Twenty-Eight
INOD TO THE DOOR. “STAY ON KEVIN,” I SAY TO TOM. “MAKE SURE he doesn’t talk to anyone else. He’s done enough damage.”
Tom hesitates only momentarily, darting concerned glances at me and Lexi, then follows Kevin out.
Returning to the couch, Lexi picks up the file she was holding when I walked in. “Do you know who Abigail Pierce is?”
Without deception, I shake my head. I’ve never heard the name. Lexi hands me the file, which I open. Inside, I find Dash’s will, signature pages labeled with the name of my grandfather’s trust, and other vaguely legal items I don’t recognize.
The final piece of paper is a printed email from my dad to Mitchum, asking him to prepare updates to the will to include his new wife—and Abigail Pierce, with no further details provided.
I read on, searching the included email correspondence for clues on the identity of the mysterious Ms. Pierce. Yet when I reach the summary of recipients my father requested and received from Mitchum five months ago, another name stuns me. It isn’t Abigail Pierce’s or Maureen’s or Lexi’s.
It’s… mine.
Even now, years after he made clear I ruined his marriage and caused his divorce, Dash has not removed me from his will. He has not revoked my entitlement to my share of his fortune.
I’m still an heiress.
Distantly, I recognize the irony in the circumstances of my discovery. Only while literally stealing from him do I learn he has not removed me from his financial future. Will he after I pull my heist?
I honestly don’t know, I realize. I expect he will, of course. Stealing millions of dollars does not historically endear one to one’s family. However… I assumed he’d removed my name when he cast me out of his house. Yet here I am, listed next to Maureen and Abigail Pierce.
Suddenly, I remember Mitchum’s invocation of proof and exposure. At first, I hesitated to pursue them, hating the perverse protective loyalty I still have for Dashiell Owens.
Now I have an excuse I can live with. The stakes are much, much higher—my inheritance is on the line if my dad has committed fraud or some other crime to be exposed. Yes, it’s less moral than loyalty to my father, but I’ve never cared for a clean conscience. Obviously.
In the worth of my father’s name, I now have something to lose.
Which means I have something to protect. In love and ruthlessness, Dad.
With new determination, I decide I need to learn what exposure Mitchum Webber feels my father is vulnerable to. Not to exploit it, but to control it. Whatever place I may one day inherit in the Owens dynasty—or whatever dynasty I’ll forge on my own with this surname clinging to me—will carry any stain shed onto Dash. If he goes to jail, if courts or the IRS come to collect his wealth, I’ll be losing just as much as him.
My mind starts to whirl. Is Abigail involved in the proof Mitchum mentioned? Is she someone he’s paying off, concealing whatever it is Mitchum wants “exposed”? Or is she just another mistress in a long line of his infidelities? It’s statistically the likeliest option.
“Whoever Abigail Pierce is,” Lexi remarks, as if following my logic, “she’s not family. Not someone who works for him. And yet he’s giving her a third of his fortune? I’d start with her.”
Lexi is right. I need to focus on the heist, which now rests in my ex-stepmother’s manicured hands. I can handle the potential Mitchum fallout later. While seeing proof I’m still in the will has shifted some of my plans, it doesn’t change today’s main objective. I still need money now. I still want money now. Whoever Abigail is, she’s my clearest opportunity, my hottest lead. I need to figure it out in order to finish what I started.
With her usual presumptive comfort in the rooms of my father’s house, Lexi collects her clutch from the couch. “I’ll be attending the wedding. Find me when you have something,” she says pleasantly.
I glance up, not sure I’ve heard her right. Attending the wedding? “Maureen will throw you out.”
Lexi laughs. The sound is like the fine ceramics in the kitchen crashing down the staircase in the foyer. “I’d like to see the future Mrs. Dashiell Owens try,” she says pleasantly. “I imagine she’d like to know who Abigail Pierce is as much as we do. Maybe this marriage will be over before it starts.”