Her mother made a small sound, and covered her mouth with her fingertips.
Allie took grim satisfaction from that.
‘I’m lucky to be alive. And I might not be for long if we don’t win this thing. So don’t tell me what Lucinda wanted or didn’t want.’ She took a breath. ‘I think I know better than you.’
Her mother opened her mouth to argue but her father cut her off.
‘Hang on.’ He held out his hands. ‘Let’s just stop there. Fighting won’t get us anywhere. Besides, this is a funeral, remember?’ He turned to Allie. ‘Alyson.’ His voice was steady. ‘We know this is a terrible day, and we don’t want to make it worse. Your mother just wanted you to know that we are aware of what’s happening here, on some level. We’re worried about you. And that… well. We’re here if you ever need us.’
He was talking to her almost like a grownup and, for once, Allie was grateful for his unerring calm.
‘Thanks, Dad,’ she said. ‘I appreciate that. I love you guys, too.’
He gave her a sad smile.
We would hug now, Allie thought, if we were a normal family.
‘There’s something else you should know,’ he said. ‘Lucinda’s lawyers have been in touch about the will.’
Allie flinched. She didn’t care about money or Lucinda’s belongings. None of that mattered. She’d give every penny to have her grandmother back.
But she knew that wasn’t what her father wanted to hear.
‘Fine.’ She shrugged. ‘Let me know what they say.’
‘That’s the thing,’ he said. ‘They didn’t want to talk to us. They want to talk to you.’
She blinked. ‘Me? Why would they want to talk to me?’
‘We think she must have left something to you. Or at least mentioned you in her papers.’ Her mother’s voice was calmer now. Her anger seemed to have dissipated. ‘We gave them the phone number here and told them to contact Isabelle. But we only received the call this morning and with everything that’s happening today, she probably hasn’t had a chance to speak with them.’
‘We’ll mention it to Isabelle as well,’ her father said. ‘They seemed rather urgently interested in contacting you. I suppose Lucinda owned several companies and was on the boards of numerous corporations. Her affairs will be complicated.’
By now, Allie was eager for this conversation to end. She wondered what the others were doing downstairs. Where Sylvain was.
‘Fine,’ she said shortly. ‘I’m sure Isabelle can handle it. Should we go back down, now?’
‘Alyson.’ Her mother took a step towards her. ‘We want you to be safe. That’s all that matters to us. I don’t like seeing you so caught up in Lucinda’s world. It was this I tried to protect you from.’ She gestured at the building around them – the crystal chandelier, the marble statues, the towering windows. ‘Now I feel as though it’s sucked you in.’
Allie bit back the angry words she wanted to say.
She hated that her instinctive reaction to anything her mother said was to fight.
But she also hated how little her parents knew her.
‘I know,’ she said gently. ‘And thank you for that. But this is where I belong. I’d rather be here than be safe.’
She turned towards the stairs. Then she thought of the one thing she really wanted to say to them.
She stopped and looked back.
‘One more thing. Please don’t call me Alyson anymore. My name is Allie.’
‘I can’t eat another bite.’ Nicole pushed her plate away. ‘I don’t know why I ate so much. I wasn’t hungry to start with.’
Next to her, Zoe had made a ‘cakewich’ of chocolate and Victoria sponge slices stacked together.
‘If I have any more sugar,’ she said hopefully, ‘maybe my pancreas will explode.’
Rachel smiled. ‘It’s good to have goals.’
The party was winding down. Students had begun drifting to the common room. Some of the more famous guests had already departed, their Jaguars and Audis purring down the drive.
Sylvain stood in a corner of the room near the fireplace, talking to Lucas and Katie. Allie’s eyes lingered on him. Despite everything, she was so glad he was here. She felt safer when he was around.
As if he’d felt her gaze, he looked up. Their eyes met across the room.
Allie’s stomach flipped.
She didn’t understand herself. Would there always be this thing between them? It was a kind of electricity. As if their wires were connected in some inexplicable way.
What had happened with Carter – the decision she’d made – it didn’t erase her history with Sylvain. She knew what it was like to be held in those arms. To be kissed by that mouth.
When you’ve been that close to someone, how do you just… forget that? Is there a way to shift gears from tearing each other’s clothes off on the roof to being friends?
If there is, she thought, watching his smooth, dangerous long stride, I haven’t figured it out yet.