I Won $1 Billion and Ditched the Deadbeats novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Landlord

The lawyer arrived at the suite in nine minutes, in a gray raincoat, with two hotel guards and no expression.

She cleared the hallway in under a minute.

I sat on the edge of the bed in a hotel robe while Lana hid in the bathroom with the door shut.

"Your brother gave an interview to a local station at six this morning," the lawyer said. "He confirmed your name, your age, your address and your history with the family."

"He knows I won."

"A reporter put the rest together."

"What did he say?"

"That you abandoned your sick father and ran off with a gas station girl."

The bathroom door opened a crack.

"That's the nicest thing anyone's said about me all month," Lana said.

The lawyer ignored her.

"The trust can hold. But the story will run. You can fight it, or you can choose the next move yourself."

"What are my options?"

"I'm not your mother, Mr. Briggs. I don't give options. I give invoices."

I thought for a minute.

"Does Shelby rent her boutique?"

The lawyer opened a folder, flipped three pages, and looked up.

"Shelby Rose Boutique, Brown Street. Month to month, twenty-four hundred a month. The building has belonged to the same elderly man for thirty years."

"Is he selling?"

"He'd sell for a very fair price. Very quickly."

"Then call him," I said. "Today."

The old man signed the sale on Thursday.

Friday was the biggest sale day of the year at Shelby's shop.

She had hung pink balloons over the awning and put out a sandwich board that read, "FALL SPECTACULAR, 40% OFF EVERYTHING!"

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