Page 82 of The Fallen Man
“We didn’t,” said Aiden. “Theo made us have like squirrel food or eggs.”
“I forgot about the squirrel food,” said Evan, with half a laugh.
“Is that the trail mix stuff he makes?” asked Jackson. “I swear he toasts that shit with brown sugar or something. Makes the whole house smell like the sugar fairies have blessed it.”
“Sadly, I asked him for the recipe and now make my own. The toasted almonds are such a good source of protein, and Max loves it.”
“Why is that sad?” asked Jackson looking puzzled.
“We always swore we were going to grow up and eat whatever we wanted,” said Evan. “Theo and his food pyramid!” Evan shook his fist in mock rage.
“How dare he try to keep us healthy,” said Aiden.
“Well, we’re here at least for lunch,” said Jackson. “Come on, we can go eat something ridiculous. There’s some fancy place a couple of blocks over that does a Monte Cristo sandwich with crème fraiche that makes me drool.”
“He speaks my language,” said Aiden. “Let’s go.”
“Whatever,” said Evan. “You’re going to eat some sort of lean protein and a salad.”
“I… might not,” said Aiden. “OK, probably I will. I have a fight in a couple of weeks. But I will enjoy watching you eat bad things.”
“You are the worst at being bad,” said Dominique shaking her head.
“Jacks, are they allowed to gang up on me?” demanded Aiden, glaring at his sister.
“Yes, but it’s OK. I have the car keys. We’ll just ditch them.”
“And that’s why you’re my favorite relative,” said Aiden.
“I believe his favorite rankings are based on bribes,” said Evan.
“Completely,” agreed Dominique, “but he forgets that Christmas is coming.”
“No,” said Aiden. “Youforget that Christmas is coming and this year… This year is going to be epic. I have plans.”
That made Dominique laugh again and Evan grinned. Their bad moods from the hearing were already dissipating. Before Jackson had arrived Aiden had never realized how much fun Christmas could be, but now it was by far his favorite family holiday.
Jackson’s phone finally pinged and Jackson took it out with a frown, as if he hadn’t been expecting anything.
“Well, son of a bitch,” said Jackson.
“What now?” asked Dominique. “Why do I feel like it’s bad news? It’s going to be bad news, isn’t it?” she asked turning to Aiden anxiously.
“No, actually it isn’t,” said Jacksons. “We’ve been haunting the New York Public Records site for weeks and it finally paid off.”
“Why?” asked Evan.
“Granger had a will. It might have been years out of date, but you don’t get to be a Fortune 500 CEO without some lawyer making you do one.”
“It’s a reasonable, adult thing to do,” said Aiden, feeling the sting ofsome lawyer. “You didn’t even have to do any work. All you had to do was tell me who you wanted to have stuff and then sign it.”
“He made me do it when I was still in college,” saidDominique, rolling her eyes.
“After I bought my apartment,” said Evan.
“It’s the responsible thing to do,” reiterated Aiden.
“I wasn’t actually complaining,” said Jackson. “Just saying that it’s something that lawyers make you do. My point was that we know the IRS has been going after his assets. We had been assuming that they were simply fighting his creditors for them, but if there’s a will then...”
