Chapter 60
CHAPTER
RHETT POURED OUT ONE MORE glass of wine and looked across the dining room table in his penthouse at his widowed stepmother.
“So, Min, you want to finally tell me what’s on your mind?”
“I might have a problem that you could help with.”
“Okay. What’s in it for me?”
“Ten percent of my inheritance.”
“Make it a quarter and I’m listening,” replied Rhett.
“You shit, you haven’t even heard what I need.”
“So tell me. And it’s still a quarter.”
“Your father put a provision in the will that conditions my inheritance on a certain event occurring.”
“What event?”
“That I’m pregnant.”
“That’s not possible. I told you that, Min.”
“But I am pregnant, Rhett.”
“Come on, don’t bullshit me.”
She touched her stomach. “I’ve already seen my ob-gyn. She confirmed it. I gave that information to the lawyers, which meets one of the criteria. And the child’s father is a Temple. I told the lawyers that, too. And it was the truth.”
“It’s obviously not my father’s, so who are—” Rhett stopped and gaped. “Wait a minute. Are you saying…”
She nodded. “When we did it in the massage room. You’re the only man I’ve slept with in the last six months, and that includes your father.”
His face turned red and he said furiously, “Shit, you’re pregnant with my kid? You said you were on the fucking pill!”
“Please, Rhett, don’t be that way.”
“What way do you expect me to be? You wanted to get pregnant, so you seduced me.”
“It wasn’t hard. It never is with you. You jumped me the night before my wedding just because I let you feel me up and French-kiss me when we were alone back at the hotel. You were like an animal. I loved it. But I have to look out for myself.”
“Right, you’re just as selfish as everybody else.”
“I acted surprised when you told me Barton had gotten a vasectomy, but the thing is I already knew.”
“How?”
“Barton got drunk one night and said some things that made me suspicious. I got the code to his wall safe. Some papers were in there that told me. So he couldn’t provide the baby that I needed.”
“You said you didn’t want to get pregnant,” he reminded her.
“I lied. Just like all you Temples lie. A kid was the only protection I was going to have. Absent that, I was going to be stuck with the puny prenup.”
“Puny? Twenty mill was more than you would ever earn in your entire life slopping on makeup and hair spray.”
Her features grew hard. “True, but my expectations changed when I married a billionaire!”
“Have to hand it to you, Min, you’re a sneaky little shit,” remarked a still clearly angry Rhett.
“Come on, this could be a happy occasion.”
He barked. “You’re my stepmother, for God’s sake. And you’re having my baby! What the hell is happy about that?”
“You’re going to be a father.”
“Right, uh-huh. Father by deception, always on my top five things to experience in life. So why do you need me?” Rhett demanded. “It seems I’ve already performed the service you required.”
“Because of the other condition.”
He shot her a glance. “Wait, of course. You need to prove it’s my father’s baby, right? And Dad knew that would be impossible. He screwed you over, Min, without actually screwing you.”
“But since you’re his son, the DNA shouldn’t be a problem, right?
I mean, it’ll show that the father is a Temple.
And you can back me up on that, right? You know he couldn’t be the father but you can take care of that part, can’t you?
Pay off the doc who did the vasectomy? That’s why I need your help. ”
Rhett looked at her in disbelief. “Mindy, I’m not a scientist, okay?
But I think the only people who have the exact same DNA are identical twins.
They’ll know it’s not my father’s baby, but they will be able to show that the actual father is related to my old man.
And for all I know they may be able to tell that it’s his son who fathered the baby. And my father only has one son. Me!”
“Okay, then maybe you can help me give them a DNA sample that is actually yours, but you can say it’s your dad’s.”
Rhett shook his head while rubbing his temples, his expression weary.
“Okay, I don’t want to say that you’re as dumb as a fucking rock, Min, but the lawyers are not going to take any DNA evidence from us.
I’m sure they already have a sample of my dad’s DNA, since that was a condition of the inheritance provision. ”
Mindy collapsed back in her chair. “Shit, so I’m screwed?”
“Where does the money go if you can’t meet the conditions?”
“To that stupid foundation your father set up,” Mindy lied.
“Great! Thanks, Pops!”
“So there’s nothing we can do?” she said.
“I don’t know. Let me think about it.”
“You can come up with something, right? Your father didn’t think much of you, but I’ve always known how devious you can be.”
“If I do come up with something, it’ll cost you half,” replied Rhett.
“Half? But you said a quarter!”
“Just chalk it up to my natural deviousness. And I said a quarter before you dropped a baby in my lap, sweetheart. Half or you can kiss the billions bye-bye and live off the twenty mill on your prenup. Knowing you, you’ll burn through that in a year.”
“Okay, half.”
“In writing.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I trust you as much as you trust me,” he countered.
She rose. “Let me know as soon as you think of something. And just so you know, I already told them I’m not doing anything to jeopardize my pregnancy by having them take a DNA sample from my amniotic fluid.
They have to wait the full nine months with everything in limbo.
They said they’d get back to me on that, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. ”
“I promise I will do whatever I can to cut those billions loose. The old man owed me that.”
She bent down and kissed him on the lips. “I really appreciate this, Rhett. And I’ll show my gratitude lots of different ways.”
She left, and Rhett sat there thinking. Then he pulled out a business card from his wallet, picked up the phone, and made a call.
“Hey, Lindsey Cole, it’s Rhett Temple.”
“Hi, Mr. Temple,” said the young Stanford lawyer who had sat in on the will reading with Harvey Robins.
“Got a question for you. An important one.”
“Okay, I hope I have the answer.”
“I think you will. How about I ask and you answer over a drink?”