Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Footsteps sound and Isaac opens the glass doors and enters the room. “What is this?”
“Have a seat,” Nicholas orders.
Isaac looks as if he’s seen the grim reaper.
“Don’t look at him,” Nicholas snaps. “He’s not the one who matters in this room. I am.” He literally points at a chair. “Sit.”
Isaac inhales and tugs at the jacket of his blue suit, a tell-tale sign of nerves I learned about him years ago. He sits down. I speak. “We both know I’m the true heir to the corporation and the inheritance of my father. We all know you killed to keep that secret, but we’ve also agreed that jail is too good for you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Isaac bites out.
“I took a DNA test and thanks to the right people in the right place, took one from Dad before he was cremated this morning. The results will go to Nicholas. Why? Because I’ve not only signed over my stock to him, should you hurt me, Harper, her mother, or Gigi, I’ve signed over the fortune I’ll inherit from the estate as the true heir. Harper is keeping her trust. You may inherit under the false pretense of being the eldest son to the Kingston empire, knowing that test will prove you have no rights to any of the fortune.”
“You have to have my DNA to prove I’m not the heir, dipshit,” Isaac snaps, eyeing Harper. “You are nothing but a pain in my ass. You brought all of this on. You should have died in that warehouse back in Denver.”
“You hired the men who attacked her?” I demand.
Isaac fixes me in a hateful look. “Damn straight. You both should have gone down that night. I won’t go down now. I’m not giving up my DNA.”
“I do believe I can find a way to get that DNA from you, Isaac,” Nicholas interjects, speaking to his bodyguard in what I know to be Italian. The bodyguard smiles, giving a nod. Isaac pales.
“And about the rights to the fortune,” Nicholas states. “I own the rights because I own you now, Isaac the fake heir. I will always own you.” His lips quirk evilly. He’s enjoying this. I’m not. This is never where I wanted to land with Isaac. This is not how my mother wanted my story to end with the Kingstons, but it ends as nobly as it can, and in her honor.
Isaac actually looks a bit green now, like he might upchuck. His gaze rockets to mine. “You can’t do this. We need to talk.”
“He already did,” Nicholas says, holding up the envelope and then eyeing me. “Take your pretty lady out of here. Go collect her money and be gone.”
I stand and help Harper to her feet, my gaze landing on Isaac. “He’ll control you, and someone needs to,” I say before I lead Harper to the doors and out of the conference room. We exit the Kingston facility and I speak to Adam. “It’s done.” I shake his hand and then Harper and I start walking, the fingers of one of our hands locked until I open the passenger door of the Jaguar for her.
She rotates to face me. “I almost feel sorry for him.”
“Don’t. He killed people. He would have killed us. It’s done now.”
“It’s done,” she repeats, a sense of disbelief in her words.
I cup her face. “Now we begin our new life.”
Epilogue
Harper
Two months later…
Iexit the conference room in the Bennett corporate office with Dan Miller, the soon-to-retire head of Miller Enterprises, next to me, adrenaline coursing through me. The meeting was good, so very good. We pause in the hallway and shake hands, with him giving me a little wink as well. “You know how to make a grandpa happy there, ma’am. A second life after retirement. I’m excited.”
“As are we,” I assure him, thankful I’d bonded with him when he was supplying parts to Kingston in mass volume. “As are we.”
I hand him off to my assistant, Meika Reynolds, who looks about twelve and manages everything like she has a hundred years of experience. She’s amazing and a sweetheart to boot.
Once she and Dan depart, I dash toward Grayson’s office and his assistant is nowhere in sight, but I don’t even knock. I know the whole clan is inside waiting on me. I burst into the office and find Grayson, Mia, Davis, and Eric waiting on me. Eric is the one I’m focused on, though, and God, he’s gorgeous in a blue pin-striped suit, his blue eyes piercing as he anticipates my update. Everyone is staring at me and I explode with the news. “We did it!”
Clapping ensues and Eric and I rush toward each other, colliding in a huge hug. “You did it?” he confirms, kissing my neck and leaning back to look at me.