Gold Digger

Ollie

I scowled up at the shithole block of flats I was standing outside. Movement caught my eye from an alleyway, and when I looked over I saw two men exchanging something before one of them melted back into the shadows – drug dealers. Lottie and Hayley lived in a neighbourhood with drug dealers out in the street on a goddamn Tuesday afternoon in broad daylight.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered as I pressed the intercom, which remained blank. Fury shot through me as I gave the door in front of me a light shove, and it swung fully open. A big ‘out of order’ sign was on the lift, so I jogged up the five flights of stairs to their flat, then banged on the flimsy piece of shit wood.

“What are you doing here?” Lottie breathed as she blinked up at me with a shocked expression. Hayley peeked at me from behind her sister and gave me a small wave which I managed to return, even accompanied with a smile despite my anger.

“Hey, stowaway,” I said softly. She blushed and gave me another tiny smile. It would do for now, but future Hayley was going to be smiling big all the fucking time and not doing it in this unsafe dump of a flat.

“Ollie, I thought we agreed to give it a few days,” Lottie said through gritted teeth, and I shrugged as I gently moved her and Hayley back so I could make it into the tiny space and shut the door behind me, scowling at it as it creaked on its hinges.

“No, you decided that,” I told her, taking a few steps into their home (really, that was all the steps it was possible to take – this place was smaller than our larder). “ I didn’t agree to anything.” As I looked around the space my stomach pitched. Lottie had made the best of the tiny room. Colourful throws over the shitty sofa, a threadbare rug that had seen better days but brightened up the place, but there was still some obvious damp with peeling wallpaper and a draft from the window which was rattling in the wind.

“Wow, kiddo,” I said, turning to Hayley as I walked over to the fridge and touched one of the many paintings of horses stuck onto it. “These are bloody good.” Hayley’s face flushed with pleasure, and that small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth again despite the obvious tension between me and her sister. “Got any more of these to show me?” She gave a quick nod and then rushed out of the room to the only door other than the entrance. The folded bedding next to the sofa told me all I needed to know – one bedroom, which Hayley used; Lottie slept on the sofa. My resolve hardened as I turned to Lottie, whose mouth was now set in a stubborn line.

“You and Hayley are coming home with me today,” my tone had gone from the soft, encouraging way I spoke to Hayley to now hard and uncompromising. I’d been willing to be gentle with Lottie yesterday. Her complete breakdown after I’d shouted at her like the absolute prick that I was, gutted me. Lottie Forest was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she had been for a long fucking time. And I’d watched right there in my home as that weight finally took its toll and crushed her. I never ever wanted to see her like that again. Now that I’d finally got off my arse and looked into Lottie properly (something I should have done months ago but my hurt pride hadn’t even considered because, again, I was a massive prick), I knew that any normal person would have broken way before she had.

Lottie and Hayley had been taken home by my driver yesterday – Hayley had a therapy appointment and, to be honest, I knew that they both needed time to regroup, so I allowed them space for now. The first call I made was to my mother. As I suspected, she did have some information and she had known about Hayley, but she didn’t have the full picture. Unlimited funds and contacts everywhere meant that by lunchtime the next day, I had a comprehensive file on both sisters, and it wasn’t pretty reading.

Just like Lottie had said, she had been on her own since the age of ten. That was when she was removed from her mother’s care after repeated concerns raised by the school. Her mother was an alcoholic, father passed away when she was six. From aged ten to sixteen Lottie was in and out of foster care until she returned to her mother’s care. Her mother had been sober for a year and in that time had managed to find a new husband and get pregnant with Hayley. She did stay sober for the next six years, but then her husband ran away with another woman and emigrated to Australia, of all places. Contact was minimal after that, and he never paid any child support, despite court summons to do so. Lottie’s mother fell off the wagon in a dramatic fashion, rocking up to Hayley’s primary school completely shitfaced on multiple occasions and, yet again, her child was taken into foster care. Only this time a sister was waiting in the wings. Lottie had only just turned twenty-two, but she took in her now selectively mute, grieving, extremely damaged sister.

Over the last two years, the scrutiny from social services had been intense, but Lottie had managed to meet all of their standards. She’d given up any hope of attending university to take low-paid jobs and make ends meet as best she could. The only time she slipped up was when she was caught shoplifting a pair of school shoes for her sister. Meanwhile, her mother fell deeper and deeper into alcoholism.

Hayley’s grandparents had cropped up more recently. They hadn’t been involved with the child for her entire life, having disapproved of the mother, but they had got back in touch ten months ago demanding visitation rights. This was after Lottie and Hayley’s mother died from alcoholic liver disease. When I thought of those two cremating their mother all alone, I felt even more rage than I had before. I’d already started to make a few moves to ruin Buchanon’s business after I’d uncovered the fact that they fired Lottie two weeks after her mother died. From the looks Buchanon gave Lottie that night at my bar, I was pretty sure that her absence from work for a goddamn funeral wasn’t the only reason his wife got rid of her.

As if all that wasn’t enough to deal with, after a few months the grandparents reported Lottie as poor parenting material and made new demands – this time for full custody. Judging by Hayley’s reaction to the mention of them yesterday, I imagined that this was not what either sister wanted, but it was clear that Lottie was terrified it would happen.

Well, all of that shit, all of those worries were over now. With my money and my connections those girls were going to do exactly as they pleased, and nobody was going to threaten them ever again. There certainly would not be any problem obtaining fucking school shoes. There was just the small hurdle of convincing Lottie to trust me.

“W-we are not coming home with you,” Lottie’s voice was high-pitched with disbelief. “That’s insane. We can’t just pack up and move out.”

“Lottie,” I said in my most reasonable tone. “The police will have already filed their report with social services. When it comes to child protection issues, they are usually very prompt.”

She frowned up at me, looking adorably confused. In fact, at home and out of her Corporate Barbie uniform, Lottie was just plain adorable. Her glorious caramel hair was piled on top of her head, and her delicate face free of any make-up; she had on a pair of checked pyjama bottoms paired with a tight tank top and a fluffy, oversized cardigan, and her slippers were unicorns, which I noticed matched those of her sister. I’d never seen anything as ridiculous or as completely endearing in my life, and it only firmed my resolve that these two would be under my roof by the end of the day.

“How do you know about the police process for child protection?”

I shrugged. “Just a guess,” I lied – my team had done extensive research on police processes, local social services, family court, fostering, applying for adoption and grandparental rights. My personal assistant was an unrelenting arsehole, but she did not like injustice. Once Jenna had heard Lottie’s story she was all over the research. She’d even compiled a file on the grandparents, digging up all sorts of decades-old shit that I had no idea how she’d uncovered, but that may well come in useful if they continued to threaten Hayley and Lottie. I’d been the one to research selective mutism – but I’d save that conversation for another time; Lottie was clearly struggling with how fast things were moving now, and she hadn’t even moved in yet. “The point is, you and Hayley are not staying here another night. Did you know there are actual drug dealers on the street outside?”

Lottie frowned at me. “Er, yes. We’re in the dodgiest part of south London. Of course, there’re dealers.”

I threw up my hands. “What do you mean ‘of course there’re dealers’? They’re dangerous.”

Lottie narrowed her eyes at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “Listen, posh boy. I’ve been living in dodgy parts of London for years. The chuffing dealers aren’t the threat around here. Unless you’re buying drugs or trying to sell drugs on their patch, you’re invisible to them. Seeing as I have never had any intention of doing either, they’re a complete non-issue.”

“What is the threat then?” I said in a low, dangerous voice.

“What?”

“You said drug dealers aren’t the threat around here. Implying there was another threat. I want to know what it is.”

She looked down and to the left, and I ground my teeth. I’d never met anyone as stubborn as her. As if on cue, Hayley came running out of the bedroom, skidding to a halt in front of me in her unicorn slippers.

“Hey, stowaway,” I said, crouching down to her level. She lost a little of her nerve then. The piece of paper she’d been clutching lowered as she bit her lip. I held out my hand and smiled at her. “Is that for me?” Very slowly, she lifted the paper up for me to look at. My heart tripped as I looked at what she’d drawn. “That’s amazing, Hayley. You know what? We can put this one on the fridge in my house. Would you like to come over tonight?”

She nodded straight away.

“Hails,” Lottie snapped. “We’ve been over this. What His Grace said to those policemen wasn’t true. It was just to help us out, which is naughty because we shouldn’t lie. But we are not moving in with him.” Hayley’s eyes darted over to the door, then back to Lottie. “Fudge nuggets,” Lottie whispered to herself as she covered the distance to Hayley, took her hand and tried to lead her away from me. But Hayley’s face fell into a stubborn expression reminiscent of her sister and she planted her feet as her gaze flicked over to the door again. I straightened from my crouch as I looked in the direction of her gaze. There was a chest of drawers at a funny angle next to the door that I hadn’t noticed before. It was almost as though someone had dragged it across and not bothered to put it back against the wall. I blinked. Surely not…

“Lovebug,” Lottie’s voice had softened now as she dropped down in front of her sister and pushed some of her curls out of her face with a gentle hand. I had to strain to hear her next whispered words. “That was only for a couple of nights. We were safe, I promise. It was just in case . You should have told me you knew. I thought you were asleep.”

“Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like, Lottie,” I said through gritted teeth. Lottie gave me a wary look, and I tried to tamp down my rising temper. But visions of Lottie waiting until Hayley was asleep and then dragging a huge chest of drawers, which, even being likely twice her weight, would not keep anyone other than my ninety-five-year-old grandma out, flew through my mind.

“It was just a precaution,” Lottie explained. “I didn’t really think anything would happen, but there was the odd… er… kerfuffle in the corridor and, well, someone did try the door handle a couple of times.”

“Define ‘kerfuffle’,” I said in a tight voice and Lottie bit her lip.

“Just some drunk dudes, shouting and horsing around.”

“Christ,” I snapped, my hand going to the back of my neck.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she rushed to say. “And I’ve probably been a bit extra cautious with the barricading thing.” She turned to Hayley and softened her tone. “I didn’t know you noticed that, lovebug. You’ve got to tell me if something’s worrying you. We’re a team, remember?”

Quite rightly, Hayley’s eyebrows went up as she shot the chest of drawers a significant look. Lottie sighed. I was starting to see how this non-verbal communication worked.

“Yes, okay,” she admitted. “I wasn’t honest with you either, but still, you should have told me if you were worried.”

Hayley crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at her sister.

“Because I’m the adult, Hails,” Lottie said in a firmer voice. “You’re a kid. I get to make the tough choices.” With that, Hayley rolled her eyes and stormed out of the room in disgust, slamming the bedroom door behind her. At Hayley’s exit, Lottie just seemed to deflate. The fight went out of her eyes, and she sank down onto the small sofa with a huff, taking her head in her hands. The anger coursing through me at the vision of Lottie pushing that huge chest of drawers in front of her door melted away as I took in her defeated pose.

“Hey,” I said softly as I sat next to her on the sofa, putting my hand on her back.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“She was scared,” Lottie said in a whisper that was only just loud enough for me to make out.

“It’s not your fault, darling,” I said, rubbing circles on her back now. “You did the best you could.”

“She’s still scared,” Lottie went on as if she hadn’t heard me. “I should have found somewhere else to live but, cheese and rice, you wouldn’t believe the rent they charge in some places.” She swallowed. “I needed to make that fifty grand last, and I couldn’t rely on Vicky employing me forever, so I?—”

“You made the choices you thought you had to,” I said, cutting her off. I couldn’t hear any more about how she expected the worst. Lottie’s entire life had trained her to do that. Of course when my mother stepped in with a solid financial offer, she would take it. She had to take it. I could see that now, see beyond my hurt pride to how much that amount of money meant to Lottie. How much stability it gave her and her sister. “But I’m offering you an alternative. Everyone needs some help sometimes, Lottie. I don’t want Hayley to be scared, and neither do you.”

The last sentence was a low blow to get my way, and I knew it, but I had to use everything at my disposal to convince her. I was not leaving this building without both sisters.

“Why do you want to help us?” Lottie said, lifting her face from her hands to look at me. “You hate me. You wanted me to stay away from you and your family. Wait…” she blinked up at me as her face paled, “is this some bullshit guilt thing now that you know about my sister?”

“Firstly, I never hated you. Ever.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“I didn’t. I was frustrated with you, but I never hated you.”

“You thought I was a threat to your family.” Her voice cracked at the end, and she cleared her throat to try to cover it, and I felt a burn in the pit of my stomach. When she spoke again, her voice was small. “I did that. I know I did, by taking the money. It was a test, and I failed it. I even knew it was a test when your mum offered the money, but I couldn’t turn it down. I just—” Her breath hitched, and she pressed her trembling lips together. I suspected that the last thing Lottie wanted to do was cry in front of me again. The burn had worked its way up to my throat now and I had to swallow it down before I spoke again.

“It was unfair of Mum to offer you that money, Lottie,” I said in a tight voice. Past establishing that Mum had known about Hayley in our brief call yesterday, I hadn’t spoken to her again. I was absolutely bloody furious with her. She went to Lottie with that offer, knowing how desperate she was, knowing how impossible it would be for her to say no. The casual cruelty with which she’d treated Lottie was almost unbelievable to me. It didn’t gel with my vision of my mum. “Especially when she knew how desperately you might need it. It’s…” I broke off, jumping up from the sofa and pacing away as far as the small living room would allow, my hand rubbing the back of my neck, searching for the right words, then turned and locked eyes with Lottie. “It’s playing with people’s lives. She pushed you around with her money. Took advantage of you when she should have been helping you.”

“Ollie, I didn’t have to take that money,” Lottie said softly.

My eyebrows went up as I looked pointedly around the flat and the dresser that was at an awkward angle, then nodded towards the shut bedroom door. Her cheeks flushed red.

“I would have managed.”

“Would Hayley have the therapy she needs?” I asked gently, pacing back to her and taking my seat on the sofa again. She bit her lip and looked down at the floor. “That’s not a criticism, Lottie. Hayley’s had ongoing therapy for weeks now because of that decision you made.”

Lottie swallowed, but to my relief, when she looked at me, some of the torment had left her eyes. “Thanks,” she said softly.

“So, now that we’ve got that sorted. You need to pack.”

“Ollie, I?—”

“I’m not leaving you here.”

Lottie rolled her eyes. “This is not a warzone. We’ve lived here for nearly a year with hardly any problems.”

“Hardly any? There have been some, then?”

She looked down and to the left, her mouth set in that stubborn line. I realised that if I wanted my way, and I always wanted my way, I was going to have to change tactics. And I was good at manipulating situations. I’d been doing it since I was a child, just as Lottie had been reading people and situations to keep herself safe.

“Listen, I’m sorry, Lottie, but I told the police that you were moving in with me and that we’re engaged. So, for the moment, both of those things need to happen, or I could be accused of lying to the police. That has some serious consequences for me and my family.” I was definitely stretching the truth to breaking point there; I had full control of my estate, my investments and the dukedom. My family had never been so secure. None of this could touch me or them. But Lottie didn’t need to know that. I knew I was on the right track as I watched her face pale.

“B-but that’s your fault,” Lottie said, and she had a point, but it was not one I was willing to concede.

“The fact is that Hayley came to my door, putting you and her under my protection. End of story.”

Her mouth opened, closed and then opened again before she finally spoke. “You want me to pose as your fake fiancée?”

Hmm, she could think it was fake if that would keep her from freaking out for now. But to be honest, since yesterday, I’d had a massive sense of satisfaction thinking about Lottie as my future wife without “fake” once coming into the equation. But I was well aware that I’d been a dick to her for weeks and that my intention to keep her and Hayley for good at this stage might make me look a little crazy – with good reason.

“Sure.” I shrugged. “It’ll keep Mum from setting me up with a string of annoying women. You can deter my crazy ex-girlfriend, who’s been a real problem recently. I’ve got a million charity galas coming up, which you’ll make vastly less dull.” She blinked at that, and her lips tipped up just slightly. She liked me saying that she’d make something less dull. Not the most effusive compliment but it had clearly worked on Lottie, and I guess compared to all the insults I’d hurled at her recently it was a big improvement. “And you can help me like you help Vicky.”

She jerked in surprise at that as her gaze snapped to mine. “What do you mean? You don’t need the same help as Vicky.”

“I know you do more than help Vics interact with people. Your abilities are valuable in business. You must realise that?”

There was that small smile again just as the bedroom door opened, and Hayley emerged, dragging a massive bin liner which was overflowing with toys. She huffed and puffed her way to her sister, dumped the bag at her feet and then planted her feet wide with her hands on her hips. When she looked at me, I gave her a wink and a grin. When she smiled just like her sister, I knew that I’d won.