Three Wishes(47)

He channelled all his genie friends in hopes of a wayward wish so he could turn Nate, Victor and the entire Roberts family into vermin and he was going to do it, he assured her, floating barely inches from the ceiling.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, there weren’t any wayward wishes to be had. There never were, Lily’s family were the firsts in Genie History to hang on to their wishes and their genie.

And Lily wasn’t going to use her last wish for that.

She had bigger battles on her hands. Much bigger battles.

“Lily,” Alistair said softly.

Her eyes opened, her head shot up to look at him and he was smiling at her kindly.

“You know the plan?”

Lily nodded.

She knew the plan. She knew the plan but she hated the plan. She hated it with a passion.

But she’d do anything to keep Tash. Anything to keep her precious daughter.

Anything.

Alistair knew everything, her whole, sad, stupid, gullible story. Lily had told him every humiliating detail of her meeting with Nate and her life for the last eight years. Her difficult pregnancy; the bills; the state of her house when they’d moved there, not fit for Fazire and Lily much less a baby; the second jobs she had to get to put in decent wiring and plumbing, Lily herself doing most of the other work on the house; Lily’s saving up for Tash’s special school.

Everything.

When she was finished talking, Alistair stared at her a moment with a funny look on his face. Then he picked up a glass paperweight on his desk and threw it across the room. Lily wasn’t certain that was professional lawyer-type behaviour but she’d let it slide.

“Send them in,” Alistair called to his assistant and then turned back to Lily. “Don’t say anything, Lily. Just leave it to me.”

Lily nodded again.

She had thought about it in her rational moments, of which there were few, and she didn’t mind letting Nate have visitation rights though she wasn’t keen on Tash spending a great amount of time with Danielle or Victor or, indeed, Jeff. However, Tash needed a father and never expected to have one and didn’t even know she did have one… yet.

For Tash this would be a boon from the gods. Lily had been telling her daughter stories about Nate since she was born. Huge, lavish, adoring, heartsick stories that made Nate seem like any prince in any fairytale. Tash was going to be overjoyed when she heard Nate was alive. Tash thought Nate had been a superhero, the leader of the free world and a saint all rolled into one.

This was indeed a boon that neither of them ever expected. A boon that Lily would have wished for if Fazire would have done it, which, he informed her, he would not. Indeed, she did wish for it, prayed for it, begged for it, cried for it nearly every day for years and years.

When she’d seen Nate, standing, breathing, living, she thought every dream she had of his return from the dead had come real. It had been the most glorious moment of her life.

For about two seconds. Then it became every nightmare.

And then it got worse.

Now she was going to have to humiliate herself again. Have her whole sordid story and naive stupidity laid out for all to see.

All for Tash, her perfect, sweet, brilliant, beautiful Tash. Tash, who Lily had clung to in those dark days. Tash who looked just like Nate, a fact Lily used to think was a treasure, a precious gift. Tash, who was the only person besides Fazire (in his less annoying moments), who could truly make Lily smile anymore.

Tash was the only beautiful thing that had come out of eight, hard, dead years.

Alistair put his hand on her arm and squeezed reassuringly.

Lily winced carefully so he would not see her doing it. The deep, angry bruises that Victor had given her were still there. She did not tell Alistair about the bruises, after the paperweight incident she thought that omission was sensible.

“You don’t have to worry, we have them Lily,” he promised in a whisper.

“Hobbs,” a voice said from behind them and Lily turned her head to look.

Jane was leading in four men, two of them she knew.

She held her breath in surprise and fear.

Victor was there, wearing a face that was a mask of fury. And Victor’s fury was a scary thing, this she knew now all too well.

Nate was also there, wearing a well-tailored, unbelievably expensive-looking suit. He was no less tall, no less handsome, the years had only deepened his impossibly good looks until they were nearly unbearably good looks. He was looking at her, or more to the point at Alistair’s hand on her arm, with a look that could only be described as contempt.

If her heart had not already turned to stone, it would have at that look.

Instead, it pulverised.

It was then Lily became numb. Nothing worse could happen to her, not after losing her grandmother then both her parents then, she thought, Nate then her dreams of a bright future as a best-selling novelist, living with her dreamy romantic hero husband and creating a family together. Finally, Tash coming and it being so very hard after that. So, very, very hard.

Numb, she thought in a vague way, was a good way to be.

Alistair led her to her seat. Alistair had explained the drill. Jane would be courteously getting drinks, lulling them into a sense of security before Alistair unleashed his plan.

Automatically, Lily stated her preference for coffee to Jane and Lily was so removed from the scene, she was surprised when she was served her drink.