Page 114 of Unwritten Rules

To say that these claims that Zara had filed through her solicitor several weeks earlier had come as a shock would be an understatement.

While I don’t have the fondest of memories of this place, my mother is buried here. In addition, generations of Hawthorne staff have built their lives here.

And I’m not going to let the woman who has taken so much from me take anything else.

“Penny for them.” Mila’s voice chimes across the living area.

I open my eyes to find her leaning against the doorframe of the master suite. The lake stretches out behind her, and the sun streams through the oversized windows framing the water and trees beyond.

She looks perfect with her slightly sleepy eyes and mussed hair, her crinkled dress and bare feet.

And suddenly, the world seems brighter for her presence. Her light once more chases away my dark thoughts; her simply being here making everything else seem wholly unimportant.

“They’re not even worth that, Hellcat.” I rise, smiling with my whole face as I hold my arms open to her.

She crosses the room and folds herself against me, her touch settling me more than any words ever could.

“Wetherby packed a picnic, baby.”

She gasps, turning her face up to mine. “Oh, how sweet. Can we eat it now? I’m—”

She cuts off as her belly grumbles.

I throw my head back, laughing heartily as she grimaces.

“Venom needs feeding and sharpish, Nathaniel.”

* * *

There’s only one place on the property I’d want to take Mila on our first date.

“The orchard?” She dances around me when she spies our destination a little way in the distance. “I absolutely adore the orchard, Nathaniel.”

She grasps my hand, threading our fingers together and increasing her pace so that even with my much longer strides, I must lengthen them to keep up with her.

I push open the creaky old iron gate that has seen much better days, Mila close behind. Apple blossoms fill the trees around us, their scent hanging heavily in the air as a visual akin to a memory unwittingly assails me.

* * *

“Nathaniel? Where are you, sweetheart?”

My mother’s voice rings out through the orchard, her skirt rustling over the grass under her feet, indicating that she’s almost upon my hiding place.

Just as I’m about to slip out from behind the pear tree, not two metres from where she stands, a man appears as though from thin air. His back is to me, but I can clearly see he holds a bouquet of apple blossoms in his large hands.

Mum freezes. “What are you doing back here?”

He steps closer to her. “I needed to see Xavier.”

“That has nothing to do with me.” Mum lifts her chin in defiance. “Now, please just leave.”

I freeze, not moving a muscle, barely breathing as he completely ignores her, stepping forward to wrap her in his embrace to hold her close, swaying to music, although there’s none that my four-year-old ears can hear.

After a minute, Mum pushes the man away, stepping far from his reach and holding her palms out to face him. Her eyes are angry.

They remind me of Dad’s eyes when I’ve done something to displease him.

“I told you, Nathan. We can’t. Please don’t make it harder for me.”