“It was an accident.”
“An accident involving you and a door, or you and a fist?”
“What do you care?” Ethan asked dismissively, and I couldn’t blame him. We’d never been particularly close. Ethan had been a toddler when our parents had sent me to boarding school in Crawley. Unlike Logan, who had followed shortly after, Ethan remained at home, spending the next few years with a private tutor, receiving more personalised support. We’d only seen each other sporadically at the weekends. By the time our parents had finally let him go to Crawley, I’d already started at Oxford. We’d been living under the same roof again for just over a year now, but thanks to my newposition at The Darlington, I hadn’t had much time to get to know this new, more adult version of Ethan. He was rarely at home, spending most of his time with his friends or at clubs. And when he was at the hotel, he was usually throwing parties here.
To my surprise, Ethan said, “It was Charles’s fist.”
“Charles Eddington?”
He nodded.
“I thought you were friends.”
“He gets aggressive when he drinks.” He shrugged and pulled something that looked suspiciously like a joint from his hoodie pocket. He looked at it with wonder, as if he’d forgotten he had it.
“Sounds like he should drink less. What are you doing here, anyway?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be at a lecture?”
Ethan slipped the joint back into his pocket. “I wasn’t in the mood for uni.”
“Do Mum and Dad know you’re skiving?”
He finally raised his head and looked at me. In that moment, he looked so much like our father that my blood ran cold. It wasn’t just his dark hair, his high cheekbones, and the blue eyes we both had—it was the icy detachment in his expression. “As if they’d care. Dad’s life is going to shit because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. And Mum is probably on her third glass of merlot in some corner of the hotel, reading erotica and dreaming of getting a divorce.”
“Ethan,” I warned.
“Henry,” he imitated me as he had done when we were kids, only without the trace of lightheartedness in his voice. In that moment, the lift doors opened. Ethan made to dash out as if he couldn’t get away from me fast enough, but first, he turned to me: “Relax. And enjoy your luxurious life while you still can. I’ve read the indictment against Dad, and it doesn’t matter what his lawyers say. We’re fucked.”
6
Please don’t feed the pelicans!
Sign for tourists in St. James’s Park
Kate
“We’re certainly not going to pay you for a stolen phone that may or may not belong to Henry Darlington,” said the woman fromINsider, her voice crackling loudly from the broken speaker of my ancient phone as it cut in and out. “Deliver it... directly to... and then... talk again, but don’t waste... time. Goodbye.”
The woman hung up without giving me a chance to say another word. I removed the prepaid phone from my ear, and a piece of the shattered case fell to the floor. Fuck it, it belonged in the bin anyway. That had probably been its last call.
Henry Darlington’s gleaming, brand-new iPhone pinged. Something it seemed to be doing every three minutes. This time, it was a message fromRichard Darlington. Who the hell saved their dad’s contact with his first and last name? But what did I know? I didn’t have a dad, only a faceless progenitor.
I put my own shabby phone aside and pressed the button on the side of the fancy smartphone. The lock screen lit up and told methat—surprise, surprise—facial recognition wasn’t working. The background image was an abstract pattern, giving zero hint of a personality. Perhaps it was even a default background. I was asked to enter a code, but I didn’t bother trying my luck. I wondered if Henry Darlington had noticed yet that his phone was missing. Without all the notifications that kept coming in, his life must be pleasantly quiet right now. He may even have been grateful for the theft.
The display had just lit up with another message when suddenly a telltale prickling at the back of my neck put me on my guard.
I raised my eyes—and froze.
Henry Darlington.
He was back.
And he was heading straight for me.
7
Henry Darlington’s Epic Battle: Can He Save The Darlington, or Will the Scandal Surrounding His Father Destroy Everything?
INsiderheadline
