'Are you okay?' I ask.
'Yes,' she says, her voice sounding strong. 'It's just dinner with your brother. I've been through worse in that house.’
I blanch but she just lets out a quiet chuckle. 'But not by much.’
I side-eye her and wonder how to broach the issue between her and Blake. I decide to be direct instead of tactful.
‘What is going on with you and Blake?’ I ask her straight.
She lets out a breath. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I just noticed you’re sort of ignoring him.’
She shrugs and then finally looks at me. ‘He did something, and he hasn’t spoken to me about it, and he hasn’t apologized.’
‘What did he do?’
She doesn’t answer.
Chapter Eleven
Daisy
Iwalk slowly up the steps of the Novelle house with Shade at my back. My heart is racing, even though I'm telling myself I’m fine in my head on repeat.
Everything is okay.
John is dead. Joe is dead. Joseph is dead. But still I swallow hard as the door opens and a man I don't recognize ushers me into the house.
He doesn't say a word, and the fact that Stevens isn't at the door is a stark reminder that my friend and ally no longer works here.
The house looks exactly the same other than the difference in butler, and we're led into John's old office at the back of the house overlooking the tiered gardens and the hedges. In the office, the metronome is still on the shelf, but without John here to fuck with me, it’s still and silent.
Andrew sits at the desk looking like a young John Novelle, his light hair slicked back and suit crisp. When the butler announces our entrance, he looks up and flashes me an award-winning smile.
'Oh, you're here. Thanks forcoming.'
He stands up and nods at Shade.
'Jack.'
Shade nods back. 'Andy.'
Andrew sighs. 'Look, I'm sorry about all that lawyer stuff, but the way Pop wanted it is the way Pop wanted it. I have to accede to his wishes. You understand.'
'I understand,' Shade says somewhat tightly, 'but what I don't understand is why you pulled funding from Maverick Shaw's project at the Novelle Center at Richmond U.'
'That's just business,' Andrew says lightly. 'I'm going through the numbers, and I'm shuffling the expenses off that don't align with the Novelle goals.'
'Which are?' Shade probes.
Andrew just gives us both a tight smile.
'You'll see soon enough,' he says cryptically. 'But to be honest, brother, it's not really any of your concern, is it? You never wanted this. You should be happy I’m prepared to take the reins… I literally went to school for this, after all.'
Shade snorts.
I'm just about to go and sit down, even though I don't really want to, when the door opens behind me again and the butler, who looks sort of like Lurch fromThe Addams Familynow that I really look at him with his thin, tall build and vacant expression, stands in the doorway.
