"Mr. Colton, this is George Gordon. Are you ready for the reading of Dorothy's will?"
"Sure."
Mr. Colton sounded gruff and annoying.
"So I'm here with a few other people. First is Dorothy's financial planner, Charles Dickson. And you know Emma Colton."
"Hello, Emma," he said roughly.
"Hi, Dad."
That was her dad? And he couldn't even be bothered to be here with his daughter for this? Chase wasn't impressed.
"And we also have Chase Warwick here," the lawyer said.
"Who the hell is Chase Warwick?"
Chase Warwick was a mega movie star! Everyone knew who Chase was except for this jackass apparently. Yeah, not impressed at all.
"Uh, hello, sir. This is Chase. I was a friend of Dorothy's."
There was a gruff scoff from the other end of the phone line followed by, "Whatever. Let's just get this over with."
Chase watched as George opened a manila envelope and pulled out some legal-looking document that he laid down in front of him.
"Is everyone ready?" he asked.
Charles agreed, the dumb guy on the phone gave a gross "Yeah," and Chase nodded his head. He turned to see Emma staring down at her hands,her fingers strained with tension. He couldn't help but reach out and put his palm over them.
"You ready?" he asked her quietly.
She looked up and gave him a weak smile. "Yeah."
He nodded encouragingly at her and quickly pulled his hand away. This seemed like it was tough for her, but he doubted she wanted to have some stranger holding her hand right at this moment.
They all turned to George, who took a sip of water from a glass on the table and began. "I, Dorothy Colton, of Torrance, California, do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament." He started going through some legal crap, blah blah blah, before he got to the first name on the list of items in Nana's will. "To Don Colton, I leave my residence in Torrance, California. This includes the house and land. Both were transferred to my possession in 1988 with the understanding that Don would gain possession of them upon my death. This is all I am leaving in my will for him."
"That's it?" yelled the angry voice on the phone.
Emma's hands came up to hide her face, and Chase was honestly worried about her mental state. It turned out her father was a definite jackass, and Chase didn't like the way it was affecting Emma.
He leaned over and put his hand on her back to comfort her. "Do you need a minute?"
She took a deep breath and looked up at him with a plastered-on smile. "No. I'm good. Thank you."
She was definitely not alright, but it seemed like she didn't want Chase to press the issue, so he pulled his hand away and leaned back in his chair again. He came into this wondering what exactly Nana had in store for him, but now he was wondering how all of this was affecting her granddaughter.
"If I could continue." George cleared his throat to get everyone's attention back on the will. "The will states that this concludes Don's participation in the reading and he may leave now."
"Sure," Don muttered. "Emma, I'll be in touch later. I would like to get the house on the market by next week."
"Of course."
"It was nice to hear your voice."
Emma just stared at the gray phone sitting in the middle of the conference table. She wasn't going to respond to this man, and Chase didn't blame her. He would've done the same thing if his dad treated him like that.
There was some rustling on the other end of the phone, and he heard Don's muffled voice yell, "That bitch only left us the house," before the line went dead.
