Page 137 of Never After Us
“It’s more complicated than that,” he states.
“So, I’m not her daughter?”
“No.She wanted this to have a certain order,” he states.“She was afraid that if I told you immediately, you’d leave and she believed?—”
“I don’t care what she believed.What happens if I don’t want anything?”I ask.
“Then all her assets except for the trusts she left for her sisters would go to Miss Mila O’Shea,” he responds.“Unless there are any other children born before her eighteenth birthday, then the inheritance?—”
“So my children would get that money,” I state.
“Indeed.”
“What about the charities?”
“Only if you accept the inheritance.”
“What other documents do you need to deliver?”
“Letters she wrote,” he responds.“I can have Daniel deliver them within the next hour.”
“Is she going to make me cry again?”I ask and my voice comes out angry.
“We don’t know the contents of said letters,” he states.“We can hold them until you’re ready.”
“No, please send them tonight,” I say, because maybe having them here will make it easier to read when I’m ready.The question is ...when will I ever be ready?
ChapterFifty-Five
Alec
“Morning?”
I lift an eyebrow at the sight of Julian and Rhodes blocking Mara’s doorway like they’ve been rehearsing an entrance.The hallway light frames them in a way that only fuels my irritation.“Why are you visiting Mara?”
Rhodes points his thumb toward my apartment.“Nobody opened, and Julian mentioned you’re fond of your very beautiful neighbor.”
“I said gorgeous,” Julian corrects, already smug.“And obviously off limits because this one called dibs.”
I stare at them, baffled.If it weren’t true, I’d be beating the shit out of them.Maybe not that, but it’d upset me a lot.“Again—why are you here?”
“We’re checking on you,” Julian replies as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.Then he repeats it, slower.“Eddie mentioned something about having an existential crisis.But you weren’t home.Did you ...move here?”
Fucking Eddie.We’ll have words the next time we see each other.I told him no fucking Wilders.
Now ...the biggest problem is trying to explain why I’m in Mara’s home this early in the morning.It is the second day in a row I’ve crashed on the couch, but that doesn’t mean I’ve moved in.Last night I helped with dinner, stayed because Mara got more letters from Lina, and somehow the evening folded into something I didn’t want to walk away from.I got letters too—still sealed in my jacket.Maybe I should read mine now that she isn’t downstairs, watching me pretend they don’t exist.
Footsteps sound on the staircase.“Who is it?”Mara calls out before she appears, wrapped in soft morning light and that quiet resilience she wears like a second skin.“Oh—your friend Julian with ...another Wilder?How many Wilders do you know?”
My jaw tightens because she says it almost fangirling and that doesn’t sit well.She never made a fuss about meetingtheAlec Hovarth.Not that I wanted her to go all fan-crazed on me, but I really don’t love the way she’s looking at them—and yes, I’m fucking jealous.
“He knows five, obviously,” Julian announces, breezing past her as if he owns the place.“How are you, Mara?”He lifts her hand and kisses it.
She smiles, though something in her eyes dims for a heartbeat—courtesy, not comfort.I feel a little more comfortable knowing she doesn’t give a shit about them.
“I’m fine.Are you taking him for breakfast?”She tilts her head.
“No, they’re leaving,” I answer before either of them can invent plans.
