Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I would like to see you in less clothes as well,” he whispered in my ear. “What do you say we skip this, go upstairs, order room service, and you strip down for me so I can give you all the attention you deserve.”
It was the best offer I would ever get, I had no doubt, but he’d made the decision to come to this wedding before knowing me, and I didn’t want him to have any regrets. I had the idea already that his father’s side of the family were not people he saw on a regular basis.
“I would love that, but you came to this thing to interact with these people, did you not?”
He groaned.
“Finish the story.”
Deep sigh as he put his phone away, and then he draped his arm around my neck, clearly liking the closeness. “Well, right after I was cast in Queen Mab—did you see that one?”
I scowled at him. “I’ve seen them all.”
His smile was wicked. “Big fan, are you?”
“Just get back to the story, will ya, please?”
“Fine,” he huffed out. “Right after that movie, my father asked me to be executor of the family funds, trust, whatever, as he was stepping down as both CEO and chairman of the board and wasn’t going to be around to divvy up the cash anymore.”
“Why?”
“Why was he stepping down, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“He was tired of it. He wanted to sail around the world with his new wife, Terese.”
“New?”
“Yes.”
“How many has he had?”
He thought a moment. “Terese was his seventh and last.”
“Wow.”
“Wow is right. She’s also younger than me.”
“You’re only thirty-six.”
“Yep.”
“Holy crap.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Listen, I didn’t care, but his ex-wives and their children certainly did.”
“She was in his will too, I’m guessing?”
“Oh yes. Another slice of the pie. No one was happy.”
“Okay, so for the million-dollar question, why you? Why did he want you to be executor?”
“I asked him the same when he put me in charge, and he said it’s because I wasn’t attached to the money.”
“Which makes sense if you think about it. You have your own, you don’t need his, and you didn’t grow up with a silver spoon.”
“I have a theory that he also did it to piss them all off. He wasn’t close to any of his sons or daughters. He thought they were all jackals.”
“Are they?”
He shrugged. “I can’t say, and more importantly, I don’t care. All I know is that in the beginning, I had to deal with all of them for a couple of years before he died.”
“Again, I’m sorry he passed.”
“It’s fine. I went to the funeral, and before the man was even in the ground, they were all circling, wanting to know what they would get.”
“Was he still married to Terese when he died?”
“He was, but she was smart enough to know that she was getting her portion and that was all, and to ask for anything more was an exercise in futility. She had no interest in fighting; she just wanted her piece.”
“She didn’t love him?”
“I think she liked him more than some of his other wives, and they were friends and laughed a lot. Companionship was what he was looking for by then, and she is a stunningly beautiful woman. He hit the jackpot marrying her.”
“Good.”
“She has her own makeup line now, and it’s doing really well. She remarried a duke or something, and they live in Paris with their three kids.”
“Good for her.”
He nodded.
“What happened after your father died?”
“The first thing I did was move my father’s account from being taken care of internally, by his company’s attorneys, and hired an outside firm.”
“So finally, you were insulated.”
“That’s right. There are lawyers and accountants, and only when something comes up, like Hunter wanting to borrow against his youngest son’s trust fund—which can only be used for college when he turns eighteen, or will be turned over to him when he’s twenty-two—then and only then does that question come to me.”
“Then the head lawyer gives you a call, and you say yes or no.”
“Correct.”
“And the firm gets paid by the trust as well, as do you as executor, so really, it’s a machine that spins along, completely self-sustaining.”
“It’s been great since I hired the firm. They’re in Chicago, actually. Jenner, Knox, and Pembroke. Rick Jenner is a managing partner there and takes care of my account.”
“Managing partner, so he must be good.”
“Ever since I signed the contract with him, my siblings no longer call me. They also don’t have my number anymore, but still.”
“New trusts must get made all the time with people having kids.”
“Yes. And some get paid out. In fact, that’s the gift Bitsy is getting, along with me paying for her wedding. Since she’s now turned twenty-two, she will receive access to her trust fund, which her father, Charles, my father’s second-born son, wanted to break, back when she was in high school. He also wanted access to it when she decided not to go to college but become an influencer instead.”