Page 70 of Worth Every Penny

“Oh, she knows.”

I frown. “Okay. So you rang her? Why isn’t she the one picking you up then?”

“No. I didn’t call her. Didn’t need to.”

“Then how do you know she knows?”

“Because he’ll have told her.”

“He? He who? The police officer?”

Charlie lets out a low, sad chuckle. “No. The man she’s screwing.”

I swallow and clench my jaw.Shit.A hundred questions crowd into my mind, but I settle for the one I can’t ignore.

“How do you know she’s doing that?”

“Because he comes to the house when Dad’s away.”

My chest constricts. “Maybe that’s not why he comes—”

“I saw them.”

I flick on the indicator, trying to focus on the road, although my mind is spiraling. I don’t want to be the one to break this to Matt. “You saw them?”

“Yeah. Last week. It was late, and I came downstairs for a glass of water. They were in the kitchen.” He makes a retching noise. “It was fucking disgusting.”

I should reprimand his language, but it doesn’t feel like the right moment.

“What did your mum say?”

“She tried to gaslight me. Said I’d imagined it, but how do you imagine your mum naked on the—”

“I don’t need to know the details.”

He rolls his eyes. “Anyway, she told me I’d better not tell Dad, which was as good as admitting it.”

“Your dad doesn’t know?”

“I’m not sure. But even if he did, he wouldn’t exactly blurt it out, would he? Bit embarrassing. He’s Matt Hawkston, multi-billionaire. And Mum’s off shagging some random guy. His house is tiny too. One of those terraced things. I think he’s only in the top-floor flat.”

I raise an eyebrow and side-eye him as best I can whilst keeping my focus on the road. “Less of the judgment.”

“I’m just saying… He’s not even good looking.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “It was his car? The one you graffitied?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t a car, though. It was a van.”

“A van? What does he do?”

“No idea. When he comes to see Mum, he drives a car. That’s what I really wanted to fuck up.”

I sigh. “Watch your language.”

Charlie stares out the window. “Anyway, the van was there instead of the car and it was white with loads of space to spray paint, so maybe it was better that way.”

I’m about to laugh when I remember how serious this is. “What did you write on it?”