Page 142 of Rules to Love By

Marcus blinked at him. “She never told me that, either. I mean, I guess I knew about my father, sort of. And I assumed… about Mom. But no one ever really told me.”

“The adoption was settled only a few months after she died. I can only assume no other family members could be found.” He shuffled some papers. “There is an address here for your grandfather, Geoffrey Richards, and for Brittany and Anita Jarvais?”

“Brit and Annie.” Marcus gulped. “My sisters.”

“This says they were adopted by the Jarvais family, where they had been fostered, shortly after your aunt initiated her adoption of you.”

“Oh, thank God.” He sagged against the back of his chair. “They were so little.”

“So were you, Marcus.”

“Would the adoption agency or whoever know about my mother’s family?”

“They might. We can look into it.”

“Do you think she ever talked to my sisters? Aunt Iris, I mean?”

“It’s something else we can look into, if you want to try and contact them.”

“Why didn’t she ever tell me she knew where they were?”

“From what I can tell, most of this documentation happened after her first stroke. Maybe she wanted to be sure she had everything in place before she talked to you about it.”

“And then just ran out of time.”

Schiffer nodded. “The papers concerning your grandfather date back earlier, but given her estrangement from her family and the contentious situation with your uncle…”

Marcus grimaced. “Right. She didn’t want to go there. I get it.”

“As for her will, I have already initiated the search to find out if she ever filed one before this,” Schiffer held up a thick, folded bunch of pages. “but as this one is dated a week or so before her fatal stroke, I suspect it is the most recent, and perhaps she didn’t get the chance to file it.”

“If there is another, earlier one on file, which one—” Marcus waved a hand.

“Matters?” Tris asked for him.

Schiffer held up the folded pages again. “This one. Assuming it’s the most recent. I hazard that it most likely is.”

“Who’s the executor?” Eli asked.

“Marcus.”

Marcus glanced between them. “But I don’t…” He swallowed hard. “How do I do that?” Panic sent his insides tumbling, and his skin went clammy.

“Don’t panic,” Schiffer advised him. “While I’m not a wills-and-estate lawyer, our firm has a very good one, and she’ll walk you through everything. Your aunt had an excellent one helping her with this. She’s made her relatively complicated estate as straightforward to deal with as it could be.”

“How do I contact her?”

“If you’re in agreement, I’ll give her your information, and her assistant will set that up.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good.” Schiffer tapped the papers into a neat stack, setting them on top of the empty envelope. “In the meantime, might I suggest you go home. Get some rest, and try not to worry about this. I understand the diner is going to need some work to get it back up and running. Take some time to plan that, and think about what you ultimately want to do with it. There’s no rush, Mr. Richards.”

Marcus nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

He let Eli prod him out of his chair and towards the office door but stopped and turned back when he got there.

“Hey, Mr. Schiffer?”

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