LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

      Reid

      THE WORRY ON my brothers’ faces tightens the shackles of my role as eldest and head of the Faulkner Group, but it’s a role I was practically born to, so I hide the concern from my own expression and layer my voice with reassurance.

      ‘The doctor said the best thing for Dad is to maintain his current routine. Let’s keep him on the golf course or at his club until we know more about his prognosis.’

      Drake and Kit nod. A Mexican wave of shudders seems to pass through all three of us, an unspoken acknowledgment that our newly retired parent may no longer be in command of all his faculties and what this means for the chain of luxury hotels that forms our family business. Our old man is only sixty—the experts calling his recent periods of forgetfulness early-onset dementia.

      ‘And I’d like a second opinion, which I am happy to organise,’ I say. ‘Try not to worry. We’ll take care of this.’

      I’ll take care of it.

      Dad’s always been there for us and for me in particular. This office, the biggest with the best views of London, used to be his office. I glance at the city, at the slice of the Thames, which is shrouded in a sheer curtain of haze at the record-high spring temperatures. How I’d love to play hooky, to shake off my business suit and head down to Chelsea marina...take a boat out, all four of us—me, Dad and my brothers—as we used to when we were teens...

      The memories of happier times cement how signing out is not an option. I’ll do whatever it takes to help Dad, just like he’s always done for me.

      A knock at the door heralds my assistant, Sue, with fresh coffee. She places her offerings on the table and begins to collect the old, half-drunk ones.

      ‘You can’t take on everything,’ says Kit, his eyes a little tired. ‘It’s peak tourist season—we’re all busy.’

      I wave away his concern. I’m divorced—I have room in my life for extras, and the buck stops with me now. Dad taught me the ropes from the day I first accompanied him to work as a boy. And of the three of us, I owe him the most. I inwardly cringe, recalling the crappy end to my marriage and how he’d bailed me out of the subsequent close call for the Faulkner Group, one that could have been avoided if only I’d gone for a pre-nup...

      ‘Sue, can you locate Harley Street’s best neurologist and make Graham the earliest appointment

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