Chapter 30
30
OWEN
Back behind the wheel of my silver Aston Martin Vantage, I take it for a spin along the cliffs of Castleview Cove to blow away the cobwebs as it had been sitting, unused, for too many weeks. I didn’t believe Camilla when she said my father didn’t sell it, but when I arrived at my house, it was parked outside waiting for me.
I pulled over at one of the small viewing points along the perimeter, and as I stood there looking down, my stomach flipped at the enormity of the height. An image of the sheer horror my mother and father must have endured as their car crashed down the jagged rock face came into mind.
The reality of their deaths suddenly hit me so hard, I felt like it slapped me in my face, as guilt ferociously engulfed me like a noose around a neck. My breath caught in my lungs and I felt like my chest was going to burst because regardless of their cruel parenting, nobody deserves to die the way they did.
They were human, after all. Flesh and blood.
My parents.
Now gone .
I can’t change what has happened.
And even if I did come back when they asked me to, even a miracle couldn’t have saved the business or them going under.
Driving back down to the estate, along the winding roads on the outskirts of town, I realize I don’t enjoy driving my sports car as much as I used to.
There are no raspberries being blown or inarticulate words drifting over my shoulder from the backseat because there is no backseat.
The sooner I box up my house and leave my old life behind, the better.
Camilla said she has some details about the business and estate to discuss. I think there is nothing to talk about because, quite frankly, she can have the whole lot. But I agreed to meet her here as I didn’t want to meet her anywhere near a Sanderson.
This is more of a peacekeeping exercise.
Inside the house now, I move out of the foyer and amble down the hall toward Dad’s office, where Camilla said to meet her. Humming away to myself, I’m almost pleased that this may be the last time I step foot in this godforsaken place.
My humming stops dead as I enter the room to find Richard, sitting behind my father’s desk, with his Satan son, Gideon, standing by his side, like Daddy’s good little soldier.
“Owen.” Richard gives me a curt nod as I walk further into the room. It’s only then I notice Camilla sitting as straight as a poker on the brown leather Chesterfield sofa on the far side of the fireplace.
Then the penny drops: she’s helping them. I was a fool to think her intentions were anything but good.
“Richard. Gideon.” I greet them, then nod briefly in Camilla’s direction .
Unlike those friendly and cheerful, always playful women I waved farewell to this morning, these people are more like strangers than family.
“Sit, please.” Gideon points to the chair across from the desk.
“I think you’ll find this is my fucking house and I don’t need either of you telling me where to sit.” I stare Richard down, ignoring Gideon. “And you’re sitting in my rightful place. It should be me telling you where to sit, not the other way around.” I hope my confident words sound braver than I feel. “I’ll stand.”
Gideon rubs his forefinger across his bottom lip. “You’ve got bigger balls than your father ever did.”
“I’m nothing like him,” I sneer.
“Which is a damn shame really, as we could have been a powerhouse together, all four of us.”
“I’m not a thief, nor am I cruel or corrupt. I don’t gamble, so please don’t mark me with the same branding iron as him.”
Richard’s devious laugh sounds demonic when he says, “Not a fan of Daddy dearest then, no?”
“Fuck you, Richard. What do you all want?”
Gideon steps forward, pushing a pile of paperwork across the desk. “Read.” His one-word answer has my back up.
Picking up the papers, I skim-read them impatiently. The words become a blur as I reach the final page. “Denied?”
“What you’ll see there, Owen, is a classic case of insurance fraud. Your father deliberately had the printing works set fire to with the intention of claiming on his insurance. His claim was denied.”
In disbelief that my father would stoop so low, unable to stand, I drop into the seat and stare at the report. “He was desperate,” I mumble to myself.
When I look up, Richard looks disinterested. “Hundreds of people from the surrounding areas lost their jobs because of him. I called a meeting with the staff and asked Camilla to take the lead and inform those poor souls that the business has gone into liquidation,” he says casually.
I’m guessing the entire town will now know my father committed arson and fraud.
It’s the one thing I am grateful for. I wasn’t at that meeting to see the looks of disappointment on the faces of people I had worked closely with for years.
Richard continues. “When that report came back, your father knew he couldn’t rebuild, pay off his debts or undo what he did, Owen.” He pauses before he drops the grenade. “So he killed himself.”
Gideon jumps in and pulls the pin. “Along with your mother.” He examines his fingernails as if his words and their lives mean nothing.
“What?” I shout louder than I mean to and look to Camilla, whose eyes have turned glassy. “No way,” I exclaim. “Camilla, tell me this isn’t true?”
She shakes her head and tears freefall, sliding down her cheeks.
I dart my gaze back to the two ogres behind the desk. “The death investigations authority said it was an accident.” This can’t be true.
“You have me to thank for that.” Richard winks. “Their death certificates said accidental death. The evidence proved otherwise.”
“Sorry, why would you have it changed?” I scowl, lost and unable to understand what the fuck is happening. Doing people favors is not something Richard does. There has to be a reason for covering up their cause of death .
“You wouldn’t have received life insurance for them if it was deemed suicide.” Richard leans across the desk.
And there is the reason.
“But I didn’t submit paperwork to claim their life insurance.” Then the penny drops.
“As the oldest heir and beneficiary, Camilla did.” Gideon’s devious smile is beginning to annoy me.
No, she didn’t. They did, and I bet it was worth millions, and Camilla obviously got the lot. Greed clearly doesn’t run in my veins like it does in hers.
She’s just like them.
Gideon adds, “It’s all approved and on its way to her as we speak.”
I throw the insurance report onto the desk. “Is that it? That’s what all the dramatics are for? To tell me there was no payout from the business, but you got their life insurance? Great. I’m really happy for you all. Book a vacation. In hell for all I care because, just in case you didn’t get the memo, I’m not interested in the money.” Angrily, I stand and make to leave.
Richard’s voice stops me in my tracks. “He owed me more than the life insurance is paying out.”
I spin quickly back around. “Not my problem.”
“That’s where you are wrong, son. With no business insurance to cover it, and as a director of that company, the responsibility falls to you.”
“I was a director in name only,” I snarl.
“Ah, even just in name, you are still the only other remaining director of that business, and you were the finance director, too. Well, isn’t that convenient?” He’s so casual with his delivery of his non-question, it irks me. “That debt now falls to you.”
“You cannot be serious? ”
“Deadly.” He smooths his hand down his tie to straighten it and sits back. “So, here’s what’s going to happen. While Camilla here fell heir to their life insurance, this fucking hideous house has been left in your name.” He twirls his finger in the air.
“You can have it. I’ll sign it over.” I don’t want it. It was worth eight million at its last assessment and I’ll gladly give it all away to get them out of my life.
“Good boy.” He winks.
“Is that it?” I ask hopefully.
When he tilts his head to the side, a simple but menacing crack to his neck tells me it’s not. “You are ten million short.”
“Me?” I point at my chest. “ I’m ten million short?”
He snaps his fingers over and over. “You’re a smart man. Keep up, Owen. Your father’s debt went unpaid. This house and the life insurance cover some of it, but like I said, you are ten million short.”
“But I have no money,” I stutter. “You can have my car. That’s all I have left.”
Sounding bored, Richard sighs. “Your car is too old and only worth a fraction of what your father paid for it ten years ago. I’m not interested.”
My mouth falls open in shock. Is he for real? It’s worth forty grand, but it won’t even make a small dent in the ten million he’s demanding from me.
He drums his fingers against the wooden desk. “What about your trust fund your grandfather left you?”
“Father cleaned out my account. I don’t know what he did with it, but I don’t have it anymore.”
“Well, you had better get your thinking cap on then, eh? What other accounts did he have?”
“I don’t know,” I bellow, my voice bouncing off the stone-cold walls .
He eyes me suspiciously. “As the finance director, you must have shown him all the tax loopholes and dodges?”
“You are not listening to me. I was a director in name only. I was only ever given access to two accounts. One for the business savings, which he withdrew my access from, and one for the everyday in and out transactions. Both of which I’m guessing are frozen by the liquidation of the business.” My voice takes on a new pitch of its own.
“We only know about the everyday one. The bank hasn’t been able to source the savings.”
“Because there won’t be any,” I yell at him again “He told me in Cyprus?—”
Gideon interrupts me. “He visited you in Cyprus?”
“Yes.”
Richard lifts one eyebrow. “Interesting.”
“There is nothing fucking interesting about it.” My blood threads through my veins like hot barbs. “He begged me to come back to help him work out how to liquidate the business without losing everything. He admitted that he messed up. He told me that he had lost billions, gambling stocks and shares, and hedge funds. You name it, he did it. But it’s all gone. All of it. You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for the money he owes you because I have none. I have the clothes I am standing in, a car that, like you said, is worth nothing to you, a few books, a surfboard, a bike, and that’s it.” I’m so out of breath, but I keep going with all that I know. “He withdrew my admin access to the business savings account and moved it elsewhere months ago. I don’t know where it was moved to, but I can assure you, there will be fuck all left. He blew it all on crypto. He lost every penny. Including yours. He gambled the money he borrowed from you to cover the staff wages on even more stocks and shares and fuck knows what else. It’s all gone. ”
They both stare blankly at me as Camilla continues to sob.
“Ten million. You have ten days.” Richard pushes up out of the chair.
I laugh at his demand. “You’ll have to make that ten years or decades, not days, because I have no way of getting that money. Good luck though.”
“Thought you might say that,” he mutters blandly, laying his hand out flat.
Gideon places a brown envelope into the palm of Richard’s hand and presents it to me like he’s a waiter serving canapés at a dinner party.
Dread encases me as I stomp forward and snatch it, tearing it open and pulling out whatever is concealed inside.
From the other side of the room, Camilla’s sobs become louder, as if she knows what comes next.
It takes a few moments for my brain to comprehend what the photos in my hand are of and what he’s implying. It’s only then that a single word tears from my throat. “No.” I shake my head rapidly as a lump the size of a cannonball forms in my windpipe.
“Please don’t do this to my family, Richard,” Camilla cries, covering her heart with her chest.
Speechless, I look from Camilla to Richard, then Gideon, and back down at the photos.
“Ten million, Owen. Ten days. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to those two beautiful redheads now, would you?” I rifle through the photos of Jade and Poppy. Some with me. Playing in the garden at her house. Photos of us kissing in the kitchen. Us doing the grocery shopping together. Poppy at nursery. One of Jade sitting in the cockpit of her jet getting ready for take-off on the airfield on base, and there is even one of her taken in what looks like a restaurant overseas with her team .
“How?” I ask in horror, unable to comprehend how he penetrated a high security military compound.
“I’m a man of many talents, Owen. I have eyes and ears everywhere,” Richard says firmly. “Find my money. You have ten days or poof .” He splays his fingers out in the air. “Gone.” Eyes widening as if he’s the fucking Joker himself, he smiles maliciously. “It would be such a travesty should anything happen to your Hotshot girlfriend.”
How the hell does he know my pet name for her?
He taps the side of his nose. “I saw and heard it all at the funeral. And like I said, I have eyes and ears everywhere.” He does the button up on his black suit jacket. “As the world’s first woman aerobatic pilot in the Air Force, it would be such a talent to go to waste.” He dabs the corners of his eyes theatrically. “It would be a pity if she were to have an accident in that plane she flies.”
“I fucking hate you,” I snarl, spittle spraying everywhere.
“Join the queue. You know what needs to be done.” He looks around, dusts his tie, and nods in Gideon’s direction. “Time to go.”
Then he leaves alongside Gideon and my sister, who, as sad as she is, willingly gets up and walks to the door with them.
“I’m your brother, Camilla. Why would you let them do this to me?” She stops walking but doesn’t look back.
“I will never forgive you,” I hiss.
“I will never forgive myself,” she whispers, shaking her head, still crying as she leaves.
Then it’s just me.
My pulse beats so hard I can hear it thumping in my ears.
The man I hate with every bone in my body is dead, and yet he’s still screwing me over.
And in this moment, I have never felt so alone .
If I can’t raise or find that money, what will Richard do to them? I will die inside if anything happens to them.
I can’t let that happen. I just can’t.
And if I can’t find the money, it will kill me, but I will stay away from Jade and Poppy to keep them safe.
It would mean never seeing my girls again, but I will do it. For them.
The knot of anxiety in my gut tightens, making me feel sick.
Running over to the wastebasket, I lunge forward, heaving, vomiting up this morning’s breakfast.
Hunched over, leaning on my thighs, I suck in a deep breath as I stand tall, wiping my sweat-covered hands over the fabric of my pants. When I feel a small lump, I push my hand into the pocket and I pull out Jade’s lucky poppy stone.
Unclenching my fingers, I stare.
Jade was right. I needed luck.
Ten million pounds of it.