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Chapter 5
Grace
Igawk at Rowan, waitingfor him to laugh and tell me he’s yanking my chain. It’s easy to see that he’s well off. I mean, his cars, the residences, and other things I’ve seen indicate that he has no money issues. But I didn’t think he wasthatwell off.
I study him intently. I’m tempted not to believe him. Who has billions and keeps a day job and just struts around town as if he’s... well, one of us ninety-nine percenters? His expression remains solemn, however. And Rowan isn’t really a jokester like that.
Billions in the bank. He just stated it as if it’s nothing. No smugness, no pride. Nothing. It’s as if he just told me it’s seventy degrees outside.
Pulling my lip between my teeth, I give his posh living room an assessment.
“Are you serious?” I ask.
He frowns. “Why would I joke about something like that?”
“Oh. Wow. Um...” Well. Shit. Here I am, left looking like a fool after yet another accusation against Rowan has been proven false. “You’re a firefighter,” I blurt out.
His lips lift slightly at the corners. “And proud of it.”
“What I mean is, how do you have...”
“That much money?” He grins. “Long story.” He looks skyward. “Well, maybe not that long.”
Nibbling my lower lip, I stare into my glass, then glance at him. “I’ve got time for a story of any length.”
“So you’re not pissed anymore?”
Reaching for the bottle of bourbon, I pour a bit more into my glass. “We’ll see after your story.” I’m still not sure I should buy his wholeI’m a billionaire and I had nothing to do with Devlin’s anticstale.
He chuckles. “Okay. Few people know I’m related to the Lockwoods. You know, the own-just-about-everything-in-California Lockwoods.”
My eyes bulge.Holy shit. That name is synonymous with business in the state and beyond. I know the name Allan Lockwood because the business department at my university is named after him. Plus, his name pops up in everything having to do with the corporate world. He died about seven years ago, I heard. “So, you’re...”
“Allan’s grandson. I learned he was my grandfather seven years ago. Imagine my surprise when a guy in a penguin suit approached me in the parking lot at work and announced Allan Lockwooddemandedmy presence at his mansion. I told him to fuck off.”
I snort. Of course he did. Rowan has absolutely no filter.
“I got irritated when the visits continued and I decided to go to the old man’s place to give him a piece of my mind. There, I discovered I was the illegitimate son of Colin Lockwood and the only heir to the Lockwood fortune.”
My jaw hangs on its hinges. Rowan’s life is like a plot out of a movie. “That’s crazy. Did your father pass away?”
“Oh, no, the dick was still alive at the time. But Allan thought it better to hand his entire fortune to a stranger than his drug-addict son, who’d probably kill himself before time with an endless source of money to fund his drug habit.”
He drapes an arm over the back of the couch. “It was one of those stuck between a rock and a hard place and he had to choose the rock... or the hard place.” He shrugs. “Whichever one isslightlybetter, I suppose.”
I smile at the nonchalant way he relays coming into a fortune. “What about leaving his money to charities?”
“That’s what I asked him. According to Allan, he wanted the Lockwood legacy to continue. The one son he had was useless, so he got in touch with the grandson he’d disowned for thirty-two years.”
He must see the confusion on my face because he adds, “My father knocked my mother up and left her high and dry. She knew exactly who he was, which is why she poked holes in the condoms.”
My jaw drops again.
He nods. “Yeah, she gave me the sordid details when I was nine, during one of her many rants about how useless I turned out to be. I couldn’t even get her the rich life she wanted. As a child, I was confused because I had no idea who my father was.”
“Oh, my god.” I thought my mother was awful.
He shrugs. “Mom pestered my father and grandfather for a while until she realized she had absolutely nothing to gain in getting pregnant by a rich man. She got some money to go away and keep her mouth shut. I suppose that’s why she gave me her maiden name, Cavanaugh. I met my father once. He died about a year after Allan—wrapped his car around a tree while high as a kite.”
