Revenge: A Bad Boy Romance (28 page)

“We don’t have to pay for this meeting, do we?” I asked Denton as we walked into a modern office building in New York City.  

“Don’t worry you can afford it,” he replied. “You’re rich now, remember.”  

“I’m not rich,” I insisted.  

“I’m just looking forward to all the expensive dinners you’re going to buy me.”

Denton had been teasing me about my incoming ‘fortune’ all day. I kept trying to tell him that distant relatives didn’t leave large amounts of money to people they don’t know unless you’re watching a television show.  

Any money or trinkets I had been left would be consumed by legal fees judging by the look of this place.

“How much do you reckon they charge?” I asked.  

“Some of them likely charge over $1,000 an hour. Depends what level of attorney we see I suppose. Hopefully we’re just meeting with an associate.”

I introduced myself to the receptionist and told her that we were here for a meeting, but that we didn’t know who it was with.

“Let me see,” he said, as he typed my name into the computer. “Ah yes, you’re here to see Mr. Foster Arrington.”

“Arrington, as in a named partner?” Denton asked.  

“Yes,” the receptionist replied. “That’s the one.”

“Great,” I muttered under my breath. “Hope McDonald’s is okay for those dinners I’m going to buy you.”

We followed the directions and ended up in a large conference room, the walls of which were made entirely of glass.

“I wonder where they spend all the money from their large bills?” Denton asked sarcastically.  

“I know, it’s a mystery isn’t it?”

I people-watched for a bit as busy--and stressed--looking attorneys wandered up and down the halls. Finally a man and a woman walked towards the door and stepped inside. They didn’t look like lawyers. They were smiling.

“Ms. Norton?” the man asked.  

“Yes,” I replied. “Call me Chloe.”

He looked far too young to be a named partner of the firm. He also looked too attractive to be a lawyer. Denton had noticed it too. He sat up straight and tensed his muscles, as if warning the lawyer away from me.

“Down, boy,” I whispered to Denton, but he didn’t relax. It’s not like he needed to worry. The lawyer and the woman were clearly screwing. I could tell from a mile away.

“Hi Chloe. I’m Foster and this is April.” He looked at Denton, but neither of them made any effort to introduce themselves. Men.

“This is Denton,” I said. “My boyfriend.”

Denton reluctantly extended his hand and shook Foster’s. I shared a smile with April as we watched the men marking their territory.

“First of all,” Foster began, “to put your minds at rest, this is a
pro bono
project for my firm, and April is also assisting me free of charge, so there’s no cost to you for any of this work.”

“We can afford to pay,” Denton snarled.  

I slapped him on the arm. “No, we can’t.” I turned to Foster and thanked him.  

“What’s this meeting about?” Denton asked. “You’ve been rather cryptic so far.”

“Yes, sorry about that,” Foster said. “We’ve been trying to track you down for a while, Chloe, but the private investigator we hired got a little confused. Did you change your name recently?”

“Ah, yes. Well, that’s a long story, but I did operate under another name for a month or so. I met the investigator actually. She’s not all that subtle.”

Foster laughed. “Yeah, I know. She’s a friend, and she’s just getting started. She’s damn talented at computer hacking though. Not so much with tailing people, I guess.”

“Why were you looking for Chloe?” Denton asked.  

“This part of the conversation is a little delicate,” Foster said. “Please stop me if you need time to process what I’m saying.”  

“We’ve had a rough few weeks,” I said. “I doubt there’s much you could say that would cause me any problems right now.”

“Okay, I’ll get straight to the point. Your father was not the biological child of your grandparents.”

“Foster’s trying to say, your dad was adopted,” April clarified.  

“Oh,” I muttered. “That makes sense actually.”

“It does?” Foster asked.

“There was an issue with a kidney donation, but it doesn’t matter.”

“You okay?” Denton asked, taking hold of my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.  

I nodded. “My dad and my grandparents are all dead, so this is too late to affect my relationship with them. Not that it would have done so anyway.”

“Good,” Foster said. “I mean, it’s not good that they’re dead, obviously, I mean--”

“How about I do the talking?” April interrupted with a smile. “We were hired by your dad’s biological mother to track him down and make sure he got her assets. We spoke to your mom and apparently your dad left everything to you.”

“Yes, he’d had a fight with my mom when he wrote the will, so he left things to me just in case.”

“Okay, well with your father being deceased, that means everything will be left to you.”

“
Will
be?” Denton asked. “Does that mean…”

April nodded. “The lady in question--a Mrs. Doris Upton--is still alive and in relatively good health for her age.”  

“She’s a feisty one as well,” Foster added. “Still has an appetite for young men, judging by the way she looks at me.”

“Maybe she has cataracts,” Denton muttered.  

I slapped him on the arm, harder this time.  

“Doris would love to meet you,” April said, ignoring the two men. Or perhaps ‘boys’ would be a more apt description. “But you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You’re getting the stock certificates either way.”

“I… I don’t know,” I said. “It’ll be strange to meet a new grandparent at this point.”

“It’s none of my business,” April said, “but I recommend you meet her. She is a great person, and I know it would mean the world to her. She was devastated when we told her about her son’s death.”

“You don’t have to,” Denton said, as he gave my hand another squeeze. “It’s up to you.”

“I’ll go,” I said. “I can tell her about Dad.”

“This also means you’re a quarter English,” Foster said. “Or is it an eighth? Or half? I’m not really sure how these things work.”

“Explains why you always drink tea,” Denton said.  

“So, you’d like me to set up a meeting?” April asked. I nodded again, more vigorously this time. I did want to meet her, and she deserved to know about Dad. “You’d have to fly to D.C.”

“I guess we can afford that,” I said, not at all sure we could.  

“I wouldn’t worry about money too much if I were you,” Foster said. "Doris is prepared to advance some of the stock she holds so you can sell it and bring in loads of cash if you want."  

“What stock?” Denton asked. “How much are we talking here.”  

Foster scribbled something down on a piece of paper and slid it across to me.  

“Seventy-two thousand dollars,” I exclaimed when I read the note.

“No,” Foster said, shaking his head. I knew it was too good to be true. “Seventy-two thousand shares of stock. That stock is currently worth about two hundred dollars per share. So you’re sitting on a small fortune.”

“How?” I exclaimed. I was utterly lost for words. It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to work out the total; $14,400,000. That wasn’t a small fortune. It was a huge one.

“Turns out one of the men Doris was… acquainted with, had quite the crush on her,” April explained. “He was also rich. He made her a gift of stock in what was then a relatively new company. She forgot all about it until it came time to make her will.”

“Is she living comfortably?” I asked. “She should use some of this money for her own care.”

Foster nodded. “We convinced her to upgrade her accommodation a few levels. She’s now living in luxury, and has hand-picked a couple of male nurses to wait on her every need.”  

I couldn’t get my head around what was happening, but Denton was still just about with it. He took the details from Foster and April, and we agreed to keep in touch.  

I had a new grandmother.  

I was rich.  

I was in love.  

Not a bad day really.

“So you’re rich now?” I asked Chloe as we left the lawyers office.  

“I guess so,” she replied casually.

We held hands and walked around town with no particular destination in mind. The meeting with the lawyers seemed a distant memory even though it had only been ten minutes ago.  

The sun had come out in the short time we’d been in the office, but that only seemed appropriate given the mood we were both now in. I guess it was just going to be one of those days.

In all honesty, I didn’t know how I felt about Chloe’s new found wealth. I was delighted for her of course, and I couldn’t think of anyone more deserving than her. She’d use the money wisely and wouldn’t waste it. She’d probably do something boring like invest it. We were both very different people really.

Very different indeed.

I still loved her though.

That’s why I had mixed feelings about all this. Many women had professed their love for me in the past, but the vast majority of them were just obsessed about my wealth, looks, sexual prowess, or just my status as a powerful man.

I’d seen right through them.

What would Chloe think of me now if I told her I loved her? Would she assume I was just after her money and a comfortable life? Hopefully not, but there was no way to be sure.

“You want to get something to eat?” I asked.  

I wasn’t the slightest bit hungry, but we had to stop walking aimlessly at some point, and I could hear Chloe’s tummy rumbling.

“Sure,” she replied dreamily.  

I pulled back on her hand as we passed the best Italian restaurant in the city. I’d never been one to order pasta when there was pizza on the menu, but the freshly made pasta here was so good, I’d chose it over anything but sex. That was rarely on the menu though. Except that one time.

Hopefully that waitress didn’t still work here…

A few of the staff recognized me so they gave us the best table, although whether that was out of fear or respect, I had no idea.  

I’d been thinking about that a lot lately. Money could buy a lot of special treatment, but perhaps it was my reputation as a criminal that had people looking after me. Were they scared of me? It’s not like I’d have harmed an innocent business owner, but I couldn’t blame them for being worried.

“This place is expensive,” Chloe remarked as she scanned the menu.  

“I don’t care.”

“You should. You said you’re going to step down from your business operations. You should start saving money.”

“I know,” I agreed. “I don’t care because you’re paying.”  

“Oh.” Chloe laughed. “Yeah, I guess I can do that now.”  

“You’re rich,” I reminded her. “That’ll take some getting used to.”

“You don’t seem to happy about it. Everything okay?”  

“I have mixed feelings about it,” I admitted.

“I thought you’d be pleased. I have mixed feelings because I now have a new grandmother, but I’m guessing that’s not what’s bothering you.”

“I’m not exactly used to being the poor one in a relationship.”

“You’re not exactly used to being in relationships, period,” Chloe reminded me.