“I heard their father died a couple of years back,” Dad said.
“Died?” I asked, my chest feeling tight. “When exactly did he die, Dad?”
“Er… Hold on, I’ll check my emails.” Dad grabbed his phone. “Ah yes, here it is. There was a legacy in his will to the school. Wanted the library named after him or some-such nonsense. Always was a pompous arse. Right, well, this was almost exactly two years ago.”
Two years ago was when I’d met Verity again – and had proceeded to act like an arse.
“I– I didn’t know that he’d died,” I muttered, feeling my face heat.
Images of Verity’s closed expression, the dark circles under her eyes and her stiff movements at the last meeting we had, as if she was strung so tight that the least bit of stress could tip her over the edge. Was she still grieving and the anniversary of her father’s death had brought it all up again? Christ, I’d told her to “jog on” – bragged to her that I’d shagged my teenage crush. And I’d let her go.Again. I was an idiot. I’d already let her run away from me to grieve for her father on her own two years ago, and I’d done the same just now. Since my talk with Heath I knew something wasn’t right about her family, but I hadn’t asked her the right questions.
In fact, looking back on our relationship, I realised that I hadn’t asked her many questions at all. My own parents seemed to know more about Verity’s family than I did. I’d banged on about my family to Verity for ages. She knew every last detail about them. But every single time her parents or her childhood came up in conversation she’d managed to steer attention away from it. It was clever, subtle and deft, but if I was really looking for it, if I’d bothered to be just that bit more curious about the woman I was in goddamn love with, I would have realised something was off. I would have pushed for more information. And maybe then she would have felt comfortable telling me what Markham family business was going on, instead of shutting me out.
“I’m sorry, Mum,” I said, grabbing my coat off the back of the chair and swinging it on. “But I’ve got to go.”
Mum gave me a long look before she nodded and walked across the kitchen to me to wrap me in a tight hug. When she pulled back, she studied my face for a moment.
“Be careful with that family, love,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with there. Just remember they’re different, okay? Not really our sort of people.”
Chapter20
I hope you mean that
Harry
“Max, I’ve been stuck in traffic for three hours. Can we just cut the shit? Where’s Verity?”
“Why should I tell you where Verity is?” Max’s large arms crossed over his chest as he glared at me across the office. “Seems like you’ve done enough damage there.”
“I haven’t done anything,” I retorted. Max’s eyebrows went up. “Not this time, Max, I swear. She just stopped speaking to me after that lawyer visited her at the site. Mr Crawley? Ever since then she’s cut me out. No explanation. Then I found out about her dad dying, and I thought… well, I thought maybe there’s something else going on.”
Max’s glare morphed into a concerned expression as his arms uncrossed. “Ah shit,” he muttered as he scrubbed his hands down his face. “Christ, we’ve been barking up the wrong tree.”
“What do you mean by that? Please, Max, just talk to me.”
Max sighed as he dug into his back pocket to pull out his phone. “Look, I saw you and V get into it at that meeting, and I assumed that you’d been a prick again. I thought that was why she’s retreated over the last two weeks. We’ve been waiting to tackle her about it and sort her out. We didn’t even think that…” he shook his head. “I’ve been bloody stupid.”
I frowned in real confusion now. “Why are you worried now you know it’s notmecausing the problem?”
“You don’t let these Markhams soldier on, mate,” Max snapped. “They’ve done enough of that their whole bloody lives. If it’s not you what’s pissed her off, then we’ve bigger problems.”
“What are youtalkingabout,” I semi-shouted in frustration, but Max already had his phone to his ear.
“Yaz? You spoken to V since yesterday? Heath alright? No, I don’t think London Romeo was the problem. Yeah, fucking hell is right. See what you can find out from Heath.” Max hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket before grabbing his coat off the back of his chair and making a move towards the door.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I said, spinning round to block his exit.
“Get out of my way,” he growled through gritted teeth, his hands bunching into fists at his sides. Max might have an inch or so of height on me, but if he wanted a fight, I was willing to give him one. My days of being pushed around ended at school. I’d spent enough time in the gym now to take this guy on.
“Woah, woah, woah!” a female voice cut through the testosterone fug around us as Mia came into the office. “What’s going on here?” she snapped as she stepped between us. She was holding her daughter Sophie, whom she passed to Max in order to put her hands on her hips and glare at us. The toddler defused the tension in an instant. I smiled at her but my smiled dropped when I turned back to Max.
“Max is going to explain what the fu…” I glanced at Sophie, “I mean, what the heck is going on with Verity,” I said in a carefully controlled voice.
Sophie squealed and Max struggled but failed to contain her as she launched herself at me. I caught her in my arms and settled her on my hip. Max’s eyebrows went up in surprise.
“Hey gorgeous,” I muttered, managing another smile for her as she patted my face and squeezed my cheeks together.
“What about her?” Mia asked sharply. “We could askyouthe same thing.”
