One year later
“I need to get married? Are you fucking with me?”
The lawyer coughs as if my profanity chokes him. “No. You do not need to.”
“But that’s what you just said.”
“Not exactly.” He traces his finger over the legal documents in front of him. “No one can force you to get married just by writing it in their will. What your grandmother has done is set aside an inheritance for you that you can only claim if you are married by the age of thirty. There are other stipulations, but that is the main one. If you do not meet it, you simply do not get the money.”
Dash snorts in his seat next to me, and I fight the urge to glare at him.
“Whatever. I’m not hard up for cash.” Sure, the three hundred thousand the man just quoted me would be amazing to have stowed away in my savings. Get a nice interest rate, and no need to worry about my retirement. But I have a steady stream of well-paying clients providing me a comfortable life in Nashville. I don’t need the money. Not enough to marry someone in the next five months before my thirtieth birthday. “We can skip the stipulations and move on to the next section.”
“Well. There is one more thing Tsai Shu-fen has made it mandatory I inform you of before reading anything else.”
Gritting back a sigh of impatience, I still can’t keep the bite from my voice. “Just read it already.”
The lawyer frowns, then continues. “If the benefactor, Luna Lamont, does not fulfill the requirements set forth to gain her inheritance, the money will pass on to Bill Lamont.”
Blood fueled by denial roars through my ears.
“What?” Dash asks the single word screaming in my mind.
The man with his slicked back hair and perfectly tailored suit rereads the section slowly, but I heard him the first time.
“That’s a mistake. Our grandmother hated our dad! She thought the man was a demon who stole his daughter away.”
Which he sort of was.
“I’m merely conveying the contents of the will. There’s no further explanation. I can, however, inform you I acted as witness when Tsai Shu-fen last updated this document, and she was of sound mind and body.”
Not fucking sound enough if she decided to hand over six figures to my bastard of a father. And certainly not of sound body, seeing as how she passed away four months after signing this document.
Dash smirks at me. I don’t understand how he can find any of this funny. He had the same messed-up childhood I did.
“What?” I snap.
“She hates him just as much as you do.”
I wonder if the lawyer will kick us out if I kidney punch my brother. “Exactly. Why would she leave him any money?”
“To back you into a corner. Wai Po’s tricky.” Dash uses the title our grandmother insisted we call her. The word for grandmother in her native tongue. A gift she gave us once she started to trust us. “She’s tricky like you.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The light bulb flicks on in my head. Just took me a moment longer than Dash.
This is how badly Wai Po wanted to see me married. She probably knew my first reaction to the money would be that I didn’t care about it. We talked about my job and my paycheck. By our second visit, she began pestering me about how my line of work could crap out at any time. How I’d be safer in a relationship. A marriage.
I waved her off back then.
But now there’s this money. I know this cash isn’t a bribe to get me to do what she wants.
It’s a threat.
If I don’t find a spouse, then I’m handing the man I hate a fortune. My grandmother’s money.
“Damn it!” A fancy pen rattles on the wood surface of the table as I pound my fists in one definitive thwap, earning myself a glare from the lawyer.
“Do you need a moment to compose yourself?” The man tilts his chin a fraction so he’s looking down on me.
Who talks like that? Does he want me to take a little lie down on a fainting couch or something?
“No,” I grind the word through my teeth. “I’m fine. And I’m not getting married.”
Which means the money will never be mine. Hell, I can see the expression on my father’s face, clear as if he’s standing next to me.
Shock, then greed, then smugness.
Because the asshole will only need a second to convince himself he deserves every cent.
“There’s no way to divert the inheritance to a charitable organization? Maybe smudge a line or something in the document?” I lean forward, eager for a way to fix this. The lawyer rears back, drawing the will with him.
“No. These are your grandmother’s final wishes. Even if that means nothing to you, I will not allow alterations to be made to a legal document.”
Means nothing to me?
All the anger drains out of my chest, leaving a gaping hole behind.
“You know, I do need a minute. To compose myself.” I shove up from the cushy chair in this lawyer’s plush office and storm into the hallway. I head down the hallway without a direction until I spot an exit sign over a door indicating stairs.
The stairwell is the opposite of the lawyer’s office. All cement and practicality instead of plush leather chairs and brass fixtures that scream, my clients make a lot of money and so do I. When I first walked into the place, I’d thought we’d gotten the address wrong. Then the receptionist greeted us with a wide smile and said Dash and I were expected.
I knew my grandmother had some money. Her house was a decent size, and her designer clothes and pristine manicures spoke of a woman who lived comfortably.
But I didn’t know she was rich.
No wonder Wai Po was distrusting of my brother and I when we first found her. Took some time for her to accept we were who we said we were. Once that happened, she was determined to get to know us.
The same way I was set on learning everything I could about her.
But I guess she didn’t trust me enough to share her diagnosis. To warn me our time was limited.
“Damn it.” My words bounce back to me off the stark industrial walls. I sink down to plant my ass on a step and bury my face in my hands.
There is not much in this world that can force tears out of me. Crying means vulnerability, and vulnerability means someone can hurt you.
I don’t let people hurt me.
But damn it, this hurts.
To find family and then to lose them, all in a single year.
And that stuffy, stick-up-his-ass lawyer thinks I don’t care?
“Fuck him,” I mutter.
The click and squeak of the heavy door to the stairwell opening has my head swinging up. I quickly swipe away the few tears that muscled their way out of my eyes. Dash lets the door swing shut behind him and joins me on the stairs, his long legs bending at a dramatic angle on the short perch.
“You okay?” His gentle question has my chest tightening again, but I force myself to stifle the hurt. Of course, that only leaves the anger.
“It’s complete bullshit. I can’t believe she’s giving all her money to Dad just to try to get me married.”
Dash adjusts his seat. “Not all her money.”
“What?”
“I’m getting the same deal as you. Three hundred grand when I’m thirty if I’m married.”
I scoff. “Of course. Well, that’s easy enough for you to fulfill.” Dash is all set to marry the love of his life in two months. “Just don’t mess up with Paige and you’re smooth sailing.” The truth of my words hits me, and a small spark of…not happiness exactly, but something like it brings a smile to my face. “That’ll be nice, huh? No more wealth imbalance between you and her.”
His fiancée’s family has way more money than we’ve ever hoped to see.
Dash shrugs. “I got over that a long time ago.” He drags his fingers through his already messy hair. “I’d rather have Wai Po.”
The sober mood returns, and we fall silent, sitting together but working through our own grief.
“What are we going to tell Mom?” he asks after some time has passed.
Of course, Dash still considers her in all of this. His relationship with our mother was never as toxic as mine.
“When was the last time you talked to her?” I ask.
He fidgets. “It’s been a while.”
“What’s a while?”
“A year.”
My head jerks back. “Really?”
Dash nods. “It was soon after we found Wai Po. I wanted Mom to meet Paige. I thought if things went well, I could tell Mom about our visit. I invited her to lunch. Just her. But she brought Dad.”
Our father would ruin any meal.
“What did he do?”
The skin around Dash’s mouth turns white, and I start making plans to pay my father back for whatever wrongs I’m sure he committed.
“Tell me,” I push.
After a long exhale from his nose, Dash relents. “He talked about Paige like he does Mom. You know? Like she was a pretty object I brought with me. Then he started talking about Uncle Mike and how I should come to work for the family business. And all the while, Mom is smiling like she’s having the best time. Like it was a reunion. Neither one of them asked Paige a single question.” He shakes his head. “I told Dad to stop bringing up Mike. That I’m never working for him again and the lunch was about Mom getting to meet Paige, not some criminal recruitment. He flipped. You know the way he does. One second he’s trying to charm me, the next he’s making threats and claiming—” Dash’s clenched jaw cuts off his explanation. After a stretch, he forces the rest of the words out. “Claiming the uppity bitch I’m dating has me by the balls if she won’t let me do real work.”
That seals it. Bill Lamont will get served a dish of piping hot revenge.
“We walked out. Haven’t seen either of them since.” My brother’s fingers lace together, so tight his knuckles go white. “Mom doesn’t know about the wedding. Or the engagement.”
“Are you serious?”
Dash nods, untangling his fingers only to shove them into his hair again. “If it was just her, then I’d tell her. Yeah, she wasn’t a great mom. I know that. But it’s not like she ever hurt any of us.”
Oh, little prince. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering my brother is a grown man. Especially when he says anything in defense of the woman who gave birth to us.
Doesn’t he know? There are more ways to hurt a person than just by laying your hands on them.
Not that I’d ever want him to deal with that pain.
He continues to explain, unaware of my thoughts. “But it’s like she can’t do anything without Dad’s permission. Or presence. And can you imagine him showing up to anything with the Herberts? With Paige’s dad?”
“Judge Herbert, you mean?” The idea brings back a smile. If an evil one. Mr. Herbert is an intimidating man, but not in the way my father always tried to be. Bill Lamont relies on his fists to inspire fear. That works fine enough when the person you’re going against is weaker than you. But Paige’s dad has a presence that leaves you wondering what you’ve done wrong and if he can discover your fuck-up just by looking at you. After getting over my initial defensiveness toward him, I realized I liked the man. “You think Dad would have the balls to show up?”
Dash shrugs, and I reach over to rub a reassuring circle on his back, finding my own sense of comfort in taking on my classic role of big sister. Ever since we were kids, I’ve always been his protector.
Well, me and Leo.
Until my twin decided to join the dark side.
Doubt he’s in the will.
“But this isn’t about the wedding.” Dash brings my focus back to the current tragedy. “It’s about Wai Po. Mom needs to know.”
As much as I hate what will come of my next words, I force them out. “I’ll tell her.”
“Luna—”
“Shut up.” I soften the reprimand with a pat on his knee. “You cut off contact for a reason. Stick to that. I’ll tell her. I was going to anyway.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” No. But no way am I going to let my brother step back into the quicksand of our family if I can help it. “I’ll tell her. You and Paige keep your distance for as long as you want.” Forever, if I have things my way.
Dash stares at me then, no doubt trying to figure out what’s going on in my mind.
Good luck.
“I love you,” he says. The intensity of his statement has me rearing back. But I can’t go far because suddenly his long arms capture me in a tight hug. “I wish I’d said that more to Wai Po.”
“I’m not dying,” I mutter, moving to return his embrace.
But I understand the gesture. The panic that lingers from our grandmother’s passing and how the hurt bleeds into worry about the mortality of others.
Suddenly I’m the one holding onto him tighter.
If I die, Dash will have Paige to hold him through the pain.
But I don’t have that.
Without my brother, I’m alone.