Page 8 of Claiming Tessa

T essa walked up to the receptionist. “Hello, we’re here to see Jared.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but if he’s not busy, he’ll see me. Tell him his sister is here.”

“All right. One moment.”

Tessa walked over, leaned against the guys, and waited.

“He’ll see you, ma’am.”

“Are you sure you’re okay to do this by yourself?”

She looked up at Gavin. “Knowing you both are here makes a huge difference.”

Diego pressed a kiss to her lips. “We’ll be here.”

Tessa nodded, turned, and followed the woman down the hallway and into a huge office.

Jared stood with a big grin and walked toward her to pull her into his arms. “This is a nice surprise.”

“Do you have a few minutes?” Tessa asked.

“Of course, come here and sit down. Is everything okay?”

She could see the worry in his eyes. “To be honest, I’m not sure.”

Jared sat down in the chair next to hers.

“All right. Tell me.”

“I went to see my father’s lawyer.”

Jared nodded. “Okay.”

She inhaled a breath. “Did you know I own everything?”

He looked confused. “What’s everything?”

“My father willed me his whole fortune and the house. Our mother gets an allowance from my dad as she does from yours.”

Jared sat back in shock. “I don’t understand. I knew she only got a set amount of money each month from my father’s estate, but she’s always said she got everything from Ronald’s estate.”

“Has a lawyer named Franklin Turner tried to talk to you?”

“Yes. Several times. He’d tried to find you, and I gave him all the information I had, which wasn’t much. He hasn’t gotten ahold of me in a few years, so I assumed you two had talked.”

“No. He happened to find out I was back and living with the guys and sent a letter to me there. I just had a meeting with him.”

Jared wiped a hand down his face. “That bitch,” he burst out. “I knew she was cold, but I didn’t think she’d go so low as to steal from you.”

She nodded and stayed still.

“What are you going to do?”

“That’s one of the reasons I stopped by. I need your advice. I also wanted to tell you what the lawyer told me about our mother.” She went on to talk about her family, explaining that she had never graduated and had never tried to go home to see them.

“Thank God for our fathers. If it weren’t for them, who knows how we would have turned out,” Jared said. “Are Diego and Gavin here?”

“Yes.”

“Is it okay if we call them in? They might have ideas we don’t think of.”

She smiled. “I’d like that.”

Within a few minutes, the men walked through the door. They shook Jared’s hand and then came to stand by her. Jared motioned to the seats in the corner of his fancy office. Tessa, Gavin, and Diego sat on the sofa, and Jared sat in a chair next to it.

For the next hour, they discussed the various options and reached a decision.

Jared looked at his sister. “Do you want me to go with you to talk to our mother?”

Tessa shook her head. “No.”

Jared nodded. “She won’t need all the servants anymore.”

“I thought about that. I was planning on giving the ones that had been there for a long time a huge retirement settlement that they could live off comfortably. The new ones, I’ll give a very good severance package.”

“That’s a great idea. I worried about Arthur and Maggie,” Jared said.

“They’ll be taken care of. They were more of a family to me than my own mother was.”

“I’d like to help.”

Before Jared could interrupt, Tessa explained, “Since they were my dad’s employees, I’ll take care of them. However, I would like to check in to see if any of our mother’s family members are still alive. We’ll find out their situations, and if we can help, you can be involved with that.”

Jared smiled. “I’d like that. Will you call me after you talk to her?”

Tessa stood and went into her brother’s arms. “Yes. Thank you for being here.”

“I hate that she tried to turn us against each other.”

“But it didn’t work,” Tessa reminded him.

“You didn’t know that until you came home, though,” he reminded her.

“I know now, and that’s all that matters. Do you know if Mother has any set appointments?”

“She gets her hair done every week on Wednesdays at nine in the morning. What are you thinking?”

“I want to talk to Arthur and Maggie before I talk to her. I don’t want them to be surprised.”

“They’ll appreciate that.”

Tessa gave him one more hug. “You’ll hear from me soon.”

“Good. Call if you need me.”