From The Forever Rule #2
“We had a deal,” my mother continued, as it seemed that the rest of us were just now catching on. “You would keep your family away from mine. We would share Loren, but I got the name, I got the family. You got whatever else. But now it looks like Loren decided to be an asshole again.”
“What are you talking about?” the shrewd sister asked as she came forward, her hands fisted at her side.
“Excuse me,” I said, clearing my throat. I was going to be damned if I let anyone else handle this meeting. I was The Cage now. “Will someone please explain?”
“Well, I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to work out,” Mr. Winstone began, and we all quieted, while I wanted to strangle the man. What did he mean how the hell this would work out? What was this?
This seemed like a big fucking mistake.
“Loren Cage had certain provisions in his will for both of his families. And one of the many requirements that I will go over today is that this meeting must take place.” He paused and I hoped it wasn’t for effect, because I was going to throttle him if it was.
“Loren Cage had two families. Seven sons with his wife Melanie, and four daughters and a son with his mistress, Constance.”
“We went by partner,” the other mother corrected.
I blinked, counting the adults in the room. “Twelve?” I asked, my voice slightly high-pitched.
“Busy fucking man,” Dorian whispered.
Hudson snorted, while we just stood and stared at each other.
This could not be happening. A secret family? No, we were not that cliché.
“I can’t do this,” Phoebe blurted, her eyes wide.
“Oh, stop overreacting,” my mother scorned.
“Do not talk to my daughter that way.” The other mother glared.
“It was always going to be an issue,” Mother continued. “All the secrets and the lies. And now the kids will have to deal with it. Because God forbid Loren ever deal with anything other than his own dick.”
“That’s enough,” I snapped.
“Don’t you dare talk to us like that,” the shrewd sister snapped right back.
“I will talk however I damn well please. I am going to need to know exactly how this happened,” I shouted over everyone else’s words.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Phoebe run through the door. Ford followed and then the tall willowy one joined.
“Shit,” I snapped.
“Language,” Mother bit out.
I laughed. “Really? You are going to talk to me about language.”
I looked over at James, who shrugged, before he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled that high-pitched whistle that only he could do.
Everyone froze as Theo rubbed his ear and glared at me.
“Winstone,” I said through gritted teeth. “I take it we all have to be here in order for this to happen?”
He cleared his throat. “At least a majority. But you all had to at least step into the room.”
“Excuse me then,” I said.
“You’re just going to leave? Just like that?” my mother asked.
I whirled on her. “I’m going to go see if my apparent family is okay. Then I’m going to come back and we’re going to get answers. Because there is no way that I’m going to leave here without them.”
I stormed out the door, and thankfully nobody followed me.
Of course, though, I shouldn’t have been too swift with that, as the woman who had to be the eldest sister practically ran to my side, her heels tapping against the marble.
“I’m coming with you.”
“That’s just fine.” I paused, knowing that I wasn’t angry at these people. No, my father and apparently our mothers were the ones that had to deal with this. I looked over at the woman who Mr. Winstone and the mothers had claimed was my sister and cleared my throat.
“I’m Aston.”
“Is this really the time for introductions?” she asked.
“I’m about to go see your sister and my brother to make sure that they’re fine, so sure. I would like to know the name of the woman that is running next to me right now.”
“I’m running, you’re walking quickly because you have such long legs.”
I snorted, surprised I could even do that.
“I’m Isabella,” she replied after a moment.
“I would say nice to meet you Isabella…” I let my voice trail off.
She let out a sharp laugh before shaking her head. “I’m going to need a moment to wrap my head around this, but not now.”
“Same.”
We stormed out of the building, and I lagged behind since Ford was standing in front of Phoebe who was in the arms of another man with dark hair and everybody seemed to be talking all at once.
“I just. I can’t deal with this right now,” Phoebe said, and I realized that something else must have been going on with her right then. She looked tired, and far more emotional than the rest of us.
I looked over at the man holding her and blinked. “Kane?” I asked.
Kane stared at me and let out a breath. “Wow,” he said with a laugh.
“We’ll handle it,” Isabella put in, completely ignoring us. “And if we need to meet again later, we will.” Then she looked over at Ford and I, with such menace in her gaze, I nearly took a step back. “Is that a problem?”
I raised my chin, glaring right back at her. “Not at all. However I want answers, so I’d rather not have the meeting canceled right now. But I’m also not going to force any of my,” I paused, realization hitting far too hard, “family to stay if they don’t want to.”
And with that, I turned on my heel and went back into the building, with Isabella and Ford following me. Everyone was still yelling in the interim, and I cleared my throat. As Isabella had done it at the same time, everyone paused to look at me.
“Read the damn will. Because we need answers,” I ordered Winstone, and he shook like a leaf before nodding.
“Okay. We can do that.” He cleared his throat, then he began going over trusts and incomes and buildings and things that I would care about soon, but what I wanted to know was what the hell our father had been thinking about.
“Here’s the tricky part,” Winstone began, as we all leaned forward, eager to hear what the hell he had to say.
“The family money, not of the business, not of each of your inheritance from other family members, but the bulk of Loren Cage’s assets will be split between all twelve kids.”
“Are you kidding me?” Isabella asked. “What money? We weren’t exactly poor, but we were solidly middle class.”
“We did just fine,” the other mother pleaded.
My mother snorted, clearly not believing the words.
I glared at the woman who raised me, willing her to say anything. She would probably be pushed out of the window at that point. Not by me, by someone else, but she probably would’ve earned it.
The lawyer continued. “However to retain the majority of current assets and to keep Cage Lake and all of its subsidiaries you will have to meet as a family once a month for three years. If this does not happen, Cage Enterprises will be broken into multiple parts and sold.” He went on into the legalese that I ignored as I tried to hear over the blood pounding in my ears.
“You own a town?” the other man asked.
I looked over at the one man in the room I didn’t know the name of. “Not exactly.”
“Kyler,” Isabella whispered.
In that moment, I realized that I had a brother named Kyler—if this was all to be believed.
“This can’t be legal right?” the tall willowy person said.
“Yes Sophia, it can,” their mother put in.
Oh good, another sister named Sophia.
Only one name to go. What the hell was wrong with me?
I forced my jaw to relax. “Are you telling us that we need to have all twelve of us at dinner once a month for three years in order to keep what is rightly inherited to us? To keep people in business and keep their jobs?”