‘You wanted to be Bobby? To have the company? Why did you hand it all over to Oliver, then?’
He looks down at the man beside him. ‘We made a deal, Dad and I. He would keep it all quiet if I waited until he thought the time was right for me to take over. Oliver was only ever supposed to be there until Dad stepped down,’ he says. ‘And that hasn’t happened yet. I thought it best to do my own thing until full control passed to me. But by God did they want me back in the fold, where they could keep an eye on me. I’m not the only one in this family with secrets, but I’m sure you know that.’
Robert stirs once more in the seat beside him, his eyes flickering hazily open, disorientated.
‘Why did you kill them, Ed?’ I ask, desperate to buy more time for Robert to come around.
He studies me for a second before speaking. ‘Why did you kill him?’
I’m momentarily back-footed by a question no one has ever asked. I think about obfuscating, but there is little point, and part of me desperately longs for the release of unfettered honesty. ‘Because I wanted him to pay, to suffer, to understand what he did.’
‘And do you think he did?’
I consider the question for the first time in my life. ‘Yes, actually. Yes, I think he understood.’
‘So, you got what you wanted?’ he asks simply.
‘In a way, but I have to live with that. That a momentary whim of mine cost an entire human life.’
‘His whim cost you two lives though, didn’t it?’ he argues, and I see what he is doing.
‘We aren’t the same, Edward.’
He tilts his head to one side. ‘No, we are not. You meant to kill your first; mine was a mistake.’
The distinction smarts. ‘But the second wasn’t, was it?’
‘The second was necessary. Lucy was there the day he died; she heard everything. I had little choice.’
‘And Alison. She was your first real girlfriend, wasn’t she? Did you have no choice then?’
He flinches at my words. ‘Yes, I had no choice. I thought I loved her, that she loved me. I tried to tell her, everything, about Bobby, about Lucy; I tried to be honest. She ran from me. I don’t know what I expected; she was young and good and it was na?ve to think she’d forgive anything, but I had to try. You know that impulse, I’m sure, even if you’ve never followed through. I thought it would be safe to share my secrets, but it was not. I had no idea what she might do, who she might tell. And then Gianna. I pulled her close in the hope I might be able to uncover how much she knew or suspected. But she had a strange way about her. I could never be sure what Alison had told her; how much she knew. Is this what you want to hear?’ he asks suddenly. ‘The why of everything?’
There’s a pragmatism to the question that I suddenly realize means he is still hoping for the other shoe to drop with me. There’s still a part of him certain that if he is honest enough, open enough, I will somehow understand and I will be able to continue loving him. But what if I don’t?
‘Are you going to kill me, Edward?’ I ask.
He studies me silently. ‘I know what’s been going on between you two,’ he says gently, looking to the slumped Robert in the chair beside him.
He knows about the tape. He must have heard Robert’s voice that night I found him with it in his hands. He must have known what it was as soon as he heard that list of names. He knows I’ve lied to him for weeks.
‘You heard him on the tape?’
Edward nods. ‘I expected it from him. But not from you. He tried to avoid me, to manipulate the situation. To gain your trust.’
In my mind, I desperately rewind the events of the past few days. I recall Edward getting a phone call and leaving me with Eleanor to see the new wing, then, moments later, Robert arguing and smashing something in his office. He was on the phone with Edward. It is possible Edward confronted him in that call, which resulted in dinner being cancelled.