Chapter 34 Angus
The contracts lay on the table in front of Angus.
The language was complex. Confusing, even, but Angus knew no one was trying to trip him up.
Unlike his bad investment history, this was a good choice.
He was dealing with a lawyer he knew. The properties were in excellent condition.
And in a few moments, they would be his.
As Angus absorbed the enormity of the occasion, his eyes drifted across the wooden table in his lawyer’s office.
Decades old with a dark stain, the piece was steeped in history.
Angus wondered how many people had sat at it over the years.
How many decisions had been made in its presence?
How many conversations had happened around it?
‘If you could sign here,’ Morgana said, pointing to the line awaiting Angus’s signature. Parallel to it was Peter’s swooping cursive, sealing his decision to hand two properties to his son.
The gesture, and the trust it implied, brought a lump to Angus’s throat.
It had been there ever since Peter agreed to the exchange.
Angus knew it wasn’t a decision his father made lightly, especially with Gilly insisting it wasn’t a good idea.
Angus knew his parents had argued about it, but the decision had been made in Angus’s favour.
That could mean only one thing: Peter had faith in him.
Emboldened by his father’s confidence, Angus added his signature to the page and that was it – the transaction was complete.
‘Congratulations, son,’ Peter said, smiling the kind of smile Angus had long dreamed of earning from him. ‘The next phase of your plan begins.’
Reaching across the table, Angus went to shake his father’s hand, but Peter shook his head. Before the snub could wound Angus, Peter strode around the table and hugged him. Angus blinked in surprise, then held his father tightly.
The men had hugged before, but this one felt different. When the moment ended, Angus ordered himself to remember the way pride was woven into the embrace… and to notice how small his father’s bulk felt when in his arms.
Shifting out of the hug, Angus’s eyebrows dipped as he realised that the change in Peter wasn’t only in his imagination. His father did look smaller. Thinner. Sadder.
‘Is everything okay?’ Angus asked.
‘Okay? Angus, think of what we’ve done today. Everything is brilliant. Come on,’ Peter said, clapping Angus’s shoulder and steering him away from the table. ‘Walk me out.’
After thanking the lawyers, Peter and Angus stepped out of the office. They didn’t stop walking until they reached the streets of Kensington.
‘Do you have any plans tonight?’ Peter asked as they walked side-by-side to where Peter’s driver was parked further down the road.
‘I’m seeing Layla soon.’
‘Celebrating the news?’
Angus nodded because it was easier than admitting that Layla knew nothing of his plans for Hugo’s House.
‘Glad to hear it, son. Moments like this deserve to be commemorated. You’ll regret it if you let them slide by unnoticed.’
As the men reached the car, the driver opened the door, but Angus wanted to tell him to close it. Peter Fairview-Whitley didn’t talk of regrets. He was a man who oozed confidence, not melancholy.
Willing himself to be brave, Angus moved closer to his father. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘You’ve already asked that,’ Peter replied.
‘I know, but is it?’
The second between Angus’s question and Peter’s dismissive laugh was short, but loud. ‘I’m fine, Angus,’ Peter said, evacuating himself from the conversation. ‘Don’t worry. Keep working hard and visit your mother and me at the weekend. We’d love to hear your updates.’
Before Angus could command his father to stay and speak to him, Peter slid into the car.
In the time it took the driver to return to his seat, Angus could have opened the door. He could have demanded answers from his father, but his arms stayed fixed to his sides, too afraid to ask the questions his gut told him he must.
From the pavement, Angus watched as his father was driven away. His eyes remained on the vehicle until it turned at the end of the road. Even when it was out of sight, Angus kept staring ahead, hoping that an answer might appear through the mist.
Inside the pocket of his overcoat, Angus’s phone began to vibrate.
‘I’m leaving work now,’ came Layla’s slightly breathless voice when he answered the call. ‘Michelle said to cut out an hour earlier after the last few late nights. Fancy meeting for a drink before the show?’
The casualness of her tone jarred with Angus’s anxiety, so much so that the world felt like it was splitting in two before his very eyes.
‘Angus?’
Layla’s voice cut through his unease. ‘I can meet you at The Castle again, if you’d like?’ he said.
‘The Castle sounds great. I can be there in half an hour, if that works for you?’
‘It works for me.’
There was a pregnant pause, and then Layla asked, ‘Is everything okay?’
Was everything okay? Angus had no idea. In some ways, his life was the best it had ever been.
He had found a purpose and fostered relationships in a way he never had before.
In others, he was drowning in lies and worries.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was sinking, and that nothing and no one could save him.
‘I… I think there’s something wrong with my father.’
It was only when Layla responded that Angus realised he’d said the words out loud.
‘What do you mean?’ Layla asked.
‘I… I think he’s sick.’ Emotion cracked Angus’s speech. ‘He’s changed, Layla. Every time I see him, he’s thinner. He talks more openly. If you knew my dad, you would know how weird that is. I don’t know what to do.’
‘Where are you?’ Layla replied, her tone measured.
‘Kensington.’
‘Send me the address.’
Dumbstruck, Angus sent the address to Layla.
‘Stay where you are and stay on the line,’ she said. Even in his despair, the instruction made Angus smile. Where did she think he would go? These calls were what he lived for.
For the next twenty minutes, Layla and Angus talked as she made her way to him.
While Layla recapped her day and wondered out loud about the play they were to see later that evening, Angus’s worries levelled out.
By the time a taxi pulled up and Layla emerged from it, he had almost forgotten them completely.
‘Layla,’ he breathed. Angus had barely finishing saying her name before her arms were wrapped around him.
‘It’s okay,’ she whispered. ‘It’s all going to be okay.’
Softening into Layla’s body, Angus allowed himself to be held until the world found balance once more.