“Okay! Have a good day at work!” I can tell my voice sounds unnaturally cheerful, but at least I don’t sound like I really feel, which is like a puddle of lust.
I manage to drive all the way to Star Mountain without stalling, though I do struggle to shift into third gear for a while. I park by Shelley Stern’s office and take a deep breath before hopping out of the Jeep and marching to the front door. I called her on the way and she said she was happy to squeeze me in. I ring the doorbell and after a minute I’m buzzed in.
The office is in an old Victorian building, and as I wander down the hallway, I admire the pink patterned wallpaper and fancy molding. I follow the signs for Shelley’s office, which take me upstairs and down another hallway, this one done up in green damask wallpaper. It strikes me that this place is enormous—Shelley must live here, too.
I find her seated in a large office at a great wooden desk, her eyes fixed to her laptop. She’s younger than I expected and must be in her thirties. Hanging on her wall are her diplomas and I make out the words “Yale Law School” on one of them.
“Hi,” I say.
Shelley keeps on typing for a moment and then pauses, and looks up at me. “Sorry about that. Just had to finish up an email but now I’m all yours. I’m Shelley Stern. Please, sit.”
“I’m Winnie Grant.” I sit in the tufted leather chair and smile at her.
“It’s not Winnie Smith now?” She cocks her head at me.
“Oh, how did you know about that?”
“Small town,” she explains. “And I was at the courthouse the day you got married.”
“Right, well, Jonah and I are just so, uh, in love and we couldn’t stand to?—”
“There’s no need to lie to me. I don’t care why you married as long as you were both sound of mind when you did and neitherone of you was coerced.” She looks at me with a question in her eyes.
I nod.
“Fine. I assume you got married to access a trust of some sort?”
I nod again. “That’s how I plan to pay you.”
“Good, because I’m not cheap.”
She goes through the rates with me and my eyes slightly bug at the numbers, but I don’t really have a choice. I need a lawyer, and Shelley seems extremely competent. I hand over the lawsuit and she scans the front page.
“Your parents are suing you in Alabama, so this will be easier with an attorney resident there. And cheaper,” she says.
My heart sinks. My cousin Adam doesn’t live in Alabama anymore, and anyone I find in Birmingham might know my parents. They’re extremely well connected.
“But it’s possible with you?” I ask.
Shelley just nods.
“Okay, then I want to go with you. I’m happy to pay for you to fly out there if we have to go to court.”
“Perfect,” Shelley says. “Now, tell me about the relationship between you and your parents.”
Two hours later,I leave Shelley’s office, mentally drained, but hopeful. After grilling me endlessly about my personal and professional relationship with my parents, Shelley doesn’t seem to think they have much of a chance of winning the case. I reiterated to her about ten times that Ineversigned a contract of employment with them, and certainly not with any business they set up to manage me.
I drive the Jeep over to the barn, and only get stuck in first gear once along the way. When I get there, I immediately head to Rosie’s stall, knowing that I’ve been neglecting my care for her over the last few days. Her stall is empty, and when I check the paddocks, I see that her quarantine must be up.
Because there she is, right where she belongs, hanging out with the other horses. She’s in a large paddock with Maggie, Brown Sugar, Ballantine, and a few of the others. She looks a bit skittish and unsure of herself, but it still warms my heart to see her be part of the herd.
“Hey,” Candice calls to me, hopping over a nearby fence. “I was just out checking on one of the water heaters. It’s good to see you.”
“Yeah, it’s only been a few days since I was here, but a lot has happened.”
“Like Jonah and you canoodling in the house you live in together?” Candice raises her brows at me.
“Like the fact that I got married, and I had to get a lawyer today. To deal with my parents.”
