2024-09-17 00:01:54"I don’t care whether you want to help me or not. Just stay out of my way," Sophia snapped.
Alex shook his head.
Her understanding was as dull as a butter knife, and her parents were much worse.
There was little hope she would realize the truth any time soon.
Alex felt no obligation to reveal his true self to her, as their relationship had been doomed from the start.
He was simply pl
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 834
"The same house! Did you hear that? The idiot has a table at the Grand!" He wiped his eyes. "You can't afford the bread there, boy. You can't afford the smell of the bread."Across the cobbled yard, Patricia laughed behind her sunglasses. Even Count Charles laughed, high and thin, like a teacup knocking a saucer."A table at the Grand," the count said. "Do you know, I tried to book there myself once, from the capital. They told me to call back next year.""I thought you knew it well," said Alex.The count's ears went pink. "Know it, yes. Eaten there, no. One doesn't push.""And which room did you book, cousin?" Patricia asked sweetly. "The one by the kitchen? The broom cupboard?"Alex thought about it, very seriously."The lady said the Diamond Room."Preston stopped laughing. Then he started again, louder."The Diamond Room! Do you know who eats in the Diamond Room? Not ten people on this coast have ever sat in it. The governor asked once and didn't get in! Grandmother couldn't get i
Chapter 833
Serena still had the jade on in the morning.She sat on the end of Alex's narrow bed in the garage wing, dressed for work, and touched it twice while she put on her shoes. She said nothing about the roof, or about what Mark Ellis had whispered in her ear.The garage wing smelled of warm toast and old dog, and he was busy with the toast.Then her phone rang, and her whole face changed."Nora? Nora Hale? Is that really you?" She listened, and laughed out loud. "You're joking. Here? Today?"Alex looked up. He had not heard his wife laugh like that in a long time."I can't believe it. Nora, my best friend, is coming here.""Nora?" Alex asked."Nora was my best friend at school, and we worked together at a perfume company in the capital. Before the tower. Before everything." She stopped for a moment. "Her family are the Hales. A big old family. Big money. Hotels, restaurants, half the capital's shops.""Why would a Hale come to Westmere?" Alex asked."Family business." Serena lowered her v
Chapter 832
Patricia's slap rang across the roof like a dropped plate.Nobody moved. A waiter froze with a tray of glasses in his hands. At the next table, the old lady in diamonds slowly put down her fork.The manager did not touch his cheek. A red handprint came up on it, one finger at a time."Did that hurt?" Alex asked him, worried. He held out his napkin. "You can have this. It's clean. Mostly.""Thank you, sir. It's quite all right."The manager turned to Patricia. He was still perfectly polite. That was the scary part."You asked who gave me the nerve, madam. Ms. Vale did. Her company, Halcyon, owns this hotel from tonight. And you have just slapped the manager of a Halcyon hotel, on a Halcyon roof, in front of Halcyon's guest." He lifted one hand. "Security."Two men in dark suits came from beside the lift. They were very big and very quiet."Don't you dare touch me!" Patricia backed against her chair. "I'm a Tiffany! I'm Mr. Ellis's guest! Mark! Tell them!"Mark Ellis looked out at the s
Chapter 831
"Mark Ellis is back."Marissa said it to the whole Tiffany kitchen like news from the palace.Serena did not look up from her tea. "Is he."Mark Ellis. The boy with the very white teeth who had courted her for one summer, before the house married her off to Alex. He had stopped calling the week her mother died."Three years abroad, and he's come home rich," Marissa went on. "He's taking the whole family to dinner tonight, on the Seacrest's roof. And he asked for you specially."At the end of the table, Gideon hid behind his newspaper. It was upside down. Nobody told him.Marissa held out her phone for everyone to hear."Serena. It's Mark. I hear your mother's name isn't on her perfumes anymore. I want to put money behind them, under her own name again. Come to dinner and let me show you the numbers."Her mother's name, on a bottle again. The promise she had made at her mother's bed. The one thing she could not say no to, and somehow Mark Ellis knew it."I'll come," she said. "For my m
Chapter 830
The nightclub strip was all neon and noise. Men in paper masks with glitter on them spilled out of doorways, singing."Not those!" The Count was grey on the back seat, one hand under his ribs. "A white one. A doctor. Find me the doctor!"A young man in a white party mask stumbled past the car. The Count threw the door open and caught him by the sleeve."You! Are you a doctor?"The young man pushed up his mask. Under it he was about nineteen, and very drunk. "I'm an accountant, mister."The Count let go and fell back on the seat.The driver rang every number in the Count's phone. Barons. Bankers. The mayor, who answered with his mouth full. Nobody knew the mask's name. Nobody had ever seen his face.At last a Morgan footman picked up, half asleep. "The mask, sir? He comes and goes with one woman. A Ms. Vale. From Halcyon.""Halcyon." The Count opened his eyes. "Drive. Run every light."They ran four.---At that hour the Harbour Exchange was asleep. One bright lamp burned in the empty
Chapter 829
The Seacrest stood on the Westmere cliff like a white ship that had run aground and decided to stay. Its roof restaurant hung over the bay, all glass and little gold lamps.On the second evening, Count Roger Stone of Ashcliff gave a dinner there.Everybody came. The harbour families. Two barons from up the coast. The mayor, who had not missed a free dinner in eleven years.At the Count's right hand, pink and shining, sat Dr. Henry Foster. At the far end of the table, alone, in black, sat Rebecca Morgan. She had not touched her wine.The Count rose and tapped his glass with a gold ring."Friends. Yesterday morning, a man in a mask stood at Thomas Morgan's bed and told me I was dying."A ripple of laughter."First he gave me three days. Then he looked at me again and took one back." He spread his big sunburned hands. "Two days, he said. Go home and write your will, he said, so your children don't fight over the silver."The roof roared."My children," said the Count, "will be waiting fo
You may also like
The Consortium's Heir
Benjamin_Jnr1.7M viewsThe Ruthless Son-in-law
Bella Starr142.1K viewsSon-in-law: The Billionaire's Reign
Deliaha Shine110.7K viewsThe Ultimate Commander Cassian
AFM31163.1K viewsThe Supreme Sovereign Returns
Husky's Dream92 viewsThe Hand of Death
LazyLordOfDoom109 viewsMy System Is An Artificial Super Intelligence
J.K. Hades147 viewsThe Dismissed Heir
chloe161 views
Reader Comments
why are you guys stretching it out so far, no one is that stupid in real life or fiction,, I'm just saying make it make sense
I have paid for subscription and they are yet to unlock it
The woman is a gold digger! This story is starting to become stupid.