Which was getting her to agree to be my date.
Which she still hadn’t.
‘Fine.’ I tried to mask my irritation at the change of topic and failed. ‘I took on those fights for a reason. I needed the money.’
‘Right. To start up your business.’
‘Partly. I also needed it to pay back a debt.’
She sipped at her drink, watching me. ‘What debt?’
‘I already had that start-up money. In fact, by the time I left school, I had a nice little nest egg stashed away. Money I’d saved over the years through jobs here and there.’ My chest tightened but I forced myself to say it. ‘But mostly the money came from my mother, from the retirement savings I convinced her to give me. I was going to invest it in property and by the time she actually had to retire, she’d have millions. At least, that’s what I promised her.’
She hadn’t wanted to give me that money, either, but I’d convinced her. I’d told her she’d get it back and with interest. And she’d believed me.
Ellie grimaced. ‘Oh, no. Don’t tell me...’
‘I lost it. I lost every penny.’ My jaw ached. Christ, this should not be so hard to say. ‘My half-brother took it all.’
‘Hell,’ she muttered. ‘What did he do?’
I wanted another Scotch, but I ignored the urge, concentrating instead on Ellie’s face. ‘About the only thing my bastard father did for me was to pay for a private school, the same school Sebastian went to. We became close friends and had plans to go into business together. He had money, plenty of it, but I didn’t and so I had to work hard to get my share of the cash together.’ My hands had closed into fists at my sides and I had to take a breath to unclench them. ‘There was a property we were aiming to buy and I thought we’d agreed on it, but soon after we left school, he decided on a different site that he thought would be more profitable. I told him the deal was shady—believe me, growing up on the estate, you get a sixth sense for that kind of thing. But he refused to listen. He went ahead and shelled out the cash without my agreement and, sure enough, the deal fell through and we lost everything.’
More sympathy flickered in her eyes, making something inside me ache. ‘Oh, that’s awful.’
‘I was furious.’ And I had been. I could still feel the rage coursing through my veins to this day, boiling me dry. The sheer betrayal of it. Seb had been my closest friend and he was supposed to have my back. He wasn’t supposed to completely ignore me, treat me like I was just a know-nothing kid from a shitty council estate. He’d been shocked when it had all fallen apart, as if he hadn’t been warned that something like this was going to happen. Warned by me.
After my father’s rejection of me, Seb’s refusal to listen had been too much.
You could have talked to him at any time over the years. You didn’t have to turn your back on him so completely. But you did, didn’t you?
‘If it had been only my money that had been lost, it wouldn’t have been so bad,’ I went on, shoving the thought of my own culpability in the destruction of our friendship aside. ‘But it wasn’t. It was all my mother’s savings, too. He told me to relax, that we could get more money from somewhere else, but he was rich. Of course he could get what he wanted, whenever he wanted it. He even offered to put in my share for next time, but I refused.’ The embers of that anger burned sullenly inside me, turning my voice into a growl. ‘I didn’t want his fucking money. I didn’t want to have to be beholden to someone who didn’t listen. Someone who should have been my friend.’ I stopped, trying to get a handle on myself. ‘Anyway, I swore I’d make it on my own from then on. So I went out and tried to raise as much cash as I could, doing what I could. Street fighting was lucrative, paid cash, and I could earn it relatively quickly.’
Plus, you enjoyed it.
Yes, there was that. The gangs and the dealers threatened and intimidated everyone on the estate, my mother and me included. And it had given me immense satisfaction when I’d finally grown into my height and build, and I’d earned a reputation for being a mean son-of-a-bitch, to pay back that intimidation in kind.
After that knife fight, no one had messed with me again.
‘What about your mother?’ Ellie asked. ‘She can’t have thought fighting was a good idea, surely?’
I bared my teeth, remembering Mum’s disapproving face. ‘No, she didn’t. She said the money didn’t matter, but she was wrong. She’s always been wrong about that. Money always matters.’
Especially when it had been money she’d worked hard for. Money that would have given her the kind of life she would have had if she hadn’t had me.
There was a brief silence, Ellie’s gaze uncomfortably sharp. Uncomfortably knowing.
Shit, I’d been too vehement, hadn’t I? Too angry. Betrayed too much.
‘Anyway, I got the money back,’ I went on, too quickly. ‘And I made my fortune. And I want those islands because Dumont wants them, too, and so I’m aiming to buy them out from under him.’
‘So...this is revenge or something?’
I smiled. ‘It’s a reminder. That I’m still here. And that I haven’t forgotten.’
She looked at me for a long time, not saying anything.
Then she put her glass down on the table and said, ‘If I do this, you’ll give Australis some more time, right?’