Page 1

Chapter 1

Dallas

“Hello?” Dallas’ hand gripped her phone harder than

necessary.

She figured it was a stress reaction triggered by

answering the call from an unknown number. She usually let

those ones go to voice mail, so she could decide what to

answer and what to leave. Usually they were telemarketer calls

that she was happy to delete without listening to.

Unfortunately, she was in the middle of walking down the

sidewalk on her way to the gym during her lunch break and

she’d pulled her phone out of her bag without thinking.

“Hi, I’m looking for Dallas Tenison?”

“This is,” she replied, growing more edgy since she

didn’t know who the deep male voice belonged to on the other

end. It was brusque and businesslike. She wondered for a

second if she’d forgotten to file her taxes or something, but no.

She remembered getting her refund in the absurd amount of

two dollars and thirteen cents and having to cash that silly

cheque.

“My name is Jim Johnson. I’m a lawyer with Johnson,

Kashinsky, Ferrison, and Mayler.”

“Umm… Alright.” Dallas’ heart beat wildly. What the

heck was going on? Was someone suing her? If they were,

didn’t they have to serve that stuff in person? Could a lawyer

do it over the phone? Who the heck would want to sue her

anyway? She tried to be a good neighbor. She was a decent

driver. No fender benders lately that she recalled.

“I’m calling on behalf of my late client, Willford

Smyth.”

Now Dallas’ heart wasn’t beating at all. It ground to a

painful stop like an old car dying in the middle of heavy

traffic. Putt, putt, putt, clunk, bang. She imagined the smoke

flooding out of her tail pipe and the honks behind her. She

looked quickly behind her, left, then right, and tucked up into

the corner of an alley between two towering older buildings.

“O-okay,” she stammered. She could hear better out of

the wind and away from the rush of traffic. Even though it

wasn’t far, the buildings blocked out a lot of the extra noise.

She was almost certain she’d heard the guy wrong.

“I know this might be a shock to you, because I

understand that you haven’t been in contact with the family in

years.”

“You could say that,” Dallas rasped. It felt like there

was something blocking her airway, but she was still able to

gulp in a breath around it.

“The reason for my call is that Mr. Smyth left you a

substantial sum of money when he passed. Of course you