Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
I believe Sylvie is best left under your care. You have the strength and fortitude to stand up to the Mardraggons. She comes with a large trust fund which includes controlling interest in the winery. My parents are going to fight you hard for her. Please stand strong. Raise her with the same love I gave her. Do right by our daughter.
If you don’t, I will come back to haunt you.
Sincerely,
Alaine Mardraggon
“Why in the hell would she keep that secret?” Wade muses.
Kat nods at the letter in her hand. “There’s a lot of money involved. The Mardraggons would automatically assume we’d try to make a play for it.”
“Because they’re assholes,” Trey mutters.
I don’t disagree. Look it up in any thesaurus and asshole is synonymous with Mardraggon. Even after the original feud that split the families apart, the Mardraggons took any opportunity they could to try to ruin the Blackburns. Throughout our entangled histories, if there was a chance to knock our family down, the Mardraggons were behind it. Of course, we aren’t without backbone and will use any opportunity we can to take that family down a peg or two.
Trey isn’t wrong. I can’t trust anything Alaine wrote in that letter. I’ll demand a paternity test and that will probably put all of this nonsense to rest. The more I think about it, the more I’m confident this is some ploy Alaine was putting into place to hurt my family.
Are they trying to drain money from us via legal fees? Dangle a cute kid and a trust fund in front of me to get my focus off the business?
Do the Mardraggons not understand our family wants for nothing? We’re beyond wealthy and we aren’t scheming backstabbers in maintaining that.
I won’t be fooled. I’ll go to that damn hearing on Monday, demand a paternity test and then when all of this is proven to be a sham, I’ll figure out a way to make them pay for dragging me into shit I don’t have time to deal with.
Moving to the love seat where Kat sits, I take the letter from her. My brothers and sister stare at me, their green eyes matching mine and handed down from our Irish mother, Fiona, and I stare right back.
None of them has to say a word. They all have my back, as would my other sister, Kat’s twin, Abby, if she were here. As it stands, she lives in Pennsylvania, the only Blackburn to not work at the farm. It’s fine though because she is pursuing her passion for veterinary medicine and comes home often to visit.
All the Blackburn kids not only have Fi’s Celtic green eyes but our father Tommy’s raven hair. It’s a striking combination, and no one in Shelby County would ever deny the Blackburn family is a beautiful one.
But that’s all surface stuff because what we really have is fortitude, grit, perseverance and an unrivaled work ethic. It’s how we’ve built our empire and it’s how we’ll maintain it for future generations.
“Let’s get back to work,” I say. “More important stuff to do today.”
Trey, Wade and Kat all rise, my brothers in jeans and barn boots and Kat in a pair of riding jods. A big chunk of her job is to train the show horses—although my brothers train as well—so she spends most of her days in the saddle. I might have the larger share of responsibility, but my siblings all work just as hard in smaller microcosms of the enterprise. I can do every one of their jobs plus a million others, and I get the added glory and burden of worrying about the successes or failures.
Trey claps me on the shoulder. “Got your back, bud.”
“Yeah… I know it. Thanks.”
Wade holds out his fist to bump. “It’ll be fine.”
“Of course it will.”
Kat hangs back and after Trey’s and Wade’s voices recede, she says, “Michelle DeLeon is interested in buying Lady Beatrice.”
For a moment, my mind is completely blank. The change in subject momentarily stumps me, but it only takes a second for it to connect. “The owners want two fifty but might consider something slightly less. Is Carmen ready for that horse? Because if not, it’s going to be a big waste of money.”
“That’s a better question for Wade,” Kat replies with a lift of her shoulder. Wade is the primary trainer for the young woman who owns Lady Beatrice and knows the horse’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s a lot of horse and Carmen is a young kid, although I’m not sure of her exact age. “But he knows Michelle is looking at the mare for her daughter, so I assume he thinks it’s a good fit.”
“Good enough.” I grab the manila folder I’d tossed down on a sideboard and shove the folded letter from Alaine in it. “I’ll give her a call.”