Page 40 of My Ex-Fiance's Best Men

“Come again?” August asks, confusion in his tone.

“My trust fund,” I whisper.

“On your twenty-fifth birthday, you stand to gain access to a generous trust fund and twenty-five-percent share in Baldwin Enterprises,” Mom says. “I’ve enlisted a team of lawyers to contest that and ensure you never receive any of it on account of the unbearable shame you’ve brought upon our family and our good name.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, but I am. Did you really think you could embarrass us by traipsing about in Hawaii with three men and I wouldn’t doanything about it?” Mom snaps. “Your father must be turning in his grave as we speak!”

Dominic is quick to get me out of the dining room but not without delivering his final word. “She’ll see you in court, Helen.”

“God, oh my God,” I manage as they lead me back to the foyer.

Maggie tries to help us with our coats, but Theo is faster. I give her an apologetic smile, my legs shaking as they guide me out of the mansion and down the front steps. By the time we reach August’s car, I’m shaking like a leaf, my brain drawing a complete blank while I try to wrap my head around the entire evening.

“What the fuck just happened in there?” I finally ask, albeit rhetorically.

“Your mother is trying to strip you of what’s rightfully yours,” August replies. “That’s not going to happen.”

He says it won’t happen, but what if it does? August doesn’t know my mother as well as I do. She wouldn’t do something like this if she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

I think I’m going to be sick.

11

PHOEBE

It’s been a quiet few days.

I’ve kept my distance from the guys. I need time to process everything that’s happened.

“I know you’re still reeling from that whole thing with your mom, but you’ve got to talk to them about it,” Penny says, watching my phone as it lights up with another message from Theo.

His texts make me the angriest because of his history with Georgina. A history he never disclosed.

“He was with her,” I mutter, sinking into my chair at our favorite café in SoHo. “Georgina.”

Outside, the city simmers in the summer heat, a red sun setting over the skyscrapers, casting long shadows along the sidewalk. The air ripples from the rising heat while I swirl my iced latte, soft jazz music oozing from a nearby speaker.

“What are you talking about?” Penny asks as she adds another lump of sugar to her black coffee.

“Theo. He was with Georgina.”

“Shut the front door.”

I nod slowly. “My reaction was a tad more profane.”

“Well, it’s part of his past, right?”

“I guess. But he didn’t tell me about it.”

“Would you have said no to what the three of you had in Hawaii if you knew?” Penny questions, giving me a deep frown. I know she’s thinking, and it makes all the sense in the world. I just want to stay mad at the guys for a little while longer to justify the distance I’m trying to keep between us. “Not to mention what the three of you continued here in the city.”

“No, but?—”

“Phoebe, you need all the support you can get, as clearly evidenced by what your mother is trying to pull regarding your trust fund,” she says. “I doubt this is the right time for that first proverbial bump in your relationship with the guys.”

I groan with frustration. “You’re right. I’m just… it’s all so weird. And wonderful. And weird. How do I deal with them? How do I build a relationship with three men when my own mother is determined to use that against me in order to take away something my father left for me. How could she do that?”