I smiled, even though he couldn’t see it.
“I just started.”
“Mom, be reasonable,” Brandon’s voice tightened over the phone. “You can’t just freeze the accounts and file for injunctions. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to our agreement?”
“It’s your decision,” I corrected her. “Not mine. Not your father’s.”
“Where are you?” Melissa interrupted, her voice shrill. Brandon had clearly put the phone on speakerphone. “We were worried.”
The lie hung over us like a poisonous cloud. They hadn’t called the police. They hadn’t contacted their friends. They’d been too busy carrying out their betrayal.
“Are you worried that I survived?” I asked, my voice perfectly calm. “Are you worried that I didn’t disappear into thin air?”
“It’s not fair,” Melissa complained. “Brandon made a mistake…”
“Shut up, Melissa,” Brandon snapped.
I smiled into the phone, listening to the alliances already crumbling.
“Listen carefully,” I said. “I’m giving you one chance to get something. Retract your fraudulent will. Give me back my business and my house. In exchange, I’ll give you each a one-time payment of fifty thousand dollars. After that, we’re done.”
Brandon laughed, an unpleasant sound.
“You’re out of your mind. You own nothing. The will is valid.”
“The will is a forgery,” Vincent interjected, leaning toward the speakerphone on his desk. “As the lawyer who drafted Nicholas Canton’s actual will, I can attest to that.”
Silence stretched along the entire line.
