I sat there, processing it all. Beyond all of the pain I felt, both physical and emotional, I felt proud of us. We’d been tested and we’d made it. We hadn’t turned on each other like she’d wanted. He’d trusted I didn’t want him for his money and I’d trusted he wasn’t going to abandon me. In spite of everything, I found myself smiling.
Elliot's phone buzzed and he pulled it out, glanced at Alfie, then left the room. Ada passed him in the doorway, returning with a breakfast tray of tea and muffins in the packaging from Rosie’s. He’d sent for them especially. Of course he had.
“You still haven’t told me why Grace is here. Don’t tell me it was just to give me a syngonium.”
“I’m here for the same reason that I’m guessing Elliot just left the room,” Grace said. “I believe my mother just arrived.”
I stared at Alfie. “Carolyn is cominghere?” I suddenly felt very territorial. Harrington was my safe place and I didn’t want her in it.
“Yes, I had to bring her here. The alternative was London and I’m not leaving you. She thinks you and I have separated and I’ve invited her here for a tour of the grounds.”
“What are you going to do? Are the police coming? Are you having her arrested?”
“That’s not how our circle does things,” Grace said.
I felt like I was upside down. None of the rules of real life applied here.
Alfie turned to me, lowering his voice. “Lo, I would like you to go back to your room. I don’t want you to face her.”
“And I won’t let you face her alone. I’m not going anywhere.”
Ada set about serving tea as we sat in pained silence. Grace looked off to the side, her gaze resting on the empty space beside her on the couch. I wondered if she wished her husband was here to support her the way Alfie had me.
Carolyn Tell entered the room, poised and graceful. Her eyes sharpened when they landed on me. Ada stood behind me, her hand resting on my shoulder.
“Darling, I wasn’t aware we’d have company. I expected aprivatetour.” She moved to sit next to Grace but Alfie held up a hand.
“Don’t sit down. You can stand until I’m finished with you.”
“Until you’re finished with me?” she laughed. Nobody laughed with her. I noticed that she didn’t ask about my bruises, she didn’t seem surprised by the wheelchair. She knew what had happened to me and just like that, I connected the dots. She’d been a part of it. Not just the photos or the stealing, she had connected with my fathers past too and exploited it.
“Carolyn, I need to inform you of your new position moving forward. From here on your access to myself and the Tell Company are over. You may keep your property and whatever is in your personal accounts, I believe you have more than enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life but you will no longer be a part of mine.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
I stared at the man I loved as he confronted one of his biggest ghosts, the woman who had taught him he wasn’t worthy of love.
“I know what you’ve done. I know that you tried to manipulate me into believing Lola had stolen from me, I knowthat you tried to manipulate her into believing I’d cheated on her. I know that you worked with Julia Whitmore to obtain photos to frighten Lola away from me and I know that you’ve exploited her fathers connection to the Berne family to put Lola in danger.”
Julia Whitmore. I knew it. I fucking knew it. I wanted to ask how Alfie had found out but I stayed silent.
“I know that you facilitated her attack.”
“That’s not true!” she protested but again, Alfie held up a hand, quieting her. Like a puppet, she obeyed, as I’m she she had once obeyed her husband.
“Carolyn, we’ve already spoken with the Berne family. You instructed them that they were free to beat Lola, rape her if they felt like it. In your exact words; ‘the more ruined she is the less he’ll want her.’” Alfie had grown very still, his grey gaze never moving from his mother for a second. “Your lack of understanding of what it is to be loved means that you grossly underestimated my love for this woman.”
Carolyn was shaking her head. “Please, let us speak in private.”
“I will speak with you however I see fit and you will be quiet about it.”
I winced, Grace did too. I wondered how many times she’d heard her father speak that way.
“Alfie, I just tried to show you what kind of people she comes from. Her father is a criminal for goodness sake!”
“As was mine. As are you. You tried to frame her for theft.”
“I just wanted you to see what kind of person she is!”
