Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
My cellphone rings and I grab it to find Gavin calling. I decline the call. I read the fine print of those documents. I can buy time before I go public with a fiancée. It delays the finality of my inheritance, which is dangerous for the company, but it doesn’t destroy it. That means I have time to secretly see Bella and figure out where we are going before we go public. If she’ll have me. I have to make her have me and I won’t do that like a bull in a china shop, which is my preferred method. I have to step back. I have to try a softer approach.
Maybe.
Maybe I just need to get her naked again. Then she’ll listen.
I dial Dierk, hoping my Mr. Fix It has found a way to fix this. When the call goes straight to voicemail, I text him: I need an update. What do you have for me?
He calls me back and I answer with, “Talk to me.”
“I don’t need to tell you the Allen family is no joke.”
“Exactly why my father did what he had to do to make them happy,” I conclude.
“Right. And nosing around about them, even by someone like me who knows what I’m doing, is dangerous. This leads me to a couple of points. If the law firm managing the will exposes you, your firm, and the Allen Family, then they’re in deadly territory. I’d tell you to make sure they know who they’re dealing with, but that takes me to point two.”
“Which is what?”
“One of the law firm’s clients is a close connection to the Allen family. That doesn’t mean this is all one big bluff, but it’s possible.”
Which fits the idea of my father testing me one last time. “It’s worth a cat-and-mouse conversation with whoever you’re dealing with at the firm. But let me dig some more before you move forward with that plan. You need as much damning ammunition as you can get.”
“Agreed.”
My phone beeps and I eye the screen to find my mother calling. “I need to go. Thanks, Dierk.”
“Always, man. There are other ways to deal with this, but they get pretty nasty, and I know that’s not your thing. More soon.”
He disconnects and I click to my mother. “Did you know what Dad did to me in the will?”
“I feel like we’ve had this conversation.”
“You’ve avoided this conversation.”
“Does it matter?” she asks. “It’s done.”
“There you go again, avoiding a real answer, but then you’re good at that. There’s a lot of things we both know you knew went on between me and Dad, but you pretended you didn’t.”
“I don’t know what that means,” she says, but we both know she does. It was a dark moment in my life, of my father’s creation.
“I need to know how to undo what he did. What’s his loophole? Because we both know he had to give me one last test I have to pass.”
“You’ve always passed his tests. You can do it again.”
“This affects a lot of innocent people, Mom. I need the answer to his test.”
“He shut me out. I don’t know anything about his business.”
“You were a part of Hawk Legal for years,” I argue.
“You have no idea what that was like either, though you should. You had to suffer him, too. I don’t know what you want me to say. I can’t help you with this. The man is dead. I don’t know what you want me to do. Besides, I had all of his personal items trashed or given to charity. I didn’t want them there when I get back.”
“You did what?”
“He killed somebody, Tyler. Who knows what else he did. I don’t want to risk knowing what I should not, and do not, want to know. What did you do with his office?”
“There’s nothing there. I spent a week after I took over going through every document. Where’s his computer?”
“I told law enforcement to trash it.”
“Holy hell, Mother,” I curse, scrubbing my jaw.
“Everyone copes their own way, son.”
“I know, but I’m not sure if you’re grieving or celebrating.”
“Considering he killed his mistress, I think it’s fair to say a little of both. It’s embarrassing and painful, Tyler. Why do you think I’m in another country? It’s hard to face the world there.” Her voice cracks. “Really hard.”
Damn, I think. “I’m sorry, Mom. I know. Of course, it is. I should have realized that’s what was going on. What can I do?”
“Win,” she says. “You can win and beat his test, and I assure you, you’re right. It’s a test. You know how he did things. He absolutely wants you to prove one more time, for the millionth time, you deserve the company. There’s a way out of this. You just have to find it.”
We talk for a few minutes and then as we hang up, she says, “I love you, son. I know I should have fought for you more, but I can’t undo the past. When I get back, I want to sit down and try to start fresh.”