“Is this in response to yesterday?”
“No. Rylie had me draw up these documents over a month ago.” Joe interjected and then looked between us.
“You get everything.” Rylie said again.
“Maybe after we are married!” I said incredulously. “What if, over the next six months of living with me, you decide I’m not good enough for your life? What if you find out you don’t love me, but only the image that was cultivated between our previous relationship?”
He looked at me, unflinching, and said, “You still get everything.”
“Rylie…” I breathed his name, and he had nothing but love and adoration in his eyes. I also saw that fierce determination that told me he wasn’t going to back down on this.
“Give me a minute. I’m not signing shit until I know exactly what I’m putting my name down for.”
I started reading through the documents, and Rylie’s sizeable list of assets, as well as all the legal jargon that came with it. I knew Harper had left him a lot of large accounts on the personal side of things, but when I saw the estimated value as of a week ago, I slide the paperwork back across the table, and said “There is an error on the estimation of worth page.”
Joe took the document and checked the numbers again over the next twenty minutes, and when he was done, he made some pen and ink changes before handing it back to me. “Good eye, Ms. Baker. Here are the corrected amounts.”
“You just changed them to be higher. There are too many zeros in that number.” I pulled on the years of professionalism to keep the astonishment out of my voice.
“No ma’am. These are the correct figures.” My heart stopped. I completely froze. I knew he was rich, but holy shit. I looked up at him, then to the lawyer, and then to the paperwork again. No. There was a mistake.
“No. Rylie’s worth is tied up in Webster Enterprises.” I looked at Rylie, whose smile stretched from ear to ear. I looked between them and a sly smile crossed Joe’s face.
“She really had no idea how dripping in diamonds she was about to become, did she?” Joe said, chuckling at Rylie.
“Nope.” Rylie said with a pop of his lips.
“How did you keep this from her?” Joe said to Rylie, who shrugged.
“She’s never cared about money. I knew she loved me for me. When we are here in California, I’ve just been Rylie. In Chicago, we hid away.” Rylie came to crouch in front of me and took my head in my hands. “None of it means anything to me. I have you, and you are my most prized possession.”
“Rye…” Tears fell down my cheeks, and he kissed them away.
“Please, just sign the documents.” I nodded and then went to signing my name in about fifty different places. Apparently, Rylie was also changing the name of the Trust to. ‘Rylie and Luci Allen’s Family Trust’. So, there were six or seven deeds that had to be signed for my name to be added to them, not including the transfers for all the stocks, and bank accounts, both in the US and offshore. Then there were the transfers of property in a few cities here in the states, but there were also the international properties in Australia, New Zealand, China, France, England, and even a small island off the coast of Ecuador. I couldn’t believe the amount of property that there was.
When we finished, I sat there, stunned. I was staring at the stack of paperwork as Rylie signed a bunch of other stuff with Joe. Harper had set up Rylie for generations if everyone was smart. I looked up at him as he was talking about some acquisition in Kentucky, and he smiled at me softly. I returned it, but looked back at the stack of documents on the table.
My fingers tapped the table, as I looked out the window trying to absorb how my whole life had takena turn that I couldn’t even say it had taken a 180. It had gone so far beyond that; I felt like it had taken a 540. When I left my apartment a few days ago, I was just Lucille Baker, Project Designer for Kovinal Engineers and Designs. Granted, Luci had a boyfriend, and a crazy ex, but who didn’t have a crazy ex in their life. Now, I was engaged to my boyfriend, who was a freaking billionaire, and I had signed the documents to add my name to all those assets. Not to even mention the reason why we were sitting in this hotel room.
The sun parted from the clouds just then and I smiled. Justin couldn’t bother me ever again. He was gone. I felt a weight lift off my chest. I leaned back in the chair and instantly felt the exhaustion settle over me.
A nap. I needed a nap. Rylie and Joe were halfway through a discussion when I just got up and laid down on the bed.
Chapter twenty-one
IwokeuptoRylie stroking my hair and saying, “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go home. Then we can sleep for days.”
I nodded, and in a daze over all that had occurred this weekend, let him take me to the airport. We were sitting in the terminal when one of the news stations in the bar next to where we were sitting caught my eye.
“Justin Devereauxwas shot and killed by police yesterday when he tried to kill Webster Enterprise’s CEO, Rylie Allen and his fiance. No one is talking from the Allen camp yet, but reports say Allen and his fiance are unharmed. Lucille Baker had a restraining order filed against Devereauxafter Devereaux attacked her and inflicting injuries that sent her the hospital.”
“Rye.” I said, grabbing his arm. He looked up and read the last portion of the closed-circuit text and said, “Shit.”
Grabbing my hand, he dragged me straight to the security office. I was glad Justin was gone, but the events of yesterday had that deep-seated terror rushing to the surface. I had flashbacks of Justin pointing my own gun at me and started shaking again.
Rylie was asking for a private entrance to the plane, and when they said that there wasn’t a way for them to do that this close to boarding, they offered to have us board last, and would start boarding now. Once they had boarded the rest of the plane, they closed off first class and allowed us to board.
I had no concept of time, but I couldn’t stop shaking. He muttered something to the stewards of the plane, and then a few minutes later, they came back with two small shot glasses.
