I gave her a playful push, partly to create some much needed distance before I forgot where we were and forced her to carry on, and partly out of my inability to believe that she could truly mean it, that she foundmeirresistible.
Nothing, not even thoughts of confronting Dad shortly, could wipe the silly grin off my face as we waited on Julia for those much-needed papers. Life was truly looking up.
Chapter Fifteen
Acouple of hours later, I returned home alone, paperwork in hand. Emma had some stuff to take care of in town and Dad was due to return that afternoon. I planned to go to him with the evidence and hopefully get him to do the right thing without having to involve the law.
Emma wasn’t so keen on the idea; she didn’t trust him at all, but I had to give him a chance at least. He was still my stepfather. For all his scheming and devious ways, he was the only father figure I had ever known. Involving the law would put him behind bars for sure and I wasn’t ready for that.
No, I would simply show him all that James had given me, make him realize that I knew what I was entitled to and what my mother’s wishes had been. He wouldn’t be able to deny any of it and would have no choice but to hand it over, all of it. Then I could leave him in peace and hope that he would afford me the same.
I should have realized the futility of my plan there and then, not three hours later, when I was stood across from the man himself with nowhere to run...
“Is this all?” my stepfather asked, looking up from the paperwork now strewn across his desk with an almost bored look about his face.
I stared at him in utter disbelief.
I had expected outrage at going behind his back, threats of punishment or similar, even denial, all of which I was prepared to stand off until he was forced to accept that he had no choice but to hand it over.
But his reaction, well, it was no reaction!
He hadn’t shown a flicker of emotion as he’d scanned the documents, all stating quite clearly what I was entitled to. He might as well have been scanning the daily news reports or reading up on the weather.
And I couldn’t believe the figure in question was too insignificant to warrant his concern, he wasn’t so rich that he wouldn’t feel the loss of such a sum.
Which meant only one thing ... he was about to outplay me...
“So is this what you and my devoted fiancée have been doing all this time?” he said, a disconcerting smile playing about his lips. “Working out a way to finance some sort of scheme to run off together.” He chuckled as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, my fingers twisting in my lap.
Had he had someone watching us the whole time? Did he know of our visit to James? Had someone eavesdropped on our private times together?
He considered me intently as my brain tossed around the possibilities, getting more and more worried by the second.
“You know, I never fixed you for a dyke, Abi.”
What!I flinched as though slapped, my head emptying of all coherent thought as my mouth parted instinctively to protest but nothing came out.
“She doesn’t love you, you know,” he continued, his eyes dancing with his twisted humor. “Whatever she told you, it doesn’t mean a thing. She’ll chew you up and spit you out. It’ll happen even sooner when she realizes that all of this” — he gathered up the papers and tapped them into a neat pile — “it means nothing.”
Nothing? How could he say that? How can it possibly mean nothing?
“That’s right, Abi,” he said, picking up on the fear that must have been written all over my face. “You don’t think I kept this from you for my own financial gain do you?”
I shook my head to clear the sudden fog that had descended.
“Oh no, dear, you know me better than that, surely?” His voice positively dripped with affection, his overly compassionate tone sending my blood to ice.
“Why, then?” I asked, my voice a whisper, my head racing to piece it all together.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he said, his eyes widening in mock surprise. “I did it to protect you darling ... and your estate of course.”
“Protect?”
“Of course, Abi,” he said, looking away briefly as he opened a drawer to his desk and slipped the stack of papers inside, closing it behind. “I mean, after all, you’re simply not fit to inherit.”
He looked back at me on the last, positioning his hands on the desk and interlinking them, his brow knitted together in avid concern.
I had to look away, his endearing gaze too sickening to withstand as I repeated his words back. “Not fit?”
