Page 30 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

Something wasn’t right here. The curiosity got the better of me and my legs stepped forward before I knew it. I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it. I stepped forward and pushed—

But it didn’t move.

The door was locked. And while Lucien might be crazy about security, I thought that was odd. There wasn’t a single door in his house that was locked or off-limits. For someone who hated me, he was remarkably calm about letting me wander through his mansion.

I pushed the door again when I heard a soft thump and a sharp intake of breath behind me.

“What are you doing in here?” growled Lucien. His face seemed to be etched in stone, his eyes unfeeling and cruel as he looked at me.

“I… I couldn’t find the files,” I blurted.

“This is my bedroom. Get out,” said Lucien. “You’re done for the day.”

“But—” I said feebly.

“Get out!” He barked.

I went bright red. I walked out of the room and past him, hearing his slow ragged breathing. Like he was angry, or like he was nervous. I couldn’t tell. I went out of the house and left, trying to make sure I’d got down the driveway and through the gate before I let even a single tear fall.

All I knew was that whatever lay behind the door was something he didn’t want me to know about. But I didn’t care anymore. I was done with him. I promised myself that I’d write a resignation letter over the weekend. Anything would be better than seeing him again.

Chapter 10

Conor (Lucien)

“You idiot,” I said to myself, after I’d gone to the window and watched Laura leaving in her car.

I went to the table where my books where and picked up the key. I’d been meaning to do something with it—hide it, or put it in the safe. But I began to worry when I saw Laura looking at the door.

Why was she there in the first place? Was it just an accident? On this floor of the house, it was easy to get lost. And any sane person would have investigated the strange, reinforced door I’d installed in the wall. It looked odd and out of place.

But at the same time, I wasn’t sure. And I still had so many unanswered questions about Laura. Why had she broken things off with me just when we were getting back together? And why had she left in the first place? I couldn’t trust her.

So I went down to the garage where I kept my tools and odds and ends, as well as a few cars. I got some string and tied the key to it. Then, I tied the string around my neck and slipped the key under my shirt collar. This way, no one could even come close to unlocking the blast-proof, reinforced door in my bedroom.

I decided to lock my bedroom too during the daytime, for good measure. How did Laura end up here? Was she really lost? Or was she snooping? Had she begun to suspect something after our argument?

I couldn’t be sure, and besides, I was too annoyed and frustrated with her to be able to tell. Since Laura had rejected me, for the second time, I’d realized that I didn’t really know her at all. The revelation of Kyle’s existence had shocked me. If she was capable of keeping that a secret from me, what else was she able to hide?

That evening, after I’d finished my work, I wandered across the estate of my home. The old farm attached to Lakeview led northward to the Falls, and it was a walk I’d done many times when I was a kid. Sometimes, my dad would take me on this walk, back in the good old days when he wasn’t drinking so much.

But today, I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. The sky was cloudy and dark, even if it was sunny. The weather forecast had predicted a storm. As I stepped down through the fields to the electrified perimeter fence, I unlocked the gate with my passcode and stepped off my land. I strode down the bank and joined the trail that ran down the old bridge, across the river leading to the waterfalls.

In the distance behind me, Lakeview was receding, and as I drew closer to the cliff edges, I began to hear the roaring water. Down to my right, the Caluga valley dropped steeply, and then rose up in the east towards the mountains. To the West, I was looking in the direction of Vancouver and the Cascades, and I watched the sun reddening on the peaks ahead, making the tops of the trees seem to glitter.

The roar of the Falls was noisy as I approached the river, dropping through the treeline where it fell over the rocks and down to the bottom. This was a place I often went for a bit of introspection. It was nice to look down on the town below from my terrace, but it was only when you got this close to the Falls that you could see down below where the water crashed into the blue lake. And beyond that, the old railroad line. And to the right of that, on the edge of the forest, the other side of Caluga Falls. Known as the ‘Depot’ to the townsfolk, it was still one of the shabbier neighborhoods.

That was where I’d grown up, in a small house with my dad. And I came here to remind myself that if I was ever sloppy, if I was ever careless, I might well find myself back down there, at the bottom of the world. Instead of up here, with everything I’d achieved.

My eyes drifted to the right, around the other side of the lake. A little of the town stretched around there, but the buildings faded out as you got towards the parkland. A hundred acres of land I’d recently acquired, lying like a dark green strip around one side of the lake. If I squinted, then I could just make out the shadow of the hospital building. It was all mine now. I could turn it into whatever I wanted.

I’d show them. All the people who’d wronged me. All the people who thought I was nothing, and not worth caring about. Including Laura.

Laura…the sound of her name in my head seemed sweet, and made me think of the wide winds sweeping through the Cascades, or the birdsong in my garden at this time of year. And I listened to the rushing water. Here it was peaceful, and I thought of what Laura had told me in the mountains. How she felt peaceful, and quiet. I did too, out here.

Picturing Laura’s face in my mind, my heart rate slowed and I gradually began to take deep breaths. Calming myself as I pictured her, spread out on the bed in Vancouver, or alive and alert, as she rummaged through files in the house. And I realized that she was right. It did mean more when you did something for your local community. I ought to know that better than anyone. I looked down again by the Depot, the ramshackle houses. Someone ought to do something to help this place.

I turned and began to walk back to the house. When I got within range of the road, I had cell reception again, and I pulled out my phone and called my lawyer.