My Fiancé's Baby Isn't Mine, So Neither Is My Fortune novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Auchincloss House
My mother waited for us at the top of the Auchincloss House steps, in the navy suit, exactly where she had stood the morning I came home with a bruised wrist.
The flag on the pole was snapping in the wind off the cliff.
Derrick got out of the car first and came around to my door.
"Come inside," my mother said. "Both of you."
She led us into the study.
The same desk stood there, and the same four neat stacks of paper.
This time there was only one thing on it, a brass key ring with three keys.
"The family office," my mother said. "The vault, the files, and the door."
She held the ring out to me.
"The will gives you the shares on your marriage or your thirty-fifth birthday. I don't intend to make you wait four years for the desk."
I did not take it at first.
"You'd step down?"
"I'll stay on as chair of the Foundation, because my doctor says I may lift a pen but not a boat." Her mouth lifted. "You'll run the office. I'll sit beside you and tell you when you're wrong."
"You'll tell me anyway."
"I will."
I took the ring.
It was heavier than it looked, and still warm from her hand.
"Derrick," my mother said.
He straightened.
"Ma'am."
"Don't call me that in this room. Not anymore."
She picked up a folded paper and handed it across the desk.
"General manager of the Auchincloss family office. The pay is twice what you earn now. The seat is next to hers. And your mother's treatment is in a fund of its own, in her name, beyond anyone's board."
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