All Chapters of Tempted by my brother-in-law. : Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

KEEPERPOV: NikolaiI answered.Dr Anand's voice came through clear and direct the way it always did, the voice of a woman who did not waste time on preamble when she had something to say."I found something," she said. "In my father's papers. I have been going through them since we spoke yesterday and I found something I did not know existed.""Tell me," I said."A package," she said. "Wrapped in oilcloth the way you wrapped things to protect them from mountain weather. My mother kept it with his research notes. She did not know what it was. She said he brought it home three weeks before he died and put it with his papers and told her it was important and that she should keep it safe."The room was very quiet.The old man by the window was watching me.Hazel was very still."What is in it," I said."Documentation," she said. "Field notes. In a handwriting I did not recognise until I compared it to the photograph of Margaret that was in the news." She paused. "It is Margaret's handwri

ISABELLAPOV: NikolaiKaden came down the stairs.He took his phone from Celeste and looked at the screen and then looked at me with the expression he had when he was deciding something fast and needed the decision to be right."She knows he is alive," he said."The investigators told her yesterday," I said. "When she confessed.""She has had twelve hours with it," he said."Yes," I said."And now she wants to speak to him directly," he said."That is what she is asking for," I said.He looked at the phone."He is not here," I said. "He is in Lisbon. I have not called him yet this morning.""She does not know that," Kaden said."No," I said.He held the phone and I watched him do the thing he did when he was working through the layers of something, the specific focused quiet of a man who had been managing complicated situations since before he should have had to."I need to call him first," I said. "Before she speaks to him. He needs to know she is asking and he needs to decide if he

FLIGHTPOV: NikolaiI told Kaden at the counter while my mother was making eggs.Not dramatically. Just set my coffee down and said our father is booking a flight and he is coming next week and watched Kaden's face do the thing it did when something large arrived and he was deciding where to put it.He was quiet for a moment.Iris handed him a book.He took it automatically and looked at it and then looked at me."Next week," he said."Yes," I said."He called Hazel," he said."My hands were full," I said.He looked at the book in his hand.It was a cookbook. Iris had very specific taste in what she redistributed around the kitchen."What did Isabella say to him," Kaden said.I told him.He listened and when I finished he looked at the counter and was quiet for long enough that the eggs were done and my mother had put plates in front of both of us and Hazel had sat down and Iris had abandoned the books in favour of trying to reach the edge of the table before he spoke."She tried once

NAMEDPOV: HazelWe went back inside.Vera was still in her chair.She looked up when we came back through the door and did not look surprised to see us which was confirmation enough before I said a word.I sat down.Nikolai stood near the door."The journalist," I said. "James Holt.""Yes," she said."You gave Mara the account documents," I said."I gave them to Mara three days ago," she said. "Before Portugal. I wanted it on record and I wanted it out before anything else came out that would frame it in the wrong way.""What wrong way," I said."The way that makes it look like the account was a transaction," she said. "Money paid to manage a situation. Keep a woman quiet. Keep a child in place." She looked at me steadily. "It was not that. I wanted the public record to show what it actually was before someone else wrote what it looked like."I looked at her."You gave a journalist eleven years of private financial records," I said."I gave Mara context," she said. "She is responsibl

TOMORROWPOV: HazelKaden's voice on the speaker was steady.Steady in the way it was when he had already done the work of processing something and was on the other side of it by the time he called. He had probably been sitting with it since his father called him and he had probably gone very quiet and very internal and had come out the other side and picked up the phone."Tomorrow," Nikolai said."Yes," Kaden said. "He lands at eleven in the morning.""Does he need somewhere to stay," Nikolai said."I told him he could stay at the estate," Kaden said. "He said no. He said he would find somewhere near the city. I did not push.""Good," Nikolai said."I am going to meet him at the airport," Kaden said. "Alone. The way I said I wanted to.""Yes," Nikolai said."And then," Kaden said. "Whatever after that looks like.""Yes," Nikolai said.A pause."Are you alright," Nikolai said."I have been asking myself that all morning," Kaden said. "I keep arriving at the same answer.""Which is," N