Page 13 of Most Eligible Billionaire

The lawyer has moved on to real estate parcels. I pull out my phone and check Twitter.

That takes forever, of course, and then we move onto thelisting of unoriginal corporate namesportion of the reading. It seems the Locke empire stretches far beyond Locke Worldwide. There is Locke Companies, Inc., Locke Holdings, Locke Capital Group, Locke Asset Management, Locke Architectural Services, and more.

I’m in the middle of an important operation that involves me retweeting a meme of a raccoon in a ballerina skirt when the listing of unoriginal names concludes with, “To Smuckers, whose intentions and decisions in all matters will be interpreted by Victoria Nelson.”

I look up to find a dozen threatening glares. Except Henry. A man like Henry doesn’t need to expend energy on things like a threatening glare. He just flicks his fingers and you’re destroyed.

The lawyer is continuing. Something about a term of Smuckers’s natural life or ten years, whichever comes first, and then something something something stipulate something.

“Um, could you repeat the whole Smuckers part?” I ask.

“This is ridiculous.” Henry stands. “I contest this. All of it.”

The lawyer holds up his hand. “Henry.” He says it in a calming tone, a warning tone. “Please recall that any challenge to the will nullifies the real estate and holdings provisions. Upon any legal challenge…”

“She can’t do this,” a woman says.

I stand. “Please, can somebody explain…”

“Come off it,” an older man says. “You know exactly what happened.”

After my dad died, one of Mom’s less scummy boyfriends took us to Cocoa Beach one spring, and at night we’d shine lights into holes in the sand and little crabs would pop out and scurry away. I feel the way those crabs must have felt, suffering the glares on every inch of my skin, wanting to scurry away.

But I know not to obey that instinct. It just makes things worse. You have to stand up for yourself, or at least try.

“Can I just get that last part repeated? Whatever came before theTo Smuckers?”

“You don’t know?” Henry asks, all steely calm. “Are you sure you didn’t help Bernadette write the will herself?”

I’m getting a queasy sense of déjà vu. “I would never. I didn’t even know she was, you know…” I gesture at the chandelier. My protest is met with stares of derision.

The younger, less hot Henry gets in on the action. “Maybe Smuckers helped write it. Did Smuckers dictate the will?” He givesdictateair quotes.

Sweat trickles down my back. “Look, when she asked me to care for Smuckers, she told me she’d defray the costs of his special salon and vet. So if she left something for that…”

Henry’s eyes twinkle coolly. “I’d imagine control of a multibillion-dollar conglomerate would defray a few costs.”

I frown, unsure if this is a joke or what.

“People go to jail for this kind of thing,” Henry’s young relative says.

“Let’s dial it back, Brett,” the lawyer says.

“Why should I dial it back?” Brett barks. “I’m not dialing back shit!” Brett wants to dial it up. Brett will be dialing it up to eleven, thank you very much.

“This was...supposed to be about vet bills and things,” I say. And ultrapuff blowouts at the Sassy Snout salon and Baby Poochems Perfect Pawz free-range rabbit meat for dogs.

But I don’t see those specific details improving anybody’s mood at this point.

Henry watches my eyes. “You’re trying to steal the company my grandfather founded. How about not insulting our intelligence on top of that?”

One of the Locke women grabs the lawyer’s arm. “A dog can’t control fifty-one percent of an international conglomerate, can he?”

Fifty-one percent?A chill goes over me as the reality of what’s happening sinks in. Bernadette left a lot more than vet and dog food money.

“With Ms. Nelson acting as regent?” the lawyer says. “Yes, then it’s no different than awarding control to an infant with a guardian acting in that infant’s best interests.”

Control of a corporation?

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