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"I am filthy at your father because I've lost twelve years with you. I can't follow tradition with you because you don't even know what it is. I'm mad as hell at Malcolm because I have to walk on eggshells just to be near you. You won't acknowledge me, and you won't listen to your instincts about me because of what he did to you."
Staring, I couldn't even comprehend what he was on about anymore. My mind kept seeing a big black wolf with the same eyes as the ones Dale had right now.
"So no, you can't sell. No, I won't let you just disappear from my life now that I've found you, and no, I won't fuck you to get you out of my system. That will never happen." Storming out the door, he backtracked and turned around to growl at me through the screen door. "If you list this house for sale, I will make it impossible for you to sell. I will tie you up in so much red tape that the lawyer's fees alone will drain whatever resources you have left." Swinging around, Dale marched down the steps.
Left standing in my kitchen gobsmacked, it took me over two minutes after he went to react.
"How can you be him?"
Chapter 8
Still in my pajamas, I barely had my eyes open when the knocking at the front door started. Grumbling, I made my way to the door and opened it enough to see who was out there. The sight of Dale's lawyer son on my doorstep almost made me hiss. Dressed in his Armani suit, Cameron Hearn looked way too spritely for six on a Monday morning.
"Ms. Cana, good morning. I hope I didn't wake you?"
"Would you care?"
"I'm due in the office by nine, so I thought it best to get this out of the way early." Cameron Hearn handed me an envelope.
"Should I even ask?"
"We are filing an injunction preventing the sale of this property. As you'll remember from the conveyance report on your sale, you have no direct road access."
"What? I do so have road access."
"Actually, your driveway starts twenty meters up Mr. Hearn's driveway. That means every time you leave or enter your property, you are trespassing." Cameron handed me another piece of paper. "Formal notice that access via Mr. Hearn's driveway will cease until you can settle the matter." Cameron turned to walk to his car.
"Wait? Your father is trapping me here? How am I meant to go to my doctor appointments? Go food shopping? Anything?"
"Jeremy will continue to shop for you, as usual. The rest, I'm afraid, is your problem. You should have looked at your conveyance report better when you purchased, Ms. Cana."
Climbing into his expensive car, Cameron Hearn drove away. Angry as hell and in need of coffee, I made my way back to the kitchen. Setting the coffee machine on, I opened the documents and read the injunction. "Son of a bitch."
To fix the issue, I had to extend my driveway out to the road and have my own access. Since Dale owned the property surrounding mine, I had to buy the land from him to get to the street. To do that he was asking an exorbitant amount; almost what I paid for the cottage. Then I would need to pay for the fencing of his land and construction of a driveway to the road.
Considering I didn't have enough in my 'fuck off fund' to buy the land, building a driveway wasn't an option either. Being self-employed, a loan wasn't an option. Especially if they did a half-decent records check and realized Vera Cana was an alias. Frustrated, I picked up my coffee mug and threw it as hard as I could. The smash that followed cooled my temper for a second. When my eyes found the broken kitchen window, I swore like a drunken sailor.
Without driveway access, I couldn't even get a glazier to come and fix the window. Picking up a few more items, I threw them at the window, smashing the remaining shards still in the frame. The damage was done, I may as well work my anger out and make it easier to clean.
Three hours later, I'd knocked the remaining shards free from the frame and swept up the glass. The missing glass exposed the house to the elements, so I was grateful it was summer. At least it kept me busy until I could call my lawyer.
"I'm sorry, Vera, you don't have a legal footing here. They've allowed for you to still receive groceries and such. This is very well written."
"Can I at least leave? They can't trap me here, right?"
"If you cross his land without permission, he could have you arrested. For any other client, I would call the police and have them escort you from the premises. But, in your situation, you don't want the police involved and take the chance of them running your name. My suggestion? I would ring your neighbor and negotiate your way out of this dispute. He must want something to go to this effort. Maybe he doesn't want to pay full-price for the house. You may need to sell it to him at a loss."
Goddess, if that were even the reason. Hanging up even more annoyed, I hung my head but refused to cry. Leaving everything there, I changed into my workout gear and ran to the top of the driveway. Scouting my chances of making it to the road before Dale could catch me. It wasn't like the driveway was near his house. Unfortunately, I discovered a large padlock on the closed gate. Considering I'd never seen the gate closed, I wondered if they'd had to oil the hinges to swing it. Still, I could take a bag and jump the fence to make the road.
As I neared the gate, an animal prowled into view. It growled at me the moment it saw me. Studying the animal, I recognized straight away it wasn't Alpha and ground my teeth. It was the wolf that tried to take my throat out for interfering in their hunt.
"Oh, shut up! You know, I haven't finished going through the cottage yet, but if I find a gun, I'm going to come back up here and shoot you. Unlike the rest of your pack, you deserve putting down like any other dog willing to attack a human."
He started snarling and snapping at me through the gate. Giving it the finger, I ran back down the driveway. In my kitchen, I spied the broken window and groaned. There was now a huge gaping hole in my security. Deciding to be a woman of my word, I started searching the cottage for a gun or any other weapon. The best I found was a baseball bat.
"Something's better than nothing." Shrugging, I took it into the kitchen with me. For a moment, I considered having some batting practice with the remaining window. The look on Dale's face when he came down to gloat and found the place smashed up was almost worth it. That was after he got over the pile of shattered glass I left at the forest path to the manor.
After canceling my inspection appointments, I called my lawyer back to ask a few more things. With nothing much else I could do, I opened my laptop and did my work.
