Page 56 of Collin: Episodes 7-9
“Need this?” Damian held up a very familiar key.
“Well, that and someone to use it.”
Damian smirked, but he looked less than fully confident. “I’ve been deputized. Our boss is in a virtual court hearing in the videoconferencing room.”
“What?”
Damian shrugged. “It’s fine. Eleanor is in there with him, and they both know what they’re doing. Dana’s Reevesworth’s lawyers are trying to lock down Reevesworth Industries’ assets. They shouldn’t be able to. Eleanor and our team were all over this yesterday. So, am I an okay deputy?”
Collin flushed. “Yes, I accept your deputing.”
Damian flashed a grin. “Okay, kitten. Let’s take you to the litter box.”
Collin groaned and covered his face with one hand. “I’m so glad I shut the door!”
Collin ordered lunch to arrive at noon for the entire team of lawyers as well as Mr. Reevesworth, Ash, and himself. Damian went back to the conference call since he was on the team for the case. Collin checked on Carrie, who checked on him, having seen the news. He answered a concerned text from his sister, who had spoken to their mother, and then Mr. Reevesworth’s private investigator, Gerald Paulsen, arrived looking a little worn.
He’d already been up for a greater part of the night looking into the essential oils attacker. Collin escorted him to Ash’s domain and let the two of them talk. They started discussing chain of evidence, and Ash looked white around the eyes about that, but he sat up straight in his chair and actually said yes, sir and no, sir to the private investigator’s questions. Paulsen rubbed his face repeatedly and finally announced, “I’m calling in some colleagues on this one.”
Everyone was late for lunch. Collin served Mr. Reevesworth and the lawyers in the conference room, where there were enough seats for everyone.
“Sit, Collin.” Mr. Reevesworth pointed to the chair by his side.
Collin blushed and joined him. Under the table, Mr. Reevesworth rested his hand on Collin’s thigh and squeezed it gently.
Eleanor, a sharp-looking woman with blonde hair wrapped up in a bun on the back of her head, cracked open her glass water bottle and shot Mr. Reevesworth a reassuring look. “That went well, sir.”
“Thanks to you.” Mr. Reevesworth motioned to the entire team. “You had an answer for every question and questions they didn’t have answers to.”
There was a general chuckle from everyone in the room.
Eleanor drank and resealed her water bottle. “There’s still a chance for some asset control restrictions to be handed down but nothing like the full lockdown they were asking for. We were able to prove to the judge’s satisfaction that such a move would be injurious to both parties. Which makes them look suspicious or just stupid.”
“I’m afraid at this point they look more stupid than suspicious.” Damian spooned yogurt over his curry and rice. “What we need to know is who this Dana Reevesworth person is.”
Collin set a file on the table and pushed it toward Damian. “Mr. Paulsen said to give this to you. It’s everything he was able to find on her since the call yesterday. Someone with her name was registered as born in London nine years ago. Her birth certificate was updated last month with Barrett Reevesworth listed as her father.”
“My uncle died over twenty years ago.” Mr. Reevesworth leaned forward, snagging the file and opening it. “He couldn’t have fathered a child.”
Eleanor pressed her lips together. “These days, there are ways. This could potentially put us into an untested area of law.”
“What do you mean?”
“Either Dana Reevesworth is being propped up and is a fraud, or she’s actually a blood child of Barrett Reevesworth. If someone had stored viable sperm…”
“Then she’d be a direct descendant.” Mr. Reevesworth pressed his fingers against his forehead. “This would be a new area of the law.”
“Exactly.” Eleanor’s eyes were sharp. “Still unlikely to hold water in court since vacating inheritance more than a decade settled in favor of a person who didn’t exist before would make a lot of inheritance law unstable. For one, we would need to prove that Barrett Reevesworth consented to having his DNA used to father a child.”
“We don’t even know he had sperm donated.”
“It might not have been. It could have been taken.”
Collin swallowed. That was a whole new area of things to be scared about he would have much rather never considered. Part of him wanted to grip his dick through his pants. Luckily, he was locked up.
Would that be enough? Not likely. He smothered a nervous laugh.
“I’m sure you’ll all want to rip into this new information and what the judge said today,” Mr. Reevesworth said. He closed the folder and picked up his sandwich. “Let’s eat and then get back to work. Like I said before, we’re not going to let this case sidetrack everything else. Hire more associates if you need to, Eleanor, Damian, but let’s not drop any balls. I still think they’re aiming for distraction.”
