Start With Me - Kara Isaac Page 0,3

make some headway with his family, this happened.

Victor’s throat tightened as the policewoman regarded him with narrowed eyes. He was good at his job. For once, he had gotten somewhere not because of his connections or ability to schmooze and charm, but because he had worked his butt off to prove himself. He had done nothing wrong. Surely God wouldn’t let it all get ripped away from him now.

“Sergeant, we’ve been more than generous with our time. If you don’t have anything more, this meeting is over.” Ann-Maree stood. “Let me show you out.”

The bobby reluctantly rose. “I’ll be back if I have more questions.”

“You know where to find me.”

As the two women left his office, his phone buzzed. Peter.

He swiped and put the phone up to his ear. “Hi. Is Mum okay?” His brother rarely called unless there was a parentally associated reason. The two people who still bound them together.

“She’s fine.” Fine was relative since their mother’s multiple sclerosis continued advancing, but he’d take it.

“Okay. Great.” Victor paused, waiting for Peter to get to the reason for his call, but his brother didn’t take the hint. “How can I help?”

There was a pause. “I just wanted to see how things were with you. With everything happening at Wyndham House.”

He could imagine his brother’s knowing expression if it came out that Victor was under suspicion of aiding and abetting corruption. Once the family screwup, always the family screwup.

“Fine. Well, obviously not fine. The company is in turmoil.”

“But you still have a job?”

“Don’t worry, Peter. I’m not coming back to Oxford to cramp your style.” The sarcastic quip was out before he’d even thought it.

This was how it was for them. They couldn’t even manage a simple phone conversation without decades of enmity rising to the surface. Most of which was his own fault. But in the four years he’d been doing his best to travel the straight and narrow, it felt like all he’d gotten from his brother was an expectation of inevitable failure.

Meanwhile, Emelia—who had almost as much of a tainted past as he did—practically walked on water as far as Peter was concerned. Victor tried to force back the swell of resentment.

“Speaking of Oxford, are you coming home anytime soon? Emelia says Mum mentioned today you hadn’t been back recently.”

Home. The estate had never felt like home. Instead, it was a millstone hanging around his father’s neck and one that would hang around his after Dad died. Which was just what he deserved.

“I’ll check my schedule and let Mum know.” Victor was juggling Garrett’s job and his own, and doing his best to hold onto the clients they still had. Which meant late nights and weekends showing up at functions all over the city and playing whatever cards he had to.

He was exhausted, but not a single client had left since he’d started his campaign. Hopefully, that would give him pole position for a promotion once this all blew over.

There was a sharp knock on his door. It flew open, and Sean barreled into the room. The team assistant never came in without being invited, let alone with his headset askew and his tie flung over his shoulder. “Peter, I have to go. I’ll text you later.”

Victor rose from behind his desk. “What is it? What’s happened.”

“Meredith just sent out an all-company email. She’s merging Wyndham House with one of her American companies. It’s every man for himself.”

CHAPTER TWO

“Lacey, you know getting obsessed isn’t going to help anything, right?” Anna’s mouth puckered at the sight of yet another internet news clip detailing the Wyndham House debacle on Lacey’s laptop screen.

“I’m not obsessed. I’m detail-oriented.” Lacey scrolled down the screen, scanning the article, pretending not to see her two best friends exchanging looks across the kitchen.

“What’s obsessed?” Libby piped up from across the table, face smeared with chocolate frosting.

“Obsessed is what your Auntie Lacey gets when something gets between her and something she wants.” Rachel swiped a cloth off the kitchen counter and handed it to the little girl. “Time to clean up that face, kiddo.”

Libby swiped the cloth across her mouth, spreading the chocolate even further afield. “What are you obsessed with, Auntie Lacey?”

Lacey rolled her shoulders. They seemed to be permanently hunched to her ears ever since Meredith’s announcement. “Just work stuff, kiddo. It’s not important.”

Libby studied her across the table, her green eyes serious. “It’s important if it’s important to you.” The kid was almost four but possessed the insights of an old soul. Not