“Ma’am, if you please?” Mr. Benton whispered, holding a finger to his lips.
Her face turned red, but she clamped her lips shut, and Riley felt a sickening clench in his gut.
“Lastly, to my grandson and heir, Riley Marston the third, I leave you in charge of Cyber Vault, Inc., all of its assets, stocks, holdings, everything, along with the remainder of my estate.” His grandfather’s smile fell as he leaned into the camera. “However, I have one condition that you must adhere to.”
What condition, Riley wondered. What could he possibly want me to do now?
“From the date of this video, you have two full months to find a wife and finally settle down. My legacy must carry on, and you need to move on, Riley. Make yourself happy and stop being a workaholic. That is my condition. Any other questions can be addressed by my lawyers. I love you all, and hopefully, I won’t be seeing any of you too soon.” The old man grinned, laughing a little to himself, then shut off the video.
“I have…I have to get married,” Riley whispered in disbelief. “Seriously?”
But his musings were quickly drowned out by the rantings of the redhead as she charged across the room and smacked him across the face.
Chapter 2
Riley nearly fell out of his chair from the hit. His face stung, and he cursed as he jumped away from the crazed woman. “What the fuck is your problem, lady?”
“You bastard! You took everything that was supposed to be mine!”
She raised her hand to hit him again, but Ben stepped in and shoved her back.
“Get off of me! I demand you get off of me!”
“Ms. Chandler, I must insist you calm yourself or I will have security escort you from the building,” Mr. Benton yelled over her continued screaming. “Ms. Chandler!”
“Fine!” She promptly sat back down and crossed her arms over her chest, huffing deep breaths in and out so fast that Riley thought she was going to pass out. Probably be a good thing if she did. He’d never met this woman before, but the way his grandfather had described her was definitely not like this. She’d been kind and sweet to him—and rich enough on her own, so never once did Riley think she’d turn into a greedy bitch when his grandfather died.
His grandfather was dead. The words reverberated over and over in his mind, and he felt like someone had sucker punched him.
“Mr. Marston? Riley,” one of the older men was saying as he held out his hand. Jim, he thought, that one was Jim. “We are so terribly sorry. We know how much he meant to you and vice versa.”
“Yes, if there’s anything you need, son,” Larry said, patting him on the back, “just give us a call. Night or day.” He handed Riley a card, then the two of them headed out of the conference room. The two old ladies could barely speak but hugged Riley close and told him they were also just a phone call away if he needed anything. And they’d send along some of their brother’s things to give Riley some comfort.
He was numb when he finally sat back down—making sure to stay out of hitting range of Ms. Chandler, who was still glaring at him as if hoping he’d drop dead. He was too much in shock about everything that had happened to really care. She could glare at him all she liked. Right now, all he cared about was figuring out why his grandfather had done what he had. He was forcing him to get married? There was no sense to it! And there was no way it was legal. Couldn’t be.
As everyone else left the room, Mr. Benton pulled up a chair at the head of the table and flipped through some files. “Now then, Ms. Chandler. How about we address your concerns first, hmm? So we can get you out of this office and back to your busy schedule.”
“The video is wrong,” she snapped, setting her hands palms down on the table.
“Ma’am, I can assure you, the video has not been doctored at all by anyone at this law firm—or anywhere else for that matter,” he said, interlocking his fingers and staring at her over them. “The amount he has left you should be more than enough to take care of yourself after retirement. That, it would seem, is why he left it to you.” He slid some papers out of the file towards her. “His will, in writing. If you’ll note, that’s his signature at the bottom of the page.”
She grabbed the sheet, and Riley watched her eyes skim the page. Her hands started to shake as she grew angrier. Finally, she slammed the page down and stood, slinging her black leather purse over her shoulder. “This isn’t over,” she hissed at Riley.