Broken Ever After

by Natalie Graham

  “I know a bit, but estate agents can sort most of it I imagine and your lawyers will too.”

  “Bonfire?” Burning all of Robert’s belongings that were left in the house would bring me immense satisfaction. Just like the comfort it brought me to know he was cremated when he killed himself. I’d often used the image of that as him burning in Hell.

  “Excuse me?”

  “All the stuff in the house, I need it gone. His art can be sold and the furniture can go to charity or somewhere, but the rest of his stuff will be burned, the house needs stripping bare.” I smiled at the thought of destroying everything he used to hold precious. I suddenly didn’t feel so sick about going. “Come on!” I stood up and switched the water off in the shower, pulling Jamie with me to the towels. I wrapped myself in one and sprinted for the stairs.

  “What?”

  “We’re going!”

  “Where?”

  “God, keep up Jamie! The house!”

  I ran up the stairs ahead of Jamie and quickly threw some clothes on. I called Austin to tell him about my nightmares and how they led me back there, I was going there one last time to get rid of all the history held there for me and I wanted the house gone.

  Because I was eighteen, I was old enough to make decisions over my trust but not old enough to control it completely. We both needed to sign some papers to consent to it, but he would arrange for the lawyers to meet with us if I would like and it could all be arranged quickly as people enquired about buying it often, I just needed to go to the office first to collect the house keys and security codes. I bounced down the stairs leaving Jamie still getting dressed and went to grab some bags from Anna before selecting the keys to one of the bigger cars. Jamie hopped in taking the keys and a kiss from me.

  “Do you know where Mason House is?” He rolled his eyes at me. “What?”

  “I did spend some time at my grandfather’s company before becoming a teacher you know.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?

  “I remember sitting in on a meeting with a company we were trying to buy but just before they signed, Mason swooped in with a last minute bid that blew ours out of the water.” I laughed. “Hey! It’s not funny! I bet I can name a few board members who are still pissed off about that. I remember meeting him once with my Grandfather at an event. I remembered it last night.”

  “How unfortunate for you” I grumbled.

  “My Grandfather knew you.” I looked at him shocked. “I remembered him asking about you. Robert had this picture of you in his wallet that he was showing everyone. A little girl on a swing with dark curls blowing in the breeze.” I shuddered remembering how I could sit on that swing all day, before being called inside.

  “Don’t. Don’t make it sound nice. He used to say I was his all the time. He even tried to get me to call him daddy.” Jamie tensed with his hands gripping tightly on the wheel and continued to drive in silence.

  We arrived at Mason House and hurried through Reception to the lift that led to the top floor where Uncle Austin’s office was. Two security guards stopped us as we reached the lift doors.

  “May we help you?” The two men looked us both up and down. The smaller looking one kept flicking his eyes between my chest and my shorts. I’d forgotten how long it had been since I was at the office as I didn’t recognise either of the guys. They were both pretty tall with chocolate brown eyes and brown hair shaved short. They could have been twins, they probably were for all I knew; the only difference was the one talking was way more built that the second guy.

  “No thanks.” I smiled nicely to them both.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Up, now if you’ll excuse me…” I went to push the button and the big guy put his hand over the panel laughing.

  “I don’t think so, Miss. Now if you would just like to come with us, you haven’t signed in. Do you have an appointment?” He tried taking my arm but I shook him off.

  “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

  “No, Miss, we aren’t.” My temper was quickly rising in my throat and I had a hard time trying to keep it under a lid.

  “Liv, just calm down, I’ll call Austin” Jamie said and pulled his phone out. When did he get his number? We were ushered into a waiting room which Uncle Austin stormed in to a couple of minutes later.

  “What the hell is going on here?” He said looking between the two security men, angry as hell.

  “Mr Stevens, Sir, this young lady and gentleman never approached the desk to check in for a visitor permit so we assumed them to be suspicious and stopped them.”

  I stood up, this was beyond a joke. “Since when do I need a visitor permit?” The two guys just looked at Uncle Austin.

  “It’s new security regs, Liv.” He waved his hand at me, asking me to wait a minute. “Did you not ask her who she was? Or if you had read any of the information you were given when you started you would know who she is. Did you even call Frank? He would have straightened this entire situation out in a second. She’s my niece, Olivia Stevens.” I looked up at Uncle Austin. What information?

  “I’m- We- I never knew… I’m so sorry, Miss.” They stuttered between them.

  “That’s ok. I’ve not been around in a while, I didn’t know there were new regulations. I’m sorry.” I nodded to them both and grabbed Jamie’s hand, walking out with Uncle Austin. “So where’s Uncle Frank?” I asked as we rounded the corner to head to the lifts.

  Frank wasn’t really my uncle, but he’d been with the company since before I was born and earned the title by default. A fifty-five year old Glaswegian with salt and pepper hair, with a daughter that I loved to pieces. Francesca had been my best friend until we went to separate high schools, then saw less and less of each other.

  “Did I just hear my name?”

  “Frank!” I beamed before running and giving him a big hug.

  “Oh my goodness, my wee Olive, I thought it was you on the camera but I wasnae too sure. Sorry about the new guys, they won’t make that mistake again.” He laughed. “Come on, I’ll see you up.” He offered his pinkie to me which I took and held with mine, laughing at the memory of doing it as a child. Another big guy who easily matched Uncle Austin’s height was following behind Frank, I turned slightly every so often to see him looking down at me scowling. I tried a small smile which only made him frown more. I snapped my head back around breaking away from his intense stare. “So I’ve not seen you around here for a long time, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

  I thought carefully before telling him. “I’m donating some things to charity that I don’t need so I came to talk to Aussie about it.” I smiled. I doubt he would approve of me selling the house as it had been in our family for years; Robert was always so proud of that fact. Frank was really close to Uncle Robert; I knew he looked to him like a son, so if he knew I was selling his most prized possession he wouldn’t be happy.

  We reached the top floor with the big guy glaring at me the entire time, making me feel nervous. Jamie kept glaring at him then giving me a questioning look like I knew what was up with him. Frank hugged me goodbye. “Tell Francesca I said hi.” I said before stepping out of the lift. I quickly glanced at the big guy once more who was whispering to Frank while his gaze locked with mine; the doors began to close and his features softened slightly before completely relaxing into a blank stare.

  “OH. MY. GOD! James? What are you doing here?” Pierced through my ears as the doors finally closed. I looked around to see what I’d missed that would cause such commotion, to find Jamie rooted to the spot looking like a deer caught in headlights as this girl bounded towards him, jumping into his arms like she hasn’t seen him in years. “I knew you would change your mind” She tried to kiss him but he pushed her away.

  “Wow… Erm, Sasha… You work here?”

  “Like you didn’t know.” She swatted him playfully, while still clinging on to his arm for dear life.

  “I- I-” He looked lost for wo
rds, what the fuck is going on and who the fuck is she? My temper was rising in my chest again as I watched her paw all over him.

  “I can’t leave just now, but we can meet for lunch if you’d like?” She began trailing her finger up and down his arm, I had to bite down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep me from lashing out, she was obviously his ex-girlfriend.

  She was tall with legs that didn’t end, very pretty and obviously aware of it, with short blonde hair and eyes like chocolate, any woman would immediately feel insecure standing beside her. Why would Jamie want me when she was offering herself on a plate to him? I slipped in under Jamie’s free arm, pushing my hand into his back pocket to squeeze his perfect rear as I pulled him away from her. Mine.

  “No he can’t, now if you’ll excuse us.” I pulled Jamie away further but she grabbed his arm again. I am not playing Tug-of-War with her.

  “James? Who the hell are you?” She glared at me.

  “Sash-” Jamie began, but I cut him off.

  “I’m his girlfriend and we’re meeting Mr Stevens, now if you’ll excuse us.” She laughed at me and I looked up at Jamie.

  “You cannot be serious?!” She shook her head. “Wow, finally got your foot in the door with the big boys? I thought you were through with anything to do with MTI?”

  “We should go.” Jamie said nodding over to Uncle Austin who was waiting by his office door with his arms folded.

  “It was nice to run into you again, James.” She called behind us as we walked away. “Make sure you call me when you’re tired of babysitting.” She said in a loud whisper. A shudder rippled through my body as I fought to control my temper.

  “James?”

  “No one has called me that since I was two; she does it to piss me off.”

  “Is that a habit of hers? Pissing people off?”

  “You noticed that?” He half laughed. We walked into the office and sat down across from Uncle Austin who was swamped in paperwork. He handed me an envelope with keys in and apparently all the access codes I needed for the house.

  “What was that about MTI?” Who? I looked between Jamie and Austin for a clue. “Do you work for them? You had better not be using Olivia to worm in here.”

  “No, no… It’s mine… I own MTI, but like Olivia and here” he gestured around. “I don’t have anything to do with it; it’s board controlled.”

  “Jamie Matthews. I knew you looked familiar. I should have realised sooner but the whole teacher thing threw me off.” Uncle Austin steepled his fingers beneath his chin as he sat back in his chair. “What will they think when they hear about you and Olivia?”

  “I’m… Not actually sure. It’s none of their business anyway.”

  “But they may think you are looking to sell and may buy you out beforehand.”

  “That wouldn’t happen… Would it? Surely they would talk to me. My personal life is nothing to do with them! I never even realised Liv was the heiress to all of this until yesterday.” I was getting lost, what are they on about? I shifted in my seat so I was half facing both of them.

  “Wait… Slowdown… Who is MTI? Why do they care who Jamie is dating? And- And who the fuck was she?” I gestured outside with my hand; Uncle Austin rolled his eyes dramatically.

  “MTI is Matthews and Thorley Industries. They are one of our rivals and Jamie here is the major shareholder but he leaves the running of the company to the board. They wouldn’t be happy if Jamie sold as they would likely lose their jobs if someone else bought it and wanted to run it for themselves.”

  “But he’s not selling it, so what’s the problem?”

  “The board” Jamie said. “If they suspect that I want to sell then they will probably look to find some way to remove me ASAP.”

  “Wow” It still doesn’t make any sense; I guess business men never do. “Who’s Thorley?”

  “He was my grandfather’s best friend, George Thorley. They started the company together as boys but George sold his share when he got cancer. My grandfather bought some so he had a majority share but he couldn’t buy them all, so I now hold sixty-three percent of the company. And she was an ex.” he nodded towards the door. “But I guess you already figured that out.”

  We excused ourselves from Uncle Austin when his phone rang, he said he’d meet us at the house later if he could get the lawyers free and he’d arranged for a housing assessor to visit to see what it was worth. Jamie called for the lift and stood behind me, wrapping me up in his arms.

  “Going down?” I felt Jamie bristle behind me at the sound of the silky smooth voice. “I remember how you did that so well.” Sasha sniggered to herself as my stomach twisted. What a bitch! I looked back to see her sashaying her way into Uncle Austin’s office.

  I thought about how much I could make her life hell if I came to work with Austin, I also hoped for her sake she’d spent the last ten minutes searching for new jobs.

  “Just ignore her, baby, she’s jealous. I split up with her a couple of years ago and she’s never forgiven me for it. She wanted to get married and a whole other bunch of bullshit that basically meant she wanted to live off my money but there was no way I’d ever ask her. You just saw for yourself what a bitch she can be and that isn’t even the start of it!” She wanted to marry him?

  “Oh. You must have been close if she wanted to get married.” I lowered my head, facing the floor. I’d been with him for such a short amount of time and I’d marry him tomorrow if I could.

  “No, she was delusional. We were together about five months and I avoided her for the most part.” Jamie looked really uncomfortable and sounded really evasive and I could only guess there were things he just didn’t want to tell me, which after telling him about Uncle Robert, really fucking hurt. Why would he want to hide things from me after I shared my darkest secrets? We rode down to the ground in silence. Suddenly I didn’t feel in the mood to smash and burn anymore.

  We got to the car and I set the Sat-Nav to direct us to Weybridge in Surrey; Jamie drove in silence for the first couple of miles. “Are you ok Angel?” I never answered and he sighed. “Look, don’t let Sasha get to you; she is no one to me. Before I knew you-.”

  “It’s not that… I’m about to go to a place that I have blocked from my mind for years, I can’t help it if I’m a little distracted.” I lied, although it fitted. There was something he didn’t want to tell me and I couldn’t shake the feeling he was hiding something.

  “Oh, I’m sorry… We don’t have to do this.”

  “I do. I need the house out of my life. I’d burn it down if I could do it without getting arrested” I ignored the sidelong look Jamie was giving me as we pulled up to the gate; I sat staring at the huge iron barrier with the words ‘Mason Hall’ welded across the top. Jamie took the paper full of codes from my lap and punched the correct one in to the keypad. He parked and we sat for a few minutes while I stared at the huge stone built house with shiver after shiver running through my bones.

  “I’ll go switch off the alarms.” Jamie said before taking the keys from me and going to the house. He disappeared inside and I stepped out of the car holding on to the door frame, afraid of taking another step closer. Jamie came over and took my hand. “It’s ok, I’m here… Look at me! I’m here. There is no one here that can hurt you. It’s just an old, empty house.”

  I walked with him to the door and paused looking through to the massive entrance hall where the big round table stood covered with a layer of dust with an empty vase on top; I took a deep breath before I walked through the door.

  Everything was where I remembered; the furniture was all covered in dust sheets, as was all the art work and photographs. I saw red; I ripped the cover from the sofa and looked at in in disgust. Where he used to sit, where he made me sit, that space was just staring back at me.

  “Come and sit with me, Ollie.” Echoed through my mind.

  I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife from the cutlery draw that I could find. I paused by the fridge that still ha
d drawings on the front that I had done when I was little, I ripped them down and tore them to pieces before going back to the sofa with the knife. Vaguely aware of Jamie following me, I didn’t care if he thought I was crazy right now, I certainly felt it anyway.

  I forced the knife down with both hands driving it right into the material of the sofa. I shredded each cushion to pieces spreading feathers everywhere, imagining it was Robert. I imagined a lot of people wished they could do that to him too. I turned around and went to the big photograph that I knew was on the wall. It was of Robert and I when I was a happy three year old, I tried to pull it down but it was just out of my grasp.

  “Jamie, get this fucking thing down! Please!” He lifted it down and I took it from him, bringing it down on top of the huge TV that stood in the corner that he used to watch as he absentmindedly touched me. I smashed the frame to pieces, picked the photo up from the pile of glass and tore it to pieces too. I pulled the TV forward and jumped on the back of it until I was satisfied it was in at least a million pieces under my feet. Maybe I should have grabbed a hammer from the garage?

  I went to the art on another wall and carefully took the frames down. He might have been a pervert but he knew valuable art when he saw it. I couldn’t mindlessly destroy something so precious; they would be the start of the ‘for sale’ pile. I continued through every room destroying the things I hated about the house, Jamie followed behind me picking up all of the rubbish from my destruction so the house wouldn’t be a mess when the person came to value the place.

  I went into Robert’s room and looked around; I had never actually been in there before so it felt weird knowing that this room was the most personal to him.

  Jamie was charged with going through Robert’s large wardrobe. I watched as he opened it, walking in and pulling things from hangers, throwing them all into rubbish sacks to be burnt.