AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t take it personally.” They sized each other up. Now Granger knew where he got his size, and the weird eyebrow that always slanted upwards. Seeing those little similarities gave him a funny feeling of almost-belonging. “You seem like a decent guy. But I have interests to protect.”
“Our father’s interests?”
“To be honest, he doesn’t know I’m here. But I figure if he wanted you in his life, he could make it happen. Sorry,” he added when he caught Granger’s wince.
“Don’t be. I figured out a long time ago that he didn’t want me, whoever he was. I accept that. I just want to know who he is.”
“So if I tell you that, will you stay out of the picture? Don’t try to pull any bullshit about being entitled to an inheritance? That’s what Bliss said, but I want to hear it from you.”
Granger knew that any lawyer would tell him not to unilaterally commit to something he might regret later. What if he wanted his children to receive an inheritance? Would any agreement he made be binding, anyway?
Then he thought about the ways money could tear people and families apart. Money, he guessed, was probably the reason why his father had never reached out to him. That fund he’d set up for his mother was the only acknowledgment he was ever likely to get.
“I won’t try to cut you out of any inheritance.” He lifted his hand to make it a vow. “I wouldn’t have anyway, but now you got it on record.”
“On record?”
“Pretty sure the security cameras have been recording all of this. Including you breaking in, by the way. Threatening my future wife.” He put a big dose of steel into his voice.
Adam looked down at the terracotta terrace tiles and hunched his shoulders. “Yeah. Thing is…Dad’s always threatening to cut me out. I do okay on my own, but then I think about my kids and I want them to have the best.”
“This is your best?” Granger asked, gently rather than harshly.
“No. It’s not.” The admission seemed to bolster him, and he squared his shoulders. Granger liked him better like this, owning up to being an ass rather than waving a knife at him. “It was a mistake. But I really didn’t mean to stab you. It wasn’t part of my plan. The knife was more of a prop, until it wasn’t.”
Granger might have been more forgiving if his incision wasn’t already starting to hurt.
Someone pinged him on his phone. “Jason here. Is everything okay? We’ve been sitting out here in these woods for a while now.”
Jesus. He’d forgotten all about the firefighters surrounding the Mason house. He’d asked them to stay back until he scoped out the situation, but to stand by in case he needed reinforcements.
“We’re good. Everyone can disperse. Give everyone a big thanks from me. I’ll tell them myself when I move into my new office.”
“You’re taking the job?”
“I’m taking the job.”
“Yeah baby!” He could practically hear Jason’s arm pump of victory. “I just won about a hundred bucks, so thank you.”
“Gambling’s illegal in this county.”
Silence.
“Still glad I took the job?”
“Let me get back to you on that.”
Laughing, Granger ended the call and turned to Adam. “Okay, time’s up. You got my promise. Now it’s your turn. Tell me about my father.”
Adam started talking, and he didn’t stop until Bliss called Granger’s phone. “Hey, are there any firefighters or emergency vehicles still nearby? I think maybe I should get to the hospital. Like, on a gurney.”
“So your father is a former senator?” Bliss sat propped against several pillows in a hospital bed in Braddock. The scare had been just that, a reaction to the trauma of her encounter with Adam Conover. She’d held it together as long as she could, but then started shaking uncontrollably.
The doctor had done an ultrasound and confirmed the fact that they were having twins. “Didn’t anyone notice that in your last ultrasound?”
“Actually, I think Dr. Rishi did, in New York,” Bliss said. “She said something about ‘everyone’ being healthy, but I didn’t pick up on it. Is that why I’ve been so sick?”
“It could be a factor.”
