Damaged Goods

Chapter 2

"You have got to be kidding me," TJ said as he stared incredulously at the lawyer in front of him. "How is this even possible? It can't be legal. There has to be some way out of this."

"I'm sorry, I completely agree that the terms of the Trust in your father's will are... unconventional, but as the majority shareholder of the company, your father was very specific in what the terms were for you to inherit his shares at the time of his death. As I've already laid it out for you, if you want to receive the full Trust, you must marry this..." he stopped to read the name again from the pages in front of him, "Lyla Davenport within three months of your father's death, and stay married to her for a minimum of two years. At the conclusion of that year, the Trust in its entirety, which includes your father's estate as well as the shares of the company revert to you. If you are unable to meet these terms, you will only get $40,000 and his company shares will be divided among the remaining shareholders."

What fresh Hell had TJ's father devised as a way to punish him again, even from the grave? Would he never be free of him? Growing up, his life had been shadowed by his father's repeated disappointment in me. It never failed that whatever grades he got in school, his father believed he should have done better. Whatever accolades TJ received, there should have been more. Whatever jobs he had secured, he should have done better.

It had all come to a boiling point when TJ broke off his engagement with Diane. She was the one thing his father was proud of TJ for. She was wealthy and came from a good family. Being engaged to her was the best time in his relationship with his father. Even working for the company they had built, taking it to new heights through his expertise and skill, meant little compared to the status TJ's father expected them all to receive upon my TJ's marriage to Diane. When TJ informed his father that the engagement was off, his anger was unbearable. He had stormed through TJ's office, ransacking shelves, going through drawers and leaving chaos in his wake. TJ believed it was then he had come across the name of Lyla Davenport.

TJ remembered her shy face, eyes glued to the floor, when the teacher introduced her to the class when they were younger. She seemed sweet, but completely scared and shy. TJ didn't know why he felt drawn to share his orange with her that first day he met her. But she was very grateful, and seemed like she appreciated the gesture. They were friends until her family moved away. He missed her once she was gone, but he was very excited to get a few letters from her over the following months. But time went on, and TJ grew up, and she occupied very little of his mind after that. He had kept the letters though. TJ didn't know why, and he definitely didn't know why he had them in his office. He must have used them in a book as bookmark or something. TJ found them in the wreckage of his office after his father's outburst regarding the broken engagement to Diane. All TJ could figure was that his father had come across her name and decided that as a punishment for breaking things off with Diane, the only way TJ would be able to inherit what he had been working toward his entire life to secure, would be to dangle it in front of him by creating some impossible task.

"Do you even know who this Lyla Davenport is?" questioned the lawyer, bringing TJ back from his thoughts.

"Yes... well, sort of," he considered. Then it occurred to him, "What if she's already married to someone else?" he vaguely remembered hearing something about her getting married after high school. "Is there a provision in the will regarding what I'm supposed to do then?"

"No provisions made in that instance," the lawyer responded compassionately.

"What a nightmare," TJ groaned. "I don't even know where to find her, if she's married... if she's even still alive."

TJ hated his father at this moment. He had dedicated his life to the family's firm. He had earned multiple degrees and certifications in engineering to be able to rise in the ranks with the long-term goal of taking over the company when his father retired. Every step of the way, TJ's father had pushed him down. It was an ugly dance for the past several years. TJ would learn more, take on more responsibility, and develop his skills and expertise, just to have a promotion handed to his useless cousin. A guy who could barely be bothered to come in to work, half of the time. TJ would threaten to quit, and on two separate occasions, he had actually been applying and interviewing with competitors in an effort to make his own way. But TJ's father knew the business would suffer without him, so there would always be some sort of incentive or compromise that kept him there.

It felt so callous when to think of it, even just to himself, but since his father's death last week, TJ had actually taken a sigh of relief. He thought he would be getting to finally move forward with what he had worked for, and take the company to the next level. But upon hearing the conditions of the will, TJ was defeated all over again. His father had found a way to have the last laugh, at my expense, even from the grave.

TJ felt like an idiot and a fool, reaching out to Lyla after all this time. And worse yet, he felt desperate enough about his future, that he had to give it a try. He remembered her tall and lanky frame, with her scraggy brown hair, and eyes too big for her face. She had been taller than him when they were little, and he wondered if she still would be, or if she had just gotten her height early. He wondered if she would still be the shy quiet girl who wanted to hide behind trees, or if she had grown up differently. He definitely wasn't expecting the beautiful and confident woman he met for coffee, after calling her out of the blue. She had a quiet confident, and everything looked beautifully proportional, no longer limbs that were too long for her body, and curves in all the right places. Her eyes were beautiful and captivating, with a deepness that indicated there was far more beneath the surface that she didn't plan to reveal.