Page 111 of Kiwi Gold

“You didn’t have to,” she said. “I found out for myself.” She addressed Peter, then. “You need to make this right. You’ve hurt our son. How badly?” she asked me.

“Badly enough,” Laila said, which I could’ve done without.

“Make it right,” Mum told Peter. “Today.”

“I can’t.” His voice was sullen now. I knew that voice, too. The victim. “What can I do? All right, I may have misspoken a bit about Lachlan, but I—”

“If you don’t ring Abdulaziz and tell him what you did,” Mum said, “you won’t be invited to anything else, ever. You won’t see your grandchildren. You won’t be at the next wedding.”

“You won’t be the one deciding that,” he said. “Liana will, or Lexi.” He didn’t say “Lachlan,” I noticed.

“And I won’t invite you,” Lexi said. “Not that I’m going to get married,” she had to add, because Lexi couldn’t take anything seriously. “Catch me taking allthison. No, thanks. I could have a baby, though, and no, Dad, you can’t do this.” She looked at Liana, finally. “It’s your turn.”

“I …” Liana said. “I …”

Her sisters looked at her. Mum looked at her.Ilooked at her. As for Laila, she looked like she wanted to slap her. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, not from the gentlest person I’d ever known.

Amira said, “What’s wrong with that lady?”

“She knows she has to say something she doesn’t want to say,” Laila said, and her face lost the anger. “It’s hard,” she told Liana, “when your faith in somebody isn’t justified, and you have to face that. It’s brutal, giving up your belief. I know.”

“How do you know?” Lexi asked.

“Because I’m Kegan Ashford’s widow,” Laila said.

Silence, until Lexi said, “Holyshit.I guess you do know.”

Liana took a breath, and I honestly wondered what she’d do. “Run out in tears” looked like the most likely prospect. Instead, she said, “You have to fix it, Dad. And I’m sorry,” she told Laila. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I was just trying to keep Dad in the loop. I was just—”

“I know,” Laila said. “It came from a loving place. I see that.”

She thought she wasn’t the woman her mum had been, and I thought, here in the garden her mum had designed, standing before the house her mum had created for her family, that her mum would have been nothing but proud if she could see her daughter today. Strong and loyal, so hardworking, and kind all the way to her bones.

Stalwart.

Peter said, “All right, then. I’ll ring up. Satisfied?”

“We’ll all sit with you to do it,” Lark said. “That’ll be best. All four of us, and Lachlan, too.” Because he’d slide out of it otherwise, she meant. Lark wasn’t a lawyer for nothing. I didn’t even mind that she’d volunteered me.

“It’s five-thirty in the morning in Riyadh now,” Larissa said, which was the kind of thing Larissawouldknow. “We’ll come to your house in two and a half hours,” she told Dad. “At …” She looked at her watch. “Six.”

“Dinnertime,” Frank, her husband, said. “You’ll need your rest after all this.”

“Stop,” Larissa said. It was more of a snap, really. “Just stop. This is important. It’s myfamily.”

“Whoa.” That was Lexi, of course. “The worm turns.”

I said, “I’ll drive you home, Dad. And stay with you until then.”

Mum said, “Thank you, Lachlan.” The self-control was deserting her, I saw, the inner tremble more evident now. Liana was crying, finally, and Lark came forward and put her arm around her. That was good, then.

Peter said, “I don’t need your help. I can drive.”

“If you’re drunk,” Amira said, “you’re not supposed to drive.”

“Yes,” Yasmin said. “It’s very bad to drink drive. You can go to jail.”

“Who the hell are you?” Peter asked.