Thirty-four
Nick uttered a long string of profanities that he hadn’t heard or used since his days in the army and thumped his steering wheel with enough force that a shot of pain raced up his hand into his forearm and made him swear again.
He was exhausted. Not in a physical way, but emotionally. He felt empty, drained of every emotion, and he was pretty sure he’d been through them all: shock, denial, anger, outrage, betrayal and everything in between. It was like he was trapped in some weird reality TV show—likeJerry SpringermeetsBad Momsor something equally as crazy. This couldn’t be really happening. His sister was his …mother? God, even thinking the words made him want to cringe. How was this even possible?
He’d gone back to the pub after leaving Jenny’s house and packed an overnight bag. Left instructions for Cassie to hold down the fort for a few days, and started driving. Hethought about how many people had lied to him through his life. His parents—no, they were really hisgrandparents. He rubbed a hand across his tired face. He couldn’t even deal with this right now. He just wanted to sleep. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to—not without Jenny beside him. He never slept the long, peaceful, deep kind of sleep he slept with her if she wasn’t there.
His mood darkened even more. She’d known. She’d found out Susie’s secret and she hadn’t told him.
It was that part he hated the most. Everyone he’d ever loved had lied to him—had known the truth and never said a word. He was the only one who hadn’t been in on the joke. It hurt. Even Jenny had been in on it. Maybe not to the extent of his parents and Susie, but right now, when he was still so angry and hurt, the fact she’d been hiding this secret felt like a betrayal.
The highway signs flashed past but they barely registered. Driving in his condition, fuelled only by anger and caffeine, probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but he needed to confront Susie face to face. This wasn’t something he could do over the phone. He had no idea what he was going to say to her, but he’d use the hours of empty driving to figure something out—or at the very least calm down a bit.
It was going to take a long time before he was anywhere near calm again.
Twelve hours almost to the dot later, Nick leaned out his car window and pressed the intercom button at the front gatesof Susie’s posh house in Toorak and waited. He rubbed his hands across his face and felt the stubble under his palms. He could only imagine what he looked like: blood-shot eyes, unshaven and still in the same clothes he’d been wearing the day before. He didn’t care about any of it. All he cared about was making Susie look him in the eye and tell him the truth.
He pressed the buzzer again and glared up at the security camera impatiently. If she was in there, she would more than likely already know why he was here.
He kept jabbing at the button until the loud click of the front gate sounded. He watched the large gates glide open with a low mechanical whirr and withdrew his hand from the button to drive through.
He’d only been here once before, and that was when Susie had first moved back from overseas after Gino died. He ignored the long winding lane lined with an impeccably kept hedge bordering a lawn that most bowling green groundskeepers would envy and pulled up in the circular driveway. A wide stone staircase led into the twelve-bedroom, ivy-covered, English manor–style home.
As he reached the top of the steps, the door opened and Susie stood there, watching him warily, but also with a kind of resigned defeat that somehow made her look older, more frail than he ever recalled seeing her. Wordlessly, she turned and led the way inside.
Her heels click-clacked across the black and white checked tiles of the large entry into which his entire bedroom, bathroom and possibly office space could have fitted. He followedher through a set of tall doors into a luxurious sitting room that overlooked the garden and pond outside.
‘Drink?’ she asked, going to a sideboard. She reached for a crystal decanter containing an amber-coloured liquid.
‘No, thanks. I’m guessing you know what I’m here for?’ he said after she filled a square glass and took a seat on one of the elegant cream couches.
‘To take me up on that offer of a job?’ she asked, kinking an eyebrow almost lazily.
‘Enough!’ Nick yelled.
Susie startled and spilled some of her drink. He was relieved to see she’d at least lost that smartarse, cold exterior he’d always detested.
‘No more of these sick, twisted games, Susie. Tell. Me. The. Truth.’
‘I’m surprised it took you this long to get here. I suppose perfect Jenny couldn’t wait to tell you all about it as soon as I left.’
‘I didn’t hear it from Jenny,’ he said stiffly and saw the news surprised her.
‘So who told you? Oh. Let me guess … Sharon,’ she said darkly.
‘I want to hear the truth from you.’
‘No doubt you’ve already heard the whole story.’
‘I want you to tell me.’
‘I don’t see what the point is when you aren’t going to like it …’
‘Tell me, Susie! At least have the decency to explain what you did to my face. You left me on the doorstep of a bunchof strangers and then pretended to be my sister my entire life—who the hell does something like that?Whywould you have done something like that?’
‘Because I wanted more from my life than to be some teenage mother living on the dole,’ she snapped. ‘Is that what you wanted to hear?’
‘I just want to hear the truth.’
