Page 20 of Behind These Four Walls
Holland rolled her eyes. “Like you’d ever agree to chatting up a bunch of college kids. You’re not the most chatty outside the boardroom, and the students would probably annoy you.”
Isla was surprised at Holland’s frankness in front of company. She watched Victor for his reaction, expecting him to have a volcanic-size eruption because of the short fuse and no-nonsense attitude people said he had. He didn’t meet her expectations, laughing as if Holland had delivered the funniest line. It caught Isla off guard because she hadn’t found one photo of him where he was anything but serious. It must be Holland who brought out his softer side, something Isla hadn’t thought he had, not if he was the unfair ogre Eden had made him out to be. Maybe he was different with his employees than with family. Maybe that was why the image Eden had created and the man Isla observed now with his daughter were starkly different.
Holland said, “Well, it’s true. You don’t have the patience to sit around and answer a bunch of college kids’ questions, so you’d be intolerable. Dixon, back me up.”
The three of them looked as Victor’s second weighed his words.
“Dixon,” Victor warned teasingly.
Dixon replied, “I would say Holland is accurate in her analysis of your behavior if asked to speak with students. And you have received many offers to speak, be interviewed, or be the subject of a thesis and so forth. We just don’t push them up to you.”
Victor grunted like he was unsure if he liked that. “How do you know I wouldn’t do it if you didn’t ask?”
Dixon, with all the seriousness in the world, replied, “Because I know you, sir.”
“At any rate, still let me know. I value education. Even if I say no a hundred times, I want to know what’s coming in. One day I may say yes.”
Dixon nodded, instruction received, but his expression said he had no intention of following through with that. Dixon probably knew Victor way better than he knew himself.
Victor’s attention was back on Holland, who was catching him up about the wallet and Isla bringing it. Isla only added a few responses to his questions, feeling the weight of his judgment even in his brief moments of levity.
“Good Samaritan times two,” he said, his tone back to cursory politeness. It wasn’t his daughter he was speaking to but a stranger who’d appeared in his relative orbit twice. “Sorry for your trouble.”
Isla brushed it off. “Wasn’t any,” she lied. It was plenty. All day waiting until the right time. The nearly hour-long drive back up the big-ass hill. The even longer ride it would take to get back down and to her temporary housing, just to hope there would be another opportunity for her to get in and stay in. The only person who seemed to want Isla around was Holland, and she wasn’t sure that was enough.
They were interrupted by the faint jingle of jewelry approaching as Brooke Corrigan entered. The quick click of her designer heels on the marble floor spoke of impatience and annoyance. She was deep in conversation with a tall man with dark hair and piercing blue eyes that looked like they didn’t miss a thing. Isla didn’t need to search her memory too deeply to connect a name with the face. The guy was Jackson Russell, maybe mid-fifties and the lawyer for the Bennett & Corrigan Foundation, which Brooke had founded twenty years ago.
From what Isla remembered, Jackson had started working for Brooke’s father’s company right after college, until she married Victor at twenty-three and joined the Corrigan Group. Then he worked under the Corrigan Group, quickly rising up the ranks and eventually becoming the lawyer for the Bennett & Corrigan Foundation, which Brooke had established as a new arm beneath the corporation. Jackson pulled out a pack of gum, slid out a foiled piece, and popped it in after he’d unwrapped it.
“Darling,” Brooke said to Victor. She moved close to him but not enough to touch. “Donna and I were trying to plan for the Man of the Year award you’re getting soon. If I could have some time to go over the details with you?”
Victor said, “Check my schedule with Dixon and Mae to see if something’s open. I don’t want a big event. They really can just mail the plaque, or whatever they’re giving me, and we can avoid wasting money on a party to show it off.”
Brooke let out a deep sigh, and in it, Isla could sense there was a lot going on. Even his wife had to make an appointment just to talk. Isla nearly felt bad for her until Brooke’s attention landed on her, her eyes narrowing in a way Isla didn’t particularly like.
“You’re the one who assisted Holland,” she stated through a polite smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Her tone dripped with skepticism. “How’d you come to be here?”
Isla kept her expression neutral, but registered the rude question as well. She was about to answer when Victor spoke up for her, informing his wife that Holland had left her keys and Isla had been gracious enough to return them. They should be thankful. It was a clear warning from him to her to be nice.
Brooke swallowed down whatever comment she wanted to make, her gaze flickering to Holland, then back to Isla. She managed another thin smile. “Very kind of you to return her keys.” She turned back to Holland. “Did you check that you have everything?”
Holland blinked back her surprise, stammering, “Mother?”
“Nothing’s missing, right? Donna, maybe we should have the locks changed, just in case. You understand, of course,” Brooke said, like she wasn’t making implications toward Isla.
Isla reined in her irritation, refusing to show she’d been affected by the slight in any way. She wouldn’t give Brooke Corrigan the satisfaction.
“It would be pretty dumb of me to make a copy of someone’s keys, hand deliver them to the owner in her heavily guarded home where everyone can identify me, and then break into her dorm afterward,” Isla said.
Brooke’s manicured fingers curled, and Isla believed that if she could, the woman would kick her out on her ass. She looked like shewanted to rip Isla’s face off. She was about to say something back when one of the kitchen staff called for dinner.
“Holland, honey, why don’t you call for a car to take Isla home? It’s getting late, and I’m sure she has things to do.”
Isla shook her head. “No, not really.” The way Isla had timed it, she’d hoped to arrive around this time, and most appreciative people would offer a meal to a stranger who had gone out of her way for one of theirs.
Holland was back at her side, arm looping through Isla’s. She announced that Isla would stay for dinner. “That’s fine with you, right, Dad? You’ll stay right, Isla?”
Isla agreed quickly, much to Brooke’s chagrin. She wasn’t sure how she’d offended Brooke so quickly or why Brooke was acting so territorial.