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“I told her to piss off.”
Yup. That was why I afraid to ask. “Gramps…”
“What? Of all the men in this country, she choosesthatone to set my granddaughter up with? I knew my daughter was a sneaky thing, but I didn’t think she was this sneaky. She knows how I feel about those bloody Grandsteins.”
“All right, calm down, or you’ll make yourself ill again,” I told him. “You know there’s not much you can do if Fran wants to marry him.”
“Do you mean I can’t disinherit her?”
“Yes, you cannot disinherit her just because she’ll be marrying a man you don’t like.”
“That seems unfair.”
I rubbed my hand over my forehead. “Well, I suppose you can. It’s your money. You can do whatever you please with it.”
“Then I will leave Fran’s share to Chloe.”
“You just want to watch the world burn, don’t you?” I shook my head. “I can picture you now in the afterlife with a glass of whiskey, laughing as you watch the chaos you’ve left behind because you screwed with your will at the last minute to do something like that.”
He shrugged. “I like Chloe more than Fran.”
“That’s a terrible way to talk about your granddaughter.”
“Then you should hurry up and make Chloe fall for you so I can finally talk nicely about a granddaughter of mine.”
“I’m starting to feel as though you’ll disinheritmeif I don’t marry Chloe.”
“Now, there’s an idea,” Gramps said brightly. “Do you think she’ll feel sorry for you and marry you out of guilt?”
I stared at him. “I would rather be disinherited than be married out of pity.”
“Mmph. Luckily for you, none of your cousins are remotely competent enough to run this estateormy company, or I might have considered it.”
I had no doubt that what he was saying was true. It really was a blessing I was the only one born with a desire to work for the family company.
Actually, that was unfair. My cousin, Piers, had once had a desire to work for Black Ink Corporation, but that was where it’d stopped for him. Gramps had made it clear that he’d split the business between us if necessary, but Piers’ problem was much the same as Francesca’s.
Aunt Caroline had spoilt them both as well as their youngest brother, Louis, to the point I wasn’t sure any of my three cousins had any idea whatworkactually was.
I hadn’t got my place in the company by nepotism, but once upon a time, those three sure had.
“Anyway, just be careful. With our recent issues with them, I expect Rupert to reach out sooner rather than later. Withdrawing our investments from some of their subsidiaries has hit them hard, and now that Anthony and Fran are supposedly seeing one another, he’ll probably look to reconcile.” Gramps stared into his glass, then raised it to his lips and peered over at me. “He’ll reach out to you first because he’s a coward. When he does, tell him it’s nothing to do with you and call me.”
“Why don’t you just let me and Dad deal with it?”
“Because you’ll deal with it wrong.”
The man was a control freak.
“All right,” I said, holding up my hands. Arguing with him wasn’t going to get me anywhere. “I’ll do as you say.”
He nodded. “Good. By the way, Patricia made a cheesecake this morning. It’s in the fridge. You should take a slice back to the cottage for Chloe.”
“Why would I do that? She doesn’t like cheesecake.”
Gramps paused. “Yes, she does. She used to take it whenever I brought it in for her.”
I eyed him. “Really? She hates cream cheese. Melody brought a small cheesecake in for Daniel’s birthday because it’s his favourite, and Chloe passed, citing that as the reason.”
