “Of course, they don’t care about me.
They want the scoop: either us in a passionate embrace or Abigail storming in to accuse me of breaking her heart. ”
He laughed like any of this was funny, then took a swallow from a glass of amber liquid.
“How dare you? You need to release a statement taking my name out of this.” I was so mad my voice trembled.
I’d barely spoken to Beth or James at the airport, despite my friend offering to come with me to kick Dominic’s ass, and I’d simmered in the slow-moving cab as we’d inched across the city. At the same time, I’d wanted to curl into a ball and protect myself.
I’d said I had to do this alone, but now it was the last thing I wanted. Mathilda the Island had finally made contact with land, and I missed Callum so much it felt like pieces of me were breaking off the farther I went from him. From his wonderful home and family.
Dominic rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re not Scarlet with an excuse for a teenage tantrum. Besides, you brought this on yourself.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know you’ve got something going on with that McRae man—your voicemail last night told me enough. It’s why I made my announcement over dinner. You forced my hand.”
He was deranged. It was all I could do to stop myself from leaping over his too-tidy desk and strangling him with his ugly paisley tie.
“You have caused me no end of trouble, and now you tell me you did it despite knowing it was against my wishes?” I hissed. “I told you I didn’t want this. I never really did. What gave you the right—”
“Without Storm Force,” Dominic interrupted, raising his voice over mine. My attention gained, he quieted and continued, “Without this engagement, I cannot afford to pay the Storm Force contracts. At all. Not even the fifty percent I thought we could manage. The deal is a bust.”
No. Callum needed that money desperately. Getting nothing would force him to sell. “That isn’t true. Dad is paying half.”
“Your father withdrew his support. He accused me of seducing you for your influence with him. Like I’d need that.
All I need”— as he stood, his lip curled into a sneer—“is to get this fucking investment secured. Don’t you see?
I had to do it this way for both our sakes.
If I didn’t, no contract means your precious boyfriend’s business goes under. ”
He gentled his tone as I stood there, reeling from and absorbing the implications of what he had done. “If you won’t do this for your sister, which I imagine is off the cards now your father has thrown a fit, do it for Callum McRae.”
Dominic had used emotional blackmail when he’d first made his offer. Why was I surprised that he’d upped the ante? I cared about my sister, loved her, but Callum had so many people depending on him.
Before me lay two paths. The one I’d originally chosen, where I’d secure the happiness of someone I loved at the expense of my own, though now the person was Callum.
Or, the route where I admitted how much I cared for one huge, overbearing, wonderful mountain of a man.
Maybe even accept the marriage proposal blurted in anger, though I was pretty sure it was genuine.
But taking the second path meant the man I loved losing everything he loved.
Dad was already angry about what Dominic had done—my answerphone messages made that clear, so marrying him wouldn’t get me Scarlet.
Nor was I convinced it was the only option to save Storm Force.
If only Dad would understand that Callum was an honourable and decent man, maybe I could get everything I wanted. Hope bloomed.
The choice was easy.
In careful, clear words, I informed Dominic of my decision. My head in a whirl, I left his office and hailed a cab, taking a moment before I climbed in to inform the waiting photographers of a news snippet they were clamouring to hear.
The taxi driver set out for my parents’ home. Just one more dragon to slay, and everything would be all right.
At a little after 4P.M., I bypassed the entry phone to the penthouse suite of Ashford House and let myself in with my keys.
“Dad?” I called as I placed my handbag down on the hall table. I’d left my luggage at Castle McRae, taking the two cases back to my room in a last-minute decision and bringing only what I needed for the day.
My heart and head were in a state, but I owed it to Callum to go back to him and finish what we’d started.
“Mathilda?” My mother’s voice floated down the hall. “What are you doing here?”
Rounding the corner, I found her in the lounge, the big windows spilling London’s grey light over her daybed perch. She must have been napping as she had a soft knitted blanket pulled up over her knees.
“Darling, it’s so good to see you.” She offered her cheek at my approach, and I bent to kiss it. “I’m home alone. Your father flew to New York two days ago. I know he wanted to speak to you, though. You should call him straight away.”
No mention of my supposed engagement, but that was my mother. She probably thought it either a good idea or none of her concern. I dropped into the chair next to hers and closed my eyes for a second. “I’ll do that.”
“Wonderful. I’ll have tea sent up.” Mom picked up her tablet device to order from the maid service.
I grabbed my phone but paused before I dialled. “Mom?”
“Yes?” She moved her head as if listening, though her gaze stayed on the screen. Her hair was pulled back in a sleek chignon, even though she was the only person in the house and she obviously had nothing to do.
“Did you hear I’m engaged?”
My mother nodded, selecting an option and carefully tapping in a note. “Your father doesn’t like it. He and Scarlet had a terrible row.”
Oh, poor Scarlet. “But what do you think, Mom?”
“Dominic Hanswick? He won’t give you any trouble.”
Not even a hint that she’d been surprised I was marrying Dad’s business partner. A man who no woman my age could genuinely be excited about.
“I’m not going ahead with it. It’s fake. I only considered it so Dad would let me have Scarlet. I’m in love with someone else.”
Mom finally met my gaze. “Oh, Mathilda, I am sorry.”
I gaped at her. “What?”
Mom sighed. “Love is not a good enough reason to have a relationship. I’ve told you that all your life. At best, you have fun for a while before it goes and you have to carry along like before. At worst…”
I knew she was talking about her lover, not Dad whose love for her caged them both.
“At worst what?”
The air seemed to be sucked out of the room as she replied, “Love destroys.”
Mom went back to staring at her tablet and, as she did, she cracked a packet in her pocket then slipped a white pill into her mouth.
I recoiled and looked away, remembering how she’d done the same in the restaurant.
Whatever she self-medicated with was partly responsible for her distance.
I hated how broken she was and I hated how much it had affected me.
I loved Callum. It had snuck up on me, but there it was, wedging my heart wide open.
Nothing about it felt destructive. Transformative, maybe, but for the better.
Shaken, I called my dad.
The moment the dial tone sounded, Dad answered the call. “Mathilda! Now listen to me—”
“Wait, Dad, you need to hear me out first.” I interrupted him for the first time in my life. “That news article—”
“That news article nearly gave me a heart attack. I want you to know two things. One, if you marry Dominic Hanswick I won’t attend the wedding and I will never do business with him again.
He’s a cheat! Not only that, but he told me that he’d treat Scarlet well when she lived with you.
The man is out of his mind if he thinks—”
Dad’s voice got louder, and I held the phone away from my ear. Then he said something else that had me snapping it back. “Say that last bit again, Dad.”
“I said I’ll let her live with you but only if you do not marry that man.”
“Scarlet can live with me if…” My mouth moved, but no more words came out. This was exactly what I wanted, and he’d offered it to me on a plate. I spluttered my next words. “All I want is for my family to be happy. For Scarlet to be out of the city and—”
“Out of the city? No, you misunderstand. I’ve rented the apartment downstairs.
The one directly below ours. You think I’d let her move cities?
You will live with her where I can keep an eye on you.
Then,” his tone changed from commanding to almost tender, “you’ll join Storm Enterprises and run Storm Force for me. ”
“What?” My weak voice squeaked. “But I don’t want to live in London.”
“You will if your work is here. I’m buying Dominic out of the Storm Force contract. You can sell the Bristol house and buy in. We’ll be co-investors.”
Dominic had lied. Dad hadn’t bowed out, he’d offered to buy him out.
“That house is mine to sell?”
“Consider it a trust fund. Your mother and I thought it better not to tell you until you needed the money for an investment.”
“So I’d work for you, live in an apartment you’ve rented, give up…everything else?”
In my head, I swore a blue stream. A new option had landed on my table. The contracts would be paid. Callum would get his money and his family’s stability. I would live with Scarlet but…
Give up everything else I cared about.
Didn’t this solve all my problems? At least on paper it did. Callum supported so many people. How could I have got so swept up to think we could get everything we wanted and still have each other? Sacrifices had to be made. I’d always known that.
My hope died.
Then a door slammed in the apartment. Me and Mom jumped. “Scarlet must have gone out,” Mom muttered, idly swiping at her screen. “Or maybe the maid. Is it Tuesday or Thursday?”
“Scarlet was here? But you said you were home alone!” My sister had heard me complain. No.
“I’m not sure when I last saw your sister.”
“Dad, I’ll call you back.” I leapt up and ran to the door, ignoring Mom’s comment about decorum. But the hall was empty outside, as were the stairs when I hung over the ornate banister.
I yelled my sister’s name. No answer. Back in the penthouse, I flung open the door to her bedroom. Empty. Then I spied a folded piece of paper propped in the centre of her patchwork quilt.
It had my name on it.
Mattie,
So, newsflash: I’ve packed up and left Mom and Dad. You can tell them if you like. Photos or it didn’t happen?
I can’t get over what you were going to do for me. You’re the best sister a girl could ever have. Go get your new boyfriend and don’t worry for a second about moi. I’ve got a plan and I’m safe.
Scarlet xx
Oh no, no, no.
She knew about Dominic’s proposal. But when had she left? A moment ago, or yesterday? Had she heard me complain to Dad? My sister was trying to save me the way I was trying to save her. But that wasn’t her job. She was a child, and I wouldn’t let her sacrifice anything for my happiness.
I needed help, ideally from someone well versed in finding lost siblings, and this time I wouldn’t hesitate to ask.