The True Heiress

Chapter 10

A/N: Here is the next chapter! A little shorter than the last, but the plot is finally getting started! I can't wait for the next few chapters, but be patient because the next one is going to be longer, and harder to write.

Chapter 10

POV: Grayson Hawthorne

"He left everything to her??" Skye is angry, and rightly so. An outsider just stole our fortune, my fortune. I am almost convinced she conned her way here, and is going to take everything from us. She looks innocent, but you should never judge a book by its cover. "Why?" She looks like she could kill someone; she looks out of her right mind.

"Who the hell is she?" Zara's voice cuts through the air like a knife, and it echoes throughout the room.

"There must be some mistake." I speak. I know what I sound like to others. I sound like a fixer. I sound like I do this everyday. And that's partly true, it comes with being a Hawthorne. I inwardly chuckle. I don't expect what Avery says next.

"He's right." She whispers, and then speaks louder, "Grayson's right." I see everyone turning to look at her in my peripheral vision. "There must be some mistake." Her voice comes out shaky. I don't believe her though. It's all an act, she's lying, she has to be.

"You see?" Skye adds. "Even Ava agrees this is ridiculous." I applaud her in my mind. She knows just how to degrade someone and make them feel bad. But, at the same time, I beg her to stop. She is going to get us kicked out, or worse. Avery holds the cards now, we just have to bluff.

"I assure you, there is no mistake." He tells Avery and then turns to us. "And I assure the rest of you, Tobias Hawthorne's last will and testament is utterly unbreakable. Since the majority of the remaining details concern only Avery, we'll cease with the dramatics. But let me make one thing very clear. Per the terms of the will, any heir who challenges Avery's inheritance will forfeit their share of the estate entirely."

That sounds wrong. It should be me. It was always me. This is utterly devastating.

"No will is that ironclad," Constantine voices. "Not when there's this kind of money at stake."

I silently think, where this is a will, there's a way.

"Spoken," Nash interjects, "like someone who didn't really know the old man."

I hear Jameson mutter under his breath, "Traps upon traps, and riddles upon riddles," as he stares right into Avery's eyes. I immediately become stiff.

"I think you should leave," I say it like a request, a thought even. But I know she got my message. It was an order.

"Technically..." Alisa speaks, with close to a horrified expression, "It's her house." I really hate Alisa right now, but I know she has no choice. Right now, she is just the lawyer trying to follow the law. Not my family. She's supposed to be there for me. Not Avery.

I don't believe Avery when she says, "I don't understand." She's pretending like she doesn't know anything that is happening right now. I can't hold back my scoff. Way to act innocent.

Mr Ortega adds on with a neutral tone, but I know what's really under it, "My daughter is correct. You own it all, Ms. Grambs. Not just the fortune, but all of Mr. Hawthorne's properties, including Hawthorne House. Per the terms of your inheritance, which I will gladly go over with you, the current occupants have been granted tenancy unless-and until-they give you a cause for removal." Mr Ortega's voice cuts through the air, and he lets his words sink in. "Under no circumstances," I hear the warning in his tone, telling me to shut up and be quiet, "can those tenants attempt to remove you." The room goes deathly silent. Everyone is looking at Avery, and I have the sudden feeling that someone is going to lunge at her. It's not billions of dollars at stake. It's a whole empire.