Chapter 7 #2
“My brother taught me to never sign anything without reading it first.” Since she occupies my favorite chair, I stand and read through the document.
Not finding anything concerning about it—just standard lawyer jargon about her representing me and how much it would cost me—I sign it.
“Here. My signature proves what a pushover I am.” It doesn’t matter who my lawyer is, because my brothers will continue to control me.
They probably came up with this plan so they won’t face any issues with trust funds and inheritances.
A grown woman would have fought for her rights. Bile rises in my throat at how pathetic I am at this moment, especially in her company.
Scarlett is thirty-three and has everything a woman could dream of. Being thirty myself while leading this pathetic existence…I hate the insecure and troubled woman I become in her company.
She reminds me of the things I lost and will never get back, so limiting my time with her is best. Hopefully, as my lawyer, I won’t have to see her much either.
She puts the thing into her briefcase as I go to my “tea heaven,” turning on the pot and grabbing a bottle of water.
I flick it open and take a huge sip, only to choke on it when she says, “Now we can go and sue your brothers.” She taps on her chin.
“Although I think they would settle outside the court.”
Coughing, I wipe my mouth, and repeat, “Sue them?”
“Of course.” She gets up to face me while I just blink at her. “Do you know your family inheritance history?”
“Yes. The oldest child gets everything. Usually, the oldest divides the inheritance between the siblings, though. Unless he doesn’t want to.”
“Correct. That’s what Rush did before both of your brothers grew their individual fortunes themselves. They are billionaires in their own rights, and both of them created trust funds for you that you could have accessed at the age of twenty-five unless your health prevented you from it.”
Closing the bottle, I grab the tea box and fish out a green mint one, dropping it into my purple mug as the pot finishes boiling the water.
“Yes. I don’t have access to the trust fund myself.
They just pay for everything.” Pouring hot water into the mug, I wonder if I sound ungrateful when I feel resentment about it.
They fully control my finances, and I can’t even buy a muffin without them knowing, and while yes, it’s their money and I haven’t earned a dime…shouldn’t I be allowed to at least make small purchases without supervision?
“Since they created these trust funds, they have a right to change the rules or how you access the money.”
“Okay. I’m still confused about why we would sue my brothers? And just for your information, I don’t want to sue them. Or anyone for that matter.” On this exhausting day, I prefer not to think about my complicated relationships and focus on the situation at hand. “Would you like some tea?”
She shakes her head. “I prefer coffee, but not at this hour. Back to the topic at hand. We’re going to sue them for unlawfully restricting your access to your inheritance.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your parents wrote in their will that if they have a girl, she gets thirty percent of the family fortune.” My jaw drops. “Which means Rush got only seventy percent and divided that between the three of you.”
“How do you know that?” A warmth spreads through my system at the thought of my parents, whom I don’t remember or know, yet they did their best to protect me even though I don’t need protection from my brothers. True parental love from the grave.
For a child who grew up as an orphan, it means the world.
“I have my ways. Legally, they can’t keep it from you.
In fact, they’re breaking the law by hiding the truth since you were supposed to get the fortune a long time ago.
So they will either comply with our request, and you’ll finally have access to your five-billion-dollar inheritance, or we take them to court.
” She chuckles. “And it won’t happen because just like me, your brother hates to lose, and he knows it’s a losing case. ”
Drinking my tea, I ignore the sting on my tongue from the hot liquid and go to the balcony door when another gust of wind whooshes over my skin, bringing it much-needed relief as thousands of thoughts rush through my mind, each more darker than the other.
My hand wraps around my mug tighter when I get out onto the terrace, inhaling the smell and welcoming the drizzle falling on the roof and tapping the roof tiles.
“Five billion dollars?” I finally whisper and turn around to look at Scarlett, who leans on the doorframe, her arms crossed, while her piercing eyes study me intently.
I would take offense, except that’s her usual stare.
Sometimes I think she expects an attack and prefers to be prepared at all times. “Who’s managing this money right now?”
Five billion dollars.
I can’t wrap my head around the amount. One might say I grew up in luxury my whole life, so I shouldn’t be this surprised, but it would be a lie.
I’ve spent eleven years in isolation, wearing flannel nightgowns most of the time and being locked in a room with only an old CD player.
And my life before my self-imposed imprisonment…
When our uncle took us in, he used our inheritance to his own advantage and never spent a dime on us unless he wanted to.
We never had pocket money or could buy ourselves anything without his permission.
And if you disagreed with his methods, it was either starvation or punishment that Rafael mostly got since I was so little.
Things only got worse once he kicked Rafael out, and culminated in a fight which scars I still bear on my skin.
Rubbing my cheek, I close my eyes, but my usual method doesn’t stop the flashback.
Not this time around.
My painful scream echoes through the house when Jade pushes me down the stairs, making me tumble over the harsh surface, and my head hits the marble, the pain akin to thousands of knives sinking into my scalp, spreading through me rapidly.
“You thought you could date?” he bellows, fisting my hair and forcing me to sit down as nausea hits me while I’m struggling to breathe.
“Choose Juaquine again! I saw you first!” He drags me toward the fireplace, pulling so hard at my hair that I think he might rip it out.
“You’re mine, and it’s time you finally learned that. ”
“Let go of me.” I try to wiggle in his hold despite the dizziness overtaking me because he mentioned my father’s name, which means he has lost his marbles again. It happened more frequently after my seventeenth birthday.
Sometimes I think he sees my mother in me and doesn’t even realize I’m my own person. That’s what I get for being her spitting image, sans the signature Wright eyes.
“Tonight you’ll learn.” He brings me toward the fireplace, where the logs are crackling, the orange and blue flames swallowing the wood rapidly, and the heat fans my skin, sending a shiver through every bone in my body.
“No one would love you the way I do.” He picks up the poker with his free hand and holds it over the locks. “I’ll prove it.”
“Rush does.” I rub my cheek one more time, the skin still prickling as if remembering the abuse done to it.
“He invested some of it into stock and real estate markets, so your money is working for you every year and brings a nice profit.” A beat passes.
“Rafael, in turn, checked all the legal stuff regarding the money, making sure you’ll never lose it and that all the investments are legit.
He drafted a prenup agreement as well in case you ever get married. ”
Yeah, sounds like my brothers are trying to protect me to the best of their abilities.
Yet they failed to protect me when it mattered the most.
“I don’t want to sue my brothers,” I repeat, and she sighs.
“Inheritance or not…they’re intelligent, educated, and experienced.
They know how to manage money, while I can’t wrap my head around the amount.
If they think I’m not ready, it means I’m not ready.
” I can’t fault them for that and ruin our new building relationship over this money.
Just imagining our confrontation triggers a panic that urges me to hide under a rock. It’s better to keep the status quo and avoid reopening old wounds.
Because once we do that…all the ugliness will come out and my darkness will rival theirs and they’ll think I’m crazy. This time, for real, and they will lock me up in some psychiatric ward, and I’ll never escape.
Keeping my mouth shut gives me some freedom.
Which sounds cowardly, but that’s who I am.
A coward.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Scarlett pushes off the doorframe and walks onto the balcony, pulling her jacket tighter around her dress when another gust of wind hits us and thunder shakes the sky.
The weather is still in a mood.
“Sure.”
“Have you ever managed your own money?”
“No. Which is also a good reason not to try to fight with my brothers.”
“Lavender, you’re thirty years old.” Ouch.
“You’re enrolled in university right now, you read all the time, and you assimilate well into society, plus you have sessions with Dr. King.
You have no diagnosis, or you don’t take any medications aside from some vitamins.
It’s been almost a year since you started living your normal life.
You don’t lack intelligence or education, and experience can be gained.
I’m not telling you to take the money and run.
You don’t have to do a thing with it. But you are an adult, and it’s time you finally took control of your life.
No matter how much someone loves you, if they have control over your money, you’ll never be truly free. ”
“Scarlett—”
She places her hand on my shoulder and pats it. “Think about it. I have a great financial adviser who can teach you things.”
“To my brothers, I’ll always be high risk. This will cause a fight.”
“Or your brothers might surprise you. Besides, sometimes you have to start a fight to live the life you want, because being comfortable for everyone else makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin.
For thirty years, someone else dictated your fate.
Maybe it's time to take the reins and see what happens. No matter how scary that is.”
“Thank you.”
She squeezes my shoulder and motions with her head toward the apartment. “I have to go now because I’m exhausted and starved. Give me a call once you've decided or whenever you want to talk. We can be friends once you get over your resentment toward me.”
My cheeks heat at the fact that she reads me so well, and I mutter, “Sorry.”
“It’s all right. I’m not perfect, and I have my own scars.
So we aren’t much different, even though it seems I have my shit together.
See you, pretty girl.” She kisses me on the cheek and, with a wave, disappears behind the curtains, her heels clicking loudly until she reaches the elevator, and by the way the thing dings, I know she’s gone.
The rain intensifies, and sipping some more of my tea, I walk farther out on the balcony until it falls on me, slowly soaking me up, while nature warns us about the upcoming storm…
One awakens inside me.
And this time around I don’t rein it in.
In fact, I let it spread chaos in my soul.
My life plays like a kaleidoscope in my mind, and I wonder if Scarlett is right.
Everyone who was supposed to protect me has failed me at some point.
Maybe I should see what happens when I’m the one who tries to protect myself.
At least if I fail…
I won’t have anyone else to blame, and that would be a nice change.
Levi
I light the cigarette in my mouth and take a greedy pull from it, watching Lavender standing under the rain, her delicate body on full display for me.
My hands itch to grab her, to sink my fingers into her flesh while fear and arousal fill her green eyes, tempting me with their existence alone.
My phone rings, and I pick it up, pressing the loudspeaker button and exhaling the smoke. “What are you doing?” The annoyed female voice promises a rather difficult conversation. That was to be expected.
The woman is a shark and leaves no crumbs once she tastes blood.
“Whatever do you mean, Miss Harrison?”
“Cut the crap, Levi. You’re the one who slipped the copy of Juaquine Wright’s will under my office door.”
Leaning my chair and taking yet another drag of my cigarette, I watch as Lavender laughs and twirls under the rain, her tea spilling all over her hand from the action. “What gave me away?”
“The way you stare at her. I know an obsessed man when I see one, and I’m warning you.”
“Oh, you are? Didn’t know you were a comedian, Scarlett.”
The woman has my respect for what she endured and for how she built a whole new life around her trauma, and watching her work is art to a lawyer student like me.
However, that’s about it.
“If you kidnap or blackmail her to do anything she doesn’t want to do, I’ll be putting your ass behind bars and setting the Wright twins loose on you. Lavender doesn’t need yet another man who takes away her choices.”
I exhale more smoke before tapping the cigarette in the ashtray. “Scarlett, if I were you, I’d appreciate my giving you information that helped your client. You need to learn a thing or two about gratitude.”
“Gratitude is earned when one does something selflessly, and you slipping that will was as selfish as it gets.”
“Yet you still used it to your advantage. You might hate the game, but you sure as fuck love to play it, Scarlett.”
“Look, Levi. Whatever you plan to do, make sure Lavender is on board. Otherwise, we’ll have problems.”
The idea of anyone wanting to protect my Lavender from me sweeps rage through me, and I clench my cigarette, ignoring the burning in my palm while my voice drops a few octaves.
“You do not tell me what to do when it comes to her, Scarlett. And besides…before digging your nose into someone else’s life, look closely into your own. ”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Camden.” My mouth curves into a smile at her sharp intake of breath.
Ah, yes. She might have run away from her childhood town a long time ago, but some ghosts hunt us even when they aren’t around.
“We all have skeletons in our past, Scarlett. Do not provoke me into summoning yours.” I hang up and focus on Lavender again. She sits on her outdoor couch, trembling a little as she removes her slippers and curls her toes into the floor, gazing into the distance.
If she were beside me, I’d have to punish her for being so careless with her health. However, I have to wait a little longer.
Soon she’ll be mine, and her life will belong to me.
And if anyone stands in my way?
They’ll have to be eliminated.