My Fiancé's Baby Isn't Mine, So Neither Is My Fortune novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Read the Will

My mother opened her evening bag and took out a folded packet of cream paper.

"I brought it," she said. "I thought someone might ask."

She walked to the stage steps with her back straight and her heels loud on the floor.

Bradford came down the other side to meet her.

For one moment they stood nose to nose, brother and sister, with the same white hair at their temples.

"Read it," Bradford said. "Read page nine aloud, Honor, and see who is laughing."

"I will," my mother said.

She did not take the microphone.

She did not need it, because the room had gone so quiet that the clink of a glass carried to the back wall.

"This is the last will and testament of my father," she said. "Page nine."

"The heir to the Auchincloss family holdings is the eldest child of my eldest child. Control passes to that heir outright on her marriage or her thirty-fifth birthday."

"My son Bradford shall serve as trustee until that day, in good faith, for the heir's benefit alone."

Bradford smiled.

"Go on," he said. "The rest."

My mother lifted her eyes to him and read the rest.

"Should any trustee deceive the heir or work against her for his own gain, his trusteeship ends that day. All he holds in trust passes to the heir, and he receives nothing."

The smile left his face.

"That is the clause you meant, Bradford," my mother said. "You thought it would take Bethany's name from her if she shamed us."

"It does not say that."

"No. It says you deceived her."

She turned her head to the old director.

"Is it so, sir?"

"It is so," the old man said. "The clause says a majority of the directors present may declare it. I count six directors at tables in this room tonight."

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