Page 63 of The Broken Note

Quickly, I duck behind a post and watch him, face screwed up and ears red, stomping to the front door. It slams shut a moment later.

Mom’s dainty footsteps patter toward me.

I step out of the shadows. “What do you mean? What does dad not want to tell us?”

Mom yelps. “Dutch, what are you doing here?”

“Is there something I should know?”

She studies my face. After a few moments, she beckons me. “Step inside, Dutch. Let’s talk in private.”

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

DUTCH

Mom sits primly on the edge of the ottoman. One leg crossed over the other, she folds her hands on her knees.

I lean forward eagerly, already imagining the dirt she has on our father.

Could it be a notebook documenting all his affairs?

Dirty business deals?

Another hit and run buried under the rug?

Mom opens her mouth and says with her usual stoic expression, “The contents of your grandmother’s will was recently revealed. All her assets, money, and properties will go to one of her grandsons.”

“One of us?”

“The one who bears the first great-grandchild.”

A tight laugh chokes me. “What?”

“You might not have known, since I intentionally kept you boys from her, but your grandmother was a very harsh woman. Very unpleasant to live with.” Mom purses her lips as if she has a story she won’t tell anyone. “But in her old age, she began to have regrets. It led to her changing her will just before she died.”

“Gran died two years ago.”

“And the will was revealed only recently. I was sent a letter from her estate lawyer that outlined her last wishes.”

I lean forward, intrigued. “What did it say?”

“That your grandmother wanted to start fresh. Her dream was to gift her wealth to the generation furthest removed from her own.”

“The grandson who bears the first grandchild,” I murmur. “It’s unnecessarily competitive.”

“She was always fussy. I’m not surprised.”

Mom motions to me. “There’s more. If none of you have children, the inheritance will default to your father.”

“That’s B.S.You’reher daughter.”

Mom waves a hand as if she couldn’t be bothered. “I don’t need my mother’s assets to survive. Besides, I always knew that the money wouldn’t fall to me. Mother and I did not have a good relationship and it worsened when I married Jarod.”

She laughs softly. “I was honestly surprised when I heard she wanted to leave it all to someone in my family. I believed she would dispose it to charity, not out of goodwill but out of spite.”

“Dad doesn’t deserve it.” I glance at mom. “Is the only qualifier to have a baby? Because one of us can get that done in nine months flat.”

Mom smacks me in the back of the head. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell the three of you. You or Zane would be foolish enough to impregnate a poor girl just to piss off your father. Finn’s the only one who would stay out of trouble.”