I had no clue of the details and when I had tried to discuss it on occasion with my father, he had simply reassured me that if anything ever happened to him, I would be taken care of. He had only been in his forties, relatively young and very fit. This shouldn’t have happened now. I shouldn’t have to think about the plan.
“Well done, Clover, today wasn’t easy but you did him proud.” Gordon offered a half-smile.
I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. Should I acknowledge it in any way, was it appropriate to thank him for what I perceived to be a compliment for having endured and survived the loss of the most important person in my life?
“I might just go to bed.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll make you some cocoa and bring it up.” Zoe pulled me in and gently kissed the top of my head.
The simple sign of compassion and affection was almost my undoing, having held my emotions in check for most of the day, and I couldn’t even consider the huge coincidence of Dom having been here.
So, with a nod, I ran for the stairs and the safety of my bedroom and hoped that tomorrow might feel less dark and heavy. I knew that before I found tomorrow dawning, I was likely to have to survive the night where my dreams would be filled with kisses and sensation, dark eyes that saw through to my very soul and my own torturous body that had found pleasure in sleep every night since my first kiss.
Waking the next morning,I found myself in a place between sleep and consciousness, the place that over the last three weeks had become my favourite place because for just a few seconds my father was alive and the lancing pain of loss and grief weren’t there, and then, in the blink of an eye, they were.
By the time I had showered, dressed and made my way downstairs, breakfast was waiting for me along with Zoe, Gordon and Dom. He looked less upset than he had the day before at the funeral and certainly less perplexed to find the girl from the bar turning up. He was confident and had that aura around him like when we first met. He cut quite the dashing figure; tall, broad, brooding, with his dark hair and eyes. The temptation was to smile at him like I had on that fateful night, but here, in my home, he was a stranger. An attractive stranger, but a stranger nevertheless, very attractive in an older man kind of way, older like my father. Thoughts of my father brought me back to the reason for this man’s presence rather than how handsome he was, or how he’d made me feel, and there were my erotic dreams where he played centre stage.
“Who are you?” I asked with a scowl as he stood to greet me.
He laughed. “We’re going to get along famously, you and I.”
Was that an appropriate response under the circumstances? I didn’t think so, and it irritated me. “Why would we? I don’t know who you are or what you want.” The first part of that wasn’t strictly true, but the latter was. “In fact, up until yesterday, I didn’t know you existed.” Again, not strictly true. “And now, you appear to be everywhere I look.”
“Clover!” Zoe’s chastisement was interrupted diplomatically by Gordon.
“Eat some breakfast, please, and then, we can move into the office or the sitting room and discuss things fully. I will explain who Dominic is.”
Dominic. Well, at least he hadn’t lied about his name so I supposed that was something. I did question if Dominic was his preferred term of address since that was how both Zoe and Gordon addressed him. I pushed away thoughts that he had been more honest than me in that aspect as Elise formed no part of my actual name.
We all sat and ate breakfast, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I watched, observing all that was going on. The three of them chatted about the weather, politics, current affairs, everything except for why Dominic was there. They all seemed at ease with one another, and I wondered if they had met before. Perhaps Dominic visited with my father when I wasn’t around or when he was working away from home, but that still didn’t explain why I had never met him? Was he a bad person, dangerous and that is why I had been shielded from him? My father would have no need or tolerance for a friend who posed any kind of risk, so it couldn’t be that. Perhaps they weren’t friends after all, yet he was here, and I still had unanswered questions that were building into a knot of annoyance in my chest.
The eventsof the last couple of weeks paled when faced with the details of my father’s will. The house, his life insurance, all savings, and everything he owned were now mine. That was no real shock as his only child, however, the real shocker came when the subject of my guardianship was addressed. Although I had told myself that Zoe staying on until I was legally and emotionally able to live independently would be unlikely, it would now be possible. She could act as my guardian and therewas more than enough money to pay for her role, but that was not, and never had been, the plan.
I sat in abject confusion and a little horror as Gordon announced that Dominic was my legal guardian and that all of my father’s estate was to be held in trust until I turned twenty-one. There would be an allowance for me each month so that I would never go without.
Turning to each of them in turn, I saw that I was the only one blindsided by this. Gordon had written up the will and guardianship paperwork, so of course he would know, and presumably Dominic must have agreed to this, and Zoe showed no outward signs of surprise either. So, it was just me having a meltdown, then?
“Why are you here?” I asked Zoe, who surely had no part in these proceedings if she wasn’t going to support my guardianship directly.
She looked taken aback initially. “To make sure you’re okay and I am one of the trustees who will keep your inheritance safe.”
This was beyond surreal now. I looked at Dominic who had yet to speak. “And you? Who the hell are you that my father would trust you with my upbringing and safety? I have never even heard of you.”
“I know this is hard, Clover, but I will explain.” He reached for a box at the side of the sofa and lifted the lid. He passed me photographs of two boys, I recognised one as my father, and then the other, I assumed was Dominic. The same dark brooding eyes, his hair in a typical short back and sides of millions of boys in school photos such as this one. His hair now showed some salt and pepper colouring to the temples unlike the little boy with hair as black as coal. He was such a stark contrast to my father who had been fair with sparkling, pale blue eyes. More photos came of him and my father over the years and then of him asthe best man at my parent’s wedding. I had only ever seen a picture of the two of them, but in this one, it was my parents being flanked by Zoe and Dominic. How could this man have been such an integral part of my father’s life and yet I had never met him until the night he’d kissed me, not that either of us had known who the other was. But surely, he should have known about me? The next photo disputed me having never met him as I saw myself as a baby of a few months in a white gown at my christening, held this time by Zoe while Dominic stood next to her.
“I took the photo,” Gordon chipped in.
“I still don’t understand.”
“You will, I promise, but for now, we need to discuss plans and time frames for leaving.”
“Leaving?”
“Yes, you will come and live with me in the city. I have already enrolled you in school and Zoe has helped to prepare my home for you.” He looked as awkward as I felt. Clearly that night in town was proving as memorable for him as it was for me, but maybe for all the wrong reasons now he knew who I was.
“School? Zoe tutors me.”
