From The Forever Rule #3
“We don’t need the money, but everyone else in our employ does,” James snapped. “As do those we work with.”
“Damn straight,” Dorian growled.
“How are we supposed to believe this?” I asked, asking the obvious question.
“First, only five must attend, and two must be of a different family.” The lawyer continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Of course you are all family…”
“Again, how are we supposed to believe this?” I asked.
“Here are the DNA tests already done.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Isabella asked.
I looked at her, as she had literally taken the words out of my mouth.
“Isn’t that sort of like a violation?” Kyler asked, his face pale.
“We need to get our own lawyers on this,” James whispered.
I nodded tightly, knowing we had much more to say on this.
“There’s no way this is legal,” the youngest said, and I looked over at her.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Emily. Emily Cage Dixon,” she said softly, and we all froze.
“Your middle name is Cage?” I asked, biting out the words.
“All of our middle names are Cage,” Sophia said, shaking her head. “I hated it but Dad wanted to be cute because our father’s name was Cage Dixon, or maybe it wasn’t. Is he also a bigamist?” she asked.
Her mother lifted her chin. “We never married. And no, your father’s name was not Dixon, that was my maiden name.”
“What?” Sophia asked. “All this time…are our grandparents even dead?”
“Yes, my parents are dead. The same with Loren’s.” The other mother’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry we lied.”
“We’ll get to that later,” Isabella put in, and I was grateful.
I let out a breath. “In order to keep our assets, in order to keep the family name intact, we need to have dinner. For three years.”
The small lawyer nodded, his glasses falling down his nose. “At least five of you. And it can start three months after the funeral, which we can plan after this.”
“This is ridiculous,” Hudson murmured under his breath, before he got up and walked out.
I watched him go, knowing he had his own demons, and tried to understand what the hell was going on. “Why did he do this?” I asked, more to myself than anyone else.
“I never really knew the man, but apparently none of us did,” Isabella said, staring off into the distance.
“Leave the paperwork and go,” I ordered Winstone, and he didn’t even mutter a peep.
Instead, he practically ran out of the room.
James and Flynn immediately went to the paperwork, and I knew they were scouring it.
But from the way that their jaws tightened, I had a feeling that my father had found a way to make this legal.
Because we would always have a choice to lose everything. That was the man.
“It’s true,” my mother put in. “You all share the same father. That was the deal when we got married, and when he decided to bring this other woman into our lives.”
“I’m pretty sure you were the other woman,” the other mom said.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Stop. All of you.” I stared at the group and realized that I was probably the eldest Cage here, other than the moms. I would deal with this. We didn’t have a choice. “Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it.”
“You’re in charge now?” Isabella asked, but Sophia shushed her.
I was grateful for that, because I had a feeling Isabella and I were going to butt heads more often than not.
I shrugged, trying to act as if my world hadn’t been rocked. “I would say welcome to the Cages, because DNA evidence seems to point that way, however perhaps you were already one of us all along.”
Kyler muttered something under his breath I couldn’t hear before speaking up. “You have my eyes,” he said.
I nodded. “Noticed that too.”
The other man tilted his head. “So what, we do dinners and we make nice?”
I sighed. “We don’t have to be adversaries.”
“You say that as if you’re the one in charge,” Isabella said again.
“Because he is,” Theo said, and they all stared at him.
I tried to tamp down the pride swelling at those words—along with the overwhelming pressure.
Theo continued. “He’s the eldest. He’s the one that takes care of us. And he’s the CEO of Cage Enterprises. He’s going to be the one that deals with the paperwork fallout.”
“Because family is just paperwork?” Emily asked, her voice lost.
I shook my head. “No, family is insane, and apparently, it’s been secret all along. And it looks like we have a few introductions to make, and a few tests to redo. But if it turns out it’s true, we’re Cages, and we don’t back down.”
“And what does that mean?” Isabella asked, her tone far too careful.
Theo was the one who finally answered. “It means we’re going to have to figure shit out.”
And for just an instant, the thought of that beautiful woman with that gorgeous smile came to mind, and I pushed those thoughts away. My family was breaking, or perhaps breaking open. And I didn’t have time to worry about things like a woman who had made me smile.
The Cages needed me and after today’s meeting there would be no going back to sanity.
Ever.
In the mood to read another family saga? Meet the Cage Family in The Forever Rule!