“Probably nothing will be as successful as Astro.”
“You can’t know that. And it depends how you judge success. Your aim should be to be happy, my love.”
“I just want to make you proud,” I said, meaning every word. I loved my parents so much. My entire family was my world.
“Well, you did that the day you were born and every day since. It’s true of all my boys.”
“Thanks, Mum,” I said, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “There’s actually something else I came here to talk to you about.”
She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Is it about Madison?” she asked, smiling.
What did she think I was here to say?
“Um, no, Mum. Why would you think I was here to talk about Madison?”
A shadow of disappointment crossed her face and she shrugged. “You know Grandma’s ring is available to the first Cove son who brings another woman into this family.”
I tried to swallow down the shock. “Madison was a journalist—”
“I know. I just thought you two . . . had something, that’s all.”
I sighed. There wasn’t much anyone could get past my mother.
“Yeah, well, maybe we did at one point but . . . things got complicated.” There was so much going on in my head at the moment, I hadn’t had time to think about the implications of Madison’s article, or the fact that she might have been entirely right in her analysis of me and my tenure at Astro.
“Relationships are complicated, my darling. But it’s clear from that article she wrote that she knows you in a way few people do.”
She might even know me better than I knew myself. “You read it?”
“Yes, of course I did. I thought it was very insightful.”
“Yeah, you might be right. But we’ve not even spoken in a while. Grandma’s ring is safe for now.”
She smiled and nodded like she wanted to push me a little more but knew I needed time. I’d never contemplated being serious about a woman, and my feelings for Madison had taken me by surprise. After what she’d written, I needed to figure out what feelings were left and what I wanted to do about them. Just talking about her tugged at my chest like a toddler pulling on its parent’s hand. There was something there still.
“Did you come all the way to Norfolk to tell us you were resigning?” Mum asked.
That smile on my mother’s face was about to disappear. “No, actually, there’s something else. About Mark. I need you both to hear this.”
“Can’t find those bloody seeds,” Dad said as he came back into the kitchen. “I think the dog has had them.”
“The dog hasn’t eaten your seeds, John. It’s dead. I doubt they ever made it to the shed. If you look, you’ll probably find them still on the hallway table.”
Dad turned and headed out.
“Dad,” I called after him. “If you’ve got a few minutes, there’s something I need to talk to you and Mum about.”
“I just want to get these seeds—”
“John, sit down and I’ll make you a cup of tea,” Mum said. “Nathan wants to talk to us.”
My dad rolled his eyes but nevertheless did as my mother asked. “What is it? You need money?”
“John, shh and listen,” Mum said, putting a cup of tea in front of both of us. She poured her own and joined us around the table. “You can tell us anything you like.”
“Got that Madison girl pregnant?” Dad asked. Mum shot him a look and he held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“It’s about Mark.” I took a breath and it suddenly occurred to me that my parents might have given money to Mark to invest. “You never invested with him, did you?”
My mother shook her head. “It’s all I can do to convince your father to put our savings in a bank account. If it was up to him, it would all be under our mattress.”
I would have given my parents any money back they’d lost, but it was a relief to know they hadn’t been one of Mark’s financial victims.
“This is confidential at the moment,” I continued. “So, you can’t say anything to anyone. But he’s about to be arrested.”
“Mark, arrested? What the bloody hell for?” Dad asked.
“Fraud,” I said simply. “His investments are . . . Well, I don’t think he’s been investing much, if anything at all. He’s just been taking it for himself.”
My mother gasped. “Other people’s money?”
I put my hand over hers. “Yes. I’m sorry. I know it’s a shock. Turns out he’s got a number of offshore bank accounts and he’s been funneling money into them.”
“Are you telling me he’s Britain’s answer to that Madoff chap?” Dad asked.
“Yes, it looks like it.”
“Good God,” my Dad replied. “Does Audrey know?”
“Yes. The police approached her. She had nothing to do with it. Never had a clue.”