The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 827

Natasha Vale did not answer at once.

She walked past Patricia as if she were a puddle and looked at the vase for exactly one breath.

"A market copy," she said. "A few dollars."

"That's a lie!" Patricia cried. Then she remembered who she was talking to. "I mean... with respect, Ms. Vale, you've hardly looked at it."

Natasha's eyes moved along the brown lines under the newspaper.

"Broken once already," she said. "And glued. Badly."

"I did say somebody already did the puzzle," Alex said brightly.

He wandered over to the old door and began to swing it like a bored child. In, and back. In, and back. The old latch clanked.

"It only goes this way," he told Gideon. "In. See? It's a silly door."

Natasha watched it swing inward, away from the step.

"And that door never touched it," she said. "It opens into the room. Somebody stood outside and dropped this on the step."

Every face in the yard turned to Patricia.

"You knocked," Serena said quietly. "You called my name. 'Serena, darling, are you there?' And when I opened the door, you screamed."

"That's not..." Patricia's face had gone the colour of paper. "That's not what happened, I..."

"What is going on in my yard?"

The Baroness Imelda Tiffany stood at the yard gate on her cane, in black, come out to stare at the black car in the lane.

Her eyes went from Natasha, to Patricia's nose, to the stick, to the vase. They narrowed.

"Is that the vase I gave you?"

"Grandma!" Patricia almost ran to her. "Tell them what you paid for it! Serena broke it, and now they're saying..."

"I bought it at the harbour market," said the Baroness. "Forty dollars. For your birthday, Patricia. Three years ago." Her cane tapped the cobbles. "And you broke it the same week, and cried, and glued it yourself. I remember, because you used my good glue."

The yard held its breath. Only the old dog moved, scratching in its straw.

Then Marissa shrieked.

"Forty dollars!" She clutched Gideon's arm so hard he winced. "Forty dollars! And I nearly let her pay the whole million for it!"

"You did let her, dear," Gideon said faintly.

"I nearly let her!"

Cordelia took a long, careful step away from Patricia. "Well," she said to nobody. "I always thought that vase was hideous."

"It was," Gideon agreed, and everyone turned to look at him, and he went pink.

Serena closed the banking app and slid the phone into her pocket. The million had never left.

"Halcyon's money," Natasha said, "stays where Halcyon sent it."

"And she swung that stick at Serena!" Marissa burst out. "At her legs! And it came round and hit her in the face!"

Natasha turned at last to Patricia, calm as still water.

"Miss Tiffany. You hold Halcyon's contract for this house. You also raised a stick to Halcyon's perfumer in front of four witnesses." She glanced at the dog. "Five. Halcyon does not work with a woman who does that. Your name is off our list forever until I say otherwise."

"You can't," Patricia whispered. "Grandma. She can't."

The Baroness was adding something up: the house's Halcyon money, the coast's richest door, and her granddaughter, bleeding, in the middle of the sum.

"Kneel, girl," the Baroness said.

Patricia stared. "What?"

"You heard me. The same words you used, I imagine. Kneel to your cousin and apologise. Then we will discuss whether you still live in my house."

"Grandma, please... where would I even go?"

"The harbour market sells buckets," said the Baroness. "I hear they're profitable. You can try it."

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