I stared across the table at the Carmichaels. They’d used to be so intimidating. I supposed they still were, but I had my grandfather backing me this time. It came at a price, but it would be worth it in the end.
“You made a bad deal with the wrong Kendry,” I told them. “I will tell you what I told your son. My mother is broke, but I am not. My father left everything to me. When I turned eighteen, my mother lost the right to play with my money. She’s in a lot of trouble.”
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Bill tried to say.
I stared at his wife. “Twenty million, was it? That’s how much you were going to buy me for. Like chattel to tie to your son’s bed as you took control of the shares my father left me.” I leaned back in my chair and looked to JJ.
He nodded at me. “Charlotte has informed Mr. Kendry of the dealings you had with Bethany Kendry. He is very displeased. Those shares used to belong to Mr. Kendry’s deceased son. To try to obtain them in such a way is abhorrent.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bill Carmichael said angrily.
“Is that so?” JJ said. “You didn’t exchange phone calls or messages with Bethany Kendry?”
“No, I have not,” Bill said with confidence.
“Bill,” Sharon said as she glanced at her husband nervously.
Bill stared at Sharon and whatever they silently exchanged made Bill’s nostrils flare. He set his angry gaze on me. “What do you want?”
“Keep your obsessed son the fuck away from me.” I glanced at Brandon. “You are to stay away from Roe as well. If anything happens to him, I will automatically assume it was you. If you break these terms…well, I’ll leave the explanation of what will happen to JJ, as the threats are from my grandfather.” I stood, grabbed my bag, and walked out with my head held high.
I almost made it out of the admin building. As soon as I saw the bathrooms near the exit, I dashed into the ladies’. I beelined for the first stall and puked until nothing was left in my stomach.I had gotten into a fight and stood up to people who had tried to buy me. My nerves were fucking shot.
Chapter Twenty-One
The restof the school week went by smoothly. Brandon and Oliver avoided me at all costs. I heard that Alicia followed Brandon around constantly trying to get a chance with him. It wasn’t any of my business.
My meeting with my grandfather, JJ, and Prue was moved up to Saturday morning. Bram offered to go with me. I thanked him and I told him I had to do this on my own.
I wore a pretty, somewhat expensive blue dress so dark it was almost black. It was slim-fitting, had three-quarter-length sleeves and a V neckline, and cut off just above the knee. I wore white pearl jewelry and expensive new black pumps.
I triple-checked that my father’s letter was in my purse before leaving. I was nervous the entire drive to JJ’s office and as I rode the elevator up to his floor. JJ’s legal office was very nice. He was a partner at his firm, and his name was on the wall I passed to get to the front desk. I told the receptionist who I was and she led me to JJ’s large corner office, which had a great view of Summerhaven. Prue was already there, sitting at a large conference table that took up one side of the room.
Prue got up and greeted me with a hug. “I’m glad you came.”
Before I could respond, JJ walked in with my grandfather right behind him. Sullivan Kendry had been very intimidating to me all my life. Even Mother seemed to get nervous around him. He was tall with a salt-and-pepper Ivy League haircut. Heavy on the salt. He had the same blue eyes as my father and the same nose. He was wearing a very expensive tailored gray suit with white gold and black diamond cuff links.
We stared at each other. My face was schooled. His was empty, as it always was when he stared at me.
“Hello, Grand—” I stopped myself. “Hello.” I couldn’t call him that anymore. He knew I wasn’t his granddaughter. His own letter from Father had told him so, and Grand—Sullivan had informed me of this when I’d called him. In fact, it was just as I had assumed. Sullivan had suspected for my whole life that I wasn’t really his son’s child. In our to-the-point phone call on Wednesday during the mess with Brandon, I’d told him I had a lot to tell him, and started with not really being his granddaughter before I jumped into what Mother had been planning with the Carmichaels and the shares Father had left me. After he was done listening, he said that he would come to Summerhaven sooner and I was to be at the meeting with JJ and Prue. The price for his help was for me to let him read my father’s letter to me and to consider selling him my father’s shares. I had agreed.
“Did you bring it?” was his greeting back.
Ignoring the slight disappointment I felt, I pulled my letter from my purse and handed it to him.
He took it and went to sit at the head of the conference table. I followed, sitting in the chair to his right. JJ claimed the chair to his left and Prue sat on my other side. When Sullivan was done reading my letter, he asked for Prue’s and JJ’s. They both handed off theirs and we sat quietly as he read each with a stoic expression.
Once he finished, he stared blankly off into space for a minute. Then he leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “You said you had more to tell me.”
I nodded. “It’s about how Father died. I saw it. I saw how he was killed.” I didn’t think anyone blinked as I went into the details of that night.
Sullivan stood abruptly. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I flinched at his harsh tone.
Prue came to my defense. “She was terrified. You have no idea the hell Bethany has put this poor girl through.” She reached into her purse and pulled out pictures. As she started laying them out, I saw that they were pictures of me, beaten and bloody over the years.
That prompted me to start from the beginning about the abuse I had endured, Prue chiming in with her perspective of the incidents.
