5. Edward #2
Again. This time, the name on the screen made my blood pressure spike. Sir Malcolm Pemberton. Partner. Mentor. And the man currently orchestrating the acquisition that would destroy everything Lili had built in London.
"I need to take this." I stepped away from the group, answering with my most professional tone. "Malcolm."
"Edward. Excellent. I'm calling about the Gardens & Home situation. The board's decided to accelerate everything. Final presentation is Wednesday, acquisition complete next Friday." Malcolm's satisfaction was audible. "The Americans are eager to cut their losses on the London venture."
I watched Lili gesture enthusiastically as she described something to Daphne, completely unaware that her professional execution date had just been signed.
"Edward? I noticed Miss Anderton's name on the employee roster. Thought you should know about any potential awkwardness. Family friend and all."
"How did you—"
"Due diligence, Edward. I do my research. Don't worry—these things handle themselves. One week post-acquisition, the UK operation will be history."
A week. Lili would have a week before everything she'd worked for disappeared after the acquisition.
"I understand."
"Good. I'll need those final reports by Tuesday morning. And Edward? Don't let personal feelings cloud your judgment. Business is business."
The line went dead. I stared at the phone, feeling the weight of what I'd just learned settling on my shoulders like a lead blanket.
I rejoined the group only to find out Daphne and Lili had left.
"Bad news?" James had appeared beside me, his expression unusually serious.
"Something like that."
He studied my face with the practiced eye of someone who'd known me since Oxford. "This wouldn't happen to involve a certain acquisition, would it?"
I didn't answer, but that was answer enough. James was not only my best friend but also worked at Pemberton & Association.
"Christ." James ran a hand through his sandy hair. "The shopping channel?"
"Next Friday."
"And Lili?"
"Doesn't know."
James glanced back toward the door, "This is why you've been avoiding her."
"One of many reasons."
"Edward..." James's voice carried a warning I'd learned to heed over the years. "Whatever you're thinking of doing—"
"I'm not thinking of doing anything. I'm showing her around London tomorrow, as agreed. Nothing more."
"Right." James's tone suggested he believed me about as much as I believed myself. "Well, I'd better go charm the ladies before they start wondering what's keeping us."
As we rejoined the girls in the garden, I caught Daphne watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read.
When she saw my attention on her, she smiled brightly—too brightly.
"So it's settled then?" she asked. "Edward will show Lili around tomorrow?"
"It's settled."
"Wonderful." That mysterious smile again. "I'm sure you'll both have a lovely time."
As James launched into another outrageous story, I noticed Daphne step aside and pull out her phone.
Her face went white as a sheet when she saw the caller ID.
She spoke in low, urgent tones, her body language suggesting this wasn't a social call.
When she caught me watching, she quickly ended the conversation and rejoined us, but her earlier excitement had been replaced by something that looked almost like relief.
"Everything alright?" I asked.
"Oh, perfectly fine. Just confirming some arrangements." She waved dismissively, but I caught the slight tremor in her hands.
The afternoon progressed with its usual chaos of James's stories, Daphne's schemes, and Lili's laughter.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that there were undercurrents here I wasn't seeing.
Something in the way Daphne kept glancing at her phone, the calculating looks she shot between Lili and me, and the mysterious phone call she thought I hadn't noticed.
I thought about Mother's warnings, about duty and family legacy. About the acquisition that would make us richer while destroying Lili's dreams. About how her laugh this morning had sounded like music I'd never heard before but somehow always knew.
This was insanity.
She was Daphne's best friend. She worked for a company I was about to obliterate. She represented everything that should be simple in my ordered world but somehow made everything impossibly complicated.
And yet, when she smiled, none of that seemed to matter.
By evening, as James prepared to leave and Daphne announced her plans for dinner at the Royal Opera, I found myself alone with Lili on the terrace.
The setting sun painted everything golden. Her hair seemed to glow like a halo.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For agreeing to the tour tomorrow."
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing to me." She hesitated, then added, "I know you've been busy. Working. I understand if this is an obligation rather than something you want to do."
The word 'want' hung between us, loaded with meaning.
I wanted to touch her face, to tell her that showing her London was the only thing I'd wanted to do since the moment she'd stepped into my world. I wanted to confess everything—the acquisition, the timeline, the impossible choice I was facing between duty and desire.
Instead, I said, "I'll see you tomorrow morning. Ten sharp."
"Ten sharp," she echoed, and there was something in her eyes that told me she was fighting the same battle I was.
As I watched her walk back toward the blue suite, James appeared beside me again.
"Well," he said thoughtfully, "that was enlightening."
"How so?"
"Your sister," James continued thoughtfully, "seemed almost relieved when you agreed. Not her usual matchmaking triumph. More like she'd just defused a bomb."
I turned to study his expression. "What do you mean?"
"I mean Daphne's many things, but subtle isn't usually one of them. Tonight felt different. More desperate. Like she needed this to happen, not just wanted it." He paused. "That phone call she took? She went white as a sheet when she saw the caller ID."
The pieces clicked with sickening clarity. Daphne's unusual insistence. Her mysterious phone call. Her relief when I'd agreed to the tour.
"What aren't you telling me?" I asked.
James's smile was grim. "That's exactly what I intend to find out."
As he drove away, leaving Daphne already gone for her evening plans, I stood alone on the terrace, staring at the closed door of Lili's guest suite.
Tomorrow, I'd be with her for the first time since that charged encounter in the hallway. No Daphne to interrupt. No servants to maintain propriety.
Just the three of us and a city full of possibilities.
The smart thing would be to keep it strictly professional. Show her the Tower Bridge, the British Museum, maybe a brief walk through Hyde Park. Safe, public places where the only tension would be the kind I could ignore.
But as I thought about her smile, and the way she'd looked at me when I'd agreed to the tour, I knew I was already in far too deep to play it safe.
Next Friday was coming. The acquisition would proceed as planned. Lili's world would crumble, and I would be the one holding the executioner's axe.
The least I could do—the most I dared to do—was give her one perfect day in London before everything fell apart.
Even if it destroyed us both.