Beachcombing in the Bahamas (Once Again #11)

Chapter 3 – Adeline

3

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ADELINE

I pour myself a stiff whiskey.

I always keep Harris’s whiskey decanter primed. He loved it. And now I like a little tipple after dinner. And sometimes before bed. It helps me sleep.

The study might look like his, but it hasn’t been since Death took him. Then I made it mine. Without changing a thing, not the Persian carpets, not the dark wood paneling, not this massive desk that should dwarf me, but only makes me feel bigger. Because now I am head of this family. Even if Brock wants to think he is. I run the show.

Except this time. Why isn’t he falling in line the way he should?

I turn to Harris’s portrait over the fireplace. He was a handsome man. His dark hair had been so thick and silky when he was young. I loved running my fingers through it. I loved his powerful body. I loved the way he could make mine sing when he touched me.

Until he no longer did.

But that portrait of a younger Harris hangs in the living room downstairs. He’d posed for this one when he was older, his dark hair turning silver, his aquiline nose even more prominent.

But he’d still been in his prime.

My hand shakes, the whiskey in the glass sloshing over the top. “This is all your fault,” I snarl at him. “You had to bring that girl into the company. You ruined everything.”

He doesn’t smile down from the portrait, though he’d smiled frequently when he was young. But his face is tougher here, his features less amiable. Life had hardened him. Doesn’t it harden everyone? It has certainly hardened me. But then I had to be hard.

I detect a sneer on his lips. Had it been there before? Or am I imagining it now? Maybe because of that woman. Because Brock isn’t doing what I want him to do. He should have gotten rid of her years ago. Right after Pierce died.

Harris sneers at me, I’m sure.

“You never forgave me for a firing Remy, did you? For sending him and his whole damn family packing. But he was just a chauffeur. The hired help. He was just…”

But Remy had been so much more than that. Because it all started with that rotten family. And getting rid of them changed nothing.

“But you’re not claiming you’re blameless for what happened, are you, Harris?” I sneer right back at him. “I loved you with all my heart. I gave you everything. Everything I did was for you. And you left me to clean up your mess.”

And now, finally, I hear him laughing at me as he says, “You don’t have a heart, Adeline. You never did.”

My hands shake. My entire body shakes. And I throw my glass at the painting, whiskey dripping down his face as the glass shatters on the hearth.