135|A House Divided—Part 1

Austin's 'urgent' meeting was with his father and Blake. Their old man had summoned them to Clarence Estate at the crack of dawn, yelling something about damage control. Austin had figured the cleanup plan had gone horribly wrong when he saw the news update about the Sloanes' nanny.

So after he hung up from Marybeth, he just stood there, staring at the house, trying to decide whether to go in.

He lit a cigarette, thinking about his call with Marybeth.

She sounded…odd. Maybe because she'd never called him out of the blue. Or told him she missed him. It was…nice. Yet, a small part of him couldn't help but think something was wrong.

He should have asked. Maybe he would have if he wasn't preoccupied with the damn meeting.

Convinced he'd never be able to return to the Blue Mountains until he saw Marybeth and made sure she and Orlando were okay, he called his PA and changed his plans for the afternoon.

"So you'll only head back to the Blue Mountains tomorrow morning?" Elizabeth asked.

"Why