LOGINCHAPTER 165DRAYTONEvelyn Cross's voice is still in the car after the line goes dead, warm and polite, the voice of a woman offering you a biscuit before she tells you the house is on fire.Nobody says anything. Dreyven has both hands on the wheel and he's driving like the road owes him money, and I can hear the tyres hissing through the wet and my own pulse thumping behind my eyes."Your father isn't looking well," I say, to nobody. "Who says that? Who rings someone's mother's phone and says that?""Someone who wants us frightened," Dreyden says from the back."Well, it's working.""Then be frightened quietly."I almost laugh, but my head picks that moment to tilt sideways like a ship, so I press my forehead against the window and let the cold glass hold it up for me. Outside, the streetlights smear into long yellow streaks. The police car is two lengths ahead with its lights going and no siren, and somehow that's worse, because it means they're trying not to scare her either.My b
CHAPTER 164DREYLEN"Say that again," I tell the voice in my ear, because I've heard it the first time and I still don't believe it."A woman arrived at the main gate about twenty minutes ago, Mr. Drey." It's Hale, the head of security at my parents' house. He has worked for us for fifteen years, and I have never heard him sound unsure of anything. "No appointment. She said her name was Evelyn Cross and that she was here to see Mr. Nathaniel. She said she would wait as long as it took." The name goes through me like cold water."Where is she now?""That's what I'm trying to tell you. We told her no. She didn't argue, she just stood there in the rain with her hands folded, and then she said one more thing." He clears his throat. "She said, 'Tell Mrs. Drey it's about Theodore.'" I close my eyes."Mrs. Drey was in the hall. She heard it over the intercom before I could cut the line. She was out of the door before any of us reached her, sir. She walked down the drive in her slippers and
Chapter 163My chest tightens before I press play.Dreyven has come around to my shoulder, and Dreylen has moved in on the other side, and Drayton has opened his eyes and is looking at the phone as though it might bite him.I turn the screen so that all four of us can see it, and I press the triangle.Her voice is rough, and it takes me a second to realise how long she must have been crying before they let her speak."My name is Aurelia," she says. "I'm making this statement of my own free will. Nobody has promised me anything and nobody has told me what to say."An officer off camera asks her to continue.She breathes in, and I watch her steady herself the way she did the day I found her sitting alone in my office, trying to hold a conversation together while her hands shook beneath the desk."Five years ago, the four Drey brothers did something to me that I couldn't forgive. I won't go into it here, because it isn't relevant to what I'm confessing, but it's why I agreed to work with
CHAPTER 162DREYDENJulian slides the contract across the desk with the care of a man handing over a winning lottery ticket, and for a moment I let him believe that's exactly what it is."It's all there," he says, tapping the first page. "Ten per cent of the group, transferred on signature, with the verification clause removed, as we discussed.""We didn't discuss removing it.""Didn't we?" His smile doesn't move. "I'm sure it came up. Either way, it's a formality, because you've seen the reports and you've seen the address, so surely you know by now that I've been telling you the truth."I pick up the pen, and I can feel Dreyven shift behind me and Drayton's fingers whitening around the armrest.I read the first page slowly, the second page slower, and then I set the pen down without signing."Before I put my name on anything, I'd like to ask you a question.""Ask." He leans back, comfortable and pleased, as though he already owns the chair he's sitting in."When you collected the DN
CHAPTER 161DREYVENThe receptionist looks at us for a moment longer than necessary.Her eyes move from Dreyden to Drayton, then settle on Elias. "Mr. Cross is expecting you," she says finally. "Please, follow me."Dreyden walks ahead. I stay beside Drayton, keeping an eye on the way he moves. He's been quiet since we left the car, and I know that particular silence. He's holding himself together through just stubbornness.His face is still pale. His right hand remains close to his stomach, and every few steps, his jaw tightens."You need to sit down if you feel dizzy," I murmur."I'm not dizzy.""You were dizzy ten minutes ago.""That was ten minutes ago." I look at him and he looks back. How can someone be this stubborn, I can't complain because he'd remind me if how I'd do same if I was in his situation."Ven, if you start treating me like a child, I'm going to make your life miserable.""You're already doing that.""Good." I shake my head, but the sound that comes out of me is a
CHAPTER 160DREYVENWhen I walk back into the garage, Drayton is laughing.Not loudly. Not the kind of laugh that makes his whole body move, but enough to make Elias smile as he pours tea into four chipped mugs.For a moment, I stand by the entrance and watch them.Drayton is still pale, and there's a tiredness around his eyes that wasn't there before the fight, but he's sitting upright now, listening to Elias talk about a customer who brought him a broken antique table and expected him to repair it for the price of a new one."Some people think restoring furniture means rubbing polish on wood," Elias says, shaking his head. "They don't understand that sometimes you have to take the whole thing apart before you can make it right again.""Sounds familiar," Drayton mutters.Elias gives him a curious look. "Does it?""Don't mind him," Dreylen says. "He's been in a terrible mood.""I nearly died," Drayton replies."And somehow you're still annoying.""That's because I'm talented." Elias l







