Chapter 26 #2
“Have a seat,” says Wren, pointing to his bed.
He goes over to his desk and sits down on the chair.
My eye rests on his computer screen. I’m very familiar with the swirling header of that website, as well as the image on the right of the page.
Hastily, Wren slams the laptop shut, but it’s too late—I’d have recognized Ember’s blog anywhere.
“Wren?” I ask as I sit down.
He turns to me.
“Yes?”
I look straight at him. “Ember’s become like a sister to me lately. If you hurt her, I’ll hurt you. Got that?”
One corner of Wren’s mouth twitches slightly, but the look in his eyes stays serious. “Got it. Not that I’m planning on it, just so you know.”
I look down at my hands and focus on the folds of my skin. “Sometimes, you have no choice. Sometimes other people make you hurt someone, even when that’s the last thing you want to do.”
Then there’s silence between us. I clench my fists and relax them again.
My thoughts go to Ruby and Dad and then to Mum.
I’m asking myself what she’d do if she were still alive.
Would she understand that I can’t deal with the company?
Would she let Dad threaten Ruby’s family?
I don’t think so. But the problem is, she’s not here anymore to hold him back—and I feel more useless than ever.
Wren snaps me out of it by sitting down beside me. He holds out a generous glass of whisky—one of the tumblers we gave him for his housewarming. I take it gratefully and swirl the brown liquid around inside it.
“Whatever your dad’s up to, you’ve got this. We’ve got this.”
I cling to his words as I clink my glass against his.
Ember
I don’t know how much time has passed when I finally let go of Ruby and we walk back into the house.
She dodges our parents’ questions and just mumbles that she’s too tired to talk and wants to go to bed.
Then she goes up to her room and drops down onto her bed without a word.
She didn’t shut the door, so I take that as an invitation to follow her.
As I sit down beside her, she sits up, leans her back against her headboard, and looks at me.
I look back at her and wait to see if she’ll break the silence.
She really hurt me by the way she acted at Lydia’s aunt’s house, and while I don’t want to leave her on her own right now, I can’t forget that.
“I’m sorry for freaking out like that,” she begins. Her eyes are still red, and her voice catches, but she stopped crying some time ago. “Seeing you together like that was just the last thing I was expecting. Since when don’t we tell each other stuff like that, Ember?”
I take a deep breath. “I wanted to work out what was going on between me and Wren first, before I told anyone else. And I knew exactly how you’d react.”
“Did I really make you feel like you couldn’t trust me? I just wanted the best for you. That’s all.”
“I know,” I answer quietly.
“I’m sorry for being so patronizing. I…” Her shoulders shake. “I want to know what you get up to in your spare time. And I want us to be able to tell each other everything. Like the old days.”
Her words make a lump form in my throat. “I’d like that too.”
“I definitely don’t want to be the kind of big sister you can’t talk to, and where you’re just worried that she’ll judge you.” She hesitates. “It’s just…Wren and I have history that really…I don’t know what kind of person he is now, but back then I hated him and the way he acted.”
“I get that,” I say. “I hate it too.”
“But you got in his car just now.”
I’m trying to find the right words. “We hadn’t been speaking for a couple of weeks, and only made up again today. I wanted to give him the chance to explain. And you have to know that I met him as a totally different person. He admits that he did wrong back then. Doesn’t he?”
Ruby takes a deep breath and then gives a brief nod.
“I really like him, Ruby. I have the feeling that he gets me. We kind of…clicked.”
“Mm,” she says. “Maybe he has changed.”
“I’m being careful. But this is something I have to experience for myself. You can’t protect me from it.”
For a moment, Ruby says nothing, running her index finger over an imaginary line on her mattress, apparently lost in thought. In the end, she sighs and then says, more to herself than me: “No, that’s true.”
“Would you like to talk about what happened between you and James?” I ask cautiously.
Ruby swallows hard. Her eyes roam around the room and then catch on her desk. “He’s going back to his dad. And back to Beaufort’s.”
I hold my breath. “What?”
Ruby doesn’t say any more. Minutes pass as she just stares straight ahead. She looks like she’s not really here, and her eyes are so blank I get goose bumps up my arms.
“On the way home, Wren said he wouldn’t be surprised if James’s dad wasn’t playing fair in getting him to knuckle down,” I suggest. “Do you think that’s what happened today?”
That snaps Ruby out of it. Her eyes are sparking with rage as she looks at me.
“The bastard is blackmailing him.”
I exhale jerkily. So Wren was right.
“What with?” I ask.
Ruby gulps. She opens her mouth and shuts it again. Then she clears her throat and starts again. “He…he said he’d destroy our family.”
My eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“That’s all James would say, but it’s all he needed to. We both know that Mortimer Beaufort doesn’t mess around.” She rubs her hand over her eyes, which are full of tears again. “Just the thought of exactly what he might have said to James makes me so angry.”
My mind is whirling with what Ruby just told me and wondering if there’s anything that could justify James’s dad acting like that. But however hard I try, I can’t think of a single thing. Our dad would never hurt us like that, whatever situation he found himself in.
“I don’t get how you can do a thing like that to your kids,” I say.
Ruby grabs a pillow and pulls it into her lap. She hugs it tight, like she’s clinging on for dear life.
“He’s got it into his head that he only wants to go on running Beaufort’s with James.
All he cares about is his reputation—the effect it will have on other people if James is there at his side in meetings and negotiations.
I feel sick when I think that James will have to do whatever he tells him again.
I’d so like to help him, but I don’t know what I can do.
” Her voice fades away, and she coughs again.
I reach out and grab the arm that’s wrapped around the pillow. “You are helping him, Ruby.”
“How? By sitting here and letting him just go?” she retorts.
I shake my head and squeeze her arm gently. “You’re there for him. And I think that’s exactly what James needs from you at the moment.”
Ruby gulps hard and sniffs. I realized that there’s no way I can leave her at the moment. Suddenly, I have an idea.
“How about I sleep over in your room tonight?” I ask cautiously.
Ruby thinks my question over for a moment. The next second, she shifts over and sinks back. She hands me the pillow from her lap, and I place it on the half of the bed she’s freed up. Then I lie down, turn toward Ruby, and look at her.
“Thank you for being here, Ember,” she whispers.
I reach for her hand. “Always.”