None of them—his inner circle, women he’d dated, people he’d promised fortunes to—were entitled to jack shit. No one but me and the staff back at our family home.
“The only woman that man was ever married to was my mother,” I said.
“She claims she has proof of their relationship. If she’s able to produce a valid marriage license, then she might have a case.”
My jaw ached from how hard I was clenching it. “And how much do you believe this woman?”
“I can’t say for sure but the way her lawyer spoke, it seemed quite legitimate.”
Jesus fuck...
Digging both of my fingers into my eye sockets, I let out a long sigh.
Leave it to my father, that even in death, he would complicate my life more than he already had so far. Of course, his reputation for being a notorious playboy wasn’t something that ever went unnoticed. Not to the public and certainly not to me.
He wasn’t one to take his ‘retirement’ years and spend them alone, sitting in a mansion behind the tall gates of our family mansion while drinking himself into an early grave.
Though at the same time, he’d also never had any interest in sticking around for long in the lives of whomever he was dating. Even the woman he’d brought to my wedding had been dumped within the month and soon, he was spotted with someone else—an Ibizin princess, if I recalled correctly.
So who was to say that any of what Ted was telling me could be proven?
The issue was this: if this Ana Liapovichwasable to produce a legal document or marriage license that stated she was now my father’s widow, I’d be forced to negotiate with her.
The money wasn’t the issue—lord fucking knew I had enough of it already. It was the principle of the matter that someone coming in and staking their claim over a piece of my family’s legacy without actually having to bear the burden of its weight for as long as I had was downright infuriating.
Who the fuck did this Ana Liapovich think she was?
“Listen,” Ted cleared his throat. “I’ll keep you updated. I don’t expect to hear from them for a few days. Once the documents are sent over to me, I’ll run through them and then we can go from there. I only wanted to call you to give you a head’s up in case this woman tries to show up at your doorstep.”
I dragged my hand over my face. “Thanks for the warning.”
“Of course, Mr. McAllister. Send me the details of those car estimates, too, and I’ll have them put together with the rest of the files.”
I let my hand drop from my face, my eyes instantly locking on to the back of Brandon’s body again. He was bent over the hood of the third car, waist deep in checking something out on the side of the engine with his flashlight and some other smaller tool that I couldn’t exactly make out was what from here.
However, that’s not what my eyes were focused on. It was the fact that his ass was perked up in the air, the round shape of it pronounced with the way the fabric of his pants were pulling tightly over it.
Flustered, I turned away. “Uh, can you actually hold off on that? The guy I’m working with says they might need a lot of work. I don’t want to go throwing in estimates if this woman does turn out to be legit.”
“Oh. Yes, that’s true. I’ll keep the information off the books for now.”
“Thanks.”
“Of course. I’ll call you again with any updates.”
Shaking my head, I pocketed my phone and scrubbed my hands over my face a few times. All of this mess with my father was making me fucking delirious.
Since when was I into checking out any man’s ass, let alone my former childhood best friend’s?
I needed to get laid.
That was the real issue. I had too much tension built up in me from work and then coming down here to deal with this mess. The last time I’d had anyone warming my bed was... well, a while ago.Toolong, apparently.
When Brandon leaned back from the car again, I found myself heading back over. “How’s it looking?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me and then clicked his light off. “Well, it’s not horrible. These were certainly kept in good condition when they were first bought. The problem is that since your dad never came up here or had anyone doing regular maintenance on them, the sitting wear and tear is what’s going to need repairing. The problem with older cars is that they need a lot of daily TLC to keep running. Modern cars aren’t as touchy.”
Nodding along to his words, I slid both my hands into my pockets. “You think about my offer?”
