warning her. He’s warning her not to tell me.
I turn to find Gracie with her eyes rooted on him. I don’t have to ask again. ‘Number eight Park Piazza,’ she whispers.
William curses aloud, but I ignore it and make tracks, pushing past him when he doesn’t move to let me through. ‘Olivia!’ He catches my arm and holds me in place.
‘Sophia called me.’ I grit my teeth. ‘Charlie’s going to drug Miller. If that woman gets hold of him, we’ll lose him completely.’
‘What?’
‘He’s going to drug him! He won’t be getting rid of Charlie because he’ll be comatose! And that woman is going to make him feel violated again! He’ll be ruined!’
He pulls up, flicking his eyes past my shoulders to Gracie. Something passes between them and I find myself glancing back and forth between them, trying to figure out what it is.
I might be challenged in the sanity department, but I know what I heard and I haven’t time to convince William. I dash down the remaining flight of stairs and break free of the cold stairwell, hurrying for the exit. Two sets of footsteps are in pursuit of me, but neither will stop me. I scan the street for a cab, shouting my frustration when I see nothing.
‘Olivia!’ William calls as I hurry across the road.
I round the corner and breathe my relief when I spot a taxi pulling over to the kerb. I barely give the passenger time to pay and jump out before I’m in and pulling the door shut. ‘Park Piazza, please.’
I slump back in my seat and spend the journey praying repeatedly that I’m not too late, while shouting my frustration each time he doesn’t answer my calls.
The grand white building looks ominous beyond the trees lining the street. My stomach is in knots, my breathing challenged. I look down the road, bracing myself for William’s Lexus to round the corner. I don’t bother trying to convince myself that William didn’t know where Miller is. He makes it his business to know everything.
I climb the steps to the double doors, the noises from inside becoming clearer the closer I get. There’s laughter, chatter, and classical music playing in the background, but the obvious happy atmosphere within the walls of this building does nothing to lessen my sense of foreboding. I can literally feel the invisible barriers trying to hold me back as I push on, the house seeming to talk to me.
You don’t belong here!
Leave now!
I ignore it all.
I see a bell and a doorknocker, but it’s the digital keypad that grabs my attention. Four digits are stamping all over my mind.
Two. Zero. One. Five.
I punch it in and hear the mechanical shift of the lock, so I push through gingerly. The noise intensifies, saturating my hearing and cooling my skin.
‘You just can’t help yourself, can you?’
I gasp and whirl around, finding Tony behind me. He’s going to try to stop me, too. My instincts kick in and I push past the heavy door, soon finding myself in a gigantic entrance hall with curved stairs leading up from both sides to a large gallery landing. It’s ridiculously ostentatious and I’m momentarily rendered stunned by my surroundings. Then it hits me that I have no idea what to do now that I’m here. My urgency to get to Miller, to stop him from possibly destroying himself beyond my ability to fix him, was all that consumed my mind.
‘This way.’ Tony’s hand wraps around my upper arm and pulls me off to the right aggressively. ‘You’re the biggest fucking headache, Livy.’ I’m hauled into an extravagant study and the door slams behind us. Tony releases me and shoves me up against the wall. ‘You’re going to get him killed!’
I don’t have time to enlighten Tony on the developments because the door flies open on a loud crash and my breath is stolen by the sight of Charlie standing in the doorway.
‘Nice to see you again, sweet girl.’
‘Fuck,’ Tony curses, and rakes a shaking hand over his sweaty, bald head. ‘Charlie.’
My eyes bounce back and forth between the two men, my heart beating hard enough for all to hear. The sneer on Charlie’s face tells me he can smell my fear. He walks forward casually, keeping his eyes on me, and pats Tony on the back. It’s a kind gesture, but I’m under no illusion that it’s meant to be friendly, and a quick glance at Tony confirms he knows it, too. He’s nervous. ‘I give you one job,’ Charlie muses as Tony backs up cautiously. ‘Keep the girl away.’
Tony’s accusing eyes land on me with an almighty bang, making me wilt on the spot. ‘I can only apologise,’ he murmurs, shaking his head in despair. ‘The girl doesn’t know what’s good for her or the boy.’
If I could find my sass amid my fear, I’d be firing it at Tony like bullets from a machine gun.
‘Ah,’ Charlie laughs. It’s a sinister laugh, meant to terrify me. And it does. This man’s evil is rampant. ‘The Special One.’ He takes one step towards me. ‘Or my special one.’ And another step. ‘But you want him to be your special one.’ He’s in my face now, breathing down on me. I’m trembling. ‘When people try to take what’s mine, they pay.’
My eyes close in an attempt to block out his closeness, but my loss of sight has no effect. I can smell him and I can feel him. The Special One. I feel sick, my turning stomach and frantic mind quickly telling me that I was delusional in thinking I could stop this. The few seconds I’ve spent in the company of Charlie and Tony are enough to make me realise that I’m not escaping this room.
‘There’s only one person on this planet who has tried to take something from me and come out alive.’
I blink my eyes open, finding his face close to mine. Intuition tells me he wants me to ask who and what, yet my brain isn’t loading my mouth with the words to follow through on his silent command.
‘Your mother was mine.’
‘Oh God,’ I breathe, my legs losing solidity, making me wobble. The wall is the only thing holding me up. ‘No.’ I shake my head.
‘Yes,’ he counters simply. ‘She belonged to me and the only reason I didn’t slaughter William Anderson was the satisfaction of knowing he’d suffer a lifetime of torture when she left him.’
His prowling frame is sucking all the air from my lungs. I can’t speak. Can’t think. I’m blank.
‘Death would have put him out of his misery.’ His hand comes up and strokes my cheek, but I don’t flinch. I’m a statue. A numb statue. ‘How does it feel to know she abandoned you to save him?’
It hits me like a sledgehammer. Everything. William didn’t send her away. And she didn’t abandon me because she never wanted me. Charlie made her leave.
‘Step away, Charlie.’
I remain where I am, trapped against the wall by his looming frame, struggling to breathe, but that voice is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.
‘You can leave, Tony.’ William’s order leaves no room for refusal.
I hear the door close and then the beats of even footsteps, and though I can’t see William yet, his presence is cutting through the thick atmosphere.
‘I said step away,’ William adds severely.
I see him in my peripheral vision, hovering to the side, but my stare is rooted on Charlie’s hollow eyes.
Grey eyes.
I lose my breath.
He gives me a menacing smirk, like he can see that something has just registered. ‘Hello, brother,’ he drawls, slowly turning to face William.
My mouth drops open and a million words hang from my tongue. Brother? The eyes. Why didn’t I see it before? Charlie’s are exact replicas of William’s, except where William’s are soft and sparkling, Charlie’s are hard and cold. They’re brothers. They’re also enemies. My mind is being blitzed with recollections, lots of snippets of information all coming together to form a monumentally complicated picture.
Gracie, William, and Charlie.
Carnage.
William’s grey eyes have hardened to match his brother’s, taking on an edge of threat. They are traits that I’m familiar with in William, but now they are amplified.
He looks as frightening as Charlie. ‘You’re nothing to me, only a blemish on my life.’
‘I love you, too, brother.’ Charlie wanders calmly over to William and lifts his arms. It’s a condescending act. ‘Don’t I get a hug this time?’
‘No.’ William’s lip curls and he steps back, away from the imposing presence of Charlie. ‘I’ll be taking Olivia and leaving.’
‘You and I both know that’s not going to happen.’ He looks over his shoulder to me. ‘You couldn’t control Gracie, Will. What makes you think you can control her daughter?’
I divert my eyes from his, uncomfortable being the focus of his intense stare. He knows who I am.
William is beginning to shake. ‘You sick bastard.’
Charlie raises high eyebrows. He seems interested. ‘Sick bastard?’
I don’t like the glimmer of worry on William’s face when he flicks me a quick glance before returning stone-cold eyes on his brother. But he doesn’t speak.
‘Sick bastard,’ Charlie muses, nodding thoughtfully. ‘Would a sick bastard get a cheap thrill from putting this beautiful girl to work?’
I frown, keeping my eyes on William, seeing him fighting to prevent his body from fidgeting. He’s uncomfortable. It’s a disposition I’ve seen in him before, and when he looks at me, my heart sinks.
‘Would he?’ Charlie asks, almost innocently, but I know what he’s getting at.
‘Don’t,’ William warns.
‘No comment.’ Charlie sighs on a menacing smirk. ‘OK. Tell me this. Would a sick bastard get a cheap thrill from putting his niece to work?’
‘Charlie!’ William roars, but I can’t be startled by the ferocious bellow. I’ve just died.
‘No,’ I whisper, shaking my head furiously. He can’t be. My eyes start darting everywhere, my body convulsing from shakes.
‘I’m sorry, Olivia.’ William sounds defeated. ‘I’m so, so sorry. I told you, as soon as I realised who you were, I sent you away. I didn’t know.’
I feel sick. My eyes find William and see nothing but torture.
‘So you didn’t get a sick satisfaction from allowing my daughter to give her body away?’
‘We’re not cut from the same cloth, Charlie.’ William’s face contorts in condemnation.
‘We’re blood, Will.’
‘You’re nothing to me.’
‘You tried to take Gracie away from me,’ Charlie grates, but I can see the brimming anger isn’t a result of losing a woman he loved. It’s principle. He didn’t want to lose.
‘I didn’t want her in this sick world! And you, you poisonous bastard, made her stay!’
‘She was clearly a good earner.’ Charlie sniffs insolently. ‘We were running a business, brother.’
‘You couldn’t bear the thought of me having her. You couldn’t stand the fact that she despised you!’ William steps forward, aggression pouring from him, making his suit quiver over his ominous frame. ‘She should have been mine!’
‘You didn’t fight hard enough to keep her!’ Charlie roars.
Those words. They make me shiver as the enormity of my mother’s story unfolds before my eyes in the form of two bitter brothers. The dynasty split. William left the immoral bastard to be immoral alone.
William practically snarls. ‘I tried my damn hardest to fight my feelings for her. I didn’t want her in the sickness we immersed ourselves in. You put her in the centre of it. You were willing to share her with your fucking clients!’
‘She didn’t argue. She loved the attention – thrived on it.’
I wince and so does William before a wave of anger travels across his cool face. He’s livid. It’s obvious. ‘She loved hurting me. You monopolised on it. Turned her to drink and brainwashed her. You took sick satisfaction in watching me die a little bit more each day.’
I begin praying, praying this isn’t real, praying that this man’s evil blood isn’t running through my veins.
Charlie smirks, sending that familiar chill down my spine. ‘She had my baby, Will. That made her mine.’
‘No.’ Gracie’s melodic tone drifts into the room, pulling everyone’s attention to the doorway, where she’s standing, back straight, chin raised high. She steps into the room, and I can see the bravery she’s fighting to maintain in Charlie’s presence. He still frightens her. ‘Olivia isn’t yours and you know it.’
My eyes widen and I look to William, finding him studying my mother, searching for an extension on that statement. ‘Gracie?’
She looks at him but quickly backs up when Charlie moves forward threateningly. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ he snarls.
‘He sent me away when I told him Olivia wasn’t his.’
Charlie visibly starts to shake. ‘Gracie!’
She jumps, but William and I are both motionless. ‘He threatened to harm her if I told anyone.’
‘You fucking bitch!’ He lunges for her, but William intercepts, knocking him back a few metres with a swift fist to his cheek.
William roars in anger, heaving and pulsing as Charlie staggers back and my mum screams. ‘Never touch her!’ he bellows, shaking his fist, eyes enraged.
My mind focuses amid the madness unfolding. Charlie’s not my father? I’m too shocked to be delighted at the news that Charlie, in fact, isn’t my father. I can’t cope with it all. I’m being delivered information at a speed too fast for my fraught mind to cope with.
Gracie pulls William back but soon steps away, like she’s frightened of him, too. ‘He promised to leave my baby alone if I disappeared.’ She glances at him warily. She looks ashamed. And William looks like he’s seen a ghost. ‘He promised to let you . . .’ She takes a long breath. It’s a confidence-boosting breath.
‘No,’ William murmurs, his jaw ticking. ‘Gracie, please, no.’
‘He promised to let her father live if I disappeared.’
‘No!’ He throws his head back, shouting to the heavens, his hands diving into his grey hair.
My world implodes. The wall behind me catches me when I stumble back, disoriented, and I push myself into it, like it could swallow me up and remove me from the horrors I’m facing. William’s head drops, a million emotions invading his face one at a time – shock, hurt, anger . . . and then guilt when he finally manages to look at me. I can’t possibly give him anything. I’m a statue. All he’s got to go on are my stunned eyes and frozen form, but he really doesn’t need any more than that.
We’re both way past stunned.
Charlie chucks my mother a look that would turn iron to ashes. ‘You slut. It wasn’t good enough that you had ten men a week. You had to have my brother.’
‘You forced them on me,’ she shrieks. ‘You made me write the fucking details!’
‘You lied to me!’ Charlie fumes. For the first time since he steamrolled his way through that door, I see frightening anger flashing across his face. ‘You played me for a fool, Gracie, baby.’ He gets up close and personal with my mother, and my trepidation multiplies when she recoils cautiously and William moves in quickly and places himself in front of her.
‘Don’t make me kill you, Charlie.’
‘You just couldn’t keep your hands off her,’ he rages, pulling at the sleeves of his suit jacket. The action reminds me of Miller, and I suddenly find life, pushing my back from the wall that I’ve been propped up against all this time. I need to find him.
I dash for the door.
‘And where are you going, lovely niece?’
My strides falters, his icy breath hitting my back. But I don’t stop. ‘I’m going to find Miller.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he declares confidently, making me halt at the door. ‘That would be most unwise.’
I slowly turn, finding him way too close for comfort. Not for long, though. William takes my arm and pulls me away from his imposing frame. ‘Don’t even breathe on her,’ William says, taking Gracie in his other grasp and tugging us both to his side. ‘My girls. Both of them.’
Charlie la
ughs. ‘I think amid this touching family reunion, you’ve forgotten a minor detail, dear brother.’ He leans forward. ‘I can get you and the pretty boy locked up for life with one call to a delivery boy.’ He smirks. ‘The gun that killed our uncle, Will. I have it and guess whose fingerprints are all over it?’
‘You bastard!’
‘He doesn’t have the gun,’ I blurt, suddenly lucid. I remove myself from William and ignore Gracie’s worried tone calling me
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