Chapter 10
Ava
An hour later, Owen and I drove down the long winding road to Dianna and Nicholas’s vacation home.
“This is so worth the paperwork,” Owen said excitedly. “I knew we were going to find something here.”
I felt conflicted about our findings. As soon as Owen informed his team of what we had discovered, the FBI would tear the place apart.
I noticed three things when the house came into view. The gardens were absolutely breathtaking. It was wild but contained. It bloomed every colour of the rainbow, in every shape and size. Secondly, I noticed the little welcome sign next to the road as we drove up, and the people milling about.
Welcome to Dianna’s Inn.
The Varons’ vacation home, was now an Inn.
And the last thing I noticed that stole my heart away, was the uncanny similarities between my parents’ house and this one. I still had a vivid memory of Grayson, standing before my house in the middle of the night, looking all kinds of broken.
And now I understood his reaction to it. My childhood home looked almost identical to one of his.
I swallowed back the tears. How was it that there was so much I never knew about him? How was it, that I know more of him now, seeing more of him, after he’d decided he didn’t want me anymore?
I had thought myself lucky that he’d let me into his world. But now I see. He never did. Not with the things that really mattered, anyway.
“Well, fuck,” Owen sighed, staring at the people in the garden, lounging about.
“There might still be something. The place is called Dianna’s Inn.”
Grayson still had some type of connection to it.
Owen’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right.” He took a deep breath before turning to me. “Might as well stay here for the night if you’re up for it?” He looked at me hopefully. “It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to find a secret room or something.”
I nodded. Grayson did love his secrets.
The first thing I saw as we walked into the foyer was the large painting of a little girl, black hair braided back, clutching a pink stuffed bunny to her chest, eyes sparkling.
I recognised her immediately. She looked so much like Grayson.
One of Abby’s front teeth were missing in the painting.
She was beautiful and adorable in her purple satin dress. The real princess.
“Ah, little Miss Varon. Always stealing the show. She’s the first thing everyone notices when they walk in.” The old man at the reception desk smiled at me, his eyes crinkled. “She’s quite the character, even as a painting.”
I smiled warmly at him, my chest squeezing. “You knew her? When she was alive?”
The man’s smile faltered. “You know about Abby, I see. Are you one of those pesky treasure hunters? The red diamond’s not here, I can assure you.”
“No. No,” I tried to reassure him. “I… know her brother.”
The old man narrowed his eyes at me, then Owen. “Grayson Varon? He disappeared the night of his family’s death. No one knows where he is, or if he’s still alive.”
Was he being serious? The ladies at the orphanage were adamant that Grayson had been around just a few years back.
Maybe this man hadn’t been working here for too long, and didn’t know about Grayson.
Or maybe Grayson had warned them to stay quiet about him.
And if that was the case, we would get nothing out of him if he knew Owen were FBI.
I gave Owen a look that I hoped said, play along. Rule number five. We were going to have to bullshit our way through this.
“No, he’s alive and kicking. But I think you know that. I was vacationing with him, Gemma and Hunter in Paris a few months ago, actually.” I looked around the place. “Now, can you tell me where Mister Jeffrey is? Grayson said he’d take good care of us.”
The man behind the counter straightened. “I am Mister Jeffrey. My apologies for being so rude, Miss. We have a lot of people coming here hunting for the missing Crimson Dame diamond.” He shuffled nervously from foot to foot. “I was just trying to protect the Varon family’s privacy.”
I gave him a genuine smile. “Of course. Grayson likes his privacy.” I leaned over the table. “And just between us,” I whispered conspiratorially, “he found the diamond.”
The old man made a chuffed sound, a grin spreading over his face.
“I knew he would!” He hobbled from behind the counter and took my hand in his.
“Any friend of little Grayson is a friend of mine. Now tell me. How long are you staying with us, Miss…? And is Grayson meeting you here?” He looked excited at the prospect of seeing Grayson.
It was strange to see people so enamoured by him.
Then again, I’ve seen him morph into a completely different being when it served his agenda. He could be charming, charismatic and… nice. “I’m Ava and this is Owen. And no, unfortunately not. Grayson is otherwise engaged at the moment.” Trying to be as far away from us as possible.
The man plopped down onto the couch in the foyer and patted the seat next to him. “So tell me, Ava. How is Grayson doing? I haven’t heard from him in almost two years.”
I sat down, catching Owen’s eye. He was burning to bombard the man with questions but had a good poker face. If we played it right, we might get something out of Mister Jeffrey. “He’s doing good. Still gallivanting around the world. You know him well?”
Mister Jeffrey nodded. “Yes, I knew his mother and father. I’ve only met him and his sister a few times when they were little, during summers.
Then a decade later, he showed up here one day.
Out of the blue. A grown man.” He laughed.
“I almost shot him, thinking he was another one of those treasure hunters. I’ve kept them off the property all these years, you see.
And kept Dianna’s garden the way she liked it.
” His smile turned sad. “She was a lovely woman. Had a bit of a crush on her,” he added in a whisper, then chuckled gloomily.
“The garden looks amazing. I know she would be happy seeing other people enjoy it as well.” I could feel it in my bones.
She was proud of this place. “Could you tell me about Abby?” I knew Owen wanted to stomp on my toes for steering the conversation into the wrong direction, but I had to.
“We would love to get to know Grayson’s family better.
They are still such a big part of him, but he doesn’t talk much about them… for obvious reasons.”
Mister Jeffrey nodded. “Of course. Well, Abby was the ray of sunshine in every room. And witty! That girl had an answer to everything. But her favourite person in the whole world was her big brother. She followed him around everywhere, and he hated every second of it.” Mister Jeffrey pointed at an old tree through the door.
“He used to sit up there for hours trying to escape her. She was too small to climb up after him.” He rubbed his hands together, staring at the portrait of Abby.
“He was just a kid, acting like all big brothers at that age. But I know he beats himself up about it.”
I knew it too. Grayson was still fighting so many demons when it came to his family. Did Anderson’s death finally bring him some peace?
Mister Jeffrey clapped his hands together, making me jump. “Enough about that. Why don’t I get you settled in a room?” he said cheerfully.
“Two rooms, please.” Owen talked for the first time. I kind of forgot he was there. Why hadn’t he asked his own questions? He must be drowning in them.
Mister Jeffrey led me up the spiralling staircase while Owen went to grab our bags from his car. The exterior of the house might have had an uncanny resemblance to my family’s home, but it was much, much larger. And the inside was much grander, more luxurious compared to mine.
“This was Abby’s room,” Mister Jeffrey said as he stopped in front of a door, handing me a key.
“I had to upgrade the décor to fit grownups, of course, but I kept the colour scheme. Her favourite colour.” He winked at me.
“Please let me know if you need anything else. And you and your friend should join me for dinner tonight. I live just next door.”
I thanked him and pushed the door open. The whole room was tastefully decorated in varying shades of purple. It was a room fit for a princess.
Owen appeared behind me as Mister Jeffrey wobbled down the stairs.
“Guess whose room I got?” he whispered, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
He pushed the key into the door beside mine and pushed it open.
A room decorated in green. Had that been Grayson’s favourite colour before everything about him turned black?
Dents in the doorframe to Grayson’s room caught my eye.
I knelt before the door. It was painted over, but the notches and writing were still visible underneath.
It was a growth chart of Grayson and Abby.
It made my heart bleed. The last record of Grayson’s height was at nine years old.
The family never made it back to their summer home after Grayson turned ten.
I pictured little Grayson and Abby, standing against the doorframe, grinning and laughing as Dianna took their measurements. Not knowing that it would be their last time. Not knowing what horror awaited them.
“I almost feel sorry for him,” Owen said softly from behind me. “No kid should go through that.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
He huffed a breath. “But that doesn’t excuse what he’s become.”
We had dinner with Mister Jeffrey, but after a whole night of tactful questioning, we didn’t find much else that would lead us to Grayson, except that he had another home somewhere in the Alps.
Owen and I ended up on the dock of the lake, sparring for a few hours, then just sat, staring out over the still water that reflected the moon back in reverence.
Grayson had started to teach me to fight—basic things so I could protect myself against Charles. And after the bloody ordeal at the hotel, Owen had insisted on teaching me more.