Page 91 of Love and Loathing

Evie nodded, grateful, then dragged herself to the bathroom, not really comfortable enough with either Chris or Romona to hang around the place in her pyjamas with mad hair and unbrushed teeth while they ate their breakfast and squabbled over the crossword.

She needed to get going anyway. It was Saturday, but that was no guarantee he wouldn’t be going to the office. And she wasdetermined to talk to him. Wouldn’t leave until she got what she wanted.

Giving up on her toast, still feeling sick, she forced down half a cup of tea and tried to find what was left of her courage.

The housekeeper recognised her this time but was still reluctant to let her into the house. Clearly loyal to her father. They all somehow knew, all of the staff in every big house she’d ever stayed at, exactly what the prevailing mood was.

She found her father in his study, which was exactly where she’d expected him to be. The man did nothing but work. Was consumed by it, she supposed. Just a human shell around a money-making machine, calculations behind his eyes.

He looked up as she strode into the room, a frown of distaste mixed with a glimmer of amusement. It was the way he often looked at her. As though she was an insect and he was curious what would happen if he pulled off a leg. Herfather. For the first time, she found herself looking back at him in the same way: remote, detached, the inner child that craved acceptance and approval finally starved out of existence.

“Aubrey Ford,” she said.

Her father rolled his eyes. “Growing heartily sick of the man.”

“You will drop this gagging clause, keep your lawyers well away from him, clear his name, and make it known in all of your chummy city boy networks that he is exactly the man they need to hire.”

He laughed. “Will I? And why would I do any of that?”

“Because I know who leaked the emails.”

“Yes. You. Though he as good as signed his own confession trying to pretend otherwise.”

“Not me,” Evie said, using every inch of steel she possessed to make her next words solid. “But a group of activist hackers who have accessed the entire BlacktonGold network, your private computer, your phone, and know every single one of your shady secrets.”

He looked at her, amused. “Really? And exactly what are they planning to do with this illegally obtained information, other than land themselves in jail?”

“Release it. Just like they did the emails.”

He laughed again. “And they’ll hold back, will they, if I protect your boyfriend? This is all very convenient.”

“Yes,” she said. “Because I paid them.”

“You don’t even have any money, Evelyn. You refuse to take a single tainted penny.”

She smiled: a bright, sharp smile. “Nana left me some. I know you know how much, because you once tried to take it off me.”

For the first time, she saw a flicker of doubt in his eyes. “Ridiculous. I don’t believe you.”

She pulled a piece of paper from her coat pocket, unfolded it slowly, and slid it across the desk towards him. “A sample. A very, very small sample of what they found.”

He scanned the page without touching it, turning pale.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about how to make you do the right thing,” she said conversationally as her father stared, unmoving, at the printed page. “I was going to come and reason with you, or beg. Or explain that by punishing his best friend, and the man I love, you would burn any last bridge you had with Roscoe, with any of your children, although we all know he’s the only one you truly care about. But even Roscoe’s defection didn’t make you stop, did it? When even he couldn’t take you anymore, you gotworse. Crueller. Greedier. I knew there was no point appealing to your better nature, because you don’t have one.”

Silently, her father got to his feet, picked up the paper and dropped it in the empty grate. He took a match, set fire to it. She watched without comment.

“Luckily,” she continued, “or perhaps unluckily, depending on your point of view, I met an extremely unscrupulous woman who put this idea of using hackers in my head.”

“What you’ve done is illegal.”

“Well, Iamyour daughter.”

He scoffed. “And you’ve spent your whole life preaching at the rest of us, acting as though you’re better than us.”

“And now I’m fighting dirty? Yes. I am. Because there is absolutely nothing I won’t do to prevent you harming Aubrey. And you know how hard I can fight. You’ve never once managed to stop me doing what I believe in. I haven’t backed down, haven’t taken a penny from you, haven’t eaten a crumb from your table. I’m not asking much, and you know it. Save Aubrey and you get to keep your rotten company, and your whole rotten life. I could bring you down, but I won’t. I just want his reputation restored.”

Her father paused for a long moment, and her heart flailed, terrified, though she didn’t let a glimmer of it show.

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