30. James
— · —
James
I woke up with Haley’s body pressed against mine, her hair spread across my chest, breath warm on my skin.
For a moment I just lay there, watching her sleep, trying to convince myself this was real. Last night had been everything I’d imagined and more.
She stirred, her eyes fluttering open. A slow smile spread across her face when she saw me watching her.
“Morning.” Her voice was rough with sleep. “How long have you been staring at me?”
“Long enough to memorize every freckle on your nose.”
“Creep.” But she was still smiling, shifting closer, her leg sliding between mine.
I was already hard. Had been since I woke up. She felt it against her thigh and her smile turned into something else entirely.
“Again?” She raised an eyebrow. “Already?”
“I’ve got three years of celibacy to make up for.” I rolled her onto her back and settled between her thighs. “I figured we could make a dent in it this morning.”
“That’s very ambitious of you.”
“I’m a motivated man.” I kissed her neck, her collarbone, the swell of her breast. “I have goals. Objectives. A detailed action plan.”
She laughed, and the sound made my chest ache with how much I loved her.
“Well then.” She wrapped her legs around my waist. “Far be it from me to stand in the way of your action plan.”
I was just positioning myself at her entrance when the doorbell rang.
We both froze.
“Ignore it.” Haley pulled me closer. “It’s probably just a delivery. They’ll leave it at the door.”
The bell rang again. Then again. Then someone started knocking.
“For fuck’s sake.” I dropped my forehead against her shoulder. “Who the hell is that at eight in the morning?”
“I’ll get it.” She pushed at my chest. “You stay here. I’ll get rid of whoever it is and we can pick up where we left off.”
She threw on a robe and disappeared down the hallway. I lay back against the pillows and tried to will my erection away, which was proving difficult given that I could still smell her on the sheets.
Then I heard her voice, sharp with confusion.
“What is this? I don’t understand. What is this?”
I was out of bed and pulling on my pants before she finished speaking. I found her standing at the front door, holding a stack of papers, her face pale. A man in a cheap suit was walking back toward the elevator.
“Haley?” I took her arm. “What’s going on?”
She didn’t answer. Just stared at the papers in her hands like they might bite her.
I took them from her and started reading. Legal jargon, citations, court filing numbers. And at the top, the name of the plaintiff.
Diane Sinclair.
“What the fuck is this shit?” I flipped through the pages, trying to make sense of it. “My mother is suing you? For what?”
“It says something about the heir.” Haley’s voice was hollow. “And a prenup clause. James, I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Did you sign a prenup? When you married Caleb?”
“Yeah, but it was voided during the divorce because of his infidelity.” She was shaking now. “Rebecca made sure of that. All the clauses were nullified. This shouldn’t - this can’t be legal.”
I scanned the documents again, my jaw tightening with every paragraph. Diane wasn’t suing for custody. She was suing for grandparent visitation rights, claiming a clause in the original prenup that guaranteed Sinclair family access to any children produced by the marriage.
It was bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. But bullshit backed by expensive lawyers and unlimited resources.
“Fine.” I set the papers down on the counter and cupped Haley’s face in my hands. “This is going to be fine. I’ll take care of this.”
“How? James, your mother-”
“Go get Lily.” I kept my voice steady, even though rage was building in my chest. “Get her dressed, get her fed, keep her occupied. I need to make some calls.”
“James-”
“Trust me.” I kissed her forehead. “I’ve got this.”
She nodded, still pale, and headed toward Lily’s room. I grabbed my phone and locked myself in her office.
The family lawyer answered on the second ring.
“Rip, it’s James Sinclair. I need to know everything about a filing my mother just made against Haley Shaw.”
“I saw it come through this morning.” Rip’s voice was grim. “I was about to call you.”
“Tell me she doesn’t have a case.”
“She doesn’t have a case.” He paused. “But that doesn’t mean she can’t cause damage. Your mother has deep pockets, James. She can tie this up in court for years, contest every motion, demand endless depositions. The legal fees alone would bankrupt most people.”
“And what does she actually want?”
“The filing is requesting that Haley open communication between Lily and the extended Sinclair family. Supervised visits. Regular contact. The argument is that Lily is being deliberately isolated from her paternal heritage.”
“Caleb signed away his rights. He doesn’t get to petition for contact.”
“He already has.” Rip sighed. “Filed this morning, right alongside your mother’s suit. He’s claiming he was coerced into signing the termination, that he wasn’t given adequate time to consider the implications.”
Fuck.
“That’s not going to hold up.”
“Probably not. But again, they don’t need to win. They just need to drag this out long enough to exhaust Haley’s resources and wear her down.”
I ended the call and sat there in the quiet of Haley’s office, my mind racing. There was only one way to end this. Only one thing Diane actually wanted.
I dialed my mother’s number.
She answered on the first ring, like she’d been waiting.
“James. I wondered how long it would take you to call.”
“What do you want, Diane?”
“I want what’s rightfully mine.” Her voice was cold, controlled. “I want the legacy your father built. I want control of the company that should have been my birthright.”
“The distillery.”
She paused. “You want her so badly, you can have her. On one condition.”
I closed my eyes. I knew what was coming. Had known since I saw the papers in Haley’s hands.
“Sign over your controlling shares. Give me the company. And I’ll make all of this go away.”
My father’s legacy. The thing I’d spent a decade building, protecting, growing. The work that had defined my adult life.
Or Haley. Lily. The family I’d been waiting for since before I knew I was waiting.
It wasn’t even a choice.
“There’s nothing I want more than my girls.” My voice came out steady. “You can have it all, Diane. Every share. Every board seat. The whole goddamn thing.”
Silence on the other end. Then a soft laugh.
“I always knew you were the weak one, James. Just like your father.”
“I’ll have the papers drawn up today.”
“See that you do.”
The line went dead.
I spent the rest of the day in Haley’s office, making calls. My accountant. My financial advisor. The corporate attorneys who would handle the transfer. Everyone thought I was insane. They tried to talk me out of it.
I signed the papers anyway.
When I finally emerged, the apartment was quiet. Haley was on the couch with Lily curled against her side, both of them watching some cartoon about talking animals.
“James!” Lily scrambled off the couch and ran toward me. “You were in there forever! Mommy said you were working but I wanted to play!”
“Sorry, bug.” I scooped her up and held her tight. “I had some boring grown-up stuff to take care of.”
“Is it done now?”
“Almost.” I looked at Haley over Lily’s head. Her face was drawn with worry. “Almost done.”
“Can you do my bedtime story tonight?” Lily pulled back to look at me with those big eyes. “Please? Mommy always does the voices wrong.”
“I do not do the voices wrong,” Haley protested.
“You make the dragon sound like a frog.”
“That’s how dragons sound!”
“No it’s not!” Lily looked at me for support. “Tell her, James. Dragons don’t sound like frogs.”
“I’ll do your bedtime story.” I kissed her forehead. “But first you need to eat dinner and take a bath and brush your teeth.”
“Ugh.” She squirmed out of my arms. “Too many steps.”
I got her through dinner and bath time while Haley watched from a distance, her arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold herself together. She knew I was hiding something. She just didn’t know what yet.
Lily picked a book about a princess who befriended a monster, and I did all the voices while she snuggled against my chest. By the time I reached the happy ending, her eyes were closed and her breathing had evened out.
I sat there for a moment, just holding her. This perfect little girl who had called me Dada without knowing what she was saying. Who had accepted me into her life without question or hesitation.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out carefully, trying not to wake her.
Rip: It’s done.
The shares had transferred. The distillery belonged to my mother now. Everything my father had built, everything I’d spent a decade protecting, signed away with a few strokes of a pen.
I didn’t regret it. Not for a second.
I carried Lily to her bed and tucked her in, then went to find Haley. She was in the kitchen, staring out the window at the city lights.
“You should get a call from their lawyers soon.” I leaned against the counter. “They’ll dismiss the case.”
She turned to face me, her eyes searching my face. “James, what did you do?”
“What I should have done from the beginning.”
“That’s not an answer.” She stepped closer. “What did you do?”
I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to see the look on her face when she realized what I’d given up. But she deserved the truth.
“I signed over the distillery to my mom.” The words came out flat, matter-of-fact. “That’s what she wanted. That’s what she’s always wanted. Control of the company. The legacy.”
Haley stared at me. “You what?”
“It was the only way to make her stop. The only way to guarantee she’d leave you and Lily alone.”
“The distillery.” Her voice was rising. “Your father’s company. The thing you’ve been building for years. You just gave it away?”
“It’s just a business, Haley.”