Page 30 of Tormented Heir

“Well then, bug, you need to clean those gnashers.”

He frowns. “What’s gernashis?”

I laugh. “Gnashers. Teeth. Maybe that’s a British word. Come on.” I ruffle his hair and then take his hand.

After I help him brush his teeth, I read him a story. He snuggles into me, and his hair smells of coconut.

Sleepily he mumbles, “I love you, Dreenana.” It’s how he says my name, and it always makes my heart melt.

“I love you too, bug.”

He snuggles deeper, and I hold him to me. Soon, his warm little body grows heavy against my side, and I stand, pulling the covers over his shoulders.

As I walk to my room, I pause outside Hana’s door. I listen but can’t hear anything. Is she passed out in there?

Once in my room, I throw myself on the bed and try not to worry.

I check my weather app and see tomorrow is going to be a nice day. I might call my friend Raine and see if she fancies a day at the beach. She’s the only friend I’ve managed to make here. Thinking about friends has me missing my one friend from England. My bestie. Sian. The girl who stuck with me through university. We met during Freshers week and have been best friends since. We didn’t share lectures as she studied art history, but we’d spend as much time together out of studying as we could. She wants to be an art historian and already has a great gig at a London museum two days a week.

The time over there is late evening. She might still be up, so I message her. I get an immediate reply.

Facetime me, Specs.

It’s her nickname for me, and it isn’t a cruel one. It’s because she was going through my drawers one day and found my collection of glasses from childhood, including some super fun ones in the shape of horses. She thought they were awesome, and I gave her a pair with fairy wings on them. “Thanks, Specs,” she’d said, and it stuck.

I call her on the tablet immediately.

Her happy face beams at me over the distance. “Hey, Specs, how goes it?”

“Ugh,” is my reply.

“That bad?”

“I hate my stepmother,” I whisper dramatically.

“You should come and live here. Daddy says you can.”

We bonded because we both had something terrible in common. We had both lost our mothers although her mother died when she was young. Her father isn’t like mine, though. He’s attentive. Kind. He’s also incredibly wealthy. I’ve never seen anything like how Sian lives. Her home is literally a stately mansion. It’s in the history books, and they say Queen Victoria stayed there as a girl. Sian’s father, Barnaby, is handsome as well as rich. He’s in his late forties, and a silver fox if ever I’ve seen one.

He began to treat me like a second daughter. Hugging me the way he did Sian, giving us both spending money for treats when we went out for the day. Warning us about boys. He even bought me some clothes the way he did for her. I used to fantasize sometimes that he was my dad for real, and then I’d feel incredibly guilty.

“I can’t sponge off you guys, but I will make a deal with you. If I manage to get a job back in England, I’ll stay if you let me pay rent. I won’t come out there until then, though.” Could I smuggle Cade out of the country? Probably not, but it’s a nice fantasy.

She mock pouts. “But I miss, you. Daddy does too. He says it isn’t the same just us two rattling around here. The holidays when it was the three of us were so happy.”

They were.

“You are still coming in a couple of months, aren’t you?” she demands.

We had arranged it a while ago, and she’d made me swear that no matter what I would keep the date, but with how things are with Cade and my stepmom, I don’t know if I dare leave him alone here that long. My face must show my hesitation as she shakes her head.

Her face darkens as if a huge storm cloud has passed over her. She can be scary when she wants something. “Specs,” she warns. “You swore you would. Daddy has gone to lots of expense for when you arrive.”

Oh, crap. That makes it hard for me to change my plans.

“Who are you talking to?” Barnaby Kane’s smooth tones drift through the ether.

“It’s Specs, Daddy. Come and say hi.”

---