Winner Takes It All (35 page)

‘
So how come
after he met you, the counter offers came in?’

‘
Coincidence?’
he looked at Christian. ‘Come on Chris, we’ve been friends for
forty odd years. Why would I do something like that to
you?’

‘
That’s what I
want you to tell me. You see, Tara employed Tom because of what it
said on his CV. I wish I’d seen it first because I could have told
her that Piers owns Tryton House. Straight away I would have smelt
a rat.’

‘
When I called
the special meeting after daddy had the stroke, you and Tom acted
as though you didn’t know each other,’ Alex joined in.

‘
Okay okay,’
Bannerman sighed, swigging down his drink. ‘It’s quite simple. I
wanted revenge okay? The same as everyone else who hates your happy
little clan.’

‘
Revenge for
what?’ frowned Christian.

‘
I was always
the poor boy at Harrow. The one on a scholarship because his father
couldn’t afford the fees.’

‘
I knew that,
and I never did anything to make you feel inferior.’

‘
No, but I’d
come here in the summer holidays and there you’d all be, all so
good looking and happy and dripping with money. Your mother’s
programme on the television every night; your father rich even
without running his publishing company. I’d return to a
semi-detached in Edmonton with stories about the Cusacks and their
wonderful life and my poor father would feel
inadequate.’

‘
Your father
wasn’t that poor, he owned two car dealerships.’

‘
My father had
to stand out in all weathers, selling cars to people and still
didn’t earn in a year what your mother got for one episode of Andy
and Horatio. But he wanted to make something of himself, so when
Briggy put Sheridans up for sale, dad borrowed money from various
unscrupulous sources to put together a package. By the time Louisa
beat him to it, he’d already squandered hundreds of thousands on
presentations and the like and he knew he couldn’t pay the lenders
back. My father didn’t die in an armed robbery; my father blew his
brains out because your mother had helped ruin him.’

‘
How can you
blame my mother?!’ cried Christian. ‘That’s all part of business.
You put bids in, sometimes people beat you. If your father couldn’t
cope with that, he shouldn’t have done it in the first
place.’

‘
There you go
again; you Cusacks can never accept responsibility for any of your
actions.’

‘
So you’ve
been plotting against me for all these years?’

‘
No. I’ve just
bided my time, wondering when I’d be able to get my revenge. I met
Jackson Pearce, Sorcha Sheridan’s grandson through Piers - they
went to school together. When I got chatting to Jackson and he
realised I was on the board of Sheridans, he invited me to New York
to meet Sorcha. I went and met her and she told me everything - of
how Lou kept her bid for Sheridans from Briggy, hiding behind some
unknown company; knowing if she herself had bid directly, Briggy
would never have accepted it. Sorcha’s an old lady now and her
final wish is to see her grandson as head of Sheridans and she
asked me to help her, in return for control of Montague
Construction and the pleasure of seeing you lot suffer.’

‘
So where does
Tom come into this?’ Christian asked.

‘
He and
Jackson have kept in touch on and off over the years. Tom Montague
is a joke. The boy has no common sense and thinks he can be a
playwright. Before Jackson helped him, he was living in a shitty
house in Fulham bought with the money his grandfather left him,
with a load of drop outs. Jackson lent him a considerable amount of
money to put on a play that would obviously be a failure, knowing
that would leave Tom in his debt. Jackson said he would waiver the
loan if Tom would infiltrate your family and help with its
destruction. We thought that seeing as he was disowned, you would
believe he had nothing to do with Sorcha. Jackson also told Tom
that if he was successful in removing you as head of Sheridans, he
would be given control of Montague Construction.’

‘
But that was
a lie?’

‘
Yes. When it
was done, we were just going to send Tom on his way. He couldn’t
run a multi-international construction company - the boy couldn’t
even direct a shitty play.’

‘
You really
are the most vile man to walk this earth,’ Christian shouted. ‘If I
had any strength I would punch you in the face.’

Bannerman stood up, that
sly, evil smile returning to his face.

‘
But you
haven’t got any strength have you? It’s me in control for
once.’

Alex got up, rushing over
to him.

‘
You lay one
finger on my father and I’ll kill you.’

‘
Shut up
little girl,’ he laughed and with a swipe of the hand, pushed her
across the room, back onto the sofa. Never one to be defeated, she
got straight back up, running to him.

‘
Alex leave
him!’ called Christian, trying to get to his feet.

‘
Get out!’
Alex screamed, pushing Bannerman. ‘Get out and leave us
alone.’

Suddenly there was
another noise.

‘
What on earth
is going on?’

They all looked round. It
was Ben standing in the French windows, his big girth blocking out
the light.

‘
Stop all this
shouting,’ he said, hobbling into the room. ‘It’s frightening
the…it’s frightening the…it’s.’

Like a spluttering car,
he couldn’t get the words out, his hand shooting up to his chest.
Like time freezing, everyone could only stand and watch as the
mighty old man collapsed to the floor.

‘
Grandpa!’
cried Alex, rushing to him. She knelt beside him; his lips were
turning blue, his eyes wandering. He was obviously having a heart
attack. Alex looked round at her father, who had managed to get to
his feet. ‘Daddy call an ambulance, grandpa’s having a heart
attack.’

A white foam was
dribbling in the corners of Ben’s mouth, his body shaking slightly.
Alex had never felt so helpless in her life, she couldn’t allow
anything to happen to her beloved grandpa – he was going to be
around forever.

She heard her father on
his mobile phone, calling for an ambulance, while she cradled Ben’s
head in her lap. She wiped away the saliva with a tissue she found
in her pocket and he smiled, slowly lifting his hand and stroking
the side of her face.

‘
Lulu,’ he
whispered. ‘My Lulu.’

His hand left her face,
his arm dropping heavily down at his side with a thud. His eyes
closed and his head rolled to one side and Alex knew he was gone. A
pain roared through her she had never experienced before, not even
when her mother or grandmother died. Ben was her grandpa, her
lovely grandpa who she adored, and he’d died in her arms. She cried
out, holding his head to her chest, rocking his lifeless
body.

‘
Not my
grandpa,’ she sobbed, her tears falling onto his cricket whites.
‘Not my grandpa.’

In her grief, she heard
Benny and Lucas come rushing into the room and a sobbing Christian
tell them to run and find Mrs Gentle. He then lay his hand on
Alex’s shoulder.

‘
Let him go
Alex,’ he cried. ‘We can’t do anything now.’

Alex eased her
grandfather’s head down onto the floor and stood up, throwing
herself into her father’s arms and they sobbed together. Alex
thought she would never stop crying, wondering how could it be that
someone as lovely as Ben could die when someone evil like Maurice
Bannerman was alive. Maurice Bannerman. He was still there and
Alex’s grief turned to a ferocious rage. She pulled herself away
from her father, noticing Bannerman just standing there stunned,
looking down at the dead body of the old man.

‘
You killed
him!’ Alex screamed, flying at him like a wild cat. ‘You killed my
grandfather.’

She clawed at his face,
crying and screaming at the same time.

‘
He was an old
man,’ Bannerman winced, trying to ease this small but crazed girl
off him.

‘
He was
worried because of the shouting. All caused by you. I hate you. I’m
going to kill you.’

Bannerman managed to
throw Alex to the floor like someone removing a particularly
vicious and clawing cat. Too weak to get back up, Alex collapsed
into floods of tears once more, unable to follow Bannerman as he
ran out the door. Christian slumped back down into his chair,
knowing he could only sit and wait for the ambulance to
arrive.

‘
Do you think
he knew he was going?’ he said quietly. ‘Was that why he’d been
saying about seeing mother?’

‘
He died
whispering her name,’ Alex sobbed. ‘He loved her so
much.’

‘
At least
they’re together now.’ He started crying again. ‘Ali I’m an
orphan.’

He hadn’t called her Ali
since she was a little girl and it broke Alex’s heart to hear her
father so devastated. She got up and ran to him, and like a child,
threw herself into his lap, burying her head into his neck while
they cried together.

***

News of Ben’s death
spread rapidly and within hours all the family had descended upon
Layton House. Paula, Christian, Hal and Lucy clung together,
inconsolable in their grief. Alex watched on, now just feeling a
strange detachment, thinking back to her grandmother’s death and
how differently they reacted then. Maybe it was because she’d had
cancer and they’d had time to prepare themselves, but she
remembered how Paula was on the point of collapse at the death of
her mother, but while the other three were heartbroken, there was
none of this feeling of raw pain like with the passing of Ben. Alex
couldn’t help but think of her brother’s suspicions about Paula not
being Ben’s daughter. It was true; Lou did always treat her and Dan
and Tara differently.

By the time Michael
arrived, Alex was too exhausted to confront him, knowing it could
wait. She thanked God for Tara’s sake it had happened the day
before she was due to go to America. At least she could go to the
chapel of rest and say goodbye to her grandfather. With the family
gathered, Alex excused herself and went up to her room, lying on
her bed and crying quietly. She remembered all the wonderful times
she’d had with Ben and felt great sadness that her childhood was
officially over. Her father was now head of the Cusack family, and
this would put even more of a strain on him and from now on it
would be her role to support him.

There was a knock on the
door and it opened before she could tell the person to come in. She
looked round to see it was her Aunt Lucy, her pretty little face
streaked with make up where she’d been crying. She smiled at Alex
and sat down on the bed, resting a hand on her shoulder.

‘
Are you okay
darling?’ she asked, her voice broken. ‘Daddy tells me he died in
your arms.’

‘
Yes,’ Alex
whispered. ‘He was calling for grandmother.’

Lucy let out a sob,
covering her face with her hands.

‘
I’m going to
miss him so much,’ she cried.

‘
We all will.
He held us all together.’

Lucy wiped her tears away
and looked at her niece.

‘
Have you
called Robin?’

‘
Robin?’

‘
I think he’ll
want to know darling. He can come here and look after
you.’

‘
Yes, I’ll do
it in a minute.’

‘
Okay. Well
I’ll let you get some rest. It must have been terrible for
you.’

Lucy left and Alex took
her phone from her pocket and scrolled through the contacts until
she got to the person she wanted to see.

‘
Alex?’ he
chirped, on seeing her name.

‘
Grandpa’s
dead,’ she sniffed.

‘
What?’

‘
My grandpa’s
dead. He died in my arms.’

‘
Oh Alex,’
Jack cried. ‘Oh my poor Alex. Where are you?’

‘
Layton House.
Are you still in London?’

‘
Yeah, I’m at
The Exchange.’

‘
Can you come
and see me? Please Jack, I want to see you.’

‘
I’ll be there
as soon as I can. It’s Abbott’s Leigh isn’t it?’

‘
Yes, it’s the
big house, you can’t miss it.’

‘
I’ll be
there.’

Alex ended the call and
cried herself to sleep. When she next awoke, she saw she’d been off
for an hour. Her head was pounding and the noise coming from all
the Cusacks gathered downstairs was making it worse. Rather like
waking with a hangover, she cursed herself for calling Jack. How
would she explain to the family that she’d called for her business
partner and not her fiancé? That she needed his strong arms around
her, not Robin’s. She was making the gravest mistake of her life in
marrying him and today had made it more evident than
ever.

Getting out of bed, she
went to the window; in the distance she could see the hills that
divided Abbott’s Leigh from Summerset, where Ben was looking the
other day and seeing his Louisa. Alex tried to imagine them both as
youngsters. Lou was still beautiful up until the day she died, but
it was hard to equate her big, cuddly Father Christmas like grandpa
with the gorgeous hunk in the wedding photos. If her grandmother
did prefer Andrew McDonald to Ben, then there was no accounting for
taste. The photographs of Andrew as a young man showed him to be
quite good looking, but if the young Ben was around these days,
with his blonde hair and chiselled features he could have been a
model or a member of a boy band.