30. Cord
30
CORD
J uni and I slept on the plane ride from the airport in Buffalo until we landed in Gunnison. After deboarding, Decker asked if he could have a moment to speak with me alone.
I wanted to tell him that whatever he had to tell me, he could say in front of Juni. However, he seemed almost as troubled as he’d been yesterday.
“What’s up?” I asked after I’d escorted Juni to the SUV waiting for us on the tarmac.
“I made contact with Richard Langley during the flight,” he began. “When I asked if we could stop by his office before continuing on to the ranch, he informed me he’d already requested a meeting with the rest of your siblings. It’s scheduled to take place at fourteen hundred hours.”
I knew from Buck that Porter had been released on bail while awaiting trial, but hadn’t heard when that might be .
“I also spoke with Sterling Anderson, who I asked to take a look at the Roaring Fork Trust back when Buck received his orders.” The way his brow furrowed concerned me.
“Whatever is on your mind, just say it.”
“There may be something we missed.”
“ May be?”
“I’ll know more when we meet with the lawyers.”
“Decker, is there a chance…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. If Six-pack had double-crossed us and my siblings and I were about to lose the ranch, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. This wasn’t about me; it was about the rest of them. If my actions were the cause, I’d never forgive myself.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it isn’t it.”
“We haven’t already lost everything?”
Decker scowled. “Of course not. I would never have let that happen.”
If those words had been spoken by anyone else, I wondered if I’d believe them. Coming from Deck, I had no doubt he meant it.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know. Most pertains to your mother coming to Colorado and how she met your father. I also have strong suspicions that Miss Cena played a part in all of it.” He looked over at the SUV. “Let’s get some lunch. By the time we do, Hammer should be here.”
“Hammer?”
“The other attorney.”
“Just to clarify, the meeting is in two hours, right?”
Rather than answer, he raised a brow.
“What about my conversation with Buck?” I asked.
“I doubt there will be time for it beforehand. However, the questions Hammer will ask have no bearing on who Buck’s biological father is.”
I didn’t like his answer, but it appeared the wheels had already been set in motion.
The only one of my siblings who hadn’t met Juni was Porter, so he was the first I greeted and introduced her to. My brother looked like shit. More than even I’d expected.
Juniper was gracious, like she always was, but I could see by the set of her jaw that her encounter with him left her frazzled.
“Are you okay?” I leaned in and whispered.
“He’s in so much pain,” she murmured in response.
Now that she’d said it, I agreed. Most of my life, I’d thought my second-oldest brother was more like my father than any of us would’ve wanted to acknowledge. He was often sullen and argumentative, along with intoxicated.
Buck, on the other hand, who’d suffered more abuse at the hands of my dad than any of us, had never seemed that way. He hadn’t bothered trying to conceal his hatred for our old man, but it hadn’t soured him on the rest of civilization like it had Porter.
I couldn’t help but wonder if something far worse than we knew went on between him and Roscoe, as I’d begun thinking of him.
Buck and Flynn were the last of my siblings to arrive, and with them were his wife, TJ, and their son, Buckaroo.
“I thought maybe we could walk around Gunnison while we wait,” I heard TJ say to Juni. When her eyes met mine, I nodded.
“I’d like that,” she responded, leaning down to say something to the baby, who was in a stroller.
Just then, another SUV pulled up and a man I didn’t recognize got out. Based on Buck’s and Decker’s reaction, I gathered it was Hammer. The man looked more pissed off than the rest of us combined.
“I’m going to get that fucker disbarred,” I heard him mutter to Deck as he swept past him and in the front door of the office.
“Should we go in too?” Buck asked.
Decker shook his head. “Give him a minute.” He turned to us. “Each one of you owes me a dollar.”
My eyes scrunched. “Not that I care about the amount, but why?”
“Hammer is representing you and the rest of your siblings. I fronted the cash. You can settle up with me later.”
“We’re going to head to the park,” TJ said when she and Juni walked over to the vehicle they’d arrived in.
“I’ll let you know when we’re finished,” Buck said, approaching to kiss her and the baby.
I did the same with Juni. “Have fun,” I said.
“You too.” She winked.
Last night, we’d talked about how I’d approach the conversation with Buck. I decided he needed to learn about Joe Wilkins Sr. without an audience. I hoped that, once we were done with Six-pack, Buck and I could get some time on our own. How and when he decided to tell our siblings would be up to him.
Hammer came storming out of the front door, looking angrier than he had going in. “The meeting has been postponed by an hour.”
Buck, the one who most often spoke up, didn’t.
“I’m, um…” I was about to say my time was limited, but there wasn’t a person among us who didn’t know that.
“Let’s go,” said Hammer. “Deck, you with me.”
“Hold up. What the fuck is going on?” Buck finally asked. If he hadn’t, I would’ve. Porter looked like he was a million miles away while Holt and Flynn appeared shell-shocked.
“I’ll explain everything once we’re at the hotel. Well, at least as much as I know,” he added when Decker raised a brow.
I followed Hammer’s vehicle, periodically glancing over at Buck, who sat in the front passenger seat. When I did, I couldn’t get the image of Joe Wilkins Sr. out of my head. It was crazy how much he looked like the guy. Not that anyone would’ve known it until they saw a photo of him when he was younger .
I still had no idea how my brother would react when he learned Roscoe most likely wasn’t his father. At least biologically. Not that it would change what he’d gone through as a kid. I wondered if he’d blame our mom. I hated to think he would.
After we climbed out of the vehicle, Hammer led us and Decker into a suite where he told us to take a seat. There were bottles of water already on the table in front of us, so I passed them out to everyone.
“You wanna start, or do you want me to?” Hammer asked Decker.
“I will.” The attorney handed him an envelope from which he pulled several documents. “This is the first time any of us, with the exception of Hammer, will see the Roaring Fork Trust in its entirety.”
“And I only did about twenty minutes ago,” the lawyer clarified.
“What was missing in the previous copies were the introduction as well as the final two pages.”
“Does this say who the trustee is?” I asked, immediately turning to the last pages of what was stapled together.
“It does not. However, it gives insight into why we haven’t been able to find out,” Decker responded .
“The two most important pieces of information contained in what you’re looking at is that the trust is not your father’s.”
I raised my head, as did all of my siblings with the exception of one—Porter. If anything, he looked like he wanted to slide under the table and disappear into a black hole.
“What’s the second thing?” Buck asked.
“The trust was filed in New Mexico, one of only three states where what’s called a ‘ghost trust’ is legal. Essentially, what that means is it was written and filed in such a way that the identity of the trustee or trustees is protected,” Hammer explained.
“Back to this not being our father’s trust,” I said. “I don’t understand.”
“Your father’s death was the trigger that set the trust in motion. Otherwise, nothing I can find indicates he was even aware of it,” said Hammer.
“But his will…” I began, trying to recall what Six-pack had read to us. The one thing that stuck in my mind was that it had been drafted twelve years ago. I turned to the first page of the document I now held in my hand. It was dated twenty-one years ago, which was two years before our mother died .
“Your father had no assets of his own to distribute to any of you. Everything you might’ve believed was his was property of the trust.”
My eyes met Buck’s. He had to be piecing together the same thing I was. The trust was our mother’s, and someone was carrying out wishes that appeared to come from beyond her grave.
“Could Cena Covert have been the trustee?” I asked.
“She might’ve been at one time,” answered Deck. “However, according to Langley, the reason he asked everyone but Cord to meet at his office this afternoon is because another codicil was delivered.”
That meant Cena may have had something to do with my being summoned to the Lilacs, but depending on what this new document contained, it seemed unlikely she could’ve orchestrated it as well.
“The LLC is in good standing and in compliance with all the requirements set forth by the State of New Mexico,” Hammer reported.
I glanced around the table, stopping when I got to Porter. I’d bet my share of the inheritance that he already knew some of what the rest of us were just now learning. I had nothing to back my belief other than the feeling in my gut .
“You mentioned getting Six-pack disbarred,” said Buck. “Is any of how he handled this grounds for it?”
Hammer took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No.”
Buck looked down at the table where his hands rested on the edge. “So all this time, I thought it was the old man trying to stick it to us like he always did. Instead, it was our mother.”
Our mother. The trust was created two years before she died. Two years.
I closed my eyes and covered my ears when the blood rushing through my system caused so much pressure in my head that I felt like I might have a stroke.
All I knew was I couldn’t allow myself to lose sight of what was happening around me. I lowered my hands. It was imperative I pay attention to every nuance, every deep breath or sigh, every furrowed brow, scrunched eyes, or down-turned mouth. It was what I’d always done, paid attention. My nerve endings were on high alert, my eyes—now open—were laser-focused, and my hearing so in tune that when a paperclip hit the table, I jolted.
“Cord? What’s wrong?” I heard someone ask from what sounded like far, far away. I couldn’t answer, though. My mind was racing too fast.
I raised my head, and my eyes met Buck’s. “Take it easy, little brother,” I heard him say, his words trailing off as though I was suddenly being transported back in time to when I was a kid no older than seven to Porter’s nine and Buck’s eleven.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory that played in my head like a movie reel. Buck and Porter had walked into the room just as I jumped between my dad and mother, taking the backhand intended for her. I couldn’t recall the pain of his strike, only rage.
Hitting me instead of her had stunned him long enough that, when I lunged, screaming and clawing at him, he was too slow to react. Before he could, Buck and Porter had pulled me off him and dragged me out of the room, leaving our mother alone with him.
“We need to get help!” Buck shouted at Porter and me. The two took off running, but I couldn’t. I froze, listening to the sound of fists hitting flesh.
The very next thing I heard, a gunshot, sent shock waves through my body. I raced into the house, knowing that if my father had killed my mom, he’d be the next to die.
Instead, I saw my mother standing on the other side of the room, holding a gun. My father was lying on the floor, blood seeping from his arm, and a man I didn’t recognize was crouched over him.
“Get the boy out of here!” he shouted.
“You can’t let him die,” my mother yelled at him.
“I know that. Now go !” he bellowed.
In the split second before my mother dropped the gun, lifted me into her arms, and carried me out of the room, my gaze met the man’s.
“Who was that?” I asked once we were in her bedroom with the door shut and locked.
“That’s not important, sweetheart.” She sat on the bed and drew me closer, her shaking hands grasping my upper arms. “Cord, I need you to listen to me.”
I nodded.
“What happened tonight…You can never tell anyone. Do you understand me?”
“Is he dead?” I asked.
She shook her head, but her eyes didn’t waiver from mine. “Your father is going to be fine. It was all an accident. No one needs to know about it. ”
My lips trembled, and my eyes filled with tears. “He was going to hit you.”
My mother cupped my cheek. “And you, my brave, sweet boy, tried to protect me. Now, I need you to protect me again. Can you do that? Can you keep what happened between us our secret?”
“We need to leave, Mama. He’s going to hurt you again.”
She shook her head a second time. “He won’t. Everything will be taken care of. I promise. I just need you to promise something to me.”
“Don’t tell.”
“That’s right, sweet Cordero. And one day, a long, long time from now, I pray when you learn about the decisions I made, you can understand why”—her voice got shaky—“and forgive me.”
When I opened my eyes, the first person I saw was Porter. He was seated at the same table I was, with his head hung.
My eyes met Buck’s, and his brow furrowed.
“Mom wanted me to forgive her.”
“For what?” Buck asked.
“For protecting you. ”
“For protecting me? When did she ever do that? Do you call what she’s doing now protecting us? It’s all a fucking game, Cord. Just like it’s always been. Face it, our parents—both of them—were fucked up until the day they died.” When he got up from the table and walked to the door, I stood too.
“Let him go,” said Decker.
I ignored him.
Once outside, I spotted him right away, headed into an outcropping of trees. “Hold up,” I hollered. He spun around, and when our eyes met, he stopped walking.
“Anyone else I would tell to fuck off,” he said when I got closer to him. “What I don’t get is you’re the only one, at least so far, who has a right to be as angry as I am.” He studied me when I didn’t say anything. “Except you’re not. You’re rambling some bullshit about Mom wanting you to forgive her.”
“Not just me. All of us.”
Buck weaved his fingers in his hair and bent at the waist, almost as though he was going to be sick. “This is fucking madness.” He straightened, and his fists clenched at his sides. “Did you know it was her all along? ”
“No. I found out the same way you did.”
“I don’t fucking get it, Cord.”
“There’s something I need to tell you that I think will help you understand.” I motioned to a picnic table in the shade under a tree. He followed me over and sat when I did.
“As you know, they arrested the kid who tried to kill me.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Yesterday, Decker and the East Aurora PD were able to get a confession from his accomplice.”
Buck’s eyes opened wide.
“It was his mother.”
I told him the same story Decker had told me, except this time, without the benefit of alcohol. With the exception of his eyes darting back and forth, Buck remained still.
“Mom was pregnant when she left East Aurora. Her brother was trying to force her to get an abortion.” There was no easy way for me to tell him the rest, so I pulled out my phone and swiped the screen. “We believe this man is your father, Buck, and until yesterday, he was completely unaware of your existence. ”
He studied the image, then stood and walked over to the tree. He leaned against it and lowered his head on his folded arms.
I couldn’t predict how he was feeling or what he was thinking. Most likely, he didn’t know himself.
When he pushed away from the tree and walked toward the hotel’s entrance, I followed.
We returned to the suite, but no one, including Buck or me, said a word when we retook our seats at the table.
“It’s time to head back,” said Hammer, looking between my brother and me. We all stood and left the suite, and still no one spoke.
The same was true when we arrived at Six-pack’s office.
“Cord,” he said, approaching me. “It’s good to see you here. I hope?—”
“Save it,” I snapped.
When he nodded and stood behind his chair, I felt like crap for cutting him off, but I was in no mood for small talk.
After a few seconds of silence, he cleared his throat and switched on the recording device that sat in the middle of the table. First, he said the names of each person in attendance and that the purpose of the meeting was for the official reading of an additional codicil to the Roaring Fork Trust.
“The third codicil reads as follows,” he began. “The Roaring Fork Trust further stipulates that Porter Hayes Wheaton must report within twenty-four hours to the Morris Ranch, located on Highway 47 in the town of Parlin, Gunnison County, Colorado, and reside on the property for a period of three-hundred and sixty-five consecutive days.” The lawyer reached into a large manila envelope and pulled a second smaller one from it, then slid it across the table. “You’ll find the remainder of your instructions in what I’ve just given you. You are forbidden to share its contents with anyone, including your attorney.”
Porter, unlike Buck or me, had no reaction beyond grabbing it from the table, pushing his chair back, standing, and leaving the room.
“My year isn’t up,” I said.
“It makes no difference,” Decker answered before Six-pack could. “There’s nothing in the trust or the documents themselves that states the codicils have to be assigned or completed consecutively.”
“Does the forty-eight-hour rule apply?” Holt asked .
“I can’t answer that,” Six-pack responded.
“What happens if he’s sentenced to prison?” I added.
“I can’t answer that either.”
“The assets will be liquidated and distributed according to the stipulations set forth in section four-b of the Roaring Fork Trust,” Hammer answered, reading from the document he’d snatched from in front of Six-pack.
“What else does it say?” I asked.
Hammer slammed the papers down on the table. “Not a fucking thing.”
I felt Buck’s eyes on me and looked in his direction. “Cord and I need to leave. Now .”
I stood and followed him out of the office.