Page 91 of Claim Me

I was incredibly blessed to have my friends, because they were real. Status, money, power—none of that mattered to them. They didn’t see me as an outsider. They saw me as Clara. I didn’t know what I would do without them, which was the real reason that I’d dragged her outside. “Spill. What’s this about a house? Are you moving? I thought you loved Holland Park.”

There was enough house for a baby or two and then some, but I’d gotten the impression for months that Smith Price had plans to whisk her away.

“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “Not since…”

“Since?” I pressed as my heart pounded a little harder. Her evasion was only more worrying.

“We’re buying an estate in Scotland,” she blurted out, hurrying on when she saw my face fall, “or we were. I think we still are, but it’s not permanent.”

“You’re temporarily moving to Scotland?” I asked faintly.

“It’s not far. Only a couple of hours by car and less by helicopter and you know someone who flies those,” she teased, but her heart wasn’t in it.

“That’s why you keep going out of town. I wondered.”

I recalled how much Smith had enjoyed Christmas at Balmoral. They’d returned to Scotland soon after, which had been my first clue that they were plotting betrayal. “How can you leave me here? When will I see my god baby?”

“Your god baby, huh?” Her eyebrow arched like this was in question.

“It better be.”

“She,” Belle said softly, the ghost of a smile flitting over her mouth.

“She?” I repeated. “It’s a she?”

I forgot about being mad at her and pulled her into a hug. Belle laughed, squeezing me as we squealed. “Don’t make me cry. I’ll ruin my make-up.”

“Sod your make-up,” I said, drawing back, I glared at her. “You can’t take away my god baby and Elizabeth’s best friend.”

“Best friend, huh?”

“Or maybe Alice’s best friend.” I patted my stomach.

“Or William’s future girlfriend?” she suggested.

I grabbed her hands and pleaded, “You can’t move.”

“It wouldn’t be all the time. Hear me out.”

I listened as she explained that Smith wanted the baby to have plenty of room and less stress for Belle. “The company doesn’t need me in the office every day and we’ll have a nanny to help. I can take meetings online and Lola can run things here.”

“Lola might be busy,” I reminded her.

“Anders won’t need that much help.” Belle dismissed this issue too easily.

“So what went wrong?” I asked.

“Smith went to a meeting with Alexander the other day. He didn’t go into detail but I think it had to do with Jacobson.” She paused, biting her lip. “Did he tell you about it?”

“A little.” Alexander had told me that he was taking Smith to a meeting regarding the Jacobson’s release. Considering the men’s shared interest in bringing him to justice, I hadn’t found it strange. “He seemed shaken when he came home. He didn’t really want to talk about it.”

“I didn’t want to get him in trouble. Of course, he probably doesn’t want to stress you out. I shouldn’t even be talking about it.”

Now I was the one who felt guilty. “I haven’t told him,” I confessed. “I started to the other day and then there was the whole mess with Anders. We were distracted.”

“And you’re avoiding telling him,” she accused.

“Avoiding telling him what?” a sharp voice cut into the conversation. She held out a water bottle and I grimaced.