After returning from his hoard, Fionn walked softly into the living room, wondering if Theo and Norm were still up, but they weren’t, so no one had missed him. Grabbing a couple of cans of juice, he headed back to his bedroom, thinking about his uncle and what he had been looking for. Deciding to call Penn, Fionn, shut his door, sat down at his desk and dialed his lawyer. At first, when Ki told him about Penn, Fionn was unwilling to share the ugly details of his life, but he changed his mind with his friend’s encouragement and his dragon’s approval.
“Hello Fionn,” Penn said.
“Hi, I hope you don’t mind me calling but my father’s brother was in my home in Scotland without permission. Can he do that? Walk in and start rifling through drawers?”
“In short, no…even though he has petitioned the court to be your guardian. However, since there are several applications seeking custody of you other than his, the court has ordered a report as to the validity of each person’s claim. Until that’s finished and the court rules on the pending petitions, Cody and Dylon are still your legal guardians. Your uncle was trespassing,” Penn said, then asked, “What were you doing there? I thought you were staying at the hotel with the rest of the Blackwood Pack.”
“I am, but I went there to find the midwife’s certificate for my birth that you asked for.”
“Did you get it?” asked Penn.
“No, but I went through all the file folders my father had in his study and took those about his estate I thought you’d need.”
“Good work. Would you ask Logan to send them to me tomorrow?”
“I don’t have them with me, but I can get them to you in a few minutes,” Fionn said before hanging up. Copying Penn’s address and stuffing it into his pocket, Fionn stepped into the portal. Standing in front of his hoard, Fionn could feel his magic grow stronger and was tempted to stay, but resisted the urge; he’d promised to deliver the file folders promptly. Grabbing them all, except the one containing the pictures of his mother, heentered Penn’s address on the portal’s screen and soon found himself standing in front of a tall office building in downtown San Francisco.
After a thirty-floor elevator ride, Fionn arrived at Penn’s office. Walking up to the receptionist, he asked, “Is Penn here? He’s expecting me.”
“May I have your name?”
“Oh, sure, Fionn MacDùghlas.” While she was on the phone, Fionn wandered over to look out the floor-to ceiling windows, curious about being so high inside. Never having been that far above ground except when his dragon was flying, he loved it, and decided right then he’d buy an office at least as high up as this one.
“Fionn?”
Turning around, Fionn saw his lawyer, at least he thought it was, as the man looked like the picture of Penn he’d found on the High Council website. “Penn,” he said, “nice to meet you. I brought you all the folders.”
“Come in, and let’s see what you have.” After telling the woman he didn’t want to be disturbed, Penn ushered Fionn into a small conference room. Taking the file folders from him, Penn said, “Have a seat. These are all the files you found that pertain to your father’s estate?”
“There may be more. I still have to check his safe and his study at the chateau in France,” replied Fionn. While Penn quickly shuffled through the folders, Fionn couldn’t keep his eyes from scanning the skyline outside the windows. Unable to contain his curiosity, he walked over to them, peering out, agreeing with his dragon that it was the next best thing to flying.
“Have you decided if you want to meet the relatives fighting for your custody?” asked Penn.
“I don’t want to see any of them. They never visited me and my mother…ever. If I wasn’t important to them before, it makes me wonder what their motives are now. I already know my uncle doesn’t think much of me, so I’m not interested in seeing him pretend otherwise. As for my mother’s relatives, where were they when my mother needed them? They thought so little of her when she was sick and dying, they couldn’t even bother visiting. I don’t know about you, but that tells me a lot about what kind of people they are.”
Penn smiled. Fionn’s logic was irrefutable and it reinforced his gut instinct that the sudden interest in Fionn was just a cover to gain access to the assets of the estate. “Who would you prefer to be your guardian?”
“Easy…myself. I want the court to emancipate me, then all my ‘loving’ relatives can take a flying leap,” declared Fionn.
“I can try, but honestly, the court will only grant that if there aren’t any relatives…which doesn’t apply in your situation. What about Cody and Dylon? Would they be acceptable to you?”
Dejected at Penn’s assessment, Fionn replied, “Yeah, I’d rather have them than any of my relatives. At least I know they won’t try to hurt me to get at my hoard.”
“For what it’s worth,” said Penn, “I agree with you about these relatives who suddenly came out of the woodwork professing their love for you.”
“Good, because you should never trust a dragon, especially when gold is involved. If my father died broke,and I had nothing, none of these relatives would give a shit about me.”
Penn looked down at the file in his hands, but his mind was elsewhere, thinking how sad it was for someone as young as Fionn to be so jaded. Opening the folders one by one, he examined each document while imagining what his client’s life must have been like to feel that way now. Looking at Fionn, from time to time, he was determined to do everything possible to keep him out of the clutches of his relatives.
Then, glancing at one of the papers in his hand, Penn noted it was the midwife’s certificate he’d asked for. Scanning it, his eyes widened at what it said. “Fionn, did you check the contents of all these folders?” he asked.
Fionn kept looking out the window as he answered. “Yeah…well, except one. I didn’t have the time to look at it as my uncle had arrived, so I grabbed it along with the others and got the hell out of there in the nick of time.” Then, turning to his lawyer, he asked, “Why?”
“It must have been in that folder,” said Penn. “Come, take a look.”
“What are you talking about? Is it a new will? My uncle mumbled something about that,” Fionn said, leaving his place at the window and joining Penn. Taking the paper from his lawyer, Fionn read it, then shouted, “Holy fuck! Is this for real?”
“I believe so. See the raised seal impression she made over the information she wrote?”
