Page 46 of Overnight Inheritance

Mae made it home and checked a few rooms before she found Sarah in her favorite blue wingback.

“Hey, sweetheart,” her aunt said. “How was your dinner?”

Ducking the question for now, Mae crouched beside the chair. “I know you don’t like Christopher much, but given your complicated history, you should know that he’s had a heart attack and has been taken to hospital. Sebastian is on his way there now.”

Sarah’s eyebrows shot up, then she let out a breath. “I’m sad to hear it, but it’s been a long time since I loved, or even liked, Christopher Newport.”

“I think he loved you too,” she said, thinking back over the conversation with Sebastian. “Maybe even still does.”

Sarah smiled sadly. “Love is wanting more for the other person than you do for yourself.”

That sounded borderline unhealthy. She might not know what love was, but it couldn’t all be about giving and not looking after yourself. Sebastian had just ended things with her for his own sake, and she didn’t doubt at all that he loved her.

“Surely, that’s not true,” she said, thinking it through. “Well, maybe it is, but it’s only part of the truth. Love is more complicated than that. Heath and Freya prioritize each other, but they also prioritize themselves. That’s why they work so well together.”

Sarah tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Heath and Freya are two of the lucky ones.”

Mae moved across to a small sofa and sank into the cushions there. “Can I ask you something? It feels a bit out of line, maybe too personal.”

“You can absolutely ask.” She picked up a mug from a side table, took a sip, and replaced it. “I reserve the right to not answer, but I can’t imagine anything I won’t tell you.”

“Have you been in love with Lauren for all these years?”

Sarah stilled, her eyes going big and round like those of an owl. “That’s a strange question.”

“You’re not together, are you?” Mae asked, suddenly worried she’d put her foot in it and was talking about a relationship that they were trying to keep secret.

“Lauren and me?Of course not.” Her eyes slid to the door and back. “Why would you think that?”

“But you’re in love with her,” Mae said, even more sure. Sebastian had been the only one to see it. The kid who’d had no love in his life had grown into a man who could spot love when no one else could.

And offer it to someone as undeserving as her.

Sarah fixed her with a stern glare. “It would be very inappropriate for me, as her employer, to have feelings for her.”

“Freya told me about her father, that Lauren was the family’s housekeeper, and when they found out she was pregnant, Freya’s biological father and his wife kicked Lauren out.”

“Asshole.” Sarah scowled. “Heath fixed that situation a few months ago, though.”

“I heard that too, but also that you fixed things for Lauren at the time. Took her in when she was pregnant, gave her a job as your chauffeur, and yelled at her former boss until he agreed to pay child support for Freya.”

Sarah smiled. “Ah, that was a satisfying day.”

“And,” Mae said, bringing her point home, “that’s why you’ve never told her that you love her, isn’t it?”

Sarah opened her mouth, clearly about to deny it, and then appeared to give in. She lifted her mug and took another mouthful, this time keeping the mug in her hands. “She’s already had to put up with the advances of one boss—she certainly doesn’t need that in her life again.”

That was a reasonable position to take, except that—depending on how long it had taken them to fall in love—it might have been twenty years, maybe even twenty-five or more. That amount of pining should be illegal. Logic was the key, though. If Sarah could be swayed by pure emotion, she would have said something already.

Love is wanting more for the other person than you do for yourself.

Mae’s heart broke a little more, thinking of Sarah being in love with Lauren for most of the time that Mae had been alive, seeing her every day, and loving her so much that she’d rather Lauren was comfortable and safe in her job.

“You have a very different power dynamic between you,” Mae said, tucking her feet underneath her legs. “You’re good friends. And she’d know that if she didn’t return your feelings, her job wouldn’t be at risk.”

Sarah looked shocked. “Of course it wouldn’t be at risk.”

“Then tell her.” While her own heart was raw and bleeding, she needed to see at least one other couple finding happiness. “What have you got to lose?”

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