I wanted to laugh. Sneaky woman.
“She left you the bulk of her assets, including the house—which was paid off two years ago…”
I tried to focus on what he was saying, but my mind was reeling. Bernice had left more than I’d even realized she had.
“All of Ms. Macintosh’s assets, including the Hyundai Elantra, the house, and all bank accounts, were left to you, with smaller bequests to Arlo Williams and Mateo Green. Mr. Williams has already received his, and Mr. Green’s has been placed in a trust.”
“You’ve seen Arlo?”
My heartbeat thudded in my ears as the past seemed to lunge up and bite me in the ass. Again.
“Yes, I met with Mr. Williams the day before yesterday,” the lawyer replied easily, his gaze on the paperwork in front of him. He opened up a drawer and set a ring of keys on the desk between us. “Of course I haven’t had a chance to speak with Mr. Green as of yet.”
“Why,of course?” I asked numbly as I palmed the keys.
“His incarceration,” the lawyer replied flatly. “While his circumstances do not affect his ability to receive the items bequeathed in Ms. Macintosh’s will, it of course makes notification and logistics a little trickier to iron out.”
The walls seemed to undulate as I stared at Concord.
“So, do you need me to sign something?” I asked, anxious to get the fuck out of there. “How does this all work?”
He walked me through the steps, explaining about inheritance laws and a bunch of other shit that I could hardly follow. With every word out of his mouth, my chest tightened. It was too goddamn much. By the end, Bernice’s house and car keys seemed like they were burning a hole in my palm, and the paperwork in my hands was full of bank account information that I’d have to look at later.
“Do I need to follow up with you on any of this?” I asked, shaking the papers in my hand as I rose to my feet.
“No,” he replied, leaning back in his seat as he eyed me. “I had the pleasure of getting to know Ms. Macintosh in the last couple of years of her life while she made arrangements for what would happen after she was gone. I know she believed—”
“Thanks for all of your help,” I said, cutting him off. For some reason his insinuation that he knew Bernice so well rubbed me the wrong way. He was her attorney, and I was sure that he knew a lot about her life that I never would, but the tone of his voice grated.
I turned and headed for the door.
“She wanted you to know that she still cared for you,” he said to my back. “Loved you.”
I tightened my hand around the doorknob and carefully twisted it, ensuring that I didn’t rip the entire thing from the wall.
“If you knew her so well, you’d know that she preferred being calledBernice,” I said as I swung the door open. “Macintosh was her ex-husband’s name, and she hated that motherfucker.”
Chapter 10
Harper
Ishot tomy feet as Bas came out of the office like his ass was on fire. Without pausing, he reached for my hand and tugged me with him as he left the building. Outside on the street, he headed straight for the truck without a word.
I let him help me into my seat and sat silently as he rounded the hood and got in the driver’s seat.
Once he’d sat down, he didn’t move, so I didn’t either. His eyes were vague as he stared out the windshield. After a few moments, he set a key ring and a stack of papers on the seat between us.
“Noho’s?” he asked. “Shit. It’s still early. Doubt they’re open yet.”
“Are you hungry?” I asked. It wasn’t what I wanted to ask, but I figured he’d tell me what the lawyer said eventually. Or, he never would. That was up to him.
“That guy was talkin’ about Ms. Macintosh, Ms. Macintosh, Ms. Macintosh, then he tried to act like they were best friends or some shit. Bernice couldn’t stand her last name, and he woulda known that if he knew her so well.”
“Okay,” I replied, not really sure what the correct response was. He clearly wasn’t upset about the lawyer’s use of his foster mom’s last name, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to point that out.
“She left me everythin’,” Bas said dully. “Every fuckin’ thing.”
“What does that mean?”
