Ethan tensed, ready to act if necessary, but the man strode back to his car, and a moment later he backed it down the track and out of sight.
Ethan exhaled.Could he get closer without being spotted?Johann wasn’t a man used to being told no, and Ethan didn’t want him near Chelsea, particularly when he believed she was alone.
Hearing the gate squeak, Ethan crouch-ran over to the house.Chelsea wouldn’t spot him through the ground-floor windows if she was going to the front door.He moved along the wall, waiting until Johann climbed the front steps before he got into position at the corner.
“I must apologise again for my impertinence,” Johann said.“I didn’t realise you were here.”
Ethan rolled his eyes.Not much in the way of apology.
“I assume Sabine has spoken to you about my proposition?”
“Mum mentioned someone was interested in buying, but that’s all I know,” Chelsea replied.
“What a mix-up.My colleague didn’t mention the property was jointly owned.”
A pause.“Mum won’t sell unless I agree to it,” Chelsea said.
“Ah, then Sabineisthe sole owner?”Johann’s smug tone made Ethan clench his hands.
Another pause.“That is correct.”
“Perhaps she hasn’t shared the negotiations with you because she thought you’d object,” Johann continued, confidence returning in every word.
Ethan wanted to shove Johann’s glee down his throat.How dare he belittle Chelsea?But perhaps her relationship with her mother wasn’t as close as it once had been.
“Don’t presume you know about my relationship with my mother.”Though Chelsea’s words were firm, there was a hint of a waver in them.
Ethan exhaled, willing himself to calm.
“I’ve had a long day.If you access this property again without permission, I will call the police.”The door shut, a double thud as Chelsea hip-bumped it closed.
Ethan bit back his cheer and watched Johann stalk down the stairs back to his car.He’d played his cards badly.The man didn’t know how close Chelsea and her mum were… or at least they had been.
Maybe time had changed that.
But one thing he knew, Chelsea wasn’t giving up Lilydale without a fight.
And he’d do what he could to help her.
***
Chelsea stalked away from the door, her throat tight and hands shaking.The nerve of the man.She fought the urge to scream as doubts assailed her.
Surely her mother wouldn’t sell Lilydale without Chelsea’s approval.
If Johann had spoken to her stepfather, then there was every possibility Ezra had implied they would sell.He wasn’t a sentimental man, particularly not in relation to things which mattered to her, or if it was a way to earn more money.
She squeezed her eyes closed to stop the tears.
When her mother had first started dating him, Chelsea had hoped he would become the father she’d never had, but he hadn’t been interested in a teenaged child who would be an adult soon.He’d tried to send her to boarding school, but her mother had put her foot down, so he’d had to wait a couple of years until she went to university and then he’d paid for her to stay at one of the colleges.Her mother thought it would be a wonderful experience for her, but Chelsea had known Ezra wanted her out of the house, particularly with her mother pregnant with his first child.
She knew when she wasn’t wanted.
But she also recognised Ezra and Sabine adored each other and she wasn’t impeding her mother finding happiness.
Old hurts battered to get out, but she kept them caged as she took three deep breaths and walked into the kitchen for a glass of water, relieved they had kept all the utilities on.
She reached for a metal cup with a sailboat on the side from the top kitchen cabinet and paused.The metal cups had been for children, because they were childproof and Aunt Maggie hadn’t wanted the risk of broken glass around the house and garden.
