Page 59 of Gary

“No. I need to ask you something and I would like you to think really hard before answering.”

“All right. But as I have not had my coffee yet, I am going to pour myself a cup.” Pushing away from his desk, he walked over to the elaborate table where the refreshment was already laid out. Taking the coffee with him to his desk, he sat and waited for Gary to continue.

“I met someone,” he began.

“I figured that out. When am I going to meet her?”

“Never.” He gave a mirthless laugh.

“I see. And why is that?”

“Because when she finds out who I really am, she is going to run in the opposite direction.”

“You are being overly dramatic.”

Gary lifted a brow. “Have you ever known me to be?”

“No.”

“Her name is Sadie Ellicott. Does the name ring any bells?”

Graham frowned in concentration. “Should it?”

“The apartment building on Fulton Street, you know where there are condominiums built now for the working-class elite. Smartexecutives and their families. The one where Business Weekly dubbed it as one of the most enterprising ventures ever to be done in that area. That one.”

“What about it?”

“They were living there. Sadie and her parents. And when they, along with the rest of the occupants, refused to leave, they were threatened. When that did not work, they were smoked out. Literally.” He saw when understanding dawned on his uncle’s face.

“What are you saying?” He asked hoarsely.

“She told me her dad died and last night, she explained what happened. Apparently, it was a topic that she was not comfortable opening up about.

But she did, with me. She said he was murdered, only there was no proof. The building was supposed to be empty, but he wenthome early because he was feeling unwell. He died from smoke inhalation because he was asthmatic.

The authorities, the fire department, the police, they all agreed that it was a tragic accident and Moretti along with their partners, got what they wanted.

The building was cleared out and low and behold, it was torn down to make way for a more modern structure.” He had spent the time doing his research as soon as she left and what he learnt had made him ill.

“My God!” The coffee he had swallowed was churning inside his gut. Putting the cup down, Graham stared at his nephew. “They – we – Jesus Christ! They killed him?”

Hearing it aloud, affirmed how true it was. Feeling the weakness in his knees, he groped for the chair behind him and plopped onto the soft padding.

The distant sound of the intercom buzzing did not make an impression on him, and he watched dazedly as his uncle reached for the extension and murmured something to his assistant. Gary did not hear the words, he couldn’t because of the awful buzzing sound in his ears.

“Gary!”

Shaking his head, he concentrated on his uncle. “What?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Get as much as I can out of the relationship before I have to tell her the truth.” He propped his elbows on his knees and bent his head, shoving his fingers through the already disheveled mess he had made of his blue-black hair.

What should have been a cause of celebration was like an albatross around his bloody neck and an iron vice around his heart. “I am in love with her.” He lifted his head to look at his uncle.

“I think I fell the first time I stepped into that coffee shop of hers and I never stopped falling. Last night I asked her to marry me and if that was not something she could see herself doing at such short notice, I asked that she moved in with me.” He laughed harshly. “She told me she loved me too. It’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Oh Christ!” Graham whispered. He could plainly see the stark despair on his nephew’s face, and it catapulted him back to the past. He had been in love for the first time in his life, only to discover that she was pledged to his brother. A man who never had the capacity to love. “You have to tell her. Don’t let her find out from someone else.”