Just One Night. Part 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

mean?” Edward’s expression darkens.
    “You know exactly what it’s supposed to mean.” The fact that he’s sitting there denying his knowledge of our roles in the family scheme of things puts me on edge.
    “No, I don’t, actually. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
    Perhaps I should pay closer attention to his tone and heed the tension I sense there, but I’m too strung out to bother. “Fine, you want to hear it, I’ll say it. You’re the ne’er do well, the one who fancies himself a playboy, skipping about town with a different woman on your arm every night. I’m the one in the office first thing every day and out of it last thing every evening. I’m the one expected to keep the business running and the pension paying out for our father’s lifestyle. Unlike you, I cannot afford to have my reputation sullied in any way that would lead our investors to believe I am not the man for the job of protecting their assets.”
    Edward smiles at me, but it has a bitter feel to it. “I had no idea you felt this way about me, brother.”
    “Oh toss off, Edward. Don’t play the fool for me. No one is looking. You don’t have to pretend to be offended over something we’ve both known since you were in nappies.”
    Edward stands just as my father and Ingrid come walking up the lawn to the terrace.
    “Where are you going?” My father asks. He’s offended as he realizes the brunch is about to be ruined by someone leaving early. He hates when people leave before the appointed hour.
    “Just leaving. I have an appointment. Must scurry.”
    “But we haven’t even started with the eggs!” Father’s face is turning pink.
    “Have my share. I found I’ve lost my appetite.” Edward doesn’t look at me as he leaves the table, and I can’t help but feel guilty.
    “Edward, don’t go, stay with us,” I say. I plead, really, because I realize now that I’ve just made my team of three Stratfords against one viper a team of … none. There is no team if Edward leaves me behind. I never know on which side of the pitch my father fancies himself from one day to the next, but all my life I’ve known that when push comes to shove, Edward would be right next to me. And yet I’ve caused him to walk out the door and leave me here. With her.
    “Cheers, then … give us a bell later,” Edward says, like it really means nothing to him that I’ve rejected him and that he’s done exactly the same to me.
    I remain cemented to my chair, gutted yet emotionally unable to stop him from leaving. I have no idea why. We’ve been arguing all our lives. Why should today’s disagreement be any different?
    The door slamming shut behind him reminds me of finality. Endings. Closures. I’m a perfectly capable, highly educated man, but in this moment I have a much greater fear for my future than I did before I came here today. Strange that it’s been brought about by the idea of Edward no longer standing beside me. I must be going mad.
    “What’d you say to him?” my father asks, still standing there.
    “Yes, Will, what did you say?” Ingrid is towering over me with an eyebrow raised at me.
    “Nothing of consequence. I believe he has an appointment with the proctologist. Pass the jam would you?”
    My father sits down with a storm cloud floating above his head. Ingrid ignores my crass comment and begins a discussion about roses that keeps my father occupied for the remainder of the meal. All the while I stare at my plate, my silverware, my water glass, and anything else I can find that isn’t Ingrid.
    Somewhere between the bacon and the blood pudding, I send up a prayer in the hope that my mother the angel is up there listening this dreadful Sunday morn.
    Mother, help me lose this lunatic woman. I pause and then decide that if I’m going to enlist the help of angels, I should go ahead and ask for the moon while I’m at it. And help me find Jennifer No-Last-Name so I can finish what we started, once and for all.

CHAPTER