I stared at the gaping missing wall and the scattered debris left all over the deck and garden. Broken glass glittered in the morning sunlight, almost pretty in its deceitful danger. I picked my way into the kitchen, the door I had spent years going in and out of, gone in the damage.
I stood at the door and stared at the pile of furniture blocking my entrance into the house. The kitchen smelled of paint. I shoved and climbed over furniture that I was fairly certain belonged in one of the outer parlors. I made it to the back hall and purple paint was everywhere. A sticky puddle of it had pooled in the center of what had once been an authentic oriental rug.
When Harleigh said Tina was painting walls, this was not what I had pictured. Who had left everything in such a mess? Hadn’t Harleigh called Sanderson like I told her?
I couldn’t believe he hadn’t arranged for a crew to come in and take care of things.
“Jessie?” I barked.
Where was the house manager? How had she allowed for this to happen? The cook hadn’t been in the kitchen when I came in. Where the fuck was everyone?
I stormed up the stairs and threw open the door to Tina’s room, she had some explaining to do. “Tina?”
Empty.
“Harleigh?” I threw open her door.
She gasped and jumped as I entered her room. She sat on the side of her bed, one shoe on, the other in her hand.
“What the hell has been going on here?”
She was shaking and crying, clutching her shoe to her chest.
“Where is the staff?”
She stared up at me with wide eyes and fought to catch her breath.
“Where’s Tina? Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad? Why didn’t you call Sanderson?”
Harleigh gulped at the air like a goldfish, opening her mouth wide before closing it. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Damn it, she looked terrified. Pale and confused. The black clothes she wore for mourning did not suit her complexion.
I closed my eyes, and let out a heavy breath. “When was the last time you ate something?”
When I looked down at Harleigh again, she twisted the shoe in her hand and jerked with the hiccups.
“Come on,” I said. I put my hand under her elbow and guided her up.
She wedged the shoe on her foot and stood. She was wobbly. I needed to get her fed, and we needed to get to the lawyer’s office for the reading of the will.
Today was going to be hard enough. With how this morning started, I could only imagine everything getting worse.
I got Harleigh in the car. She slid her seat belt on before I needed to help her.
“Can you put the top down?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Why? Your hair will get all messed up.”
She didn’t say anything, and then I looked over at her. Her hair was already a bit of a mess. Everything about her seemed lost and not put together properly.
“Right.” I started the engine and hit the button.
The top folded back, and sunlight hit Harleigh. She didn’t smile, but she closed her eyes and lifted her face to take it all in. Her breathing finally settled. She looked peaceful. I had forgotten that she was pretty, my perspective skewed by my thoughts regarding her personality.
“You like the top down, don’t you?” I eventually asked.
She nodded, and when she turned to me I could see the faint promise of a smile. Everything in my body took notice. Everything.
I pushed back inappropriate thoughts and headed to the lawyer’s office.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was that bad?” I asked after a while.
“I did. I told you Tina was out of control and that she was painting things. I even called Sanderson. He told me he would call the lawyer’s office. But that didn’t help anything.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter. I would have words with the lawyer before this was over.
I parked and watched Harleigh’s face lose all of its glow when I put the top up. The ride was much shorter than I think she would have liked.
A crowd was waiting for us when we arrived. I checked my watch. We were on time. The room looked like a classroom with chairs facing a single table at the front of the room. Sanderson waved to us from the front of the room.
“Did my father really list all these people in his will?” Harleigh asked.
I nodded. “They would have gotten a call letting them know to come. Otherwise, there’s no reason for them to be here.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me close. I should have been more concerned with the reason, than the fact that Harleigh wanted me close. She pressed her breasts against my arm so she could reach my ear with her mouth. Warm breath teased my ear, and I wanted more contact with her body.
I chuckled. Harleigh was very much unaware of the effect she was suddenly having on me.
“What the hell is Roni doing here?” she whispered.
I glanced around and saw the woman she was referring to. Roni looked older than I expected. The years since she and the old man had been divorced hadn’t been kind.
“We’ll just have to wait like everyone else.”
“Mr. Hopper, we have some seats reserved for you at the front of the room.”
I followed Harleigh to the front, took the seat between her and Sanderson, and waited for the circus to begin.
Harleigh leaned over. “That’s the lawyer who came over,” she whispered.
I narrowed my gaze at the man. He was the same one hitting on Harleigh at the funeral. He had better have a reason for leaving that mess.
Tina came in with the senior lawyer, McGrady. She hung off his arm as if they were making an entrance and he was the one escorting her up the aisle. McGrady took his seat behind the table at the front of the room and cleared his throat. He introduced himself and the other lawyer, Martin.
“Thank you everyone for being here. Let’s get started, shall we?” McGrady nodded at the crowd. He read the opening paragraphs of the will.
Harleigh fidgeted next to me. I wanted to reach out and hold her hand, let her know she needed to hold still.
“The will is structured so that the major inheritances are listed at the end. I know that’s not typical, but he wasn’t a typical man was he?”
A murmur of agreement traveled through the room.
“We will begin with the household staff.” McGrady went on to announce substantial bonuses for all his current employees, and retirement funds established for the senior employees. As well as a continuation of retirement benefits for past employees who met certain criteria.
McGrady continued to list off the individual employees and their bonuses. It was the old man’s wish that everyone who wanted to remain in the house’s employment do so, and that I would be one to handle the administration of such.
I nodded. It was to be expected.
McGrady mentioned a few other people, and organizations he bequeathed items of value and stipends to. “The rest of the reading is limited to the family. At this time I am to invite everyone except the following to leave.” He listed off Harleigh, Sanderson, myself, Tina, and Roni. At first, it seemed rude, but family business didn’t need to be witnessed by everyone.
“Is Roni Miller here?” McGrady looked up and scanned the four people in front of him.
Roni raised her hand slightly.
McGrady fumbled with a box and removed an envelope. “Ms. Miller, this is to be given to you at this point in the proceedings.”
She stood and approached the table where McGrady sat. She took the envelope with a smirk on her face. She removed a card and began reading. The smirk was replaced with rage. She began cursing, crushed the card in her fist, and stormed out of the room. Harleigh leaned over and picked the card up. She folded it and tucked it away.
I watched Roni leave. As I shifted my gaze back to the front of the room I locked eyes with Tina. She had a wicked gleam in her eyes and she wiggled in excitement.
“My surviving wife, Tina, will receive an allowance.” As McGrady spoke Tina positively vibrated. She launched to her feet when he mentioned the amount and duration of her payoff. The old man’s prenups were incontestable, and he stipulated in the event of his death in those documents. Tina would get an allowance totaling seventy-five percent of the amount she received while married, and for a length of time not to exceed that equal to fifty percent of the length of the marriage.
They had been married for just over three years. She would have eighteen to twenty months of merry widowhood before she needed to find another sugar daddy.
She squealed in frustration.
She interrupted when McGrady read out my name. “That’s it? Where’s the rest of it?”
“Ma’am, that is all that was left to you. Everything was clarified in your prenuptial agreement that you did sign.”
I suppressed a laugh as Tina squirmed, this time from frustration.
“Devin Hopper. According to this, you were his legal ward?” McGrady looked up at me for confirmation.
“Yes, when I was sixteen. My mother died, and the old man became my legal guardian. He kept me out of the foster system.”
“But he never formally adopted you?”
“No, sir. He was a father figure in actions only.”
“Good, good. Otherwise, this next bit would have been messy. Well, messier than it already is.”
I glanced over at Tina. She sneered in return. I looked at Harleigh next to me. She didn’t deserve any more mess. She already had enough of that in her life. She needed the old man to smooth the way for her. It was the least he could do.
“Devin, you are to assume full ownership of the business entity provided certain criteria are met.”
I sat up a little straighter in my chair, criteria? I had expected the business and related assets. The old man had told me over the years that what we were working on would all be mine someday. In my hubris, I had expected today to be that day.
“Harleigh, as the only child, you will inherit full ownership of the house and surrounding properties, as well as specifically listed accounts, provided certain criteria are met.”
Harleigh sighed. “Do I need to do another DNA paternity test?” She held out her hand. “Do you have a kit? Want my spit or a cheek swab? Or is this going to be one of the fun blood tests?”
She sounded almost bored. She had to be exhausted by all the paternity tests the old man subjugated her to over the years.
McGrady sighed and ran his hand over his hair. “Proof of paternity is not required. However”— he breathed out through pursed lips and shook his head— “for either your or Mr. Hopper’s inheritance to be dispensed you must be married.”
I stared hard at the man. I had to be married? The old man had never mentioned anything along those lines. I glanced at Harleigh, her jaw was open in shock.
“To each other.”
I was still staring at her when McGrady said those words. Harleigh turned to me, and the shock I saw on her face was even more evident.
“I’m sorry, what?”
McGrady continued to read. “If you are not married, the business is to be dissolved by the board of directors within the following business quarter. The house and all of its contents along with all listed assets are to be liquidated and given to a sanctuary for elephants. Patrick Sanderson is appointed as the guarantor to these criteria.”
