by Joanne Hill
She waved her hand dismissively. “Diane just broke up with her husband. She’s got two children, she’s pregnant with a third and she’s trying to get her life back together. All I did was mind her kids for an hour so she could go up to the town on her own and do some shopping. You can see what it would be like going anywhere with Britney and Eli.”
“That was an honourable thing to do,” he commented. He meant it too. Especially considering the dearth of honour permeating the Christie clan.
Mel shrugged. “I don’t really know her. We only met two days ago when she arrived at the campsite. We have – similar things.” She hesitated, added, “Going on in our lives.”
Had her own marriage broken up as well? It would be just his misfortune to walk into a feminist pow-wow of women dumping on men. He glanced around the site but could only see the old people in the campervans.
“I’d like to take you out to dinner,” he said suddenly.
Her eyes flashed with shock. “Sorry?”
He felt the shock himself. Since when he did invite strangers out to dinner? “To apologize,” he said.
“You already have.”
Saying sorry didn’t seem enough. At the back of his mind, he knew why he was doing it. He was making a grand gesture, if only to himself, to rub in just how selfish Sean and Everett were being; to him, to their grandfather, to the business. I’m the oldest brother, the one who cares, the one who takes responsibility when I screw up. Which only made him just as immature as Sean and Everett. He could live with it just this time.
He took his phone from his pocket. “I’ll take your number and give you a call in a few days.”
“Look, that’s really not necessary,” she began.
He arched his eyebrows. “I screwed up back there.” Saying it aloud made him wince. “It’s only dinner. We both have to eat.”
He saw her mind working, and he got the feeling she was just playing with him, that she wasn’t about to accept dinner invitations from strangers. Which suited him fine. He was not in a particularly social frame of mind. She shrugged. “Okay.” She gave him her number and he wondered if it was even real. Not his problem. He was making the offer, end of story. “My last name is Green.” She added hastily, “But I’ll only be at that number two more weeks. I have to… that is, I’m... shifting.”
He caught the hesitation as he pocketed the phone. “Are you moving away from Sydney?”
“No.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided.”
His interest piqued even further. She was leaving her home in a fortnight and she had nothing arranged?
But then, if she was at a campsite in the middle of a working week, maybe she was running from more than she was letting on. “I’ll call.”
She hesitated. “Honestly, you don’t have to. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do.” There was an element of “don’t bother” about it; he ignored it.
“Is there a good time to call?’
She stared at him with a none-of-your-business look. “I don’t go out with strangers,” she told him.
“So reject me then. I can handle it.”
“I don’t even know your name.”
“Daniel,” he told her, as he strode away. He’d wasted enough time here. “I’ll call.”
Daniel’s Rolex said three PM. Behind him, company lawyer Hugh Devereaux closed the heavy oak doors and turned the lock. Daniel spared a brief glance out through the tinted floor-to-ceiling windows of the Christie Group boardroom, in the Christie Towers, on an enviable chunk of prime Circular Quay real estate that had been in his family for over a century. It afforded him a glimpse of the bridge, of the opera house, of the city he loved. He was in his element.
He focused back on the men at the table as Hugh joined them. Three members of the board of Christie Corp. The only members not present were his grandfather who had suffered a relapse and was ensconced in his Vaucluse mansion with his team of medical staff running around to patch him up.
And Sean and Everett. His lazy, irresponsible, utterly selfish younger brothers.
Daniel turned back to the men. They were waiting for an update, waiting expectantly for the acting head of one of the largest corporations in Australia to tell them what was happening in their billion dollar world.
“Sean,” he began, his jaw tightening at having to mention his brother’s name, “has not responded to my calls, emails, or texts. I suspect he’s abandoned that number and doesn’t feel it necessary to enlighten us. As long as his allowance is paid into the bank each month…” He reached for the pitcher of water on the table in front of him, and poured a glass. The sound of ice cubes clinking together in the Waterford was obscenely loud. “Unfortunately the situation with Everett isn’t much better.” If it was his, Daniel’s choice, he’d cut them both off from their allowance altogether, but it wasn’t his choice. And he was not about to go against his grandfather’s wishes.
As he set the decanter down, his gaze was caught by the painting of his great, great grandfather. William Christie had founded this company using his own blood, sweat and tears, and none of them would ever forget it, would ever be allowed to forget it. Loyalty gripped his chest. His brothers, however, appeared to be the exceptions in over a century of Christie men. He had trouble believing they were from the same pool of DNA but oh yes, they were.
“Before my grandfather’s current relapse,” he continued, “we talked at length about the future plans of Christie group. With our five year plan, we are looking at becoming one of the most significant trading companies in the Asia Pacific region.”
He glanced at each board member, men he respected, who deserved to be here. Men as devoted to this company as if they had the blood of William Percy Christie running through their own veins.
“Your grandfather remains extremely concerned about Sean and Everett,” Hugh commented, stroking his moustache.
Daniel glanced at him. His grandfather’s oldest friend and confidante. If anyone knew what was going on behind the scenes at Christie Group, it was Hugh. Their legal brain.
“I know.” He rapped the table with his fingers. “And his health is declining because he’s worried. Their complete lack of interest in Christie Corp beyond what it forks out for their allowance is breaking his heart. He doesn’t show it but I know it. And even though they are fully aware that Arthur’s time is…” Darn. Did his voice have to crack? He ground out, “that Arthur’s time is limited, it seems it isn’t making a blind bit of difference.”
Daniel eyeballed each man one by one. “So we need to do something and something fast for grandfather. I’ve given up on the redemption of those two but he hasn’t and I do not want him going to his grave suffering the disappointment my brothers are wreaking on him.” It would break his, Daniel’s, heart. Make him feel as if he had failed the one person he owed so much to. He would do what it took to ensure that did not happen.
Hugh pushed himself away from the table, abruptly rose to his feet. “Daniel.” He walked to the window and with his back to them said, “There is something we’ve discovered that you’re not aware of. We weren’t aware of it until this morning.”
Daniel leant forward. “What is it?
The older man came over, and gripped the back of a chair with both fists. He paused, then shook his head. “We’ve learnt that Arthur had hired two investigators to follow Everett and Sean. They’ve been on his payroll for the past two months.”
Shock went through Daniel and for seconds, he couldn’t speak. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“Your grandfather knows exactly where they are and what they are doing.”
The blood drained further from his body. No. It wasn’t possible.
He hadn’t realized he’d said it aloud until Hugh shook his head. “I’m afraid so.”
“All this time, we’ve been twisting the details to spare him the truth.”
Hugh nodded. “I’ve no doubt he realizes we’ve done it to protect him. And I’ve
no doubt Arthur appreciates that. But the fact is, he’s known. And known more than us.”
“But….” Daniel’s hand was shaking as drank down water. What he’d give for some scotch on that ice. “He never said anything. Never so much as discussed the possibility. Never hinted he knew what they were up to.”
“He’s determined to save them. He can’t bear to see the family name dragged down and he can’t bear to see your father’s offspring become…” Hugh stopped but Daniel knew what he’d been about to say. Sean and Everett were cut out of a mold the Christies had never encountered before. Their father, Duncan, had resented being born into the family. But he’d taken his position in the firm, and he’d played his part, even though he’d loathed every minute of it until his unexpected death ten years ago. Sean and Everett were something else altogether.
“Frankly, this is killing Arthur.” Hugh rubbed his palms roughly down his face. “It’s no coincidence that since he had the boys followed, his health has failed further. And that worries me. It worries me a hell of a lot.”
Daniel felt something slip away from him. There was only one person responsible. Himself. If he’d kept better control over his brothers, they wouldn’t have fallen apart, succumbed to the temptations that kids with too much money and no sense were easy victims of. He should have seen it, reined them in, sorted them out so that Arthur wasn’t having to pay some stranger to keep tabs on them. He was their older brother.
He felt sick to his stomach and he breathed in against the sudden light-headedness. He’d failed them. The buck had just stopped and it was up to him to fix this for his grandfather.
Before it was too late.
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