Page 66 of Ethan & Grace

He shook his head. “Have you talked to anyone about it?”

“Only James,” I replied.

“Do you think he might have told someone?”

“No, he’s not like that,” I said, mentally running through the list of people who knew about Henry’s problem. I could count them on two hands. “Could Marko have found out?” I didn’t know Marko Langston particularly well. He’d been involved with Olivia for a while, and I knew he and Henry couldn’t stand each other. Maybe this was his way of getting back at Henry.

Henry shook his head. “No, it definitely wasn’t him.”

“Are you sure? Maybe Olivia let it slip when he was around.”

“I’m sure,” he assured me, and after a short pause, he added, “Marko was the one who sold me the Vitalyn. He’d never tell the press, because then I’d out him as my dealer, and he knows that.”

This was the first I was hearing about Marko’s involvement. “Does Olivia know?”

“Yes, I told her at the beginning of the year.”

“Is that why she broke up with him?”

Henry nodded, but he clearly didn’t want to talk about it right now. Understandably. There were more important things to focus on.

“Could Dad have sold you out?” I wondered aloud.

“No, he wouldn’t do that.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Are you sure?”

Henry’s hesitation spoke volumes. “OK, he might, but things are going pretty well for him in court at the moment. I just saw a poll where over forty percent of people now believe he’s innocent. So why would he throw me under the bus? It would harm him the most, given the current situation. I think he’d probably save that trump card until the next time he needs to divert attention from himself.”

Duplicitous but not unlikely, coming from him.

“Perhaps Mum let it slip to her friends?” Henry suggested.

I shook my head. “No, she’d never share something like that.”

“You’re right. She values her reputation above all else. She wouldn’t gossip about something that makes her look bad.”

He was largely right—but not entirely. Yes, our mum cared about her reputation, but above all, she wanted to protect her family, both from gossip and from people who might do us harm. Which was why she’d tried to sabotage Henry’s relationship with Kate at the start. Admittedly, she could have found a different way to express her reservations and worries, but I knew deep down she only meant well.

“I’ll call Edgar later. Maybe he can find out more,” Henry said evenly. I didn’t know whether it was our conversation or the scotch, but he already seemed calmer.

“Who’s Edgar?”

“Edgar Hawthorne. He’s a private detective. I hired him at the start of the year to keep an eye on that bastard Randell. You know, the guy who sold all those lies about Kate to the press. I wanted to make sure he doesn’t pull something like that again. Maybe he can find out where the INsider got their information.”

“Sounds like a plan. And I’ll definitely ask around too. Perhaps Charles or Nate know something that—”

I was cut off by a knock at the door, and before Henry could say anything, Kate came in. Even though she now had a proper salary, not to mention the fact that Henry would have spent his entire fortune on her, she was still wearing the same old leather jacket she’d arrived at the hotel in all those months ago.

Henry’s eyes lit up when he saw his girlfriend.

“Hey,” Kate said, out of breath, as if she’d raced here.

My brother sprang to his feet as she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him. He held her tightly, clearly drawing comfort from her embrace. I could practically see the stress of the past hour evaporate in Kate’s presence. Watching them stirred a pang of envy in my chest, stronger than any I’d felt before.

I had never wished for a partner, but the thought of someone giving me as much inner peace as Kate brought my brother suddenly seemed like something worth wanting. And if I was honest, I knew exactly what had brought about this change of heart. And that terrified me. Because if the few moments I’d had with Grace were enough to make me feel like this, how would it be if I spent even more time with her?

I left Henry and Kate alone in his office and headed to the penthouse. I was looking forward to a hot shower and some peace and quiet. Today had felt like three days rolled into one. I’d started off the morning still relaxed, attending the last lectures of the term—and then everything had escalated with Grace and Henry.