I let out a grunt as I stood and shook the hand Miles Cranston held out to me. "Some days I feel like it."
"Fuck you, man." Miles grinned. "We're the same age."
I chuckled.
"You still based in London?"
I nodded. "For now, but that might change soon, which is what I need to talk to you about today."
"Come on back to my office," Miles said. "We can talk there."
I followed Miles down the hallway to a set of double doors. Inside the room he led me to was a rather large corner office. The lines were pretty sleek, but I liked the pops of color here and there. Made it seem less industrial.
"Have a seat." Miles gestured to the chairs in front of his desk and then sat down on the other side.
I took a seat, setting my briefcase on the floor next to my chair.
"So, what did you need to meet with me about?" Miles asked.
"You know my father died recently, right?"
"Yes, I'd heard."
Not surprising. My father was filthy rich. It only made sense that someone like Miles had heard that he had died.
"We had the reading of the will yesterday." I grabbed my briefcase and opened it, pulling a file out. I set the briefcase back on the floor and then handed Miles the file. "I need to know if the will is valid."
Miles raised an eyebrow, but took the file, set it on his desk in front of him, and opened it up. I leaned back in my chair and waited as he began to read it from beginning to end.
About thirty minutes later, Miles sighed and looked up at me. "I'm afraid the will is valid and iron-clad. There's no changing it even if you were to take it to court."
My shoulders slumped. "I was afraid of that."
"Are you really going to do this, man?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I mean, it's a pretty big offer. Except for some small stipends to some of the faithful employees that served my father for years and one to that man, if I agree to all of this, everything is mine. The house upstate, the business, and all the money. But marrying my father's husband?"
I shuddered to think about it.
"Have you ever met the man?"
I shook my head. "I haven't seen or spoken to my father in ten years, not since I graduated from the university so I never went home and this guy didn't show up for the reading of the will."
The day I graduated, I moved to London. I'd had a job waiting for me there. I hadn't come back. Things between me and my father hadn't been the same since my mother passed away when I was just a teenager. They had grown nonexistent when I went away to the university and that hadn't changed to this day.
Miles's eyebrows lifted. "He didn't show up for the reading of the will?"
"Nope."
I felt like that was weird, especially if this guy was a gold digger. Wouldn't he want to know what he was taking away from my father? Maybe he already knew.
"If you don't marry this man, everything gets donated to charity."
"Oh, I am aware."
It wasn't so much that I was greedy for the money. I had plenty of my own. It was letting my family's legacy be sold off in bits and pieces that rankled me.
My great-great-great grandfather had started that investment firm back when Wall Street was just starting to be the heart of the financial district. It had been run by a member of our family ever since and right up until my father had grown ill.
