Inheritance Clause

Chapter Seven

The gala organised by the Cross Foundation must have cost more for the flowers alone than Ines earned in rent each month, and she had now been earning partner-track pay for two years.

For a full minute she stayed at the bottom of the steps of the townhouse, watching the light spill gold from each window and seeing couples in gowns and tailored black climb towards the door like moths that had already made up their minds the flame was worth it. Julian had offered to take her up, but she had said no. Since it was her first time in Vivienne Cross's house in three years, she wanted to walk in on her own legs and not have already been attached to one of the family's men.

As soon as she had gone in Julian spotted her, which meant that either he had been keeping an eye on the door or someone had instructed him to do so. Julian looked smart in his black tie in that carefree way in which some men manage it, as if the tuxedo had been an afterthought rather than something they had invested in.

"You came," he said, repeating to himself the words he had used at dinner, with a slight smile on his face. "I am continually surprised by that, and I am continually wrong to be surprised."

“I said I would.”

A great many things are said to me, but fewer of them are meant seriously. He held out his arm and, after a moment's hesitation, she took it, mainly since refusing would have attracted more notice than agreeing to it and as she didn't want any attention at all once she'd entered the room. My mother is somewhere close to the champagne, bustling around as if she were the one in charge. I should make it clear that she's been talking about you all week as if you were the honoured guest.

That's by no means ominous.

I told her you'd say something of the sort. He moved her through the crowd, giving a nod to various people whose names she didn't pick up and didn't make an effort to, until the space in the room opened up and revealed a woman that Ines instantly recognized even though it had been three years and she was wearing a different dress.

Vivienne Cross looked just as she did in her photographs — with silver hair pulled back and a face which had been costlyily kept up to appear ageless and slightly unapproachable, with a smile that came half a second before her eyes actually warmed to match it.

“Ines,” she said, as if she were bestowing a gift rather than offering a greeting, “you look wonderful; marriage must have suits you, even the ending of one.”

"Vivienne," Ines kept her voice even and pleasant, the same tone she used when sitting across from counsel that she hated. "It's been a long time."

“It has been far too long now, and families shouldn’t drift apart like ours have. When I heard that things hadn’t worked out with Damian I was very sorry; I always believed you were the kind of person who would be suitable for him—steady in a way that none of the rest of us had ever been.”

"That's nice of you to say."

It's completely true. A brief flash appeared behind Vivienne's eyes, appearing and disappearing before Ines could identify it — the same sudden and controlled change that she'd come to know in both the Cross men, evidently a family trait that goes beyond mere blood relation. "Julian has told me that you two have been getting reacquainted. I do hope that you will decide to remain close to the family regardless of what takes place regarding the divorce. Blood doesn't have to end simply because a marriage has ended."

“I’ll certainly consider it.”

“That’s quite good,” Vivienne said, and her smile grew a little, so that for a brief and disturbing moment Ines got the clear feeling that she was being evaluated the way you would evaluate a piece on a chessboard, weighing up whether it was worth taking or whether it was better left to develop on its own and see where it ended up. “Julian, my love, would you get Ines a drink? I should like a moment with her, if she is not minded to object.”

Julian looked over at Ines and his eyes seemed to convey a question which she didn't quite understand—perhaps it was a request for permission or a warning or both. "I'll be right back," he said and then left before she could reply in either way.

Vivienne didn't speak once he was out of hearing, instead lowering her voice and making the warmth in it thinner, so that it became colder and more precise.

She said, "I know what you discovered in that trust amendment."

Ines's pulse quickened even though she kept her face completely still, and after all those years of training in the courtroom she had at last succeeded in doing so. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Certainly you do. Marcus Aldridge is not at all as careful as he believes himself to be, and neither is Damian when it comes to you. Vivienne picked a canapé up from a tray that was passing by without looking at it, and this simple action somehow made the situation seem more threatening rather than less so. I would like you to grasp one thing, since it seems my nephew's idea of honesty is still three years behind where it should be: nothing that ever happened to you was personal; you were merely an inconvenient variable in a very old and very complicated equation concerning money which predates your marriage by two generations.

You tried to kill me.

I tried to get rid of an inconvenience as neatly as I could, though I realise that from your point of view the difference might not seem very great. Vivienne's eyes remained calm, almost indifferent, just as a person might be when talking about a business decision which they've long since stopped worrying about. Damian made it much more difficult than was really necessary and considerably more costly, and I truly respect that; he is more capable than I gave him credit for three years ago. But you should know that his small trust amendment only protects you so long as your marriage still exists on paper; as soon as it doesn't—

“You’ll try again.”

I never said that,” Vivienne remarked, her smile thin and exact. “All I said was that the protection comes to an end; as for what happens next, it will entirely depend on whether you are still useful having gone and on whether Damian has finished sorting up all the messes I left behind three years ago. From my point of view, he hasn't quite finished doing so yet.” She looked past Ines's shoulder towards the crowd. “Julian is coming back with your drink. I want to make sure he doesn't know most of what I've just told you, just in case you're wondering, and I'd rather it stayed that way. He does genuinely like you. It would be a pity to ruin that by giving him information he isn't able to handle.

You're threatening me at your own gala.

I'm telling you the truth, that is something no one else in the family has done in the three years we've had. Vivienne gently touched Ines's arm, almost in a fond way, a move entirely inconsistent with all that she had just said. Dear, do enjoy yourself, I really hope you will stay near us.

Before Julian had returned, she had moved her way into the crowd with drinks in her hand and her easy smile once again in place as if nothing had at all happened during the three minutes that he had been away.

"Is everything okay? You look pale."

Ines took the glass away from him, and the only thing that trembled was her hand. “Your mother is rather direct.”

She usually is when she has made up her mind that she likes someone., Julian looked at her face for a moment longer than was necessary, in a searching manner. What did she say to you?

Ines, looking across the room through the gap in the crowd, saw in her mind’s eye the amendment paperwork that Damian had prepared — specifically page fourteen, the part which cancelled the protection as soon as she had signed it — and at that moment a clear understanding settled in her chest, cold and firmly established, about just how little time she had left to decide who in this family she could really trust.

“It wasn't anything important,” she said, and disliked the fact that the lie came so easily, and disliked even more the fact that some part of her had already begun to think about how to put it to use.