Page 37 of Her Knotty Alphas

He perks up. "Cat? One of the step-sisters?"

"Yeah," I give a bitter laugh, rolling my eyes, "she ranted at me, convinced I had done something to tip the scales, never considering that maybe her own damn negligence caused her to be left out of the will."

"Do you still have it?" he asks, leaning forward.

I nod. "Yeah, unfortunately. I should have just deleted it."

"I'm glad you didn't." He makes another note on his legal pad. "Once we leave here, I'll give you my card and you can email it to me."

"Sure. So…now that you've heard my side of the story…?"

He runs a hand over his face. "It's clear from your side that Sylvie Pearson left you what she did because you were the only who…well, gave a shit, pardon my language. You were the only family member with her the last twelve years of her life, and it makes sense that she would want you to have what she left behind."

His words sound good, but his tone… "I sense a 'but' coming," I say quietly.

"But…" He looks down at the now-empty manila envelope. "Herman & Sons. They are absolutely ruthless. They're going to hone in on the fact that you didn't have a biological connectionto Sylvie and try to use that to rip apart our case. They're going to say that you plotted this from the beginning, and that the whole time, your plan was to get the woman's money."

"Since I wasnine?" My mouth drops open, and Brody gives a resigned sigh.

"It's ridiculous. But it's what they're going to do. So whatweneed to do is strengthen our case until it's indestructible. We need it all. Every picture, every voicemail, email, text, sticky note, anything that shows what a strong and loving connection the two of you had." My mouth goes dry, and I hold back tears, thinking of the voicemail I keep on my phone. My last voicemail before she passed. The thought of sharing that with anyone, it makes me feel protective. Territorial. Why should they get to witness that precious memory?

Regardless, I feel myself nodding.

"And on the same point," Brody continues, "we need evidenceagainstyour stepsisters. Anything that shows how little they cared and what they really thought of her. Show that there's no way Sylvie would have left them more than a dollar."

"Like the voicemail she left me," I say dryly.

"Exactly."

After promising to send Brody everything I have over the next week, we part ways, and I feel a little lighter. At least we have a game plan.

The feeling is short-lived, however, when my phone rings. Huffing a breath through my nose as I walk to my car, I answer the phone when the caller ID reads "Mom". But hey, maybe Kieran talked them into putting my step-sisters on a leash.

"Hey, mom." I pull the door open to my car and slide inside.

"Hannah, it's both Paul and I here."

"Oh. Hi, Paul." Gods, could I bemoreawkward? "What's up?"

"Kieran called us about the girls and Sylvie's estate." Paul says, matter-of-factly, not hinting one way or the other how he feels about it.

Surely…surely they'll think it's ridiculous, right? But nobody sounds mad. No righteous anger on my behalf. Just…facts.

"Yeah, I just met with a lawyer about it, actually." How they react to that will tell me exactly how they feel.

"What?" Mom asks sharply. "Hannah, why would you do that?"

"Because…they're suing me?" I'm dumbstruck. They can't have just expected me to not fight back, could they?

"Listen, we tried not to get involved—" Mom starts, but Paul cuts her off.

"But this is ridiculous. How are we going to look as a family, taking each other to court?"

"Then maybe you should be speaking to the three daughters who literally took this to court." I seethe, my hands tightening on the wheel.

"Well, you don't really needallof it, do you?" Mom snaps. "I may not agree with how your step-sisters are going about it, but they deservesomething—"

"Do they?" I ask incredulously. "Forget about the fact that I'm the one who was with Nana the last twelve years. Forget about the fact that none of them showed up for her memorial service. Forget about the damn fact that I'm the only one who's given a shit about Nana since I was nine years old—she left it tome. She didn't forget about them. Shewanted me to have it.Are you really going to disregard her last wish?"

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