“Plus, he has no idea how to actually have a relationship that isn’t family,” Betsy added. She checked her watch as the doorbell rang. She smiled widely. “That must be Jacob.” She left the room.
“Jacob?” I asked Charlie.
He batted his hand in front of his face, then proceeded to light his pipe. “Her latest tool to make Eric jealous, no doubt.” Charlie sat back in his seat, crossing his legs. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to the most fucked-up relationship of all time soon enough. And the games they play just to piss each other off.” Just as Charlie stopped speaking, Betsy entered, arm in arm with a tall, red-haired man in a suit. She got to her tiptoes and kissed him his cheek.
“Drink, darling?” she asked him.
“Guinness,” he replied in a Scottish accent.
Vinnie came into the room, his arm suspended in the air, clearly around his hallucination of Pearl. Jacob’s eyes widened.
Vinnie looked Jacob up and down. “Oh, this’ll be fun.”
He sat on the love seat and got drinks for him and Pearl, whispering things into her “ear”. Jacob was pale as he watched him, and I wondered how Betsy had explained this, tonight, her family. If she had even bothered.
I heard the front door open and close, then the sound of heels on the hallway floor. “Sounds like Grandma,” Betsy said, and my heart flipped. Eva Adley. I had heard of the Adley matriarch from Vera and Betsy. They had told me, in no uncertain terms, that Arthur was her favourite. And that she was a battleaxe. And her word on anything regarding the family was law.
I held my breath as a slim, elegant woman appeared in the doorway. She had white-grey hair that was styled into an elegant short bob. She wore tailored black trousers, a fitted white shirt, and a pair of black Louboutins. A long black jacket rested on her shoulders.
“Grandma.” Charlie got to his feet and kissed her on the cheek. Betsy and Freddie followed suit.
Vinnie got up and kissed Eva too. Patting his cheek affectionately, she said, “How’s my baby girl?” I knew she was referring to Pearl.
“Good, Eva. She’s really fucking good.” Vinnie took his place beside Pearl again, whispering into her ear.
Eva Adley’s eyes found mine, then Jacob’s.
“Seems we have a couple of interlopers in the room,” she said. But her attention was barely on Jacob. It was firmly on me. It was clear she knew who I was, but I had no idea how she felt about it.
I got to my feet. “Mrs Adley.” I held out my hand. “I’m Cheska Harlow-Wright.”
She shook my hand, then quickly dropped it. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a cigarette in a thin black holder. Charlie held up his lighter for her. When the cigarette was lit, she inhaled. As she exhaled, she said, “You’re the one fucking my grandson?”
I reared back in shock. Her accent was just as thick as those of the rest of the family. A spark of irritation flared in my chest. “I’m more than fucking him,” I replied, a hint of steel in my tone.
Eva’s eyebrow rose. “Is that so?”
“Regardless of what you think, I love him.”
“Love?” Eva laughed, smiling at Freddie when he placed a brandy in her hand. “Love doesn’t always work out well for people in our line of work.” She walked past me and sat down in a high armchair like an ice queen. She regarded me shrewdly. “And what do you love about my grandson? The power? The money? The fact that he’s a bit of rough for you to enjoy then spit out on your fancy SW3 streets.”
Betsy winced, then subtly nodded at me in encouragement. “How dare you?” I said curtly. “Yes, I’m a Harlow-Wright.” I held my head high. “And I have both power and money of my own. I love Arthur for Arthur.”
“Last I heard, your family was in ruin,” she said, and I felt the dagger being plunged into my back. “You father and fiancé were killed for being unable to pay back a dodgy loan. Isn’t that right?”
The image of my dad and Hugo shot into my head, easily slipping past my defences, but I quickly pushed it away. “I have my own money. Money from my mum’s side that my father could never touch. Lots of it. I don’t need a penny from Arthur. Ever.” I crossed my arms—it was more for my own self-preservation than out of insolence. “And if you knew your grandson, you would know that he is worthy of love. There doesn’t have to be any condition attached to it.”
“Mm,” she said. “There’s the blue-blood arrogance shining through.” She sipped her brandy and let her cigarette burn down in its holder without taking a single drag. “But tell me, how can you love someone you barely know?”
“I know him.”
“You’ve known him for all of five minutes.”
I stepped closer to Eva, fighting back the need to slice my hand across her face. “I met Arthur when I was thirteen years old. Then again at eighteen.” Eva’s eyes narrowed. Clearly this was news to her. “Then we were together for five years. I’ve known him longer than you think.”
Eva batted her hand. “A secret affair is not proof of anything.” She finally took a drag of her cigarette, then said, “He was a bit on the side to you. You were engaged to a posh twit and fucked Artie behind his back. That’s the great love affair you’re referring to?”
Anger. That was what swept through me. Molten-hot lava, and anger so great my hands shook. It was rabid, so pure in its potency that I used its heat to spit, “In no universe could Arthur ever be just a ‘bit on the side.’ I loved him then and I love him now. I am here, and I’m not going anywhere. That’s something you’re just going to have to come to terms with.”
The room was silent. Eva glared back at me, but I thought I saw something flicker in her gaze. Something like approval.
“Grandma.” I turned to see Arthur filling up the doorway. He was dressed in a grey pinstripe suit, white shirt and black tie. His blue eyes cut to me, and my heart immediately started pounding.
“Artie,” Eva said. Arthur moved to his grandma and kissed her cheek. He poured himself a gin, then turned to face me. I couldn’t read the expression on his face as he cut across the room, heading straight for me. He stopped before me, put his hand on the back of my head, crushed my mouth to his and kissed me—ravaged me. I fell against him, the people in the room melting away as he pushed his tongue against mine.
Arthur pulled away but kept his hand on the back of my neck, keeping me close. “Princess,” he said in greeting. He sat down on his usual seat by the fire and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arm around my waist. He always did this when we were in this room. Whenever he was with me, he was always touching me in some way, possessing me, never letting me go.
I wrapped my arm around Arthur’s neck, feeling ten feet tall. Charlie sat down, fighting a smirk, as did Freddie. Betsy stayed standing beside Jacob, but when our gazes met she winked at me.
“That’s the first and last time you’ll interrogate Cheska, Grandma. I mean it,” Arthur said. Eva flicked her hand at him in dismissal.
I lay back against Arthur’s warmth. Against his hard body, smelling the tobacco on his suit, the musk from his aftershave. I looked at his face. Arthur’s jaw was clenched, but then he flicked his blue eyes in my direction. I smiled at him. In seconds he was kissing me again, as if he couldn’t get enough. Not giving one shit that his grandma was no doubt fuming across the room in disapproval.