AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It looks like we had the same idea.”
“I... umm... Honestly, I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to find something. I might have to give up my dream of moving to LA.” I let out a sigh I was sure adequately expressed my level of frustration. It seemed damn near impossible to find any documentation for my inheritance. “What did you find?”
I tried to remain hopeful, and when he handed me a stack of papers, I began to skim down the ledgers. Most of the expenses seemed to be investment deposits, standard bills such as mortgage and utilities, and even one or two subscriptions to pornographic sites.
My face scrunched up at that, although I wasn’t surprised in the least. He was a disgusting pig, and it was still hard to accept that my mother had the same blood as him running through her veins. I ignored those withdrawals and focused in on the deposits. There were numerous ones, but all small enough in nature that he wouldn’t have to report them as income.
“Where are these coming from?” I asked, and Jackson just shrugged.
“I’m not sure. I have to fly out to Seattle in an hour, so I’m on my way to the airport. Do you wanna go with?”
I sometimes accompanied him to these other cities, not because we had anything romantic going on, but because he was a good friend whose company I enjoyed immensely.
I shook my head. “No, I’m going to go through these to see what I can find.”
I also wanted to read up more on the Blakes and the accident that claimed their lives. It seemed like today was just a clusterfuck of a day, and one best spent alone. Jackson rose from the couch and I followed. He pulled me into his arms and I savored what comfort I could from his short embrace before he straightened up to full height. I walked him to the door, then returned to the bank statements.
GABRIEL
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
SIX MONTHS LATER
It was almost Valentine’s Day, and another reminder of what I had recently lost. My mother was born on the seventeenth of the month, so it would be the first birthday of hers since her death. It was still so surreal to know that neither she, nor my father, would ever celebrate another milestone like that again. Thanksgiving and Christmas had been tough for me, but I was finally starting to accept they were gone and move on with my life which wasn’t that bad.
I didn’t become the star athlete I had always wanted to become, however, I worked with those that were including my best friend, Noah. In the offseason, he’d signed a monster contract which netted me the full three percent max allowed by the league. It, coupled with all the others contracts I had gotten accepted for various players in different leagues, I was even more successful this year than the previous two combined.
I had a luxury penthouse in the heart of the Gold Coast with breathtaking views of the city I loved so much, and the lake I frequented often. It had six bedrooms, although the wall between two had been taken down and a massive sports cave put in its place. It was perfect for grand entertaining which I did with the guys whenever our busy schedules allowed. It also contained three terraces, five bathrooms and a chef’s dream kitchen. All in all. It was over sixty five hundred square foot of opulence, and the exact type of place I once thought I would share with someone else.
Of course, I’d only shared that dream with Harper Grimes, and like every other promise we’d made to each other over the years, it had been broken, too. Every now and then, I would think about her. I often wondered what she was doing and how she’d turned out. While my successes, and failure if you counted the accident after graduation, were easily searched for, anything about her was not. Harper had no social media profiles that I could find, but that was likely by design.
“So fucking childish,” I muttered.
I could still remember the very last time I had talked to her. Our conversation had started off like all others until she sent me those disgusting pictures of her with another guy. If I hadn’t seen her face and hadn’t memorized every inch of her naked body, I would’ve sworn it was someone else.
She was laying there with another man’s hands on places I thought were mine. I’d always remember the tattoos on his fingers that spelled out “self made” along with the sword through a rose. It was very symbolic of the knife she plunged into my heart.
The final straw, however, had been the one where the man had come on her breasts. To think that the girl I loved would ever be into that type of wanton exhibitionism was one thing, but to know she was while cheating on me was another altogether.
I had been so besotted with her that I knew there had to be an explanation. Before I could force one out of her, she blocked me on all social media accounts, and ignored my phone calls and text messages until I’d finally gotten the hint. She was happier without me. She’d moved away and fallen in with a different crowd. The pain it caused me had never been duplicated until a few months ago when I received the phone call about my parents.
They’d been in Washington, D.C., on business for my father. After, they were headed for an overdue vacation to the Bahamas. They made it no further than Maryland before the private aircraft went down, ending their lives.
I’d been too shocked for words when I’d first gotten the news. In the days that followed, the finally mended hole in my heart broke back open and it’d taken a few weeks for the darkness to lift.
It had as I handled their estate, eventually selling off the house Harper had loved so much. I’d always dreamed of living in a city high-rise, but she’d wanted to renovate the family home and raise a family in it. I would’ve given her that and anything else she’d wanted.
“Stop fucking thinking about her,” I told myself, knowing it was easier said than done.
I’d managed to keep her from my thoughts for a while, but after the death of my parents went by and there was no word from her, I realized nothing in this world mattered anymore.
Even after getting those photographs, I had reached out to Noah, Leon, and Charlie to see if either of them had heard from Harper. Charlene Mitchell, heiress to the Mitchell department store throne, was her best friend, but even she had been cast aside.
None of us mattered anymore, and when the realization finally sank in, I had forged ahead with the rest of my dreams, but stupidly ended up allowing her very name to send me out on those streets on graduation night. I was lucky to have survived with my life. She didn’t care enough then to even see if I was all right, so I wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t cared about the demise of my parents either.
I raked a hand through my hair. I didn’t need her after my accident, and I sure as fuck didn’t after my parents’ either. Deciding to place her out of my head altogether, I pulled up the email from an NBA General Manager and began to look at the proposal to our counter offer. This star forward was on what would be his last contract, and the team vying the hardest for his services was this position away from a serious playoff run. They’d been active enough in free agency, and signing Byron Starr would be the icing on the cake for them.
“You’re getting closer,” I said aloud, as I began to type back a response. Even though there was little difference in the few millions requested and the ones offered, the guaranteed money was the sticking point. As an older player in the league, the job security in knowing he wouldn’t get cut and lose out on it all couldn’t be overstated enough. I finished typing the last few words, took a second or two to read over my response, then hit send. “This is our last and final offer.”
