Thick as Thieves (The Greystone Family: Stolen Hearts #3)

Chapter 53

53

Xander

Current Day, London

I hear clapping and we both spin around to look behind us to see Bug coming through the door of the dining room, still clapping at Marcus. “About time, cousin,” he grins out. “Xander.”

He comes and hugs and kisses us both, the man is so emotional. “I was coming to quit. Aunt Rowena and her friends have made it impossible for me to run Eastwood. Unless you bail it out again, it's going under. And I don’t want you to do that, cousin. I’m sick of taking your money when I can see how to make it turn a profit. If I didn’t have the interference, that is. They want to carry on the same old show. No changes. Much more of that, they’ll take it under.” His deep sincere voice rings out across the room.

I hear Chrissy make a noise and I glare at her. “Something to say, Chrissy?” I snap. She shakes her head. “The gravy train may just be about to stop. Time for you to exit, I think. Both of you.” I look at Isobel and she screws her face up at me. Finally dropping the thinly veiled fa?ade. She hates me. It’s written in venom all over her face.

“You disgust me,” she snarls at me before turning her sights on Marcus. Her face changes in a heartbeat. It’s like night and day. It’s weird to watch. “Don’t throw us away, Marcus. We could be great together.”

I see Marcus look at her in amazement and watch as Rowena looks up in hope. Mick is on his phone. Not sure who he’s calling at this point. Clearly Isobel looks a bit unhinged, but nothing new there.

Isobel stands and walks over to us. “I’ve always been there for you. I’ve loved you forever.” She gesticulates with her hands between Marcus and herself. “Evie does not love you, she’s left you. Let her go with Xander. She loves him, she always has. I saw them years ago in the churchyard. And then early in the mornings coming out of his bedroom. Down ladders, running home with him, hand in hand. She wanted him, not you.” She’s pleading with Marcus, her desire fully out in the open, on show, written all over her face.

I throw my head back and laugh at her. “Always seeing what you want to see, Issy. She was with Marcus, not me. I just never slept, so I would walk her home.”

“I never loved you, Isobel,” Marcus tells her. “Not like that. I’ve loved Xander all my life, and I fell in love with Evie that day in the river. You were there, you saw it happen. You trashed her all the time, and all she ever did was love us, both Xander and me. I will never love you like I love them.” His eyes are blazing, his voice commanding, but he’s still trying to placate her. To be kind due to their long held family ties.

“I don’t care. It isn’t right what you’re doing. People will never accept you. Your children will be?—”

“Stop right there,” Marcus commands, stepping away from her, his whole demeanour changing in an instant. “Stop, before you break everything, Isobel. I’ve told you I love Xander and Evie, no one else. Not like that. My children are loved. Maybe not by someone like you, but by people who matter to me. My true family, my band, and the Greystones. That’s enough for me.” He points to himself and the assembled entourage. “I don’t give a fuck about anyone else.

“Have you not been paying attention all these years? When was I ever bothered about anyone other than Xander growing up? Never! I do what the fuck I want when I want, and if you don’t like it, you and your mother can fuck off.”

He glares over at Chrissy and Bettina, who are shrinking by the second, before he turns his furious green gaze on his mother. “Oh, and if you don’t like it, Rowena—Mother, you can join them.”

I can feel the fury flowing through him. Mick is now off his phone and on the move to stop Marcus going overboard. Mick stands behind Chrissy and pulls her chair out, politely telling her to get up. He does the same to a stupefied Bettina. Jase has moved to stand next to Isobel.

“Time to choose, Mother.” He turns to her, anger pulsing out of him. “Which one brought all the people to you to prove Evie’s guilt ?” I see her eyes flick to Isobel. Marcus doesn’t miss it either. “Isobel,” he says with disgust.

“Time’s up, Issy,” I say, moving in front of Marcus. “Stay away from us. He warned you off in Scotland, but it seems you just aren’t listening.”

“I should have killed you and that bitch when I had the chance,” she spits out at me. She’s finally lost it, the fa?ade of civility disintegrating. “You, you freak! It should have been you driving the tractor that was out of control and ended up in the village pond. But noooo. You were too drugged up and drunk as usual, celebrating the night before the village fete. You’ve always been useless. Always the spare part no one wanted. But she saved you, as ever. She drove it for you, crashed the party. When it should have just been a crash.” Her voice and face change to vicious cunning. “Same as her on her little moonlight bike ride. Anyone who rides a bike alone at midnight in the dark, no lights, is asking to be knocked off.” She snickers, and it’s the eeriest thing I’ve ever witnessed.

Rowena and Chrissy are both staring at her in horror. “You drove that car into her deliberately. You actually tried to kill her, and my grandson.” Rowena looks pale now. “You told us you lost control, it was an accident,” Rowena says faintly, finally putting two and two together. Probably coming up with a lot more instances of sabotage.

“Of course I fucking did. She was not fit to be in his company. She bewitched him. Took him away from me. He was blind to what she was. Always Evie this and Evie that. What about me! I loved him the most. I was always there. But he never saw me. Always Xander or Evie in the fucking way. My foot slipped, otherwise she would be dead and her bastard son with her. No one would have known.”

Her face has changed again to a mask of hatred, but as she comes nearer to Marcus, her expression morphs to one of total love and devotion. “See how much I love you. I tried to free you. What I would do for you…” She looks deranged.

Mick eyes his phone again. Probably been on to Jonno. Isobel needs help, she’s not right in the head.

Chrissy starts to cry. Bettina is cowering in the corner. Tim is holding onto her, not letting her leave, making sure none of this information can leave this room.

We’re all still in a stand-off position when Jonno strides into the room, power emanating from him. He has a few men dressed in black behind him.

“Do you object?” he asks Chrissy directly. No other question.

She shakes her head. “No,” she affirms, as Issy shrieks, picks up a knife, and goes for Marcus.

I jump in to try to stop her and she sinks the knife in my shoulder, trying to pull it out and go again for Marcus. Jase springs into action and grabs her, dragging her off me. The knife is still stuck in my shoulder, entirely too near my neck.

The men with Jonno take hold of a deranged Isobel. She’s babbling like a brook, her eyes wide and wild, she’s totally flipped. She needs serious help.

Chrissy is crying and follows the men who are carrying her daughter out of the room. I hear Mick phoning an ambulance as I slip down towards the floor. The last thing I see is Marcus shouting like a lunatic, and my Dad trying to pick me up.