“I suspected,” she says evenly. “I thought it was a way for her to separate you from us, to test the waters.”
“She fucking starved me, Stella. Locked me in that crypt below your castle.”
“I didn’t…I knew she would likely get in touch. I didn’t think she was capable…of that.” Stella reaches for me, but I hit her arm away hard. I don’t care if I hurt her.
Lucie puts a hand on my shoulder. “Emma…” She trails off, because there are no words for what’s happening.
My entire body vibrates with anger. “I want nothing to do with any of this.” I stare directly at Stella. “Nothing to do with you. Find another patsy.” I’m done. I don’t care about the money or the security or any of the other things Stella promised us at the end of this fiasco. None of it matters if we’re just sacrificial lambs in her grand scheme.
But before I can storm out, there’s a knock on the door, followed quickly by the turn of a knob.
“Hello, Grandmum,” Caroline says coolly as she strolls in.
“You’re the only one I ever allowed to call me that.”
I’m woozy from the outburst, caught off guard by Caroline’s sudden entry. Lucie pulls me down onto the couch between her and Colette as Stella crosses the room with measured steps until she stands directly before Caroline. Despite the dramatic height difference between them, Stella manages to stare her granddaughter squarely in the eyes. “You look more and more like your grandfather,” Stella says softly. “Around the eyes.” Pain flickers across Caroline’s face. “I missed you,” Stella continues, undeterred. “Every day.”
“You chose to get rid of me,” Caroline counters, her voice brittle.
“No. That’s not true…Your father said you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“Father told me you thought I was a disrespectful little brat.”
I can’t take it anymore. “Oh my god, stop it. Don’t you both see what happened? He turned you against one another. I’m so sorry that both of you got played by Louis Swanson. This really could have been avoided if you had fucking talked to each other, but that seems to be something your family is the worst at…in addition to treating one another like basic human beings.”
“I remain very confused,” Lucie interjects. Colette seems to have stopped breathing entirely.
“I think that’s what they want,” I retort.
“I wanted you, Caroline.” Stella isn’t paying me any attention. Her eyes are on her granddaughter. Her hand lifts slightly, as if she might reach for Caroline’s face, then drops back to her side. “I tried so many times to reach out, but your father brushed me off every time. I even asked if you could live with us full-time instead of being sent off to school in year ten.”
“Did you know that was the year he encouraged me to spend the night with the son of a Russian billionaire who was willing to pay nearly a hundred million for a set of three obscure Monets?” Caroline volleys back. “We were both fifteen and the boy wanted to lose his virginity to a Westerner.” Her face contorts indisgust at the memory. None of us ask if she agreed to it; we can tell that she did and that she didn’t truly have a choice. “I begged to live with you then. He produced a letter from you saying to leave you alone.”
“It wasn’t real,” Stella pleads.
“How could I have known?” Despite her poise and grit, Caroline now appears as a terrified teenager to me, desperate for an escape. The two formidable women face off in a staring contest that the rest of us can only observe.
“You could have fought harder,” Caroline finally adds, the accusation hanging in the air.
“Yes,” Stella admits simply. “I could have.” The unexpected acknowledgment seems to disarm Caroline more than any defense could have. Her shoulders drop a fraction of an inch; the rigid line of her jaw softens.
“And you could have done more to make sure he didn’t bankrupt me and try to lock me away in a loony bin,” Stella adds. “Perhaps we’re even.”
A look passes between the two women then, family secrets they will probably never reveal to the three of us. The air is heavy with their history. My eyes dart between them as I try to keep up.
“I don’t know if we’re even,” Caroline says. “You are setting out to destroy my company.”
“It was all of ours.”
“Not officially. Did you go to Pascal, knowing he would come to me?”
“I did,” Stella admits evenly. “I’d heard the rumors about the two of you.”
Caroline’s voice hardens. “And what if I told my father about your schemes?”
“I gambled you wouldn’t. You aren’t like him.”
“Oh, I am in many ways. He made sure of that.”
