Page 53 of Suddenly Mine

“Can you afford it?” she asked, and he nodded.

“I did a few extra hours last night. It’s fine.”

“You’re too good to me, Christian,” she said. “I don’t think I deserve it.”

Christian stepped to the edge of the pavement and hailed a taxi. One pulled right over, and he opened the door, speaking to the driver. Merry saw him hand over some cash, and felt terrible that he had to part with even more money after such a generous gift. She’d pay him back for the taxi rides at least, she promised herself.

“Are you at work tomorrow?” he asked.

Merry nodded. “An early again, but it’s not too bad because we close at three for the ball.” She sighed. “I’m not sure I can face another day like today, though.”

“Yeah, it was busy,” Christian said. “So many people are leaving.”

“Yeah, it’s weird isn’t it?” Merry said. “I saw Diane today, she’s a girl I work with. She had an envelope, and I could have sworn it was full of cash.”

Christian frowned, his eyes growing dark. “Cash?”

“Yeah, I don’t know how much was there, but it was a lot. She told me she’d been given it in return for walking away, for literally walking out the door and never coming back.”

“Did she say who gave it to her?” Christian asked.

Merry shook her head. “She wouldn’t. But she told me it was somebody up high. It was somebody from head office.”

Christian seemed to take the information in, nodding to himself.

“Get home safe, Merry,” he said, holding the door for her. “I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

She paused for a moment, stepping up to kiss him goodbye. But there was something about Christian that had turned suddenly cold, his expression distant.

“Thanks again,” she said as she climbed into the cab. “I really do mean it.”

Christian nodded to her, then closed the door and walked away.

Chapter 24

CHRISTIAN

Somebody up high. Somebody from head office.

Merry’s words rang in his head as he walked through the city. It was Margot. It had been her all along. And he had to tell his father.

Christian didn’t have far to go. His family home, located on one of the most exclusive streets in the city, was only a short walk from Carroll’s. He didn’t take the fastest route along Fifth or Madison, though, preferring instead to walk through the park. He needed time to think, to work out what was going on, and to plan what he was going to say to his dad.

The facts were clear. Somebody was paying staff to leave Carroll’s — a deliberate attempt to sink the store. That somebody worked in head office. His dad had always kept his management team small, to avoid complications in the line of command. There were only two people who worked out of head office. One was Lewis Carroll. The other was Margot.

And hadn’t she pretty much admitted it to him when he’d confronted her?

Prove it, she’d said. What was that other than an admission of guilt? He could easily believe it, too. He knew how driven she was. They’d worked together on every aspect of company business, overseen by Lewis. But while Christian had been horrified by the conditions of the workers in the factories who supplied their goods, Margot couldn’t have cared less. She’d wanted to increase their hours and cut their pay, and it had been an argument about this that had been the final straw for Christian. And now he knew she’d had a hand in him leaving too. It was all clicking into place.

Christian crossed in front of the Plaza Hotel, cutting between the carriages and the restless, blinkered horses — their great breaths appearing as clouds in the air — and walked into Central Park. It was busy, despite the hour and the weather, families and couples and tourists huddling against the cold as they laughed their way down the paths, between the rocks, through the trees. He’d loved it here so much when he was younger, especially at this time of year. It had been like his own personal back yard. After his mum had died, his dad had refused to even buy a Christmas tree, so Christian had come here to lose himself in the fairy lights and the snow. Of all the places in the world, the park felt most like home when it was Christmas.

He pulled up the collar of his cheap parka against the sleet. There were flecks of snow there, too, and he wondered if it would start to lie. Ahead, dozens of skaters whooped and cheered on the Wollman Rink, and he stopped for a moment to watch them. Merry skated into his mind, and suddenly, the stress of Margot just melted away. He thought of Merry’s smile as she’d tried on the dresses in the Devlin Storm store, and he found himself smiling too. She stoked a fire inside him that was warm enough to thaw even the most frozen of hearts.

He wished she was here beside him right now, the heat of her body pressed against his, her head resting on his shoulder. All those years he’d walked through this park alone, and now he had somebody he might be able to walk through it with for ever. Could that really be possible? Could that Christmas dream really come true?

But he’d walked away from her just a few minutes ago because his mind had been on Margot, and on the store. If he and Merry had any chance of finding their happy-ever-after, then he had to solve this mystery and save Carroll’s. And he had to make a decision about where his future lay.

The cold cut through his jacket like it was made of silk, and he shivered into motion again, passing the zoo. He cut back on to Fifth Avenue, crossing the street then walking swiftly up to East 69th. The street didn’t give much away, but he knew the houses here were bigger than they looked, especially his father’s. He stood in front of it, taking a deep, steadying breath. The mansion looked the same as it always had, and it felt weird being here after so many years away. But the truth was this house hadn’t felt like home for a long, long time. It was just another place of business, an extension of his father, and of the store. And that thought made it all so much easier.