Page 7 of Heir

“My God, don’t even get me started on that daughter of hers. You might be a lot of things, Gemma, but I thank the Lord every day that at least you’re not running around town with those bikers.”

Mom shuddered and looked back out the window. She only said that because she didn’t know Blue had joined the King’s Men Motorcycle Club a little over two years ago. But then again, she never approved of my friendship with him and tried not to ask about Blue. As if she thought if she didn’t acknowledge him, then he would cease to exist.

I thought back to Ryleigh.

How could I have forgotten there was talk that Ryleigh Hudson was with the vice president of the notorious King’s Men MC?

I didn’t know Ryleigh very well. She was about four years younger than me, so we didn’t go to the same school. I had seen her several times growing up because our parents ran in the same circles, and from what I had gathered, she was nice.

A little shy, maybe.

And a part of me was envious of her.

Not because she was with the VP of the King’s Men. I had only seen Roman Stone in passing, and he was just as scary as everyone said he was. I shuddered to think about how such a sweet girl like Ryleigh was with such a… mean-looking man.

But I was envious of her freedom. The fact that she barely talked to her mom—I knew this because her mom and my mom sometimes talked—but also that she had found someone who she loved and who loved her.

I was starting to think that would never happen to me. Twenty-nine wasn’t old, but in our circles, it was ancient. And perhaps Mom’s words about marriage and babies were getting to me.

A certain blue-eyed boy came unbidden to my mind.

I shook my head. I should not be thinking about him. He didn’t even know I existed, and a part of me felt like a creep for thinking about him as often as I did.

I made the turn to Uncle Frank’s mansion.

All the lights were on, illuminating the grand garden in front of his house. This house was bigger than my family’s home.

Uncle Frank was a corporate lawyer for an up-and-coming tech firm.

They paid well, but most of the money he had was from his inheritance, which was split three ways between the brothers.

Uncle William had gambled most of his money away. That was why there was nothing left for us upon his death—had he put us in the will. But then again, why would he have put us in the will? Mom was delusional for thinking he would, and she was taking the no-money part hard.

Mom received Dad’s inheritance or what was left of it when he died. If Uncle William had a gambling problem, then Dad had a risk-taking problem. He poured a lot of his money into risky business and lost almost every dollar he’d put in. Mom had long ago used the little money Dad left her before I was even thirteen, and Uncle William had been supporting us since.

Uncle Frank was the only one who did something with his inheritance, putting it in long-term stocks, mostly in the tech industries, and was making double what he put in annually.

Aside from that, we didn’t know him well.

Uncle Frank was a recluse, and I could probably count on one hand how many times I had seen him around as I was growing up.

He didn’t have any kids, and he never married, something many people in my mom’s circles ridiculed him for behind his back. If he minded all the gossip, he never showed it.

Perhaps I should try to be more like him.

I didn’t know why he’d invited us to dinner tonight.

But here we were, coming over for dinner like we were one big happy family, while Mom and Kenton begged him for the same deal that was given to us from Uncle William.

What that deal entailed, I didn’t know.

I tried not to get involved if I could help it, but if putting on a fake smile ensured my mom would stop looking so run down, then I would do it.

For the first time since Uncle William’s funeral, she looked excited.

Our eyes met once more in the rearview mirror, and it must have been a trick of the light, but they seemed to glimmer with something that had my heart racing.

I was never good at figuring out people’s intentions, thoughts, or emotions just from looking at them, including my own mom, despite my familiarity with her.

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