Alternatively, if you wish to acquire Mr. Wilton’s interests, the appraised value for his share is $190,000.
I had to read it twice. Just to be sure it wasn’t a typo. I was careful not to let my face betray me. Looking up, I deadpanned.
“One hundred ninety thousand. You kidding me, Arch?”
He shifted in his chair. “It’s valuable property. I shouldn’t have to convince you of that. You’ve lived on it all your life.”
“Yeah, it’s valuable to me. But no legitimate expert would appraise the value of a one-fourth share of the property at one hundred ninety thousand dollars. That’s astronomical.”
He sighed. Looked at his wristwatch—the guy still wore one, a real watch. It was a theatrical prop. Immediately after checking the time, he said, “I hate to rush this impromptu meeting, Judge Stone. But, like the saying goes, I got someplace I gotta be.”
“Is that right?” I gripped the arms of the chair. Wanted to show him I wasn’t going anywhere. “Business? Or pleasure?”
“Ummm.” He tapped an ink pen against his chin. Like he was thinking it over. “A combo, I guess? A political event. In Montgomery.”
“Ah.” The clouds disappeared, and I could see clearly. “Think you’ll run into the governor?”
He gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s likely. He’s the keynote speaker.”
“How lucky for you. To get to hear him speak.”
I stood, seized by a sudden urge to get the hell out of that office. Didn’t even want to breathe the air in there.
Felt like the atmosphere was toxic. Poisonous. Burning my lungs.
I leaned over the desk and peeled my yellow sticker off the surface. Held up Pearce’s letter and said, “I see you’ve given me thirty days from receipt of this letter to elect to purchase the interest.”
He looked guarded. “Yes. That’s standard.”
“Thirty whole days. I bet that demand typically cuts Black people off at the knees. They get confused, think they’re at your mercy. And then you buy them out. At a fraction of the property’s actual worth.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“Oh, I do. I know all about it.”
He didn’t respond. That was okay, I didn’t need for him to explain his game plan. “If I don’t buy the interest, you’re going to sue. That right, you want to sue me? Go ahead, do it. Waste your time and resources.”
“I don’t consider it a waste of my time.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “But you know I’m gonna win. You can’t claim adverse possession. I’ve occupied that property for over twenty years. Whereas I can successfully make a case of adverse possession under color of title. But you know that.”
“We don’t need to make an adverse possession claim. This property interest was obtained from a member of your family, a direct descendant of Luke Stone.”
“Bullshit!”
And suddenly I was ten-year-old Mary again in the face of Stanley the school bully who decided to single me out because my hair was kinky and my skin was too dark, and he couldn’t make sense of it. He singled me out because he could. I was scared then but not now, and like an eight-hundred-pound bull being taken down by four lions… I roared.
“You want to bring me down? You think you have the balls, you cowardly piece of horseshit? You just woke up the lion!”
I fired a parting shot. “Get ready, Pearce. I’m going to disprove your claim, even if I have to dig my granddaddy up to do it. Don’t think I won’t. I know where the bones are buried.”
CHAPTER
29
Back in the driver’s seat of my car, with windows rolled all the way up, I let loose.
“Stupid! Stupid, stupid!”
