Finding Forever on Their Island Paradise, page 19
His father had tried to ruin his whole life.
So, no. It wasn’t enough just to have the house back, even though that alone was a huge measure of his success. He had to show his father how utterly he’d undone everything Lord Clifford had strived to achieve. Turn back the clock to before his mother had left, to when Clifford House had actually felt like home.
Finn shook his head. ‘It’s not enough, Toby. You know it isn’t. You know what my father did. What he is. It’s not enough to have the house. I’ve got to beat him completely, or he’ll always feel like he’s won.’
‘Right.’ Toby sighed. ‘Okay, well, if we’re doing this, we’re going to need help.’
‘We?’
Toby shrugged. ‘You’re my best friend. You might sound kind of obsessive crazy right now, but if you didn’t turn your back on me when I accidentally got married to a woman I didn’t know in Vegas, I’m not abandoning you now.’
‘And look how well that Vegas thing worked out for you and Autumn,’ Finn pointed out. Not only were they still married, but they were planning a spring ceremony and party to celebrate it with all their friends in Wishcliffe. ‘Maybe this will be more successful than you think.’
‘Maybe.’ Toby didn’t sound convinced. ‘But you’re still going to need more help than me—I don’t know the first thing about antiques.’ Enlightenment hit him, and Finn watched as Toby caught up to where Finn had been since the moment he’d walked into his new old property and realised what his next steps needed to be. ‘Victoria! She’s the antiques expert. And honestly, I’ve been a bit worried about her lately. I know she says she likes working at the shop, but she’s used to running a whole estate. She’s got to be bored. And I don’t want her to just give up on life the way my mother did when Dad died. This could be the perfect project to get her engaged again!’
‘She said no,’ Finn said, and watched as Toby’s excitement deflated.
‘You already spoke to her?’
Finn nodded. ‘This morning. She’s not interested.’
Toby’s face darkened. ‘Because she’s not interested in anything any more. Autumn keeps trying to get her involved with the planning for our wedding celebration, and I’ve been asking her about playing a part in some of the new projects up on the estate, but she keeps making excuses not to get involved.’
Finn suspected that probably had more to do with Victoria wanting to draw a line between the life she’d lost and the one she was living, but he could see how worried Toby was about her, so he didn’t say so.
‘What do you think I should do, then?’
‘Keep at her,’ Toby said. ‘Don’t let her just give up on everything that used to matter to her. Okay? Keep asking until she says yes.’
Finn had always believed that when a lady said no he should accept that and walk away. But in this case he could almost see Toby’s point. Victoria was pulling away from the people who loved her right when she needed them most. And the life she was building for herself, alone...was it one she really wanted? Or the only thing she thought was open to her?
If Victoria had turned him down not because she didn’t want to help but because she thought that was what she should do as a widowed woman, then he at least had to give her a nudge, didn’t he?
Nothing at all to do with the fact that just the idea of spending more time with her made him smile.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Finn said. ‘First, do you have a number for Joanne Soames?’
Copyright © 2022 by Sophie Pembroke
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ISBN-13: 9780369713322
Finding Forever on Their Island Paradise
Copyright © 2022 by Therese Beharrie
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Therese Beharrie, Finding Forever on Their Island Paradise
