Page 31 of Tormented Heir

“Adriana!” His face appears next to his daughter’s. “My darling girl, how are you?”

“I’m fine, Mr. Kane.”

“Barnie, please. I’ve said it enough times.” He smiles at me, then his smile drops from his face. “Adriana, you don’t look well. You’re paler than usual. Thinner, too. Are you eating? Are you sick?”

“Daddy, such a worrywart.” Sian rolls her eyes.

“I’m a bit fed up, but I’ll be okay. I miss you guys. I miss England.”

“You must come and stay. You should live with us if you’re missing it here. My God, what is the point of a thirty-bedroom house and only two people?” He smiles again. “Your room is ready. We kept it as it was; didn’t we, Sian?”

“We did. And every time Daddy buys me clothes now, he buys you some too. They’re in your wardrobe here.”

I smile, but that’s a bit weird if I’m being honest. Still, they’re aristocrats and terribly eccentric. Some of their friends are mad as hatters.

“You know, I understand,” Barnaby says. “You’re striking out on your own. But you must come for that visit you promised us. Otherwise, we’ll be very cross, won’t we darling?” he addresses his daughter.

“Very,” she confirms.

“I need to find work,” I say. “Maybe if I can’t make it when we arranged, I can come in the winter..”

“Winter?” He is aghast, and I can’t help my smile at his forlorn expression. “No, that won’t do. Things are ready for you here. Anyway, I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you before then, you can’t stay away from us forever.”

Not sure what he means, I smile at him fondly. He really is eccentric and a bit mad, but in the best way. He’s how I imagine the hot professors in the romance books I read to be, except he’s a baron or earl or some such and richer than the King.

“Bugger, the house phone is going. Do excuse me, girls.”

He wanders out of sight, and I hear the door close.

“Darling,” Sian says sternly as her father ambles off. “We really do need you here. I can’t bear it alone with Daddy. He’s so stuffy, but I can’t leave and move to London full time because he’d go to ruin.”

“Well, me being there wouldn’t change that.”

“You could live here, be his personal assistant.” She bursts out laughing. “We have a huge library. You could curate his books and give him supper, and I could come back on the weekends. We could have such a happy time.”

“I’ll think about it,” I say, knowing that I won’t. Not while things are so bad here.

I hope to visit them, but I can’t live with them despite at times fantasizing about it. Even if they charged me rent, and I felt like I wasn’t being cheap and taking from them, it wouldn’t work out in the long run. One day Sian will meet someone and marry. Barnaby will probably fall in love again too, and then I’d be on my own once more. I’m an outsider as much as they try to make me feel like one of them. I also find their aristocrat friends quite overwhelming, and they do like to host impromptu parties, which stresses me out. There’s also Cade to think about. I can’t leave him here alone while I go and live the high life in a mansion in England.

For a moment, I let myself imagine that I tell them how bad it is here, and Barnaby sends his private plane for me and Cade and smuggles us out of the country. Maybe he could keep us, hiding us both in his veritable castle. He might marry me one day and adopt Cade. I laugh at myself and my flights of fancy. It would be funny … if it wasn’t so desperate. I’m a grown adult. I can’t go looking for some man to save me. I must do it on my own, and help Cade out, too. I’ll find a way. I’m resourceful enough, I tell myself.

My call over, I decide to snuggle up in my room and read.

The pages of the horror book have me awake far later than usual, and that’s why I hear my stepmother talking at around three in the morning. I frown. Is she chatting with Dad? I strain to listen, and my heart kicks against my ribs when I hear her panicked tone.

Has something happened to Dad?

Sliding out from under the covers, I silently open my door and sneak down the hallway. Their bedroom door is slightly ajar, the triangle of light on the hallway carpet illuminating my way as I creep closer.

“Tell Dorian I will have it soon.” There’s a long beat of silence. Then she lets out a small sob. “I can’t; I don’t have it. Ali, please, we’re family.”

Ali? The guy from the other day?

“It’s too much money. I can’t sell the house; you know that. The bastard left it in trust for Cade. I’m utterly screwed if you don’t give me more time.”

Another long bout of silence and then another sob and a sniff. “I can’t. I will go to jail if anyone finds out.” She keeps on sniffling, and I picture her red eyes and nose. “Do you promise? No one will ever know it was me?”

What is she going to do? Is this something to do with Cade? The urgency to get out of this house and try to find a way to get Cade help grows within me. I know it won’t be easy. I won’t be able to just adopt him, but at least he could come stay with me frequently, and maybe Hana would grow bored enough of him to let him live with me.

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