Page 57 of Seal My Fate

“You think the encryption key will be at their house?” I ask, thinking one step ahead.

Saint nods. “My father’s been working from home since his heart attack. He stops by the Ashford Pharma headquarters for meetings and to check up on things, but most of his day-to-day operations are still from the house in Hampstead. If this key is anywhere, it’ll be there.”

“Family dinner night… Sounds like fun.” I wince, thinking of his mother’s icy reception every other time we’ve crossed paths. “And I don’t know how I’ll be able to sit across from your father, knowing everything he’s done.”

Fraud, corruption, sending a man to murder my sister and me in cold blood… It’s not exactly happy family small talk.

“You shouldn’t come then,” Saint says immediately, but I shake my head.

“No,” I say. “You’re going to need someone to distract them, while you go search for the encryption key.”

I turn to Wren. She’s sitting there, not saying a word. “So, if everything goes smoothly, we’ll have the key tonight,” I say brightly.

“I’ll be here,” she says with a pale smile. “Where else am I going to be?”

"I’m worried about Wren,”I tell Saint, when we leave the house. He’s heading to work at Ashford HQ, and Annabelle’s been blowing up my phone about a bridal party brunch, so we’re strolling through the busy streets of London, hand-in-hand. “She’s feeling guilty, she says she wishes she’d never found the issues with the drug trials.”

I suggested spending the day together, but Wren just said she needed to take a nap.

“She’s been through a lot,” Saint says, sympathetic. “When all this is over, we’ll get her all the help she needs. The best counsellors, treatment… Whatever she needs to get back to normal. She won’t be alone.”

I nod, but now I’m feeling like the guilty one. “I spent all this time trying to avenge her death, and catch the person who attacked her, when all along, she was out there… On her own… Scared half to death. I wasn’t helping anyone by digging up the past. If anything, I made life even more dangerous for her!”

“Hey,” Saint stops, and takes me by the shoulders. “There’s plenty of blame to go around here. How about me? All this has been going on under my nose. With my father calling the shots.” His eyes darken. “You think I’m sleeping easy at night?”

“Saint, you couldn’t possibly have known!” I protest.

“And neither could you,” he points out. “Or Wren. All this was set in motion before we ever knew, by people with their own agenda, operating by their own rules.”

I nod. “It just doesn’t seem fair,” I say, sighing. “That somehow we’re the ones who have to clear up this mess.”

Saint pauses, and I see the memories on his face. “My brother, Edward, used to have this saying: ‘The only thing that matters in the world is when you’re faced with a choice: Do you do what’s easy, or what’s right?’”

“He sounds like a real buzzkill,” I tease to break the mood, and Saint grins.

“The worst.”

Doing what’s easy, versus doing what’s right…

The words resonate deep inside. I can see how Saint’s taken them to heart, too. From the start, he’s stood by me, no matter what. Because despite the fear, and drama, and pain, I have to believe we’re doing the right thing here.

Somebody has to.

“So, dinner with your parents tonight,” I say, feeling a new determination. “Can I show up in ripped fishnets and leather, and give your mom a heart attack, too?”

Saint grins. “Why not? We are aiming to distract them, after all.”

I smile. “That would be some distraction.”

My phone buzzes insistently in my pocket, and I pull it out. “Annabelle. Again.”

With everything that’s been going on, the wedding has been the last thing on my mind, but now it’s just a matter of days away. “I’m late for the champagne brunch and Botox,” I report, amused. “I’m guessing Max doesn’t have quite the same schedule of events.”

“Uh, nope,” Saint smiles. “In fact, Cyrus pulled the plug on the bachelor party. We were all going to go hunting in Poland, but he figured that was a recipe for disaster.”

“Or dismemberment,” I say with a wince.

We’re approaching Ashford Pharma now. It looks different in the daylight, with people in business suits bustling through the doors. “Do you think there’ll be any fallout from last night?” I ask, nervous.

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