The Heiress' Return: No More Pretending novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Roof
Ronan Bellingham lived at the end of a gravel path above the ocean, in a long glass house with no steps anywhere.
I noticed that before I noticed the view.
The ramp ran from the drive to the front door, and the front door opened when I was still ten feet away.
"You came on a Wednesday," he said. "Your father will have his lawyer call me by lunch."
"He doesn't know I'm here."
"He always knows." Ronan rolled back to let me in. "What do you have?"
I handed him the stapled pages.
He read the first page and the marked clause on the second.
Then he turned to the last page, read the numbers and handed it back.
"Forty thousand a year," he said.
"He called it generous."
"Your father spends that on the lilies in his front hall. He's paying you to disappear and to stay engaged to me while you do it." He looked up. "What did he say when you hesitated?"
I told him about the Foundation, the grant review and the old pipes.
I told him what the director had said when I left, and who paid for the roof.
Ronan's face didn't change, but his hands went still on the arms of the chair.
"That's what's been holding your mouth shut," he said.
"Six weeks."
"That's a long time to carry a roof."
He turned his chair toward the French doors.
"Come outside. I want to show you something, and I'd rather say it where the walls don't belong to anyone."
The garden path was crushed gravel, and halfway down it his front wheels sank and stopped.
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