Chapter Three

Lexie stood on the street outside R you can call anytime."

Howard stood up, gathering his papers. Were they done, just like that?

"Would you like to sit up here for a bit, hmm? I'll make you a cup of tea—award-winning, is my tea."

Lexie looked around at the flat. The walls were pale blue, a little bare. No attempt at Christmas decorations up here. "Is this part of the office, then?"

"No, it's my flat," Theo said bluntly.

Ange leveled a look at him. "You'll want to be controlling that temper, young man, or you and I will be having words again. You know perfectly well none of this is Lexie's fault. Besides, it's not your flat." She smiled at Lexie. "It belongs to the company—Theo rents it out at the moment. We also use it for certain meetings, the odd staff drink and whatnot."

"Well, if we're done dividing up Richard's assets like the man himself meant nothing, then I'll just head downstairs and check on the company I helped him run for the last five years."

Theo got up off the sofa and didn't even look at Lexie as he stalked away.

Ange frowned at his back. "You'll have to forgive Theo." She sighed. "Well, you don't have to forgive him, not sure I would, the way he's acting right now, but try to believe me when I say he's not always this bad. Let's just say I think he's a little lost, without Richard."

Lexie had no idea what to say to that. At the idea that he wasn't always this bad, or at the idea that this Theo had some kind of relationship with her dad that went beyond the nine-to-five. She found it hard to believe. She imagined Theo's antics had more to do with losing a potentially large sum of money, and while she could appreciate that might be annoying, it gave him absolutely no right to be a total dick, whatever Ange said.

"I think I'll go," Lexie said, standing up. Absurd. This whole thing was completely absurd. "I'm meeting a friend for coffee, anyway." Fran! Fran, who was a solicitor. Well, she'd see what Fran had to say about all this, wouldn't she? Surely there was some way around it all.

"OK, love, you do that. Chat it through, hmm? And we'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Lexie repeated dumbly.

"I thought it would be good to show you round, help you understand what it is you've taken on." The way she put it made it sound like it had been an active decision on Lexie's part. "We close for a couple of days over Christmas," Ange continued, "so you'll want to come in before that. So tomorrow, have a little lie-in, maybe just come in for the afternoon?" And again, as Ange showed her back down the stairs, Lexie had the feeling of being steamrolled, with absolutely no choice in the matter.