Page 14 of Most Eligible Billionaire

Brett gets in the lawyer’s face about his incompetence and disloyalty to the family, handing the company to a grifter.

Brett has unlocked full-blast freak-out mode—so much so that Henry has to pull Brett back and physically restrain him until he calms down. Another lawyer, the estate attorney, takes questions, too. They’re arguing about some point of Locke Worldwide bylaws. Everybody has the bylaws up on their phones.

I smooth my dress, the simple, demure dress designed to sayI’m innocent, I’m not the bad person you say I am. I really didn’t lie! Please believe me. Somebody. Anybody.

Needless to say, it’s not having the desired effect.

Carly is forever on a quest to get me to buy something colorful—pastels, jewel tones. Anything not gray or black or brown. I say I don’t want to, but the truth is, I can’t.

My court clothes from when I was sixteen are like the ridges of the Grand Canyon, violent gashes etched by infinite splashes of hatred and derision. It’s seven years later and the onslaught is long gone, but the clothes stay.

A room of angry people. How am I in this position again?

Henry has that dangerous sparkle again. “Explains why you wanted custody of the dog so badly.”

“I wanted custody because I gave my word to Bernadette, and Smuckers needed a nice home,” I say. “I really just expected money for fancy food and vet bills.”

Henry pulls out his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

“What? What did I do?”

“You defrauded a vulnerable individual,” he says. “You pretended you could read the dog’s thoughts.” He turns his attention back to the phone. “Harry Van Horn, please.” That last he says into the phone. Because men like this have friends in the police department.

Just like Denny Woodruff and his family upstate in Deerville. The Lockes might even know the Woodruffs, or travel in the same circles at least.

Frantically I review the reading in my mind. The endless list of companies. Fifty-one percent. Which suggests Smuckers either owns or controls all of them. Or both.

And I control Smuckers.

Henry pockets his phone.

I take a centering breath. “Look, you guys. I’m not here to take anybody to the cleaners. Honestly? I came here because it was Bernadette’s deepest wish that Smuckers maintain his same lifestyle after her death…”

“And that’s all you want? And you’re willing to sign a piece of paper to that effect?” Brett barks.

“Only Smuckers can designate a new heir,” the lawyer says.

“The police are on their way,” Henry says.

The police.Smuckers starts fussing in my arms. I loosen up on the death grip of distress.

“How about you have Smuckers designate a new heir, then?” Brett rakes his eyes up and down me. “Then again, you’d look okay in orange. Malcomb, what does the will say about Smuckers’s regent reading his mind from a jail cell?”

Everybody’s talking at me or about me. “Make her sign something…affidavit…criminal background check…” Only Henry is silent, apart from the crowd, just like in that toddler picture, but his glittering gaze speaks volumes.

I cling to Smuckers, feeling like it’s us against the world. Even Smuckers is upset, though I suspect that’s more about being surrounded by strangers who are clearly aware of him yet who mysteriously have all failed to rush over to pet him.

“Let’s all take a breath.” The main lawyer, Mr. Malcomb, is next to me now. “This is all getting a little close to duress for my comfort. A contract created under duress isn’t valid.”

Everyone looks at Henry.

“Iaman officer of the court, Henry,” Malcomb adds.

“Yeah, you’re an officer of the court who stood by while Mom was getting soaked by a scam artist,” Henry says. “That’s the problem I’m having here, Malcomb.”

“She was of sound mind, Henry,” Malcomb retorts. “It’s what she wanted.”

Malcomb and Henry go on to debate the concept of sound mind.

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