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“Where is it?” I’d asked George a few weeks ago when I’d arrived at his house. He’d gone from the modest one I had moved into when I first got to Oregon, and replaced it with something much grander. “Where’s the money my parents left for me?” I didn’t want to think he would steal my inheritance... my birthright... the only thing I had left of my parents... but he narrowed his eyes at me before he responded.
“You ungrateful, little bitch. After everything I did for you when Rosie died, I can’t believe you have the audacity to accuse me of stealing money meant for you.”
Back in the day, I would’ve apologized, but I knew this man a hell of a lot better now than I’d ever hoped to know, and everything I thought could very well be true. He was a monster. His son was one, and the bitch of a wife he married after the death of his first one could be characterized the same, too.
I’d squared my shoulders. “I know something was left to me. I confirmed it with a guy in my father’s long term lawyer’s office. Unfortunately, Sid is dead, but he kept very detailed records of everything and it’s only a matter of time before he uncovers the documents I need to collect on what is rightfully mine.”
“They were practically penniless, Harper. You’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.”
I didn’t believe my parents were experiencing money difficulties for a second. If they had, I would’ve noticed. They paid the exorbitant tuition for Rushton Academy, and everything I’d wanted, I’d been given. Maybe in hindsight, I was a bit of a spoiled princess. I believed in their actions over the ones of the creep in front of me.
“A lawyer friend of mine is looking into things, and I will find that money. In fact, I might go to the IRS myself and see what they can find.”
At the mention of the governmental agency, he rose to his feet. I took little pride in watching his face turn as white as a sheet when he’d sputtered for a few seconds before composing himself.
“The little they left is gone. It was stipulated that I would be executor of their estate and as that, it was my right and responsibility to use those funds to take care of you. In case you’ve forgotten, we had to move and everything once you arrived. There was also the matter of college, and all your expenses before it.”
I knew he was lying about the university because I was still paying off those student loans to this day. He didn’t put a single cent down on my continued education, but I wasn’t even concerned with that. I considered any price worth paying to escape the hell house he thrust me into after my parents’ death. I wanted the money owed to me for several reasons, including the only one that mattered which was that it belonged to me.
“I’ll find out what happened to it, and I will sue your ass for everything you own in order to get it. The best thing you can do is present me with the documents outlining what is mine, and hand over what’s left of it.”
George had been furious, but I didn’t give a damn. Since he’d kicked me out of his house just over two weeks ago, I had been scouring old records for anything I could find. I had even taken a trip to Chicago, but I didn’t reunite with anyone from my past life. I’d just wanted to find out about my inheritance.
I planned to branch out from Portland to Los Angeles, hoping to start an interior decorating business there. I had taken all the business management classes I needed, as well as all the training to be successful. Since those early days with Ashley Blake, I’d wanted to be an interior decorator, and it was the only dream left that I had any chance of realizing.
I was doing okay moneywise in Portland, having gotten a small sum of money from George a week ago. It was fifty thousand dollars, but I was sure there was more where that came from. I had taken it, but that didn’t mean I would stop looking for the rest.
I needed to buy an office and storage space in one of the most expensive counties in the entire country, then find a place to live. I also needed to furnish said space, and the small storage cubes I had here in Portland would be nowhere near enough to accomplish that.
“I’ve lost every other dream I had. There has to be something in here,” I muttered as I looked at the stack of papers I had gotten between Jackson and Sid’s law firm in Chicago.
I had no cue what I was looking for, and it was appearing to be more of a needle in a haystack than anything else. I tossed two of the pages to the side and was about to pick up a third when I got a Google alert. Picking up my phone, I swiped my thumb over the screen, then nearly dropped my phone.
Prominent Chicago Titan, Franklin Blake, and his wife, were killed today in a plane crash off the coast of Maryland.
I had to have read that wrong. When I pulled up the article, I could see a very familiar couple in the photographs splashed across the top of the page. These were Gabriel’s parents. I would recognize them anywhere.
I stared down into the face of the man who’d been the one to tell me that my own parents had perished in an accident. It’d been nearly a decade, but other than a few extra wrinkles and a sparse scattering of gray in his beard and hair, Frank had barely aged at all.
My finger moved over to Ashley who was still a ravishing beauty. She looked to be in her twenties although I knew she had recently celebrated her fiftieth birthday. I had gotten the Google alerts for her party and had seen the model on her son’s arms in many of them.
“Gabriel,” I murmured. He would be absolutely devastated. I had experienced this same sort of pain before, and it wasn’t one I would wish on anyone, especially him.
My first reaction was to book a flight and go to his side. The only thing stopping me was the fact that a decade had passed since we’d last spoken a single word to one another.
It was my fault as to why, and I knew it would be in very poor taste to show up and intrude on his grief. He hated me, and rightfully so. The only thing I could do was anonymously send some flowers and offer my condolences.
When I saw the name of the funeral home where their service would take place, I pulled up a national florist and placed an order. I didn’t put my name on the card because once again, I didn’t want to upset Gabriel any more than this news already had. I just couldn’t let the moment pass by doing nothing.
I wiped at my tears, then heard the heavy rapping of someone at the door. I stood up and wiped at my eyes a few more times before opening the door. On the other side, Jackson Wellington stood. “Hi, Jacks. I wasn’t expecting you.”
My lawyer friend split his time between Los Angeles where I one day hoped to move, Portland, where I currently lived, and Seattle. He’d been so instrumental in helping me realize that everything wasn’t as my uncle had made it out to seem. He was a close friend of mine, and one I might’ve even been attracted to in another life.
“I’ve gotten a hold of some of your uncle’s bank statements. May I come in?”
“Oh yes, of course,” I told him, stepping aside so that he could enter.
I then closed the door and hurried in front of him to clear the clutter from the coffee table. I didn’t miss the way his eyes focused on the papers I had been sifting through as he sat down.
