My mother turned her nose up. ‘You see? Case in point. Her name is Star. I’m not judging darling, I’m sure she’s a very pleasant girl but I feel you’re being cruel to her by leading her on.’ She turned to Star. ‘I’m trying to do you a favour dear.’
I clenched my jaw and tried to breathe calmly and slow my heartrate. ‘I think we’ll be leaving now.’ I turned and pulled Star along behind me.
‘Leave him, Isobel. He no longer cares about his family,’ my father bellowed. ‘It saddens me that you’ve turned your back on us, Finlay. You’ve made your position quite clear. And to think I was hoping we could come to some arrangement over the Inveresk cottages. But you’ve clearly made your decision and chosen your place.’
I spun round to face my father. ‘What do you mean by that? I didn’t turn my back on you, it wasyouwho turned your back onme. And the cottages are nothing to do with you now. You won,remember?’
There was something that looked like sadness in his eyes, and for a split second, I felt for him.
He sighed and stepped towards me. ‘Look, I know what a big win it would be for McKendrick Law to overturn the demolition decision. Ihadbeen thinking about assisting you in making that happen. It’s time to make amends for many past wrongs. Or so I thought...’
My heart began to pound as the distraught faces of the poor Inveresk villagers sprang to mind. ‘Why would you do that?’
He reached out and gripped my shoulder. ‘Let’s just say it would be good to have you back in the fold, son.’
The wordsonfell from his lips for the first timeever,and I was dumbfounded. Stunned. My mouth opened and closed like a dying goldfish, and I stood there, just staring at him.
‘But, let’s face it, son...’ There it was again,thatword. ‘You can do much better than a scruffy, pink haired coffee server.’ His belligerent remarks slipped from his mouth with such ease and without a single thought for the woman standing beside me. I couldn’t get over his audacity. But he wasn’t done. ‘If you really are determined not to reconcile with Elise, we can introduce you to someone else. Someone Scottish and more suited to your status as a Hunter. Think of the future, Finlay. Your mother and I love you dearly, and we just want the best for you. I’m... I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that sooner, son.’
Love? Did he just profess to love me too? Shit. Is this happening?
He placed both hands on my shoulders and looked directly into my eyes.I was suddenly so overcome with emotion at the sincerity reflected at me that his words were no longer registering in my brain. No other words were getting through except the ones where he said he loved me. It had been a long time coming, and now it had happened, I was shell-shocked.
He squeezed me gently. ‘She’s not right for you, Finlay. Don’t you see that? Your mother and I could help you find the right girl.We’re the ones who matter. Us. Your family.Weare the ones who love you. If you love us, Finlay, just say the words and all this can be forgotten. We’ll be a family again. We’ll move past this nonsense; All the silly ideas about singing and working for my rival; the rebellious streak that led you to being with the utterly wrong woman. We can put it down to experience and move forward with all that in the past.Allthe bad decisions. You’d be back in my will and you’d get the inheritance that’s rightfully yours. Just say you still love us Finlay. We love you and want you back in our lives. Canyoufind the words to put it all behind us?’
I’d had champagne, yes but here he was,my father, telling me he loved me and wanted what was best for me. I had waited mywhole lifeto hear those words. Yet I couldn’t react right away. His words were rattling around my head but it took a while for them to sink in. I wondered if they were true or just a ploy to get his way again. Why couldn’t I speak? Why couldn’t I tell him to stick it? Why couldn’t I tell him that I was in love with Star? That I didn’t care about inheritance or the family business, nor did I care about a so-called family who couldn’t accept the woman I loved. But I couldn’t form a sentence; such was the shock of the whole situation.
‘Say you love us, Finlay, that’s all it will take to make this all right again,’ my mother pleaded.
My heart beat so hard at my ribs and I swallowed, trying to dislodge the ball of pain and emotion in my throat. ‘Of course I… I love you.’ It was more a statement of the obvious. I loved them but didn’t have to like them or what they stood for. I shook my head, a little blindsided by everything when I heard a sob, and Star yanked herself free from me and ran. In my trance like stupor, I watched her go.
What just happened?
42
Star
I pulled the stupid high-heeled shoes from my feet and began to sprint.The evening air was cold in spite of it being June, and it chilled my hot skin as I ran. The drizzle in the air soaked through my clothes but I didn’t care. I just had to get away.
Fin had more or less just agreed to let me go so he could be a pawn in his father’s game all over again. All he’d had to do was tell his father he loved him and I would be forgotten. I had almost thrown up when I’d heard him say the words. I knew he loved his parents in spite of their ridiculous manipulation. They were his parents. But oh how it hurt the way his father had used the words ‘I love you’ like a weapon of mass destruction. And Fin had been the one with his finger on the button. As easily and quickly as that, I had been cast aside.
My vision was blurred by not only the rain that was falling much heavier now, but the relentless tears streaming down my face. I stopped briefly to wipe my eyes on the hem of my dress and then began to run again. Once I reached a place that was far enough away from the Balmoral that I could be sure no one would have followed me, I stopped and pulled out my cell phone. With shaking hands, I hit the speed dial for my best friend in the hope that he would answer quickly.
Thankfully, he did. ‘Twinkle, sweetie. How’s the big night going? What are you doing ringing me? Shouldn’t you be dancing and drinking champers?’
I could hear someone in the background murdering an old Bon Jovi track and knew he was at DeBasement.
I tried to calm my breathing. ‘Alec,’ I sobbed. ‘Alec, I need you. It was... it was awful. I feel such an idiot. It’s over. We’re over.’
‘Shit. Where are you? I’m coming to get you.’
I sniffled and swiped at the moisture round my eyes. ‘Princes Street. By the Scott monument.’
‘Okay. Stay out of sight. It’s bloody busy in town tonight, and you don’t need drunken yobs trying to help you. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’
He hung up, and I walked to the top of the Scott Monument steps in the shadows of the arches where I could avoid being seen by the revellers of the city.
Fin’s wide-eyed stare tortured me over and over. Why didn’t he tell his dad he lovedme? Why didn’t he say he wasn’t prepared to letmego regardless of how much money he threw at him? Regardless of the bribe about the cottages? Regardless of the long overdue profession of love? He told me helovedme so why couldn’t he tell them he wasn’t going to abandon me for them that way? How could he let them talk about me like that and just give in? He had agreed to their terms simply by saying those three words to the man who had belittled and hurt him over and over. And just like that, I was betrayed. My heart shattered into a million pieces as I curled my knees up to my chest and rested my head down, letting the salt-water flow freely all over the beautiful, expensive fabric of my dress.
