I giggle as I put my seat belt on. “You’re ridiculous.”
He chuckles and pulls out into the street. “Let’s go get our shit.”
“I’m here to collect the belongings from storage unit 405 please?” I smile at the receptionist.
“Of course, we’ve been expecting you.” She turns and goes to the key cupboard and produces a set of keys with a little yellow tag. “Go down aisle five and then turn at the last right. Your unit is the last on the left.”
“Okay, thanks.”
I walk back out and Brad links his arm with mine. This is a hard day, one I never thought in a million years I’d be doing. With trepidation we follow the girl’s directions and get to the storage unit, and Brad puts the key in the lock and slowly pulls up the garage door.
Ten lonely boxes sit at the back of the practically empty locker.
We both blink in surprise; we were expecting a lot more.
“Where’s the rest of it?” I whisper.
Brad shrugs.
Panic sets in—my parents’ whole entire life does not fit into ten boxes. “Where’s the rest of it?” I stammer. “She said she kept everything important.”
Brad takes out his phone and dials Elanor’s number. “Hey. Are we at the right unit? There are only ten boxes here.”
I can hear her talking fast in reply, and my heart begins to hammer hard in my chest. She does that when she’s guilty.
Brad’s haunted eyes meet mine and I know that it’s all gone.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Brad growls. “You knew that we wanted everything, how fucking dare you do this to Kate? I personally had more than ten boxes of things kept at Mum’s and Kate did too.” He marches off as he screams at her and I screw up my face in tears as I look around the virtually empty unit, my heartbeat banging hard in my ears. The thought of losing all their beloved possessions and all of our childhood memories is like losing them all over again.
No . . . she couldn’t do this.
She wouldn’t.
Nobody is that heartless.
“Tell me.” He listens for a moment. “What fucking charity shop, Elanor?” I hear him cry from up the aisle.
I drop to my knees in despair; she donated almost everything. Even Brad’s and my personal belongings. We had so much there, the attic was full of memories.
Mum’s Christmas decorations . . . Her china from Grandma, her tapestries. Dad’s tools. All my hobbies . . . gone?
Oh, this hurts.
I put my hand over my stomach as the air leaves my lungs.
Brad’s big arms come around me and he pulls me into an embrace and he holds me as I cry. “I’m so sorry, Kate. I’m so sorry.”
We sit at dinner, both staring into space, the mood somber and sad.
We are feeling a deep sense of loss all over again.
“I just don’t get it,” Brad says softly. “How the hell is she genetically related to us?”
I stare at his sad face, he’s as torn up about this as I am.
“Elanor looks after Elanor.” Brad sighs. “She needed the sale money and wasn’t prepared to wait for us to sort it.”
“You know, if she was going to do this, why wouldn’t she just tell us?”
“Because she knew we’d say no.”
We sit in silence for a while.
“Did she say where she was?”
“She was on a business trip.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know, probably Ibiza partying with some rich guy. You know how she operates, they fall at her feet, I don’t know how she gets them.”
“She’s beautiful, that’s how.” I sigh.
“Nobody is this fucking beautiful.”
“What is it with her and money anyway? Why does she like it so much? We aren’t like that and we were brought up in the same house.”
Brad shrugs. “You know, she’s after your boss.”
I frown. “What?”
“Yeah, we had breakfast together a few months ago and she was reading out the rich list that had just been released in the paper. Told me she was going to snag herself that Miles chap.”
The air leaves my lungs. “Which one?”
“The head one.”
“Jameson in New York?”
“No, the English head one.”
“Elliot.” My heart begins to beat fast in my chest.
“Yeah, that’s him. She brought him up on her phone and showed me a picture of him and everything.”
My eyes widen in horror. “You’ve got to be joking.” I frantically search for a picture of Elliot and I hold my phone out for Brad. “Is this him?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Reckons she already had things underway.” He rolls his eyes in disgust. “Stupid witch.”
My stomach drops; Elanor is way more suited to Elliot than I am.
I know how she operates, I know her appeal to men, they have no resistance against her.
If she really wanted him, she could have him.
Elanor is extraordinary. Dread fills my every cell.
I get a vision of her turning up at a family event with him and I feel my chest tighten. I know that one day I’m going to have to watch him with someone else.