Chapter 21 #2
‘I gave Lewis everything, too,’ Charles went on.
His eyes were dry. ‘I tried so hard with that boy. My only son. You know I wanted him to take over the company from me, to be my heir. When he finally gave up on all his stupid dreams of being a writer or an actor or a fucking poet, I gave him a job. Gave him the chance to prove himself. To be a man.’
There was ice in his voice now. Holly and Miranda listened in silence. Holly had told me that neither she nor Miranda had ever wanted to be involved with the business, but all this outdated stuff about sons and heirs must still have rankled.
‘I tried so hard. Coached him. Gave him responsibilities. I got Zack here to mentor him, too. And your brother – he screwed it all up, made mistake after mistake. Letting him go from the company was the hardest thing I ever did, but he was doing too much damage.’
Zack said, ‘You have to be cruel to be kind.’
‘Exactly. When I told him I wasn’t going to bail him out any more, that he needed to find his own path to success, pay his own way, he actually cried.
He begged me for another chance, for more money, going on about how much debt he was in, despite the very generous salary I’d been paying him.
It was disgusting. But it was the right thing to do. Don’t you agree?’
There was no response.
‘Well?’
‘Yes, Dad,’ Miranda said.
Holly just shook her head, eyes closed, tears leaking on to her cheeks.
Charles sat down, as if his speech had winded him.
There was still no sign of tears. There seemed to be an awful lot of regret, even guilt, hidden in the speech he had made but, of course, anger was the second stage of grief.
And here he was, lashing out at the dead, and I realized it was because I had given him a reason to do so.
I had told him that I thought his son had been planning to kill his wife.
I moved closer to Holly, but as I went to touch her arm she stepped away from me, my hand connecting with air.
‘This is unbelievable,’ she said. ‘Tell them, Zack. You knew Lewis. You probably saw him more than any of us.’
‘I didn’t see him that much.’
He sounded like he was lying.
‘You worked with him, though, right?’
‘Yeah.’ Zack seemed distinctly uncomfortable now. ‘But it wasn’t like we were mates. In fact, I’d hardly seen him at all in the two years since Charles fired him.’
Holly frowned. Had she detected that he was lying, too?
‘Anyway,’ Zack said, ‘this is all conjecture. We’ll know what happened once we find Jasmine. She’ll be able to tell us if Lewis tried to shove her to her death.’
‘If we find her,’ Holly said. ‘Sorry, Dad. It’s just—’
‘She’ll be somewhere safe,’ Charles said, interrupting her.
‘Do you know how many hardships she’s faced during her life?
Her family …’ He puffed out air. ‘Her mother has been married more times than a soap-opera character. Her father was a deadbeat. Did she tell you he died of an OxyContin overdose?’
I wasn’t sure that was the sign of being a ‘deadbeat’.
‘What are you saying?’ Miranda asked.
‘I’m saying she’s like us. Whatever shit life throws at us, the Grants get through it. Your mum dying. All that stuff that happened with that other boy.’ I assumed he meant Jimmy. ‘Having to abandon our plans for the arts centre. Everything else. We survive. We thrive. Isn’t that right?’
Together, both Holly and Miranda said, ‘Yes, Dad.’
Arts centre? I wondered. What was that?
‘Zack’s right. We’ll know the truth when Jasmine shows up,’ Charles said.
Then he turned to me. ‘Patrick. Can we trust you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ve heard things today, things no one outside this family knows. We don’t want the press getting wind of Lewis’s circumstances. His lack of success at Gravitas.’
‘You don’t want anyone to know you fired him?’
‘Exactly. The official line is that Lewis and I did a deal. He and I agreed that he would make a go of things on his own and if, in five years, he hadn’t succeeded, I would welcome him back with open arms. He was happy.
All was good. It would be very disappointing if anything were to damage my, and the company’s, reputation. Especially now.’
Why did he keep saying that? I remembered something Zack had said earlier in the week, about how the company was on the verge of something big.
Charles put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Well, Patrick? Can I trust you? Are you one of us now?’
I was startled. This was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
To be accepted. For my girlfriend’s folks to like me.
It was what I had always wanted: to be part of her family.
Charles’s hand was warm on my shoulder and, despite everything I’d heard him say about Lewis, I found that I wanted him to like me.
He was offering to welcome me in, to let me feel the warmth of his attention, to be a trusted member of the inner circle.
I looked over at Holly, who nodded slowly, encouraging me. It appeared to be what she wanted, too.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I won’t say anything.’
‘Good man.’ He clapped me on the back, hard. ‘Now, where’s that coffee?’