Chapter 249

At 9:30 the next morning, Dashiell boarded a plane bound for Stansprings. It was an up-and-coming city with a fast-growing economy and a young population, an ideal site for his next hotel. And it was 2,300 kilometres away from Danning and Sloane. Miriam had backed off after shaking hands with her son on the one-year deal, but Sloane hadn’t. If anything, she’d only grown more aggressive in her tactics to pursue Dashiell. Yes, she was pursuing him, as she’d made abundantly clear to him during their phone call last night. ‘I know your mom was using me as your rebound girl,’ she’d said matter-of-factly, ‘but I don’t care. I like you, like your fat wallet, like your company, and I like the sound of Mrs Kellan.’ ‘I’m not interested,’ Dashiell said coolly. ‘That’s fine. I would have preferred to include a dash of romance in our relationship, but its absence is no big deal.’ She had dropped the affectedly saccharine voice she used when they first met and had turned all business. ‘I want to mar