The Heiress’s Revenge Chapter 19
I didn’t answer.
Grandfather didn’t push. He braced himself on the armrest. Stood slowly. Walked to the bookcase. Took down an old walnut box. Turned and handed it to me.
“Your mother’s.” His voice was rough.
I took it. So light.
“The Wentworth Group is yours. I have no concerns.” He looked at me. In those weathered eyes, all the calculations and tests were gone. “Just, Thea—” A long pause. “Don’t become your father.”
“I know,” I said.
I turned to leave. His voice stopped me. “One more thing.”
I looked back.
“Bring that boy home for dinner sometime. Driver or whatever else—” He waved a hand. “He’s the one you chose.”
I paused. Nodded. “Alright.”
Downstairs, Cole leaned against the car. Looking at his phone. He glanced up at my footsteps. Pocketed it. “Done?”
“Yeah.”
He opened the door. Hand automatically shielding the frame. Inside the car, I opened the walnut box.
A notebook stuffed with photos. All of me. Growing up. Collected from everywhere she could find them.
Beside each photo, careful handwriting. “Thea, age seven. Doesn’t seem happy.” “Smiled today. A classmate shared her brownie.”
Outside the window, the Charles River streetlights blurred past. Light and shadow flickered across the words. Like a touch arriving twenty years too late.
I closed the notebook. Put it back in the box.
“Cole.”
“Mm?”
“Come to the manor for dinner. Sometime soon.”
His hands paused on the wheel. He glanced at me in the mirror. “In what capacity?” Voice flat. “Driver, or…”
“What do you think?” I looked out the window. The river glittered gold.
A long moment. Then his voice. Low. “Alright.”