Page 74 of Chase

“Keep your temper, old man,” Theo growls as he gets to his feet with an angry glare, “or I’ll give you something to be trulyangry about. I would thank everyone to show Izzy the respect she never had from any of you, and as for our grandmother, she knew exactly which grandchild cared for her the most. So don’t start beingyouat a time like this!”

“Evening all, sorry, sorry, I’m late,” our family solicitor, the same one Nonna always used, comes in with a smile, staring at us all like we’re the family Robinsons. “Bloody awful traffic. I hope you don’t mind me letting myself in, Craig?”

“No, no, of course not, Grahame, do come in,” my father gestures to a seat in the center of the room where the coffee table is available for him to lay out Nonna’s will. “We were just talking about Mum. Would you like a drink?”

“No, thank you; best get to it, ay!” Grahame responds, already getting out the relevant paperwork. “Now, do I have the following people here - Wyatt, Frances, Craig, Alexandra, Matilda, Ethan, Isobel, and Theodore Chase?” He eyes each one of us, checking the room for all the people on his list. “Ah, lovely! We can begin then.”

He proceeds to talk through all the legal stuff before informing everyone that Nonna reviewed her last will and testament about a month ago. She was judged to be of a sound mind and was not placed under any duress while making her final wishes. Everyone nods as though they wouldn’t have expected anything less.

“So, to begin, ‘I, Beatrix Chase, being of sound mind, leave my property, my fifty percent shares in Chase Law and Sons, and all my worldly possessions to my granddaughter, Isobel Emily Chase.’”

Grahame announces these words to the room, his voice sounding confident throughout. The rest of us, however, all dropour mouths open with complete shock. Dad’s furious looking face turns crimson with rage; my siblings join him, whereas Alex and Wyatt turn sickly green. All of them trying to work out why Nonna would have excluded all of them from her will.

“There must be some sort of mistake, Grahame?!” My father scoffs, as though the man before him has somehow managed to forget how to do his job properly. “My mother wouldn’t have left her family out of her will, and she certainly wouldn’t have given away all of my company’s shares!”

“Didn’t you listen?” Theo pipes up. “She didn’t leave her family out of the will; she gave everything to her granddaughter.”

“And she didn’t give her shares away, she gave them to your daughter, Craig, or have you forgotten who Izzy is?” Frankie suddenly jumps up, ignoring Wyatt’s death glare.

“Yes, but, but…” my father tries to argue, though I have no idea what argument he’s trying to win here. “Isobel, explain yourself!”

The whole room looks to me for some sort of reasoning behind Nonna’s actions, however, I’ve got nothing but a head full of cloudy thoughts, all of them too dark and ominous to clear. I don’t want to look at anyone in this room, apart from the one person who is sitting by my side, holding my hand, so that’s what I do. I look up into his eyes because even though my masked self usually has something clever and witty to say, right now, I cannot think of a single thing to say.

“Let’s go,” Theo whispers and I feel so grateful, I could cry. Instead, however, I simply nod and let him pull me to my feet. I feel everyone’s penetrating gazes on both of us, though I know they’re mainly looking at me. I wait for Ethan to say something, but surprisingly, he remains tight-lipped.

“Well, we can always appeal, can’t we?” Tilly, who can always be counted on to let her mouth run away with her, says rather huffily. “Or maybe Isobel will do the right thing for once and sign the shares over to Daddy.”

Gary sort of coughs loudly beside her, his way of telling her to stop talking, but she’s about as likely to do that as I am to go over and offer my brother a big warm hug.

“She should share outthe rest of Granny’s things as well, it’s only right.”

“Matilda,” I finally say with voice I don’t recognize; it’s one of authority. “What color were Nonna’s eyes?”

“What?!” she scoffs with her arms crossed, looking at me like I’m sort of turd beneath her feet.

“What color were her eyes? Surely alovinggranddaughter should have spent more than five seconds with her to know what color her eyes were.” She tuts and looks at me with coldness, knowing that she has no clue what Nonna’s eyes were because she never bothered to get to know her. She was only ever interested when she thought Nonna had a gift for her on birthdays and Christmases, up until about the age of twelve. After that, she wasn’t interested in her at all. Something our grandmother knew well enough. “That’s what I thought. They were green, sea green.”

“Isobel, we’re going to need to talk about this,” my father tries to say in a stern tone of voice, but I refuse to face him; I can’t, not now. Tilly is nothing but an irritation to me, but him? He was supposed to be the man to protect me from evil, to keep me safe at night. Instead, he left me, ignored me, and left me time and time again to be hurt in the most brutal way possible.

“She’ll talk to you when she is ready,” Theo says with justas much authority in his voice, “and not a moment before. And please remind your son that he has a court order against my fiancée. I won’t hesitate to take action if he breaks that order. Do you understand?”

My father says nothing, but I can see Theo threatening him with his eyes alone; he looks terrifying.

“I said, do.You.Understand?” he eventually growls through his teeth.

My father must simply nod because Theo finally looks away before leading me out through the back door, collecting my fur baby and walking us back through the woods. He must have a sixth sense, because as soon as we hit that bridge, he pulls me in and allows me to let it all out. With Nonna’s empty house in the background, I cling to him, ensuring this time, no one can pull him away from me, ever.

Chapter 25

Izzy

Not much is said between Theo and me for the rest of the day. I suppose he’s giving me time to try and digest everything that has come to pass. I love him for it; I’ve lived mostly inside of my own head for the last decade or so. I need time to come to my own conclusions, even if I do have him to help now.

“Thanks,” I murmur when he hands me a cup of tea. “Did you have any idea she was going to do that?”

“Not officially, but it doesn’t exactly surprise me,” he says with a warm smile as he begins to play with my hair, a habit that he’s comfortably picked up since we got together. I hope it soothes him as much as him being here soothes me. “You were always her favorite.”

“Don’t say that!” I pat at his chest, but he simply laughs at my shocked expression.

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