Chapter 37 #2
I sat there, processing it all. Beyond all of the pain I felt, both physical and emotional, I felt proud of us.
We’d been tested and we’d made it. We hadn’t turned on each other like she’d wanted.
He’d trusted I didn’t want him for his money and I’d trusted he wasn’t going to abandon me.
In spite of everything, I found myself smiling.
Elliot's phone buzzed and he pulled it out, glanced at Alfie, then left the room. Ada passed him in the doorway, returning with a breakfast tray of tea and muffins in the packaging from Rosie’s. He’d sent for them especially. Of course he had.
“You still haven’t told me why Grace is here. Don’t tell me it was just to give me a syngonium.”
“I’m here for the same reason that I’m guessing Elliot just left the room,” Grace said. “I believe my mother just arrived.”
I stared at Alfie. “Carolyn is coming here?” I suddenly felt very territorial. Harrington was my safe place and I didn’t want her in it.
“Yes, I had to bring her here. The alternative was London and I’m not leaving you. She thinks you and I have separated and I’ve invited her here for a tour of the grounds.”
“What are you going to do? Are the police coming? Are you having her arrested?”
“That’s not how our circle does things,” Grace said.
I felt like I was upside down. None of the rules of real life applied here.
Alfie turned to me, lowering his voice. “Lo, I would like you to go back to your room. I don’t want you to face her.”
“And I won’t let you face her alone. I’m not going anywhere.”
Ada set about serving tea as we sat in pained silence. Grace looked off to the side, her gaze resting on the empty space beside her on the couch. I wondered if she wished her husband was here to support her the way Alfie had me.
Carolyn Tell entered the room, poised and graceful. Her eyes sharpened when they landed on me. Ada stood behind me, her hand resting on my shoulder.
“Darling, I wasn’t aware we’d have company. I expected a private tour.” She moved to sit next to Grace but Alfie held up a hand.
“Don’t sit down. You can stand until I’m finished with you.”
“Until you’re finished with me?” she laughed.
Nobody laughed with her. I noticed that she didn’t ask about my bruises, she didn’t seem surprised by the wheelchair.
She knew what had happened to me and just like that, I connected the dots.
She’d been a part of it. Not just the photos or the stealing, she had connected with my fathers past too and exploited it.
“Carolyn, I need to inform you of your new position moving forward. From here on your access to myself and the Tell Company are over. You may keep your property and whatever is in your personal accounts, I believe you have more than enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life but you will no longer be a part of mine.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
I stared at the man I loved as he confronted one of his biggest ghosts, the woman who had taught him he wasn’t worthy of love.
“I know what you’ve done. I know that you tried to manipulate me into believing Lola had stolen from me, I know that you tried to manipulate her into believing I’d cheated on her.
I know that you worked with Julia Whitmore to obtain photos to frighten Lola away from me and I know that you’ve exploited her fathers connection to the Berne family to put Lola in danger. ”
Julia Whitmore. I knew it. I fucking knew it. I wanted to ask how Alfie had found out but I stayed silent.
“I know that you facilitated her attack.”
“That’s not true!” she protested but again, Alfie held up a hand, quieting her. Like a puppet, she obeyed, as I’m she she had once obeyed her husband.
“Carolyn, we’ve already spoken with the Berne family.
You instructed them that they were free to beat Lola, rape her if they felt like it.
In your exact words; ‘the more ruined she is the less he’ll want her.
’” Alfie had grown very still, his grey gaze never moving from his mother for a second.
“Your lack of understanding of what it is to be loved means that you grossly underestimated my love for this woman.”
Carolyn was shaking her head. “Please, let us speak in private.”
“I will speak with you however I see fit and you will be quiet about it.”
I winced, Grace did too. I wondered how many times she’d heard her father speak that way.
“Alfie, I just tried to show you what kind of people she comes from. Her father is a criminal for goodness sake!”
“As was mine. As are you. You tried to frame her for theft.”
“I just wanted you to see what kind of person she is!”
“All you did was show me what kind of person you are. You are the one who would have run away at the first sign of trouble, who would have taken money without question just as you did when my father was alive. You never cared how many people he screwed over as long as you got to stay comfortable. I’ve kept you in that comfort ever since his death but I’m done with that now. ”
Her eyes narrowed. Pleading and playing innocent hadn’t worked, I guess she was changing tactics. “You can’t do this.”
“Bad idea to tell Alfie Tell what he can’t do,” I said. Carolyn Tell was lucky I wasn’t strong enough to hit her. “You tried to set me up, you vicious bitch.”
“I was just speeding up the process. You wanted the money anyway, I just gave it to you sooner.”
Before I could argue that I didn’t give a damn about the money, Alfie interrupted me. “On that note, I’ve had a prenuptial agreement drawn up.” Elliot was already pulling a document out of a desk drawer and passed it to Alfie. “You may read it if you wish.” He handed the document to Carolyn.
What about me? Didn’t I get to read it?
Her eyes widened, her fingers tightening into fists, crushing the papers. “You can’t be serious. How dare you? You can’t give everything to her!” She threw the papers at me and Ada scooped them up, passing them to me. I scanned them while tension bubbled around me.
I gained everything if I ended the marriage. That was the agreement. If I walked away, I got everything Alfie owned. I would never sign this. He had to know that.
“The money you stole is being transferred to Lola’s real account. It’s hers to do with as she wishes,” Alfie continued while his mother seethed. “As for the company itself, I’m leaving. I’m sitting down with the board over the coming weeks to arrange the transfer. I’m done.”
My mouth fell open, tears filled my eyes. Grace seemed stunned too.
“I will not live in your shadow or the shadow of ghosts any longer.”
“I won’t allow it,” Carolyn snapped, desperation lacing her words. “I’ll tell the press everything about you!”
“That’s not how our circle does things,” Grace said softly. No police and no press. I guess those were the rules.
“I’ll ruin you! The things I know about you—”
“What do you know, Carolyn?” he said, his voice unnervingly calm. “That I killed my brother? That I let my father die? I’m not sorry anymore.”
Her rage landed on me. “You…” She couldn’t even finish her sentence, she was so angry.
“Me? What the fuck did I do other than love your son?” Her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
Confrontation and consequences, this woman had gone too long without experiencing either.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? You aren't scared I’m going to steal his money.
You’re scared I’m going to make him happy and you don’t think he deserves it. ”
“He doesn’t deserve it! He ruined everything.” She lunged at him and before I could stop her, Ada landed a punch square on her face.
“Don’t you ever touch him again.” Elliot stood by her side, the two of them between Carolyn and Alfie. They were the only parents Alfie had ever had.
“I suppose you’re finally happy.” She turned on Grace, the first time she’d acknowledged her own daughter. “You know I don’t deserve this.”
“No you don’t,” Grace said, her eyes fixed on the floor, too disgusted to look at her mother. “Alfie has been entirely too generous with you.”
“How can you side with him? He killed your brother!”
“He killed my rapist!” Grace screamed, jumping out of her seat.
The room froze. My breath stuck in my chest. I looked at Alfie who was frighteningly still. He didn’t know. He hadn’t known.
“He didn’t—”
“Don't you dare pretend you didn't know. You knew what Charles was, what he was doing to me just like you knew what he was doing to Alfie. You just didn’t care, you didn’t want to disrupt your perfect life.” Her chest was heaving.
She had been holding this in for a very long time.
“If it was up to me Alfie would throw you off the fucking balcony just like he did to Charles.”
She was shaking. I sat still, feeling like an intruder. Alfie put a hand on her arm and moved her behind him. His demeanor took on a whole new level of menacing.
“Carolyn, you are a worthless woman. You aren't smart enough to be successful or attractive enough to still be valuable. You’ve birthed one rotten child and two that despise you and that is your only legacy. You will never know love or devotion. You’ll never be held.
You will die alone surrounded only by those that you pay to stay close.
You are an empty vessel. A shadow. You are a godless, childless, friendless woman.
You came from nothing and money hasn’t made you anything more than pathetic. ”
She shrunk into herself as he broke her down. This was the Alfie Tell I’d first met.
“This is what my father made me,” he continued.
“This is what he used on others. He was a ruthless bully and I tried to be the same but I’m not.
She showed me that I’m not. The woman that you attacked, that you tried to set up as a thief, that you’ve humiliated.
She makes me watch movies, she’s taught me to laugh, she taught me to fucking cry.
I am nothing like you. Or Joseph. Or Charles. Get out of my sight.”
Her chin shook. She looked around the room, desperately searching for one last card to play, but there was nothing. It was over. She fled, the door slamming shut behind her.
The room somehow felt fuller with her gone. I barely knew this woman and yet I’d felt the oppression of her presence for years. I hadn’t realised it. The weight around Alfie’s neck hadn’t just been his trauma, it had been her.
We were silent. None of us were sure what to do next.
“Elliot, please make sure Carolyn leaves Harrington without issue. Use force if necessary. Ada, take Lola back to her room please.”
“But…” My argument faded as I caught the look in his eye.
“You’ll stay there until I come to you. I don’t want you out of bed again. Do you understand?”
I nodded. The last thing Alfie needed right now was an argument.
“What about me?” Grace asked, her voice shaking from the reveal of her secret. “Do I get marching orders too?”
“You and I are going to have a conversation. You’re going to tell me everything and then I’m going to decide how to punish Carolyn for it.”
It was hours before he came to me. The sun had set, I’d slept and eaten porridge, if only to ease Ada’s mind.
I’d checked in with Natalie and Keira who both wanted to see me but I couldn’t face either of them.
I’d called the hospital to speak to Maia but received only a clipped conversation with Eli.
She was recovering, she would call me when she was ready.
I felt helpless and desperately guilty. It was my fault.
I should never have insisted on going to the school myself.
I found it impossible to relax, to still my mind. My fathers debt was settled. Carolyn was gone. My baby was gone…That was a grief I didn’t know what to do with. How do you grieve something you didn’t even know you’d had?
When Alfie finally came, Ada made a quiet exit. He looked worn, as if he’d aged a decade in a day. I put out my arms and he settled next to me on the bed. Not close enough for my liking but he didn’t want to hurt me.
“Do you need anything?” he asked. “Are you hungry? There’s muffins.”
“I don’t want a muffin.”
“Maybe I should take you back to the hospital. Your injuries are clearly worse than I thought.”
I was grateful for the joke, for the small sign that he was still holding himself together.
“Was it awful?”
“Yes and no.” He was quiet for a moment. “I think I have a sister again.”
“Sisters are a good thing to have.”
“I didn’t know he was hurting her. Carolyn told her that I did and that I didn't care. Charles told her it was my idea.”
I didn’t say what I wanted to say. That Carolyn Tell was a vile, twisted woman. Grace had lived her life apart from Alfie, thinking he was a part of her abuse. He had lived apart from her, thinking she was happy in her ignorance, just like their mother. All of this damage, just for money.
“I should have protected her.”
“In the end you did. You got rid of Charles.”
“I should have protected you.” I didn’t answer, I just held his hand. Nothing I said would make that guilt go away. “We haven’t talked about the baby.”
“I don’t know how to do that right now,” I told him truthfully. He squeezed my hand, silently communicating that we would leave it alone for now. “You’re really leaving the company? You promise?”
“Yes. That’s what I've been working on over the last month. It's why I’ve been busier than usual. Give me a few more weeks and I’ll be free.”
“‘Free.’ That sounds nice.” I wanted to get away from everything.
From what my career might be, from my father, Natalie, his family, everything.
He looked so tired. “Alfie, can you take me away somewhere? We have a few weeks until Natalie’s wedding.
If I’m here she’ll see me and fuss, I don’t want her to worry.
Can we go? Please? Or do you have to stay here for work? ”
“I’ll figure it out. Where do you want to go?”
I thought about it and it didn’t take me long to decide. “How long will it take to get the Isabella here?”