‘Freya? Yes, of course. Neutral territory. I’m beginning to get the picture. One last question.’ She licked her lips. ‘What about Alexa? Does she still have a say in what happens to Elstrom?’
‘Alexa wanted half my shares as part of the divorce but when she saw what was left after Travis was left in control, she changed her mind and walked away with the home that we had made together as final settlement.’
He strolled forward and tented his hands on the table. ‘I can see where you’re going with this. My dad might be ill but he has handed over his control of the company to me. Travis has some shares, but I control the decisions now. What I say goes and he had better get used to that.’
‘Travis could still fight you.’
‘I expect him to.’
Scott gestured towards the stairs. ‘This fire is nothing. Just a small temporary setback. Your location scout won’t even know that things have changed. I’ll make sure of that.’
He broke into a strange and slightly scary grin. ‘This is round two, Toni. Now it is his turn to feel excluded. And this time I get to win.’
‘Win?’ she repeated. ‘So this is a battle. Oh, Scott. Don’t you see what he’s doing? Travis is pulling your strings again. Making you play his game and by his rules all over again.’
Toni stood in front of Scott and pressed the palms of both of her hands flat against his chest. ‘Don’t let Travis manipulate you into doing something you will regret, Scott. Because, if you do, he will have won.’
That caught Scott’s attention. ‘What do you mean—won?’
‘You told me on my first day in this office that you had come back to save the family business from losing everything. But now I’m wondering if that was the only reason. Was it to do with Alexa and Travis?’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Toni. It has been a hell of a long night. Why don’t you head off home and get some sleep and I’ll catch up with you later?’
‘No, Scott. I need to hear this. Please. Tell me now and I will never mention it again. Why have you come back to work for Elstrom? You told me that it was about your family legacy. I understand that better than you could know. But I’m beginning to think that there is a lot more to it than that. Why are you here, Scott? Why did you agree to come all the way from Alaska to save an old wooden building and a few rooms of maps and charts? Was this to spite Travis and get retribution for taking your place in your family?’
Scott gazed at her with a stunned expression on his face, jaw slack and his eyes dancing.
Then, just as quickly, he shook it off.
‘Right now I am a lot more interested in making this building safe to work in. The junction box is fried and I don’t intend to spend a minute longer than I have to on Travis when there is so much work to do.’
‘All I am asking for is the truth. That’s all.’
‘The truth? You want to know the truth? Why don’t you ask Travis? He will tell you his version of the truth. Oh, yes. Golden boy Travis could even convince my own father that I was responsible for throwing my wife at him. I neglected her, you see. Left her all alone while I was out working on every mapping project I could find. According to Travis, all that work had nothing to do with trying to save the company. It was all because I couldn’t stand to see Travis in charge of Elstrom Mapping instead of me.’
He pushed both of his hands flat against the brick wall and closed his eyes for a second before speaking into the distance, his voice low and harsh and intent.
‘And do you know the worst thing? He was right. I couldn’t stand to see Travis at the head of the boardroom table with all of those portraits looking down at the back of his head. So yes, I took too many trips overseas to win some new business to pay for the extravagant lifestyle that my father’s new family was living. There was no one else doing the work to bring in new business and for once I was determined not to see it go down with the crazy plans for expansion that Travis and Alexa came up with between them without even bothering to ask me first.’
‘Was it so very bad?’
‘Need you ask? It was a disaster. My father trusted them to turn the business around. Clever academic business degree Travis was going to rescue the company and bring it into the new technological age of map-making.’
Scott shook his head and coughed low in his throat. ‘He had so many grandiose plans and no clue about what he was doing. So yes, I went out looking for new business, but don’t you dare tell me that it gave him permission to seduce my wife behind my back and laugh about it to my face.’
‘I would never do that,’ Toni gasped. ‘And I’m sorry that you had to go through that. It was inexcusable and cruel. I know...I know how it feels when someone you love betrays you.’
‘You know? You have no idea what it felt like to walk into the boardroom and find my wife with Travis. You have no idea at all. Because it was one of the few times in my life when I understood why people commit crimes of passion. He was very lucky that day that I chose to walk out and leave the two people who I thought were my family to rot.’
The sound that Scott’s fist made when it hit the wall made Toni jump with shock. ‘No, Toni. You only think that you know. You don’t have any idea at all.’
Every one of Scott’s words hit Toni like a slap across the face and she flinched as though he had struck her.
She felt instantly overwhelmed by what had happened a year ago on her birthday.
An event which she had pushed firmly away as past history.
Her breath caught in the back of her throat and she gasped at the sudden flash of memory. Pain surged through her and she collapsed down on the hard wooden chair, her legs like jelly and unable to take her weight. Suddenly she felt sick and tearful and pathetic.
‘You are wrong, Scott. I do know. Because exactly the same thing happened to me.’
‘What are you talking about? How can the same thing have happened to you? Have you ever been married?’
‘No. But I had a boyfriend who I trusted and cared about more than I should. We were together day and night for almost three months working on a documentary in France together. I thought I knew him and that he loved me and wanted to be with me. I was wrong. About both of those things.’
‘No—’ Scott started to speak but she held up one hand ‘—let me finish.’
She had to get it out and explain or she would go mad.
‘I had worked like crazy for weeks to finish the filming and editing before the deadline and it still wasn’t done. Peter was doing the networking and keeping the client happy; I was working the cameras. We were a great team. Then he asked me to help him out. He had been invited to a family wedding and really wanted to be there but that was going to be impossible unless we finished the final studio work that week. Could I help him by finishing it on my own? Then we could meet up back in London
