‘Don’t you think I’ve already been down that avenue? What insurance company is going to cough up in those circumstances? If anything, they’ll probably void the policy I do have entirely.’
‘They wouldn’t…’ Zoe paused, out of anything useful to say – not that she had much in the first place. ‘So there’s no answer? Nothing we can do? We can fight it, right? Virginia will help…won’t you?’
Alex gave his head a forceful shake before Virginia could open her mouth to reply. ‘I can’t keep taking her time for free, and she’s told me a ton of times it isn’t really her field.’
Zoe turned to her. ‘You must know someone who does specialise in this area, surely?’
‘I do, but I’m afraid it won’t be cheap,’ Virginia said, her expression so impassive that it was hard for Zoe to gauge how this was affecting her – if at all.
Zoe didn’t think she’d ever met someone with such a poker face – but perhaps Zoe had been the cause of that to some extent. It would have taken someone with absolutely no emotional intelligence at all to fail to notice Zoe’s jealousy and mistrust, and for that, despite her reasons, she was sorry.
‘In that case, I might as well settle with this lot…’ Alex flung a hand at the letter Zoe was holding. ‘In the end, it will all be the same – money I don’t have.’
‘You could remortgage the farm,’ Zoe said.
‘I already have a mortgage on it. I took it out for renovations, for money to live on while I was setting up the business, to allow for setbacks and schedule changes. I can’t borrow more.’
She paused, not knowing what else she could say that might help. And his admission that Hilltop was mortgaged was news to her, and it made her realise that while she lived there, she hadn’t yet fully integrated into the family the way she might have thought she had. He’d never told her any of this. He’d bought the farm for cash, she knew that, money he’d had left over from the sale of his villa in Spain. She’d assumed that everything he’d spent since then had come from the same pot. It had never occurred to her that his savings might have gone and that he might be borrowing money against Hilltop to live on while he got his business off the ground, though she realised now that it ought to have done.
‘I have some savings,’ she said finally.
‘That much?’ he asked, indicating the letter again.
‘No, but…’ Zoe read the figure. And then the rest of the letter. ‘He’s trying to claim he won’t ever be able to work? That’s ridiculous! He has a broken leg – it’ll heal! And how can he know that so quickly after the accident? There’s no medical report yet, surely? He’s got to be making it up!’
‘He’s getting a medical report, and you can bet a pound to a penny that his report will back up the claim. They always do.’
‘To a point,’ Virginia said, her tone far more reasonable.
Zoe was glad, for once, to have her here, though she wondered how quickly she must have jumped in her car when Alex had, presumably, phoned her in a panic. All had been calm when Zoe had texted him at lunch, so this letter must have arrived soon afterwards, and Virginia must have wasted no time answering the call for help.
‘They can word it to sound like the worst-case scenario, but they can’t fabricate things,’ Virginia continued.
‘When did the letter arrive?’ Zoe asked.
‘What does that matter?’ Alex waved his hand for Zoe to give it back.
‘I’m just asking.’
‘It came with the post…I don’t know, maybe about ten. I didn’t open it straight away because I didn’t expect it to ruin my life.’
‘It’s not going to ruin your life,’ Virginia said. ‘We’ll find a way out of this.’
To listen to them, to see them sitting at the table together, anyone would think Virginia lived with Alex at Hilltop instead of Zoe. And Zoe, as she had a few moments before, felt like the outsider.
‘Where’s Billie?’ she asked.
‘Keeping Louisa out of the way,’ Virginia said. ‘I thought it might be a good idea to give Alex some space to think straight.’
‘She’s upstairs?’ Zoe asked, not wanting to use the word banished but having it go through her head anyway. Surely Billie had as much right to be a part of this discussion as anyone else – she would be affected, after all.
‘She’s gone over to see Corrine,’ Alex said.
‘Has she taken Grizzle?’
‘You don’t see him here, do you?’
Zoe pursed her lips. ‘I only asked. I know you’re stressed, but there’s no need?—’
