Page 177 of The Grand Duel

He pops a brow and swallows, readjusting in the seat and starting the engine.

I get the sense he’s a little wary of my mood.

“I’ve booked us a table at Kings Blu,” he says, clearing his throat.

I smile. “I’ve never been.”

“No?” he says with a frown.

“I know, it’s beenthe placefor the last decade.” I cup my hands in my lap and lean my body into the centre console. “My parents went a lot when we were growing up. Jerry Lee James actually cooked for us at home a few years back. So, I’ve technically eaten JLJ food.”

“Wait. You had Jerry Lee James at your house?”

I nod, watching him. “It was Jove’s sixteenth birthday, and Mum had planned this evening with Kerry and Joseph Waterhouse—you’ve heard of their story, I’m sure…”

“Money laundering, wasn’t it?”

“Yep. My parents tried to help them during that.” I shake my head. “Idiots. Anyway, Jerry had come over to cook for this sit-down ‘we’re a happy perfect family’ meal, and my sister came home drunk. It was like, seven o’clock, and she could barely stand.”

Charles winces.

I bite my lip and smile, remembering my mother’s face. “She ended up tossing a piece of bluefin tuna at my dad’s face.” I snort. “Jerry was fucking mortified but not as mortified as my mother. I actually thought she might die that night.”

“Why did she do that?” he says, smiling as if my own is infectious.

“She had these friends at the time that weren’t all that good for her,” I say in explanation. “She was a teenager, and my dad had sat her down that morning and told her she could go to the office with him for the day. Learn the ropes.” I shake my head, my smile still there despite how much I know it hurt Jovie. I guess it is laughable. “She told them for years she wanted to work in medicine, that she would be a vet, or a doctor. But they wanted for her what they wanted for me—their life.”

“And you didn’t want that?”

“You couldn’t pay me to live life like they did.” I screw my nose up when he looks at me. “They’re as out of touch as it gets.”

“You’re not, though. How did you stay so grounded?”

I shrug, not one hundred percent certain that I am. “You could say that the perfect, happy family my mum wore on every page of every magazine wasn’t real. Once, it was. Before. I was six when my grandfather passed away, and Mum inherited the company.” I contemplate his question knowing I’ve gone off track. “My parents didn’t just succeed and grow out of touch with the world. They grew out of touch with us, too.”

He looks between me and the road. “I’m sorry, Lissie.”

I shrug. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” I purse my lips, my chest squeezing at the words.

“Do you see them at all anymore?”

I dip my head, my heart aching at the thought of Jovie being with them right now. “No. They call, and I ignore it.” Guilt gets the better of me, and I grip my bag tighter in my lap. “SometimesI do listen to whatever it is my mum is working through. Rarely, but I do.” I shrug. “She has a therapist now.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“I guess so. I’d have preferred she found one ten years ago, though. Or maybe one for her daughter when she got pregnant at sixteen.”

He frowns, nodding. “Jovie was pregnant that year. The year she threw the tuna.”

“Uh-huh. She was spiralling and just…had enough.” I stare at the side of his face, not wanting to tap into why it’s so easy telling him about this. “I think because I remember my parents before Elton Chocolates, I had hope.” His jaw tightens, and I pause, wondering what he must think of me. “They weren’t always awful. The company got bigger once Dad got his hands on it, and things got hard to balance. They just lost sight of what probably should have mattered more. We went from beach trips and slow Sunday mornings to being told to sit a certain way and to always be the smartest person in any room.”

I frown at the memory of my dad telling me that line.

“But I wasn’t the smartest. I’d fidget and say stupid things to get attention at the functions they’d choose to take me to. And once Jovie was big enough to open her mouth and embarrass them further, they stopped taking us altogether. We were left alone some evenings whilst they’d attend, the staff long gone home and believing we were with our parents. Thankfully they eventually saw the light, and we were put into boarding school. I guess in the hope that one day we’d sit and think the way they wanted us to.”

“What do you mean they left you on your own?”

I blink, not realising I’d divulged so much. I shouldn’t…I can’t tell him about that. Can I? “It wasn’t often or for long,” I lie, dipping my head. “Just the odd occasion, and I was old enough to look after Jovie.”

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