Page 104 of The Devil's Deceit

And yes, there’s a piece of me that will delight in knowing she’s looking over her shoulder, waiting for me to reappear in her life. It doesn’t matter where she runs to; finding her will be easy. She isn’t George. She doesn’t have the skills nor the wealth to keep her location a secret for long.

And when I’m ready, I’ll confront her.

Alan’s shocked, wide-eyed gaze greets me as I step inside the house.

I raise a hand before he can say anything. “I’m fine.Where’s my father?”

“In his living room.”

“Thanks.” I take off upstairs in search of Tobias.

When he clocks me, his jaw drops, and he shoots to his feet. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“Long story. I need you to gather up everyone and meet me in Dad’s living room.” I pivot, but before I’ve taken a step, Tobias catches up and grips my upper arm.

“Are you okay?”

The concern in his voice makes my throat thicken. I wonder if he’ll still have that concern once he hears the full story.

I nod. “I will be. Just get everyone, okay?”

“Leave it with me.”

He heads in one direction, and I trudge downstairs to Dad’s suite of rooms. As Alan stated, Dad’s in his living room, eyes closed, nursing a glass of whisky, and listening to Chopin.

I clear my throat, alerting him to my presence. “Dad, got a minute?” Understating how long this will take by several hours.

His eyes remain closed, his head swaying in time to the music. “For you, always. Come in. Sit down.” He motions to one of the many chairs centered around an antique coffee table that belonged to his father. As I take the one opposite, he opens his eyes, then straightens. “Good God, Christian. What on earth has happened to you? Have you seen the doctor?”

I grimace. “Not yet. I’m okay. I’ve had worse.”

He gives me one of his special eyebrow raises that speaks volumes. “I’m not sure about that. Care to share?”

“I’ve asked Tobias to round everyone up and meet us here. You all need to hear what I’ve got to say.”

Dad’s spine stiffens, and he sets down his unfinished glass on the table. “You’re worrying me. Are you ill?”

I scratch my neck. “No. It’s not that. It’s?—”

“They’re on their way.” Tobias flops onto the couch next to Dad. “I couldn’t find Grace, though.”

An emptiness spreads through my chest. “Don’t worry about Grace.”

“Wifey already knows, huh?” Tobias gives one of his impish grins and nudges my father with his elbow. “Hear that, Dad? We’ve dropped down the pecking order.”

Dad’s eyes narrow, his piercing gaze locked on mine. He knows something is very wrong, but in typical Dad fashion, he doesn’t dig for information. He waits patiently. The thought of him being disappointed in me causes a knot to pull tight in my stomach, yet I’m pretty sure that will be the outcome when he learns what I did and the lengths I went to in order to cover it up.

Around five minutes later, my entire family, minus one deceitful wife, is gathered in Dad’s living room. We’ve been through the cacophony of “What the fuck happened to you?” and now they’re all seated, expressions a mixture of confusion and curiosity, waiting for me to spill the beans.

The trouble is, I’m not sure where to start.

“Where’s Grace?” Imogen asks. “Is she okay? Has something happened to her?”

“Grace is fine.” To the best of my knowledge. I rub my forehead. This is harder than I thought it would be. “Look, you all know how hard I took Nexus’s collapse, but what you don’t know is why.” Sucking in a lungful of air, I let it out through pursed lips. “Nexus collapsed because I took my eye off the ball, trusted too much, and discoveredtoo late that the builder was using inferior materials and skimming off the top.”

Give my family credit, not one of them sucks in a breath or lands an accusatory glare. They remain silent, waiting for me to expand.

“I’d worked with Drew Taylor and his wife on a couple of other projects, and found them good, hardworking, trustworthy people. But after Nexus collapsed, I did some digging and found out Drew had run up gambling debts with some pretty unsavory characters. He needed regular cash to keep the wolves from the door. He used my project as his personal bank, and he and Grania paid the ultimate price.”