I Waited Five Years to Marry Him, Then I Found Out He'd Married My Best Friend novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Safe

My sister opened the door in her scrubs with a toddler on her hip.

She looked at my sweatshirt, my ruined heels, and the man behind me.

"I'll make grilled cheese," she said, and stepped aside.

That was my sister. She asked her questions after the food.

Her kitchen smelled of toast and crayons.

Her oldest sat at the table coloring a horse purple, and she looked up at Eli with open interest.

"You're big," she told him.

"I know," Eli said. "I bump into things."

She nodded, satisfied, and went back to the horse.

I sat down and read the email again.

My sister read it over my shoulder and said a word she did not allow her children to say.

Eli set a canvas bag on the table.

It was the kind a contractor carries, with a split seam and a smear of white paint.

"My father's files," he said. "The ones I had before she changed the locks on the house."

"I thought you photographed everything."

"I photographed what was in her desk. These are what he left me."

He unzipped the bag.

Inside were a will, a thick envelope, and a legal pad covered in small square handwriting.

"The will gives me twenty percent of Ardmore Capital," he said.

"I know that part."

"The envelope is a voting agreement. It lets me hand my vote to anyone I name."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because I'm naming you."

I stared at him.

"Eli, no."

"Sign here, and Constance has to count your vote beside mine." He slid the pen across the table. "She has run that firm for twelve years because nobody could outvote her."

My sister had stopped buttering bread.

"Hang on," she said. "What is he doing?"

"He's giving me his stock," I said slowly, "and I don't know why."

"Yes, you do," Eli said.

"No." I pushed the pen back. "You hate your family, and this is a way to hurt your brother with my name on it."

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