Billionaire’s Trust(8)

“Katy, I’ve got to be going.”

“Going?” she asked with a look of confusion on her face. “Who was that? Maddie?”

I shook my head as I readied myself to leave.

“No.”

“I don’t understand,” she said as I began to walk away. “Are you going to talk to her? Straighten this out?”

I paused for a moment and looked down at her.

“Thanks for the chat, Katy, but I’ll deal with Maddie.”

As I began to walk away, Katy continued, “Grey, wait! You never answered my question. Do you love Maddie? Are you going to tell her how you feel?”

I opened the office door and walked out. I had a grandfather— and a hero--to bury.



GREY

It was a helluva thing, saying goodbye to the old man. In a lot of ways, I’d written him off in recent months. It was inevitable, and he wouldn’t have tolerated me getting distracted by it for too long anyway. But, it was the hardest goddamn day of my life so far and frankly, I was glad to have it behind me. Of course, now that he’d passed, I had to deal with the conditions of his estate as the trustee.

And so it was a couple of days after the funeral I found myself in the offices of the estate attorneys. We sat in a large conference room. A half dozen of the immediate family were there, including my mother. None of them had been privy to the details of the will, so I figured I’d get a good laugh out of seeing their reaction. I have to say I enjoyed watching their expressions transform from a smug sense of entitlement, to abject horror as they realized my marital status would determine their economic status.

As it happened, the cousin I despised the most, Albert, was the first to voice his displeasure. A fat, balding hump of a man, Albert looked like he lived — lazy and uninspired.

“This is an outrage!” he grumbled. Redness roiled to the top of his bald head like mercury in an old-fashioned thermometer. Fixing his ire on the attorneys, he continued, “So the fate of my money will be determined by whether or not my playboy cousin gets married? You can’t be serious!”

Over the next few minutes, the attorneys did their best to settle him down. For a moment or two, it looked as if he might have a stroke. Not that I would have minded, of course. Yet, in spite of the attorneys making the terms of the will crystal-goddamned clear, Albert continued to complain about the influence I had over ‘his money’. Drinking a cup of hot, black coffee I glared at him as the taste of the bitter liquid lingered in my mouth. I permitted him to carry on for a few more minutes until at last, I’d heard enough.

“Albert,” I began. “It’s not your goddamn money, you selfish prick. It belonged to our grandfather. And, let me tell you something. If it wasn’t for the love I had for him, I’d see to it that not a single one of you got a dime of it.”

Albert swallowed hard and sunk back into his chair. As he did, the leather covering the back of it groaned. He lingered there for a moment or two, gathering his thoughts. But eventually, like a rabid dog backed into a corner, he barked an insult at me.

“Why don’t you just marry one of your bimbos and be done with it?”

If it wouldn’t have violated the privacy of the conversation I’d had with my grandfather on the subject, that right there would have been the final straw. I wished he could hear the way they talked about his dying wish. Here the old man was genuinely concerned about my well-being, wanting me to be happy, and these vultures couldn’t give two shits. The only thing any of them cared about was not losing their upscale homes and country club memberships.

Sickening.

Even so, I was still no closer to having anyone on my short list of marriage material. I’m sure they’d all get a great fucking laugh out of hearing Maddie rejected me. At the rate things were going with her, I might not be married inside of a year, even if I wanted to be.

Pretty goddamn ironic.

Here they all think I’m the obstacle to them getting what they want, when the truth is the obstacle is a blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty living thousands of miles away. Still, given the way things stood with Maddie and the disrespect I was getting here, I was beginning to reconsider.

I still couldn’t believe she’d turned me down.

What was with all of this nonsense about ‘love’ anyway? Maddie had Katy primed to feed me that shit when I showed up to talk to her. I should have seen that coming. Everything Maddie and I had at stake with the kid, and that was her goddamn deal breaker?

Mystifying as fuck is what it was.

“Well?” Albert hissed as he broke my concentration. “We’re waiting, Grey. Let’s just go out in the street in front of the building here. I’m sure a suitable candidate will cross your path in five minutes or so.”