“What?” The word exploded from Lady Ellen, shock followed by a gabble of disbelief. “He would have told me if he was in so much trouble.”
“I’m sorry that he withheld this information from you,” Victor said sympathetically. “Nevertheless, it is true. In building his transport empire, Sir Leonard was in the habit of skating close to the wind in regard to the law. He took risks, and eventually those risks caught up with him. He overextended with the airline, and everything was about to crash around him.”
“But there was no hint of this,” Lady Ellen argued vehemently, unable to accept what she was being told. “We kept living in the same manner.”
“A matter of pride, I imagine. And I understand Sir Leonard always kept his home life separate from his business life. He was, in fact, facing a lengthy prison term on several counts, apart from losing everything. At this point in time, his son.” He nodded to Jack.” …offered him a rescue package.”
A hiss of sharply indrawn breath from Lady Ellen.
Sally cocked her head, regarding Jack thoughtfully. She wasn’t shocked. He sensed she was putting two and two together, weighing up what he’d done and why.
Jane’s head was lowered, her eyes closed, her shoulders hunched over as though expecting a blow to fall. Victim slid into Jack’s mind and he frowned over the word. There was something very wrong about Sally’s younger sister. It wasn’t just about what was happening today. A victim mentality was built up over years. By his father or Lady Ellen? Indifference could be an abuse in itself—his father’s specialty—but Jack wouldn’t put active cruelty past Lady Ellen.
He turned his gaze back to the woman he hated, watching her being hit by a savage reversal of fortune, wanting her to feel like a victim for once!
Victor was spelling out the details of the rescue package. “In effect, all the debts would be paid, the business empire would be maintained with the work force intact. Sir Leonard would hold the position of CEO with a salary of five million dollars a year. No one need know how the situation had been resolved. On the surface, everything could continue seamlessly.”
“In return for what?” Lady Ellen snapped.
“A new will had to be written. This will.” Victor tapped the manila folder. “Which stipulates that one dollar be granted to his son, with the rest of Sir Leonard’s estate coming to you, Lady Ellen. However, that estate is very much diminished. Everything Mr. Jack Maguire had saved Sir Leonard from losing was legally signed over to him a year ago—every facet of the transport business, plus all personal assets, excluding only whatever Sir Leonard earned as CEO from the takeover onwards.”
“All personal assets?” Lady Ellen wailed. “You can’t mean our home.”
“And its contents. Everything,” the solicitor confirmed, then glanced appealingly at Jack. “You may be able to negotiate with Mr. Maguire about jewellery and other personal belongings.”
Jack made no response. Let her stew, he thought, ruthlessly intent on giving her a taste of being shut out in the cold with nothing to hang on to. The look he gave her telegraphed, You turned your back on me too many times, you mean-hearted bitch!
“The horses,” Sally said faintly, her face drained of colour.
They were important to her.
Jack filed that information away for future use.
“The horses were bought by Sir Leonard,” Victor gently reminded her. “They were listed as his property. They now belong to his son. You must understand that all of these possessions would have been forcibly sold up, had Sir Leonard been declared bankrupt. You have continued to have the use of them, only because Mr. Jack Maguire stepped in and allowed that to happen during his father’s lifetime.”
“It broke his heart!” Lady Ellen spat at Jack. “You killed him with your … your backstabbing takeover!”
Jack answered her heat with ice. “I believe a prison term and public disgrace would have broken his heart much earlier, Lady Ellen. My rescue package gave my father … gave all of you—” he shifted his gaze to Sally, wanting to hammer the truth home “—an extra year of the life you were accustomed to.”
A life that had been closed to him when he was seven years old.
Sally was now twenty-four. She’d had the best of it up until now.
Her eyes said she knew it. There was sadness in them, but no hatred or blame for what he’d done. Did she feel the weight of justice on his side?
“And that year has provided you with an inheritance, Lady Ellen,” Victor quickly pointed out. “Sir Leonard’s investment broker has the details, but I believe it is in the vicinity of four million dollars.”
“Four! But Leonard was worth billions!”
The burst of outrage confirmed her mercenary interests which, to Jack’s mind, had always motivated her determination to keep him out of his father’s life.
“Not at the end,” Victor stated firmly.
“I’ll fight this!” she declared vehemently, jumping to her feet, slamming her hands down on the table, leaning forward to fire her fury at the solicitor. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law. I’m going to keep my home. He made a mistake by letting us live in it.” She turned a venomous glare to Jack. “Don’t think for one minute you’re going to take it from me.”
“My father paid me rent for the Yarramalong property. You’ll find you have no legal right to it,” he advised her mockingly. “In fact, you’ll be receiving an eviction notice when you return to it today.”
“How dare you!” she fumed.
“Eviction for eviction, Lady Ellen.” The words rolled sweetly off his tongue.
She puffed herself up with futile righteousness. “You won’t get me out!”
Victor rose from his chair, picked up the manila folder and walked with great dignity to the end of the table. “I understand how deeply shocked you are, Lady Ellen,” he said, presenting her with the folder. “However, I feel duty-bound to warn you that legally, the situation I have outlined to you is a fait accompli, and there are no grounds for contesting any part of it.”
“We’ll see about that,” she snarled, snatching the folder from him and hurling a command at her daughters. “Girls, we’re going!”
The two sisters instantly leapt to their feet, ready to obey.
“Sally!”
Her name whipped off Jack’s tongue, cracking its own command for her attention.
Her head jerked towards him as he stood to make his formidable presence felt. Her eyes held a kind of hopeless appeal, as though she wanted to give him the time he wanted but loyalty to her own family forbade it.
“I’d like to have a private word with you,” he pressed.
“About what?” she asked quickly, almost breathlessly.
“You are not to speak to that man!” her mother sliced in, moving forward and grabbing Sally’s arm to pull her away from any connection with him.
“The horses,” Jack threw out.
It was enough to stop her from following her mother’s lead. She resisted the tug of the maternal arm, glancing back at him in anxious inquiry.
“I wanted to discuss the future of the horses with you,” Jack pushed, his eyes challenging her to make her own stand. “I know how committed you are to a career in showjumping.”
He wasn’t sure of that but it seemed likely bait for her to stay.
“Ignore