Chapter 29 #2
In fact, I might go nuclear.
“This is Avery.”
He wasted no time getting into it. “There’s a lot I’m going to tell you. Are you home?”
My heart squeezed. Not even bothering with a formal introduction... that wasn’t a good sign. Glancing over at Brandon, I said, “Not at the moment.”
“Get in your car and go over there. Now.”
“Hold on.” Putting him on mute, I grabbed Brandon by the arm and hauled him up to his feet. He didn’t question me at all, only tucked himself back into his pants and followed me out as I quickly jogged down the hall and into the main lobby of his shop.
I barely heard him spout off some lie to one of the guys manning the front of the shop before he darted after me, ducking under my arm as I held the door open for him and led him out to my car.
The second we were both buckled in and I had my phone hooked up to the bluetooth, I tapped he mute icon again.
“Go ahead, Ted.”
On the other end of the phone, he breathed out a short sigh and then his tone grew clipped.
“Looked into those files you dropped off about Ana. Something stuck out to me when I was reading through them. The timestamps seemed off. After digging a bit deeper, I discovered the paternity test had been done a week before our meeting and before you requested them from her.”
Okay... not exactly abnormal. Ana could’ve already suspected I’d want something like that from her, especially having never met me before this.
Fighting me on it during our meeting could’ve been her way to test my boundaries—to see how hard set I was in them and to tell where she could possibly skirt the line.
That wasn’t screaming guilty.
“So,” Ted continued. “I requested the video footage from the clinic of the day she went in for the test. Alexander Steele was with her.”
That was weird. Why bring your lawyer to a private and personal matter like that? To prove the legitimacy?
Blinking a few times, I said, “You’re sure?”
“It’s him.”
My hands tightened around my steering wheel. “I’m assuming you’re bringing this up for a reason?”
“I don’t know who they paid to forge the documents but it’s not your father’s baby, Avery.”
I wanted to believe—I wanted to let myself hope. But what solid proof was there outside of video footage of them at a local clinic? “How do you know?”
“They were seen kissing outside in the parking lot. My team dug into Ana and from what we can gather, she and Steele have been dating for a while.”
“For eight months?”
“We’re not sure yet. I’ve requested an emergency hearing with the judge to determine the legitimacy of their claims on the paternity test. The marriage license was legitimized, so there’s no question that she was married to your father before his death, but that isn’t his baby.”
It wasn’t until I felt Brandon tug on one of my arms to peel my hand away from the steering wheel and wrap his hand around my own that I realized how badly I was shaking. From anger? Adrenaline? I couldn't tell.
She was a fucking scam artist. A talented one at that, getting a lawyer in her pocket and possibly impregnating her while still being married to my father? Diabolical.
How long had this scheme been in the making? Was she targeting my father for long or had he simply stumbled into her web at a convenient time?
Ana struck me as an opportunist to her very core. If Steele was in on this with her, he was just as much of a scumbag.
“Steele called my office this morning and told me his client would be over at your estate later today,” Ted said. “I’m not sure for what but I’m guessing they got a judge to sign off on something. The paperwork hasn’t come through for us yet. That’s why I need you over there.”
“Shit,” I mumbled. “I’m about twenty minutes out.”
“I’ll be heading down shortly. Let me know when you get there. We may have to call the authorities to get them off the property.”
I squeezed Brandon’s hand tightly. I was so glad I decided to swing by to bug him on his lunch break instead of lying around at home all day until he got done with his shift.
If he wasn’t here with me, I wasn’t sure how the hell I’d be able to stay levelheaded.
“I’ll let you know what I run into when I get there. ”
“Thank you.” Ted let out a soft sigh. “Please be safe. I’ll see you soon.”
The second the call ended, Brandon squeezed my hand. “We really should have the cops meet us there. It’s going to take them a bit to get over the bridge anyway.”
True. Not to mention the second we called bullshit on this whole thing, Steele was going to try and throw out some legal jargon to get me to allow them both to stay.
Or flash whatever paperwork they’d gotten a judge to sign off on.
He also had a lot to lose if he was caught getting twisted up in Ana’s schemes.
No amount of funds or whatever else Ana promised him to help her would save his career.
“Why don’t you call them, then,” I suggested. “We’ll have them meet us down at the gate.”
He nodded and slipped his phone out of his pocket. “You got it.”
My heart was in my throat driving up to my family’s property.
As expected, there was already a familiar sports car parked in my driveway, along with a moving truck with the ramp down and two guys loading what looked like a vanity set into the back of it. Anger boiled in me. To be that brazen with stealing my shit was out of this world.
Even if this situation was still somehow legitimate and she was entitled to half of my family’s things, I wasn’t getting a say in any of what she was currently taking from me—which was exactly what all of us had come to a tentative agreement on weeks ago that this wouldn’t fucking happen.
Her arrogance was going to be her downfall.
As soon as I had the car parked, I threw my door open and slipped out into the warm air.
The ironic part about today was how nice it was outside despite the deep turmoil that chilled me.
This would’ve been the perfect day to sneak Brandon away from the shop for a little while under the guise of running an errand with me.
Or better yet, a date.
Instead, we were here dealing with this mess and a half.
Coming up the drive behind us were two officers from Palmerston, both of who were eager to swing by with their patrol cars and a possible K9 unit on the way as backup once Brandon had gotten on the phone with dispatch.
Normally, I’d consider it overkill, however, there wasn’t typically much activity going on in our small towns, so any excuse to bring out the so-called ‘big guns’ got the local PDs excited.
Fine by me. The more that were on our side, the better.
Leaving Brandon to handle filling in the officers, the sound of my door slamming grabbed the attention of the two movers, their necks jerking toward the noise as they paused halfway up the ramp.
“Afternoon, gentlemen,” I called out, my tone clipped.
“Mr. McAllister,” one of them said, look like a deer caught in headlights. “We were told you were out of town for the week.”
“Is that so.”
Figures. If Alexander Steele had one thing going for him, it was the impressive amount of balls he had commandeering not only a moving company but most likely my staff inside, too, to do his bidding for him.
Though how they got my gate code was an entirely different story. One I fully intended to get out of Steele before banning him and his mistress from my property.
Bypassing the two movers, I headed up the stairs and through the open doors of the mansion.
In the foyer were already a few pieces of furniture laid out on dust sheets, stacked in a row and ready to be lifted out of the door and into the truck.
None of it was furniture that I recognized, so where they were pulling it from was probably one of the guest rooms.
A few of my staff were stiffly milling about, looking lost in the chaos that was slowly turning the once grand entrance into a college move-in day imitation.
Clacking heels brought my attention toward the left of the foyer. The doors to the secondary hallway were propped open, leading down to a few of the guest bedrooms on the first floor. Two voices were heard coming my way, causing my body to tense as they drew near.
The second Ana and Steele moved past the archway and into the foyer, they stopped short at seeing me.
“Ah, Mr. McAllister.” Steele shot me a brief smile. “We were told you’d be out today.”
“Really, I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be expecting guests.”
Ana remained tight-lipped while she stared at me. The sheer fabric of her dress clung to her swollen belly, making it seem much more pronounced than the last time I’d seen her. The stilettos she wore were of an impressive height, making her almost as tall as Steele when she stood next to him.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” Steele explained.
Popping a brow, I said, “So you hopped my gate instead?”
“No, no.” He shook his head. Breaking away from Ana, he moved across the foyer in my direction, unfolding a piece of paper from the inside of his suit jacket as he did so.
“We stopped by to take some things back to Ana’s guest house.
Since it may take a while for us to negotiate what will and will not be going with her, the judge granted us temporary custody over some of the property in order to make her comfortable during our proceedings. ”
The second he was within reach, I snatched the paper out of his hand.
Judge Matthews. County Court of Forest Hill. An order of compliance and notice of a filing.
The rest of the paragraph, where it explained in a bunch of legal jargon, essentially stated that Ana had full rights to seize temporary custody of any item that was designated as ‘unused for more than three years’ in order to create a ‘safe and comfortable’ space for her and her unborn child (the legal heir to the estate) until proceedings could begin.
At the bottom it was signed by the judge and notarized by the Ellington Heights township clerk.
What the fuck.