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“No, no no.” I found myself on my feet, shaking. “No, I own that house. My mother owned that house. She paid it off years ago, and it passed to me when she died!”
“I’m afraid not,” Matt said without an ounce of sympathy in his tone despite the downturn of his mouth. “The house was part of the agreement between Francis and Amy as terms of his departure from her life.”
“My father paid for that house?” Toby stood suddenly and re-buttoned his jacket as Matt nodded.
“No,” I replied hotly. “You’re wrong. That cottage is mine; it has to be. And the cabin, I mean I haven’t been there in years, but it’s mine.”
“I’m sorry,” Matt sighed. “As it stands, Toby is within his rights to evict you once the deal is signed.”
The words didn’t sound real, not to me. Struggling to process everything that happened within the span of ten minutes, I reached out and shook Toby’s offered hand on reflex.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, and a watery smile spread across his face. “It’s just a house. You can buy something much better when you accept my check.”
5
SCARLETT
“Asshole.”
Muttering under my breath, I slammed my third drink down against the bar and sighed dramatically. Drinking wasn’t helping put things into perspective, if anything it was making the situation seem even more dire than before.
The bar was swarming with life, surging with enough people that I felt deceptively hidden tucked away in the corner of the bar where only the bartender ventured. It had been the first bar I’d stumbled into after wandering around in a daze trying to process everything that happened at that meeting.
Earlier that morning, I’d been happy to sign a few papers and do what needed to be done to move past all of this. After all, a distant family was nothing more than a fairy tale, and Toby was far from the long-lost hero at the end of the tale. Singing away all of that Estate, everything I was inheriting from my supposed father at the risk of losing my home?
I loved that place. Growing up there, I spent every second running through that house screaming to the Spice Girls at the top of my lungs. I’d laughed there, shed all my tears in that bedroom and broken the trellis outside my window three times, sneaking out to meet Shane. It was the place I’d been accepted into a nursing course in the city, the place where I’d had to give that up when my mother fell sick. There, I nursed her until the end of her days and spread her ashes underneath the silver birch tree out in the back garden because it was her favorite place to have a home picnic. Hell, I’d single-handedly planted the entire garden! Well, with Lily’s help.
Giving all that up just didn’t feel right, not in the slightest.
Resting my head on an upturned palm, I trailed my fingers around the edge of my empty glass as my thoughts ran rampant and loose thanks to the three vodka cokes swimming in my empty stomach.
There had to be a way to find an exception for the cottage, right? The cabin didn’t matter. The last time I’d been there, it was barely standing, and this past Winter was harsh. It probably didn’t even deserve the word cabin anymore. An exciting place to escape to in my youth, and I was happy to let that one go.
Not the cottage though.
I replayed the last few minutes of the meeting in my head, watching Toby vanish back out that door with his guard and Matt assure me that the deal would be worthwhile. Toby’s bodyguard had given me his number but with the strict instruction that I was only to call when I was ready to sign. My two texts introducing myself and asking to meet just for a chat glared up at me from my phone, left on red.
Fuck.
What was I supposed to do? Was there any point in trying to pursue this? No sooner had the dejected thought crossed my mind than another followed with the determination that my house was worth fighting for. It had been a secret all these years; maybe that could work to my advantage.
Groaning, I didn’t notice that a man had sat next to me until his broad shoulder lightly bumped mine and a deep, velvety chuckle reached my ears.
“They never text back when you’re looking.”
“Huh?” My head darted up, then my eyes widened when I got a good look at the man sitting next to me. He was gorgeous.
Seated, he was a head taller than me with boyish good looks. Gently curled brown hair swept down to the nape of his neck, and a pair of sexy brown eyes glanced me up and down.
I swallowed hard. City boys were hot.
“I said, they never text back when you’re looking.” The stranger glanced down at my phone and a light smile graced his rosy lips. “A lover, I’m assuming?”
“Oh! No no,” I assured him hurriedly. “It’s way more complicated than that.” I paused and my shoulders drooped slightly. “Family problems.”
“Ahhh.” The man nodded and gently sucked in air through his clenched teeth. “Family is the worst.”
“Right?” I groaned. “I don’t know how to handle it but when they’re rich, it seems a million times worse.”
