Page 102 of Take Her from You

“Yes. I’m so sorry. I’ve been busy with Valentine being here.”

“No need to apologise. I just wanted to catch up on this paperwork matter. Did you get my message about the date for Winchester Holdings’ board meeting? The two brothers appear to be pushing it.”

I sat on my bed, the only light coming from the open door. “I did, but honestly, I blanked on it. I don’t want to meet up with them.”

Scarlet sighed. “I understand. It’s in a couple of weeks, which is why there’s a sense of urgency. Can I ask, do you have any other paperwork from before?”

“None, why?”

“No copy of Tobi’s father’s will?”

A strange sense of cold slithered in me. “I never even saw that. I’m not sure it exists.”

“It does. A reference to it is buried in this pack of nonsense they sent you and the basis for them taking control. You’re entitled to read it, and I really think you should. I’d like to contact their solicitors on your behalf. It will invite questions from them and probably some form of challenge, but I’ll use my office’s Inverness address as a reference. They won’t be any the wiser on where you are.”

“Thank you, and yes please.” I held my breath then released it, trying to dispel my fear. “Can I ask why you think those papers are nonsense?”

“It’s an investment proposal and a change to the business assets Tobi’s father left.”

“But they told me the business wasn’t worth anything.”

“While hiding the will from you and your daughter and setting a conclusion date for managing that money with you not around.”

I pieced over that, my mind shifting to rewrite what I’d been told. “Vanissa, his wife, implied there was no money, only debt. She said Tobi wasn’t due anything and that she was paying child support out of the business’s tiny profits, leaving almost nothing.”

“For want of a better word, I think she’s full of it,” Scarlet said. “Even if her husband didn’t leave a will, which I think incredibly unlikely, or if he didn’t name Tobi in it, under Scottish law, your daughter is entitled to something called Legal Rights. I’m not saying for sure that there’s a big claim here, but there’sabsolutely something and a share she’s due. To determine exactly what, we need more information.”

I agreed to everything Scarlet suggested and thanked her again for all she’d done for us, because she really had gone to town for someone who was at best a new friend to her daughter and at worst just a neighbour.

She accepted my gratitude, and we hung up.

I held my fingers to my mouth, not trusting myself not to sob.

So Vanissa wasn’t paying the child maintenance in error. It was legally still due. And she’d lied to me. How horrible. But also, I hadn’t pushed, so I was to blame for this, too. Acting the coward, I’d run away, not wanting to face anything and letting fear guide my actions.

But I was changing.

For the sake of my daughter, I wanted to pursue this to the ground but I still feared what they could do to us as a family. The Winchesters still had power and threats they could make. With Scarlet making enquiries on my behalf, that only invited retaliation.

Yet, backing down wasn’t an option anymore.

“All good in here?”

I raised my head to find Valentine ducking to enter the room. He approached, stopping short of touching me.

“I swear I wasnae listening, but I heard ye finish the call then ye didn’t come out. Are ye okay?”

I dropped my hands to my lap. “Maybe. No. I don’t know.”

Then I don’t know what drove me to form the words, but I said something else. “I think I just saw a little bird outside the window.”

Valentine’s eyebrows drew in. “Ye did? In the dark? Maybe it was some kind of night bird. Or a wee messenger come by to cheer ye up.”

My heart squeezed. I couldn’t manage a response.

Ariel’s bird test had been passed with flying colours by the one man who didn’t want the same as I did. What if he was wrong? What if he didn’t know?

His gaze burned into mine. “Want to talk?”

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