She ignored him, holding out the treasure. I set down my cup and took it, staring at the pretty teenager, her hair up in a ponytail and her smile bright. It was so clearly Dixie yet different enough if you didn’t know the connection. Kane had made it already. But to have this felt important, like the little elephant of hers still in my room.
I wanted to ask a hundred questions at once. Why Primrose had never tried to contact Kane before. Why she’d never told the three siblings about each other. Why Mila had never lived in this house despite being raised as their heir. The pictures, the offer, from expecting nothing, I was in danger of information overload.
Abruptly, Kane stood. “Thank you for your time.”
His grandmother put down her teacup. “You’re leaving.”
“We are.”
She rose, small and neat. Wallace steadied the chair without being asked.
“I am old. I want to step into my last years with clean hands. If you are determined to keep the doors open, you will do it without my blessing. If you close them, I will help you pay the locksmith.”
The uncle went to the door and held it open for us. Remembering a polite goodbye, I skittered after Kane who stalked out without a backwards glance.
At the mansion’s front door, Wallace paused us on the wide entryway step. “I should say that Mother’s generous offer is directly against her husband’s wishes. And that of the family.”
Kane heaved in a deep breath. In the fresh air, he stood taller. Perhaps felt freer than in that closed, tight environment. “Meaning what?”
“We still haven’t read the will, so I don’t know.”
Mila had told me the will reading had been abandoned. It couldn’t be read until all those named in it were present.
Kane shook his head and directed me back to the car. They might not know, but we could guess. Either way, I had more information on Kane than ever before. I had everything I wanted, and I’d do whatever I could to help.
Chapter 35
Kane
In my passenger seat, Lovelyn shook out her hands. “That was intense.”
Wind whipped by my open window, the afternoon turning into early evening, the cold air filling my lungs where I’d been lacking oxygen. “She wasn’t what I was expecting. When I saw her at the will reading, she’d been an ice queen.”
“There’s no doubt that she knew her husband was doing something bad, is there?”
I shook my head. “It will break Mila’s heart. She idolised the man.”
Lovelyn went quiet for a moment, leaving me with thoughts rattling around my head. I couldn’t catch onto one.
“I felt sorry for her. She looks so small and alone.”
I didn’t know where I landed on that front. “Alone yet all-powerful. She knew more about me than I thought possible.”
“I’m…sorry your mum is ill.”
I strangled the steering wheel with my hands, my heart beating too fast. I hadn’t talked about my mother with anyone. Not my sister, not anyone at the warehouse or in previous jobs. It was hard to break the habit of a lifetime. “So am I. I can’t…”
“I know. Can I summarise what I think I heard?”
“Go for it.”
“Marchant Haulage has been paying out money to all kinds of family dependents including your mother. That paid for her care, which you supplemented by what you’ve earned with these.”
She reached and brushed over my knuckles.
I caught her hand in mine, my pulse thundering.
Lovelyn took an audible breath. “Since the company went on hold, you’ve been fighting to get the payments resumed, otherwise what, her care will end? Or be downgraded?”
