Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the way he worded the clause in the trust concerned with our inheritance, legally, if one marriage is deemed fraudulent, the entire clause is nullified. The legal interpretation seems to be that it wouldn’t be one sibling’s inheritance but the entire balance of the account—nearly half a billion dollars—going to charity.”
Anna stares at me.
“If one falls,” I say, “we all fall.”
I see the moment it fully lands. Dread washes her out, and she pushes to sit, the sheets falling to her waist. “You’re telling me that if we get busted, Jake could lose the possibility of an inheritance? Charlie?”
“It appears so.”
“What about Blaire and Alex? They’ve been married for over a decade.”
“It doesn’t seem to matter. The money was put into an account for each of us. It is my and my attorneys’ understanding that access would be cut off—at the very least it would be restricted until the wording could be clarified in court. But this is the leverage I mean: my father wants me to come on as CEO. He’s looking for leverage. Don’t you think if he knew he could hold my siblings’ inheritances over my head, he would?”
“So if he finds out, it’s your life or their money?”
I nod.
“And you don’t think your siblings know?”
“I can’t imagine they do. Otherwise Alex would be doing everything he could to not sabotage this.”
Two furrowed lines appear between her brows. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just tell them?”
“I only got clarity a couple weeks ago,” I say, shrugging. “I thought I would be able to come here alone. I didn’t think I would have to involve you in it. I didn’t think it would turn into a circus. But then my mom implied that my father was getting suspicious about us. I don’t know if he’s aware of the loophole, but I’m sure his lawyers are. Or will be.”
“Now if you tried to tell your siblings while we’re here, you’d have to admit to Alex that we’re lying,” she says, nodding in understanding.
“And he’d either want his lawyers to confirm, or—more likely, since his lawyers would take weeks to do that—immediately go to Dad and ask if I’m telling the truth.”
Anna exhales a quiet, “Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I blow out a breath, closing my eyes. “I didn’t want you to feel the enormity of it. The pressure is… intense.”
“You didn’t have to handle this alone.”
“We barely knew each other. I was just trying to get through every event without catastrophe.”
Anna settles back down beside me. “We just have to get through the next few days. We can do this.”
I pull in a deep breath. “We can.”
“This was a lot to carry, Liam.”
“It was.” After a beat, I look over at her and smile. “You called me Liam again.”
“I did.”
Our gazes lock for several quiet beats and then she leans forward, pressing her lips to mine. When she pulls back, I ask, “Do you look more like your mom or your dad?”
“My dad, definitely. My mom is short, has blue eyes and blond hair. My hair is naturally brown, eyes brown.” She laughs. “I used to want her eyes, but now I’m glad that I got everything from him. He’s the shit.”
“I’d like to meet him.”
She nods. “Yeah. I’d like that. I think you two would get along.”
I smile, opening my mouth to say something about not being sure about meeting Vivi again, though, but Anna speaks first, grinding my thoughts to a halt: “He was diagnosed with lung cancer a few weeks after you moved out.”
I roll to my side again to face her. “Oh shit. Is—is he okay?”
“Well, the lung cancer is gone—for good, I hope.” She smiles weakly at me. “But one of the possible side effects of the type of chemo he had is what’s called secondary acute myeloid leukemia.”
I go still, heart dropping. “So his cancer is cured, but he got leukemia as a result?”
Anna nods. “Before you worry too much, his prognosis is good. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. But at first, we didn’t know. The prognosis for this type of AML usually isn’t great. So the past six months have been… yeah.” She reaches up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “His oncologist and hematologist both think he’s going to get through it. I really do think we’re on the other side, but it’s been hell.”
“I can’t even imagine.”
“I wish all of my research had been more useful to Jake’s jellyfish sting,” she says, laughing. “I know more about topoisomerase II inhibitors and myelodysplastic syndrome and doxorubicin than I ever imagined I’d have to learn, and there’s not a lot approved for secondary AML, but what there is, is—of course—also chemotherapy, which is just… fuck,” she says, exhaling sharply. “Just a type of drug that kills the cancer a little faster than it kills you.”