The Billionaire Heir Called Me a Freeloader, I'd Bankrolled His Family for 600 Years novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: His Father's Keys

"Leave us," Geoffrey said to the guards.

The first one hesitated.

"Sir, Ms. Dacre said..."

"I know what Ms. Dacre said. Go downstairs."

They went, and their footsteps faded down the metal stairs.

Geoffrey stepped into the bay and looked at the orchids for a moment.

Then he looked at Rowan.

"You're the gardener."

"Rowan."

"Rowan, I need a minute with Ms. Clifford alone."

"He stays," I said.

Geoffrey's jaw tightened, but he nodded.

He turned the ring of keys over in his hand.

"I went to Connecticut this afternoon," he said. "My father wouldn't look at me."

I waited.

"The nurse told me a woman came twenty-two days ago with a notary, the same day as the date on the transfer. She said my father cried for two days afterward."

"Your fiancée."

"She told me you'd agreed to the transfer in principle." His voice was flat. "She told me my father signed the witness line himself, on one of his good days."

"He can't hold a pen with his right hand."

"I know that now."

He looked tired.

I realized I had not seen him tired before, only polished.

"What did my father owe you?" he asked. "I've gone through the records. There's nothing. There's no contract and no loan, and no reason for sixty percent of anything."

"There's a reason."

"Then say it."

I took a moment.

I had told the story to only four people in six hundred years, and three of them were dead.

"Your family began with an orphan boy in a chapel in the snow," I said. "I gave him a bowl of porridge and his first silver. He swore he'd pay me back with most of every coin he ever earned."

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