Chapter 27
27
OWEN
I’ve shaken at least one hundred sets of hands.
Hugged people I’ve never met before.
All with a somber look on my face.
The one you’re expected to have: drawn face, down-turned mouth. Sad.
The mournful, grief-stricken expression you only ever see at funerals.
That’s how I look as I gaze around at the people, chatting as they stand huddled together in the vast front room of the Brodie mansion.
My grief, you ask?
It’s painted on.
Because I’m numb.
I thought I might feel something when I saw the family home or my sister. A trigger. But there is nothing.
I’m stuck between denial, anger, and regret.
Guilt.
My guilt is so big it’s tangible, and it’s growing by the day.
It’s like a huge black cloud hanging over me, threatening to turn into a rapid cyclone at any given moment. A storm is coming. I can feel it.
Since my return to Castleview Cove, I have focused on planning what I can only describe as a Brodie funeral; one fit for a king and his queen.
Henry and Elizabeth Brodie.
Never to be forgotten. Their death will be talked about for years to come, as will their funeral.
I suggested a small private service, but that was not what happened here today. Camilla informed me that her father-in-law was funding the funeral, and he was demanding we give them a proper send-off. Although, it meant we could avoid any talk about finances, the demise of Castleview Printing Press, or my parents’ estate, as money was no object for their funeral.
It was conducted in the biggest church in town, with a convoy of black cars and enough flowers to start our own florist, laid upon the finest of solid oak and gold caskets, and Camilla and I pushed our feelings aside and saw that our parents had the send-off people expected, given their status with the people around here.
Every minute has felt like a lie.
Yesterday, I stood outside the ashes of what once was Scotland’s finest and largest printing press. Relief washed over me, knowing the burden of the business was never going to fall to me. No staff to be responsible for, no paper pushing business deals to close, no bank balances or tax returns to submit. It was a boring business to be involved in, and it never appealed to me.
It was in that moment that everything fell into place. Memories of every encounter between my father, Gideon, and Richard, his tycoon father, flooded my brain. Snippets of conversations replaying vividly in my mind.
I was only young when Gideon and Camilla married, but I remember the meetings and the phone calls I used to eavesdrop on. I remember listening to my father explaining to my mother how he helped Richard fund the purchase of new land to build a multi-billion-pound luxury housing development on. I remember the raging argument they had that tore through the house when interest rates rose an unprecedented amount, triggering the housing market to crash, and my father lost all of his money. My mother never forgave him.
Back then, a few billion here and there would have been just a drop in the ocean for him. I can only assume he must have started taking more and more risks to recover his losses, which ultimately led to his demise. I am more than certain that Richard was whispering in his ear about dodgy deals and financing opportunities, even back then.
Why he trusted Gideon and his father, I will never know. Richard isn’t a property guru; he works in export and import and it wasn’t long after I started working for the business that my father began asking me to research hedge funds. Then it was stocks and shares, then Bitcoin, and finally crypto. And every time I would advise him to steer clear and invest in something less risky instead of putting his money in things like crypto, where the outcome was more like chancing it all on black in a game of roulette.
My feelings for my parents aside, I did the right thing by my family today. Stood shoulder to shoulder with my sister and her dreadful husband.
I’ve been keeping my beady eye on him since my return, but he gives nothing away and has had nothing but good things to say about my parents. Which I find confusing, especially since my father said he owed him and his father a considerable amount of money. None of it adds up.
Walter Forrester, the private investigator I hired to speed up my DBS check, is a man of many talents, and I am praying for a miracle because I have promised to pay Walter a handsome price to help me locate the trust fund my father stole from me.
If not, I’m royally fucked and will have to ask Lincoln or Jacob for the money.
Grateful to have been kept busy since my return, I have been juggling my time organizing the funeral with Camilla, making sure Jade’s mom and aunt are looked after and, of course, I can’t live without my daily dose of Jade and Poppy. My girls.
They’ve kept me sane for the past twelve days. However, I am all too aware that Jade will have to leave in a day to return to work.
I was hoping Jade would be here for whatever unfolded with my trust fund, and to help me pack up my house, but that’s not looking likely now. When she’s with me, I feel like I can take on the world. When she leaves, however, I’m not sure what I will do without her for support.
Regardless of how I feel about Camilla, she deserves better. It hasn’t gone unnoticed how thin, almost frail, and gray-faced she now is, making her look older than her thirty-seven years. It’s not how I remember her, and I don’t fucking like it. I don’t like it at all.
She is rotting under Gideon’s watch while he thrives.
She looks miserable. As does her son, my nephew, Sean, who I barely know. He’s never left her side, and I think he uses his mother as a wall of defense from his father and grandfather.
The noise of fine bone china meeting fine bone china sounds to the right of me, breaking me from my anger-fueled thoughts as Jade settles her teacup down on its saucer that’s rested on the table.
With only a couple dozen people left at the wake, I feel myself slowly relaxing. My suit no longer feels like it is strangling me, as it did when I first put it on this morning.
“How are you holding up?” Jade slips her hand into mine.
I look down and give her an easy smile. “Walk with me.” I squeeze her hand.
I lead Jade out through the cavernous kitchen of my childhood home and out into the gardens.
“This house goes on forever.” She gasps in awe, stepping out onto the lawn.
Looking back up at the giant castle behind us, we both take in the enormity of the building.
I always thought the twelve-bedroom sixteenth-century monstrosity was completely unnecessary for a family of four people. It’s not as if my father had a choice, though. Along with being heir to the business, he also fell heir to the Brodie Mansion; a fucking castle.
After all, what is a king without one?
“Do you like it?” I squint, casting my eyes over the monster I have hated my entire life.
“It’s… different.”
“It’s fucking hideous.” I make her laugh at my unexpected outburst.
“You don’t like it?”
“I hate this house. It was a prison, and those walls contain the ridicules and echoes of my mother’s voice.”
“Not a fan then?” she questions, knowing I would rather stick needles in my eyes than spend a night in this time vault.
I shake my head as Jade tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear. I should have had it cut for the funeral, but fuck it, this is me.
“I loved the beach house you picked out for us.” We sat outside admiring the beautiful house that I dreamed of buying as a home for us. That’s the way it will stay; a dream.
“It was perfect.” I test the waters with her. “Would you ever consider moving here?”
“I’ve fallen in love with Castleview Cove. The people, the beaches, the fresh air; it’s beautiful. It’s picture-perfect dreamy. The schools are good, the houses are stunning. There is an airport an hour away. I could maybe train to become a commercial pilot and get a job here.”
She’s done her research, which seems like a positive sign. “Do you think you would miss the tricks and the speed if you became a commercial pilot?”
“No, actually. Yeah, it’s fun, but I would be happy being a commercial pilot, or if I could wave a magic wand, I would set up a flying school to give more people the opportunity to learn how to fly. Can you imagine flying over the panoramic views of Castleview Cove every day? It would be amazing.” Her excitement makes me wish I could make that dream come true for her.
“So moving to Castleview Cove in the future might be an option?”
“It’s most definitely an option.”
“But we wouldn’t be moving into something like this house.” I jerk my head in the house’s direction.
“I like traditional houses, but this is too old. Maybe something less”—she side-eyes my family home—“stone, and iron and tapestry.”
“Less everything. It’s too much.” The one I wanted for us on the beachfront was perfect for us. I drove past it again by myself and wished everything was different. White picket fence and shutters, wild multicolored flowers, and forest-green front door.
I stare at the building by my side and frown. “Do you think my great, great, great-grandfather had a small dick, and that’s why he bought this place?”
Jade bursts out laughing. “I’m glad you didn’t inherit that.”
I wrap my arms around her and we stand chest to chest, listening to the tweeting of the birds and the buzzing of the summer bees.
One thing my mother did get right was the garden. She would spend hours here, creating sanctuaries for ladybirds and hedgehogs, leaving treats out for the squirrels and foxes who ventured into the garden late into the night. She loved animals more than her children, it would seem.
This was the only place I ever heard her sing or smile. I cast my eyes around the color-filled gardens and a thought drops into my mind. With hundreds of roses lining the many hidden paths, maybe they were her favorite flower and what I should have asked to be put on her coffin and not the lilies I picked. That would figure; beautiful to look at but armed with sharp-toothed thorns. Sounds about right.
I air my thoughts. “It’s such a strange thing to have lived with someone for years and not known anything about them.”
“Are you talking about your mom or your dad?”
“Both, I guess.”
“Maybe they kept you at arm’s length for a reason.”
Or maybe they were brought up that way, so they never knew any different. Either way, I buried two strangers today.
Strangers that might possibly have spent their last night together trying to figure out a way to pay off their debt. Out for dinner with the devil himself, apparently.
My curiosity has been slowly creeping in all around me. Like poison ivy, it’s crawling through my veins so fast it’s threatening to encase me in a tomb of its toxicity. What was agreed around that dining table that evening between my parents and Richard Sanderson?
Because both Richard and Gideon have been too nice and it’s making me feel uneasy.
“Your heart is beating so fast.” Jade looks up at me. “Are you okay?”
She’s asked me at least a dozen times a day how I am and every time I answer with the same reply. “I’m fine.” When in fact I’m not quite sure how I feel.
Maybe I need distance to get a better perspective on things. Just be with my girls until the dust settles and then see how I feel.
Once I have sorted my house, then I can go back to the new life I was creating and happy with. Because while I love Castleview Cove, Jade isn’t here, and wherever she is, I am.
Jade makes me smile when she says, “Your friends have been wonderful today. I love them all.”
“And they love you.” I kiss her on the end of her nose. “Told you they would.”
In a rare girly moment, she scrunches her nose, making her look cute.
“I love you in this sexy little dress.” I give her ass a good squeeze.
She steps back, looking upset with me, crossing her arms around herself. “We are at a funeral, Owen Brodie. Do not be so disrespectful,” she scolds, sounding like a teacher. She looks around. “What if someone saw you feeling me up at your parents’ funeral?” She waggles her finger at me.
I hold my hands up, surrendering to her observation. “Okay, okay, I get it. Be respectful.” I roll my eyes. “So, we can’t fool around over there in the bushes then? ”
Letting out a loud gasp, she turns to look at the bush I’m pointing to. “Please don’t tell me you have done that.”
I draw a cross over my heart. “Never.”
“You’re lying.”
I’m not, but I laugh at how upset she is thinking that I have, then throw her a wink.
“You are such a tease.” She throws her arms around my neck, realizing that I am telling the truth.
“And this is why you love me.”
“I do.” She kisses me with her soft lips.
I wish this moment would last forever, surrounded by Jade in my bubble of kisses and happiness.
Bliss.
Someone clearing their throat alerts us to their presence. When I look toward the interruption, my happy bubble pops in an instant. This is the moment I’ve been dreading and trying to avoid.
Stanley.
Evangeline’s father.
“Owen.” He tips his head in acknowledgment. “Can we talk?”
Uncertainty washes over me, and I turn my attention back to Jade.
“Go,” she says, never taking her eyes off Stanley. “Clear the air.” She moves out of my arms. “I’ll be here. I will always be here for you.”