Page 52 of Grand Love

“Please!” I plead, not bothering to wipe my tears, knowing I must look ridiculous.

He huffs and pulls out onto the road. I twist in the seat to find the Audi following right behind us.

“Where to?” the driver asks me, bored.

I swipe at my cheeks, feeling like the vilest human on earth for using it against him. “Lowerwick Estate.”

* * *

There’ssomething so peaceful about the dead. Maybe it’s the quiet that surrounds me as I sit between the two headstones amongst Ellis’s garden. Or maybe it’s the unknown of what awaits us all. It could be anything really—we’ll never know until it’s our turn. But from my spot right now, with the sun on my face and the smell of fresh lavender blanketing me in the breeze, it seems like the most tranquil place on earth. I only ever come out here with Scarlet or Ellis, but today, when I realised that Scarlet was working and wouldn’t be home for a while, I knew this is where I’d wait.

There’s safety in silence.

Mason Lowell is so damn loud. A man of many words—yes. Yet his presence, his ability to consume my thoughts and drive my fears, smothers me. My anger towards him in the hotel was raging, so pent up from seven months of no contact, that when I rushed through the door and asked what he was doing, I said it with so much conviction, you’d think he was mine.

I feel stupid.

He isn’t mine.

And yet he stood in front of me. He stood up for me, held my face in his hands and told me with his eyes that it was okay.

“Why can’t this be easy?” I say aloud, looking up at the cloudless sky, then back to Ellis’s grave on my left. “He’s so difficult but so perfect. It’s impossible.” I sigh, dropping back to the grass so I’m lying flat. “It’s not that I don’t want anyone else to have him. He deserves to have someone. It’s just… I don’t know—”

“This is super weird.”

I startle and sit up, coming face-to-face with Elliot. “Ell, hey!”

He dips his head to the side, reading me as if he can see every page that plagues me. “You okay?”

The girls are good for a lot of things, but I’ve grown close to Elliot this past year. His love for my son and the way he’s stuck by me through everything isn’t something I will ever forget.

I nod my head, taking his outstretched hand and slipping into his open arms as he pulls me up.

“Mase called me. Said you lost your job,” he says into my hair. “What happened?”

“I thought he was meeting the stripper. The one from the photos. I walked in on his meeting.”

“What?” Elliot retorts. “You mean Jasmine?”

I want to be sick. “Her name’s Jasmine?”

“It’s not what you think. He’s helping her.”

“Helping himself more like.” I pop a brow, stepping away from him and walking towards the house.

“Mason’s never been with her. It really isn’t what you think. You two need to talk it out. It’s time,” Elliot tells me as he falls into step beside me, making our way through the iron gate.

“Don’t defend him, Ell, please.”

“He’s mad at you still. He doesn’t admit it, but he is.”

“I know.”

“And you know he never slept with her—”

“I thought that was the truth, but then I saw the invoice with Vinny’s name on it. I had photos delivered to me with her in his lap. You think it’s easy for me to believe that nothing has happened when all I get is reasons not to?”

“You had photos delivered to you, Nina.” He looks down at me, knowingly. “It’s bullshit. He was set up and—”

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