The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

Bradley was quiet for a while. When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth.

‘Why the hell didn’t you warn me?’

‘How was I to know they’d go looking for you? I had no idea what they know or who they know. As I said, Bradley, this could still just be an awful coincidence.’

‘I don’t believe in coincidences,’ Bradley hissed.

Jess wrung her hands.

‘Bradley, if the two events are connected, I—’

‘Of course they’re connected! Why in God’s name didn’t you go to the police?’

‘Because… because… I thought my father might be behind it and he wouldn’t have let them hurt me. I thought it was just a scare tactic… Even now I’m not sure he was involved, other than letting the Duncans think I was about to pay his debts for him.’

Bradley struggled to his feet.

‘You and your bloody family. I wish to God I’d never met any of you.’

‘Bradley, don’t, it’s not my fault. I didn’t ask for any of this. I just turned up to hear what Nana had left in her will.’

‘She’s the instigator of all this. Why the hell couldn’t the old… why couldn’t she have just left a normal will like anyone else? Just keep everyone happy…. Do you know how many wills and estates I’ve dealt with in my working life? Hundreds, and not one of them brought anything other than a letter from another solicitor, contesting the will.’

Bradley eased himself around the coffee table.

‘Your grandmother was a shrewd old woman who knew exactly the sort of people she had in her family. You thought she loved you, but she just left it to you to deal with the eruption of ugliness she knew would follow. Did she love you, Jess? or was she just having the last laugh on all of you?’

‘Don’t… don’t.’ Jess got to her feet and grabbed her bag. Her eyes glistened as she stared Bradley down. ‘Nana was my best friend, the person I cared for more than anyone else on this earth, don’t you DARE sully her memory like this.’

Bradley took a step back.

‘Look, Jess, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—’

‘No, Bradley, you never mean to, do you? Like the phone call the other night. You say so many things you don’t mean, I’m finding it difficult to believe anything you have said to me.’

Bradley held up his good hand.

‘Jess, I’m truly sorry. It’s just… he looked down at his sling, then pointed to his face with his good hand. ‘I don’t deserve this. I was only following Alice’s instructions.’

‘No, you don’t deserve that, Bradley, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’ve seen another side of you recently, and to be honest, I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.’

Clutching her bag, Jess walked quickly down the hall and out into the foyer, leaving his apartment door open behind her. At the entrance she pressed the security button at the side of the glass doors, then head down, she hurried along the shrub-lined path to the car park.

As she reached her car, Jess took a deep breath, then opening her bag, she fumbled for her keys. Realising they were in her coat pocket; she held the bag strap in her left hand and fished for them. She was just about to open the central locking when she heard a voice. She turned to see an olive-skinned woman in her late twenties, standing behind the open boot of a VW Golf. Inside the boot were bags of shopping that bore the Waitrose brand.

‘You’re Jessica Griffiths, aren’t you?’

Jess nodded.

‘I’m sorry but I don’t know you, do I?’

‘No, you don’t,’ replied the woman, pushing strands of chocolate-brown hair out of her eyes. ‘I’m Leonora Wilson, Bradley’s wife.’

Chapter 39

Jess blinked.

‘His wife? I thought…’

The woman smiled softly, then closed the boot of her car and held a hand out to Jess. ‘Come, sit with me a while. I think it’s time we had a chat.’

Jess clicked the locking button on her key fob and followed Leonora out of the car park to a paved, seated area to the right of the shrubbery. She sat down on a wrought-iron chair at a stone-topped table and gestured for Jess to sit opposite.

‘How do you know me?’ Jess asked. ‘I’ve never seen you before.’

‘Oh, I make sure I know who my husband is seeing behind my back,’ Leonora replied. ‘I know all about you, Jessica.’

Jess put her hands together on the table top. ‘He told me he was single.’

‘No, he didn’t. He told you we were still friends. He never mentioned a divorce.’

Jess looked at her quizzically. ‘How do you know all this?’

‘Because he told me, you silly girl.’ Leonora lifted the skirt of her dress and crossed her elegant legs. ‘He tells me everything.’

‘So… let me get this right. You and Bradley still live together?’

Leonora laughed. ‘No, no, but we do see a lot of each other. We talk, we laugh, we are still the best of friends even though we live separately.’

She took a packet of cigarettes from her bag and lit one with a silver lighter before tilting her head to one side, blowing out the smoke as she studied Jess.

‘You’re very beautiful, I can see why he chose you.’

Jess blushed and tucked her dark hair behind her ears.

‘He chose me?’

‘Pursued you then, does that sound better?’

‘Not really, no. I thought… well, it doesn’t matter now anyway.’

‘Don’t be sad. He really likes you. I’ve never seen him like this with anyone before.’

‘You mean he does this regularly?’

‘Not regularly, but there have been one or two over the last few years.’

Jess shook her head, her mind reeling at the revelations.

‘None of them got him worked up like you, Jessica. He was really excited when he met you. He spoke of nothing else for days.’

Jess shrugged. ‘Am I supposed to be impressed by that?’

Leonora leaned forward and patted Jess’s hand. ‘No, I think it would take a little bit more than that.’ She flicked the ash from the end of her