I peel my gaze away from my family. I spent years attempting to gain approval from them, but they were never going to accept me. Alistair made sure of that by naming me Braxton and giving me my grandfather’s surname. I was the oops baby left to be raised by my grandfather.
A selfish act made by selfish people, but it’s one I’ll always be grateful for. I am who I am today because of Ace.
“I don’t have all day, Peter,” Alistair barks, causing the older man to startle in his seat.
Reaching over the desk, I place my palm on his stack of papers while directing my glare at Alistair. “Take your time, Mr. Coop. No one is rushing you.”
“Don’t you?—”
“Enough.” The threat steeling my tone has all the A-holes turning in my direction.
“Don’t forget your place, Reyes.” Alistair hisses it out as an insult—he always has—but his words stopped cutting me open when I learned what kind of man he truly is.
“Oh, don’t worry,father. That will never happen. My place, as Braxton Reyes, Ace’s grandson, is right here. Don’tyouforgetthat.”
“Can we get on with this?” My mother speaks up for the first time. “Anastasia and I have a yacht to catch.”
Disgust has me snorting in her direction. “Of course you do.” Sometimes I wonder how my siblings would have turned out had they also been raised by Ace.
“He was my father.” She sniffs. “I’ll mourn how I see fit.”
“Seems as though your mourning won’t be any different than any other day,” Grey mutters.
“You stay out of this, you freeloading piece of trash.” Archie’s hatred of Grey has never been a secret, and at least now he’s being honest about it.
I don’t bother explaining to them that Greyson is better family than they’ll ever be, or that he’s already made more money for Omni-Reyes than my father has made in a lifetime.
They’re blinded by their own jealousy. They’ll never hear the truth because they’re too dependent on the lies that they’ve built their lives on.
“I said, that’s enough,” I snap.
Everyone spins to face me, and I relish their expressions of shock and confusion. I haven’t had a relationship with these people in years. I’ll abide by my grandfather’s wishes for his company, but I will not stand for their blatant disrespect any longer.
I roll my hand toward the elderly attorney. “Mr. Coop, when you’re ready, please.”
He nods with a kind smile for me. When he turns to my family, he plasters on an agreeable but blank expression.
“This will take some time. If you’d please take seats.”
“We’re fine.” Alistair throws his shoulders back. It’s a move he believes holds power, but all it does is make his giant belly more pronounced.
“All right.” Mr. Coop opens the folder and lays out Ace’s final wishes—the inheritances, the requirements to receive them, and the delays that mean no one is getting anything today…or even this month.
The room throbs in complete silence.
My father is the first to find his voice. “Let me get this straight, his—” He points in Grey’s direction. “That bastard’s nephew gets an inheritance?”
“Say that again and you won’t be able to walk out of here, you feel me?” Grey snarls. He doesn’t use unnecessary words with outsiders, preferring to be the silent one in the shadows, but nothing makes him jump out of his own head faster than someone insulting our nephew.
“And he, Greyson, who isn’t even family, is to run Omni-Reyes for six months, and then he gets a fucking inheritance?” Alistair continues.
“That’s correct,” Mr. Coop agrees blandly. “However, Greyson is, legally, family.”
“But his blood relatives, Ace’s realfamily, even me, we’re the ones who have to jump through goddamn hoops just to hear his will six fucking months from now?”
“Greyson will abide by the same stipulations as the rest of you. It’s all laid out very clearly in your paperwork. Sage, I’ll remind you, was also legally adopted by Ace, and graduated high school at age fourteen. Therefore he will gain access to his inheritance when he turns eighteen and start-up money at twenty.” I might be mistaken, but Mr. Coop appears to be enjoying this back-and-forth.
My head throbs as tension creeps up my shoulder blades, through my neck, and settles around my temples.
