“Yes! You don’t get to call me that right now.”
“What doesJoeyget to call you?”
I hang up, fuming at the infuriating idiot. My phone starts to ring instantly, and I decline the call, then I turn it off and drop it onto the bedside table.
Sitting up, I note how empty the room is, and I wonder if he cleared it or Scarlet. Either way, it’s as cold as he is right now.
I poke my head around the sitting-room door, finding Anthony sat up in a chair watching a rugby game on television. “‘Morning!” I smile, stepping into the room. “I’m off now, but thank you for having me.”
“Of course, give me a second.” He stands and rounds the sofa.
Leaning down, he pulls me into a hug. “Don’t give him too much hell, love. He doesn’t mean it.” He winks as if he knows his son is a complete asshole.
“Maybe,” I mumble, rolling my eyes and giving him a smirk.
“Is Scarlet driving you home?”
“Yes. Thank you again for having me. This place is a dream.”
He smiles thoughtfully down at me. “You’re always welcome here, love, with or without Mason.”
“Well, I promise the next time I come out, I’ll bring him with me.”
“I’d like that.” He nods.
The studio is awful.
It barely looks like the pictures, and the work that needs doing to it to fix it up is colossal. I’d never afford it. Maggie is being her super polite self and entertaining the salesperson. I wish I could be so classy, but I zoned out twenty minutes ago. Disappointment fills me, knowing I will have to keep looking.
I just need a room, close to the city and at a reasonable rate, it doesn’t even have to be fancy, but water leaks and broken floorboards? This place is borderline dangerous.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I look down, noticing a number I don’t know.
“Hello?”
“Miss Anderson? Nina?”
“Speaking?”
Please be a potential studio.
Please be a potential studio.
“My name is George. I work for Mr Lowell—Mason.”
“Oh, hi.” I frown, and then my stomach drops. “What’s wrong?”
“Elliot asked that I called. Mason has just left for Lowerwick Estate.” I close my eyes, panic making my legs sway. “Mr Lowell, not Mason, Mr Lowell senior. He has been taken unwell.”
“Oh, god, which hospital?”
“I don’t think they’ve gone, the doctor was coming to him.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. That’s good. If it were serious, they would take him to the hospital.
“Would you like to go? To the estate?” George asks.
“Uh,” I pause.Would Mason want me to be there?“No, that’s fine. I’ll make my way over later this evening, thank you, though.”
