Chapter Nineteen

Charlie, Joey and Ruby were pondering lunch when there was an urgent knock at the door. They had decided that first thing in the morning, when the office would be open, they would phone and find out how to get Ruby booked in.

"I'll go," Charlie said, hauling herself to her feet.

Walking through the lounge and into the kitchen, she opened the door and was surprised to find Angelo on the other side of it.

"Angelo?" she said in sheer confusion.

He was the last person she expected to visit her. It wasn't like they were on the best terms.

"I don't forgive you," he said sternly.

"Forgive me?" Charlie balked.

"But I have come to warn you," he continued, as if she hadn't even spoken.

Charlie narrowed her eyes.

"And what exactly are you warning me of?" she demanded. "I might remind you that I'm still a police officer if you're going to start waving threats around."

"What's going on?" Joey wondered, appearing from the lounge, having heard raised voices.

She glared when she spotted Angelo and immediately came to stand with Charlie.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, feeling protective of her girlfriend.

The Sergeant looked a little pale.

"I'm here to blow your relationship apart," Angelo told her.

He pulled Joey's mobile phone out of his pocket. Joey immediately felt her own pockets. She'd been so wrapped up with Charlie that she hadn't even known it was gone.

"Charlie, you might want to find out who 'Chris' is," Angelo told Charlie. "Because she calls her every single day and well, the text messages, you can read for yourself. She's playing you. She's in financial trouble and she's playing you. It's not love or anything like that, Charlie. You're being conned. It's a real shame you didn't figure it out for yourself because when she dumps you, you're not welcome to come crawling back to me."

He thrust the phone into Charlie's hands and left, storming back to his car. Bewildered, Charlie turned to Joey.

"He's wrong," Joey assured her. "He's gone through my phone and drawn the conclusions that he wants to draw. But he couldn't have been more wrong. I swear."

Charlie nodded and sat down at the kitchen table, turning the phone over in her hands. Anxiously, Joey also pulled up a chair. She touched Charlie's hand gently.

"Charlie?" she said.

She held her breath and felt like her heart had ceased beating while she waited for some sort of response. Charlie chewed her lips and then handed the phone over. Joey looked a little startled.

"Well, it is your phone," Charlie pointed out.

Joey nodded uncertainly.

"You know when you came back?" Charlie ventured. "I was so surprised to see you and when you kissed me and told me you wanted me, I was so happy. But with that happiness came total panic. It didn't last long but it was there."

"Panic about what?" Joey wondered.

"That you'd never come back just to be with me, not after all that time and all that had happened," Charlie said sadly. "I was terrified that you came back to teach me a lesson or something."

"Charlie, I would never do that," Joey insisted gently.

"I know," Charlie replied.

She smiled and squeezed Joey's hand.

"I know you wouldn't do that," she confirmed. "I know that it's not in you to be dishonest or hurtful. I know that for that reason and many others, I don't really deserve you."

"Charlie…" Joey protested.

"But you're mine, aren't you?" Charlie asked hopefully.

"Of course I'm yours," Joey promised. "I love you. I didn't come home for any reason but that. Everything we've shared these past few days has been real."

"I know," Charlie agreed. "But I have to ask you what Angelo's talking about."

Joey sighed heavily and looked awkward.

"I might have… left a few bits of information out," she admitted.

Charlie offered her rapt attention.

"Chris is a boy, not a girl," Joey said. "He's the eldest son of Elizabeth, the woman I was working for until she died a few months ago."

"What does he want from you?"

"Money," Joey revealed.

"Money?"

She immediately thought of how free Joey seemed to be with her cash these days, how much she had invested in spoiling her.

"When Elizabeth died, she left me everything," Joey said.

Charlie's eyes widened in surprise.

"Like…?"

"Like millions," Joey told her. "Plus property. Everything. She left me everything."

"Wait, you're a millionaire?" Ruby said from the doorway.

Both women looked round in surprise.

"Ruby, you shouldn't…"

"It's fine," Joey said. "If I want to be part of your family then I need to be honest with both of you."

She gestured for Ruby to come and sit with them.

"So… you are a millionaire?" Charlie asked, numb with shock.

"I guess so," Joey said. "To be honest, I'm still not that comfortable with the money."

"Yeah, it must be a real burden!" Ruby smirked.

"Ruby!" Charlie scolded.

The teenager quickly apologised.

"Why did this Elizabeth leave the money to you?" Charlie wondered.

Joey shrugged.

"I was just there, I guess," she said.

"But she has a son?"

"Two sons," Joey said. "One of them is in jail for a sexual offence and the other one is Chris, the person who keeps phoning and texting me. He wants me to give him the money she left me and honestly, I would if it wasn't for one thing."

"What's that?"

"Elizabeth was very, very specific," Joey said. "I can't ignore her feelings like they don't matter. She wrote into her will that if Chris visited her between her cancer diagnosis and her death, then the money would be split between us. But no matter how many times we begged him to come, he refused. The only reason he cares now is because he thinks I've got 'his' money."

"So, you tried to help him when she was still alive?" Charlie asked.

"No," Joey said. "I had no idea that I was getting left anything. I was only the housekeeper and gardener."

She shook her head in disbelief, as if the truth still hadn't sunk in.

"I kept nagging Chris to visit because his absence was breaking his mother's heart," she explained. "I didn't really know the situation I was in."

"You must have meant a lot to her," Ruby ventured.

Joey shrugged and nodded at the same time.

"I only did what anyone else would do," she said. "I just tried to look after her. I don't deserve what she gave me. Mind you, I didn't deserve what Chris gave me either."

Charlie and Ruby both looked concerned.

"He tried to get me jailed for killing her," Joey explained unhappily.

"What?" Charlie shrieked.

"I didn't do it!" Joey replied in panic.

"That wasn't what I was reacting to, sweetheart," Charlie assured her.

Joey blushed and apologised.

"The police decided there was no case to answer," she said. "I was with her when she died but they did a routine post mortem and there was nothing to indicate any wrongdoing. All I did was hold her hand and tell her what I thought Heaven would be like. No more, no less."

Next time… Ruby goes to the clinic while Joey invites Charlie to stay in her mansion…