Page 49 of Behind These Four Walls
She shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me.” She cast him a sidelong glance, noting how he gripped the sides of the golf cart like he was holding on for dear life. She pressed the gas to give him a little more excitement. He bared his teeth, and that satisfied her. That was for the times he’d acted like she didn’t exist.
She asked, “Why were you looking for me?”
“Because Holl asked me to. She said you were probably avoiding the house because of her mother and maybe me.” He mumbled the last part. “She said I haven’t been hospitable.”
“Well, they don’t call you the Ice Prince for nothing,” Isla told him.
His brow arched, but he didn’t respond. Isla paid attention to their every turn, determined to learn the ins and outs of this place so she could move easily. How well did he know the layout of his own home? If she got them lost, would he be able to find their way back? They were about to see.
“Why’s that?” she pressed. “I don’t think you’re trying to hide how uninterested you are in being here. You even went into the military right after high school to get away.”
“I wanted to experience life outside all of this.”
“But you came back.”
“Because this is my family and they needed me.” His tone made Isla take her eyes off the road because he sounded so resolute and determined.
“But you act as if you can’t be bothered with what goes on around here. Dixon is more invested than you are, and he’s not even related. And you let your brother get away with a lot too. He struts around the place like he’s the eldest and like he’s going to be the next CEO.”
“He probably is,” Myles said simply.
She slowed the cart to a stop right in the middle of the path. Ahead of them was a large lake mirroring the moon. It rippled from the insects and fish in it.
“You all even have a lake,” she mused, shaking her head in wonder. She got back to business. Understanding the dynamics of these people was critical to figuring out how Eden fit or didn’t fit, according to James.
“Why not fight for it yourself? Why are you content being where you are, running Special Projects and Research and Asset Management?”
He was silent for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. Finally, he said, “Because Bennett wants it. And some things aren’t worth the fight. I think we’ve lost enough because of sibling rivalry and competition.”
His words were calm but carried a weight that pulled at her. There was so much more in those few lines he’d spoken. Deeper, more hurtful things.
“That’s vague. And depressing.” His only reply was to continue looking out at the rippling lake. “It seems to me only one sibling is competing. Now your sister has been estranged for years.”
The mention of Eden lit a fire under him, and he spun on her, making her jump back and get ready to run from the golf cart. Had she said something offensive? Was he going to get as weird as James had?
“That’s exactly why I’m not going to enlist in some epic battle for my father’s position. We already lost one sister. I don’t want us to lose anyone else.”
“Lost her,” Isla repeated slowly. “Lost her how? Like she’s-off-grid-and-damning-the-whole-family-to-hell kind of lost? Or dead-and-gone kind of lost?”
The sadness in Myles’s face made Isla want to reach out and touch him, but she held herself back. She didn’t trust herself around him.
“The last time I saw Edie, she was in school and loving her theater club. Then, when I was in the service, she disappeared. My father found out her mother had died. Edie left this letter denouncing the family and saying that we’d never see her again. We haven’t. For my father’s sake I hope she is out there in the Bahamas or Montenegro or the Maldives, living life as freely as she wants. But the reality is we’d have heard something by now. Her trusts haven’t been touched. There is no financial trail for her. No pings on ID, nothing. If she has any money, it’s money her mother saved for her that my father isn’t in control of. But we can’t share those thoughts with my father. The only thing he has to hold on to is the belief that she’s just too angry to deal with him. That’s why her room remains the same as it was the day she left for Daytona. It’s the room of a high school girl.”
Eden’s room. She had to get inside it.
“But why would she be angry? What made her leave here in the first place?”
“I’ll leave that question for the old man to answer when you interview him.” He looked at his watch, which had lit up, an Apple like those of the staff.
“Are you being summoned like one of the staff?” she said incredulously.
He scoffed. “One of us has to be, right? Since you refused yours. I need to get back to the house, so let me drive? You’re like a little old lady, except that time you tried to scare me earlier.”
He got them back in record time. In Isla’s opinion the ride was too quick. There was much more she wanted to know about Myles Corrigan beyond Victor or Eden. He had spent all his time wrapping himself up in a nearly impenetrable cocoon. Why?
As they neared her stop, Isla ventured, “Now that we’ve had a nice conversation, could you be a little nicer to me? Maybe melt some of that ice so they call you Slushy instead of Ice Prince?”
He gave her a pitiful look. “That wasn’t funny.”