Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Beck
Thank God for Stella. I couldn’t have handled the endless lunches, drinks, and dinners or inane small talk if it wasn’t for her.
But today I needed to nail down Henry, get him to agree in principle to a sale of the Dawnay building, and it would have all been worth it.
I wasn’t leaving Scotland without that victory, and I had work to do. I was running out of time.
I glanced over at Stella at the bar. There was so much riding on this conversation.
But when she looked at me, I didn’t doubt myself for a second.
I wanted this. Of course I did, but I also wanted this for her—so she could do the design, get her business back on track, and move on from her idiot ex.
She might have needed this win even more than I did.
I headed over toward Henry and the large picture window that overlooked the loch and the mountains behind it.
The landscape matched the colors of the shop we’d visited the other day.
Browns, heathers, and greens. I’d never taken much notice of the landscape when the boys and I had come up when we were teenagers.
Yeah, we liked the views, but we’d been focused on the goal of getting to the top of the mountain, the end of the trail, and our gold award.
I wasn’t sure I’d appreciated everything that got me to that point.
“Henry,” I said as he turned away from the window. “You taking in this fantastic view?”
“I certainly am. I’ve been coming up here most of my life, but it still holds my attention.”
“I was eighteen on my first trip up here. Before I’d started my first business, before I knew what I was going to do with my life. But nothing’s changed.”
“And we can take comfort in that.”
Though I’d rather chat to Henry than most of the other people here, I didn’t want to just make small talk with him.
“I’ve put together a pack of papers to send you on email if you have an address,” I said.
I pulled out my phone as Henry relayed his address to me and I typed it in.
I’d made sure that the lawyers had everything ready, so if Henry was so minded, he could sign everything and get the deal done right away.
Not that I was expecting him to do that. I just didn’t want there to be any reason from my end why the deal wasn’t signature ready.
“Okay, I’ve sent that across to you,” I said, tucking the phone back in my pocket.
“I’ll take a look. But give me a little background, why do you want the property?” Henry asked.
I tried to swallow down the lump that formed in my throat that appeared every time I thought about my mother and the way she was treated. “I think I mentioned that I own others in the block. I want to make it the premier residential site in Mayfair.”
“So a complete transformation of the entire block?”
“Exactly.” I nodded.
“That property has held our family name since it was built in the mid-eighteenth century. Even if I was to sell, I’d want that name retained in relation to the building.”
Despite being related by blood, I’d never borne the Dawnay name. It had never been an option for me, having been disowned by my father. I was damn sure that as soon as I bought the building, its name would be the first thing to go.
I didn’t need constant reminders of who I wasn’t.
“The entire block will be one large complex that will have a brand-new name,” I said.
“Well perhaps you can work the Dawnay name into a wing or something?” Henry asked.
“I’d definitely look at doing something,” I replied, deliberately being noncommittal.
“We’d have to agree on what exactly it was that would carry the name,” Henry said. “Perhaps a plaque in the lobby explaining the family connection would work?”
Over my dead body.
“What do you think?” Henry continued.
“You want this incorporated into the contract?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Henry replied. “Selling the building is not . . . Liquidating assets is not something I generally like to do. And that building has been part of our family estate for generations.”
I could tell him, explain how I might not have the Dawnay name but I had the Dawnay blood in my veins.
But there was no way I’d use my connection to my biological father to get anything in my life. He’d never given anything to me. And I wasn’t going to take anything. I’d worked hard for everything I’d ever had and that wasn’t about to change.
“I understand that it might be easier to transfer it to a family member. But in my experience, Henry—and forgive me if I speak out of turn—sometimes family members aren’t the best people to take care of a property like the Dawnay building.
I want to tend to it, nurture it—bring it to life for another generation.
” I glanced over at Stella, maybe hoping to feel some of the confidence she had in me and recharge myself.
This was clearly important to Henry, and I didn’t want to misstep.
She was facing me, but she wasn’t talking to Florence. Stella’s head was bowed and her eyes were fixed on the floor as she spoke to a man whose back was to me. It almost looked like she was going to cry. Was it Gordy speaking to her?
Before I could figure out who was with her, Henry replied. “I see what you’re saying but—and you’ll have to forgive me this time if I speak out of turn—I don’t know you. I’m sure you’re a completely honest person who does what they say they’ll do . . .”
My attention should have been one hundred percent focused on Henry, but all I could see was the way Stella flinched when the man she was standing with tried to grab her wrist.
“Is that Matt with Stella?” I asked without thinking. I was interrupting when Henry should have all my attention.
“I believe so,” Henry replied.
What the fuck was he doing, grabbing her? She took a step back and then he stepped toward her, menacing and threatening, and his voice was starting to increase in volume.
I half stood, hovering over my chair. Should I go over there? Stella wasn’t mine to protect, but she didn’t deserve anything Matt was dishing out.
I should be closing this deal with Henry, fulfilling a lifetime’s ambition but— “Henry, I’m sorry, but please excuse me.”
All I could think about was making sure that Matt had hurt Stella for the last time. He didn’t deserve her time, her conversation, or anymore of her tears.
I might have walked away from closing a deal I’d been working toward my entire life.
But some things were more important.
I’d never moved so quickly, and my hand was on the small of Stella’s back in a second. Two at the most. She gasped as I touched her, and when she looked up at me, I saw a sadness in her eyes that I remembered from the first time we’d ever met.
I glanced at Matt. He’d done that.
I wanted to kill him. But I’d made Stella a promise that I wouldn’t even say anything to Matt, not hold him to account or tell him how worthless he was for treating a woman so valuable with such contempt—let alone bury him.
It was a good job that a promise to Stella overrode my desire to give Matt what was coming to him.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak to my girlfriend,” I said, and with that I led Stella out of the room.
Away from the man who’d thrown her aside.
Away from the man who stood between me and the Dawnay building, and the ending I so desperately wanted.