She Said I Do (But She Don't) ✔

Chapter 3

"Say that again, please."

Alice couldn't believe her ears. She gaped at lawyer in front of her as he repeated the six-figure amount. She had gone to Ethan's lawyer because she remembered he had left her some money in his will. But this wasn't some money. This was more than half a million.

"Miss, I can say that again for a fourth time if you want but I can assure you that is the amount in your brother's bank accounts."

She grinned at the lawyer which nodded friendly at her enthusiasm. Those thousands she could give to Owen and pay some of that debt and maybe that Smith would lengthen his promise to kidnap her.

"There's more. He left you a house once named to your mother then passed on to him..."

That house she definitely would sell and sum up the income with Ethan's money.

"...also, fifteen percent of his fifty percent of shares in the company he owed with Mr. Owen Stanley."

Those she won't sell. Her brother wouldn't want her to and that company is the only thing left of him.

"What about the rest of the shares?"

The lawyer consults the papers in front of him. "Those he left to Mr Owen Stanley. As presumed I might say. That guy got some good brain."

"He does." She couldn't deny it. "Is that all?" She didn't want to sound greedy but somehow she felt she was.

"There's another bank account which he left specifically for you." The portly lawyer adjusted the rotund spectacles on top of his nose and widened his eyes at his readings. "Your brother must have been a very generous man. It seems he left you another hundred thousand."

Alice's jaw dropped by inches. She had no idea her brother made that much money in the first place. He sure had a good head for finance and was somewhat frugal but all those savings seemed far too much. If she combined those thousands with some more from Owen's they could easily pay half the debt in one go.

"Can you arrange to access all this money?"

"His savings I can arrange surely."

"Oh, please do."

"The other account, the one he left for you, can only be accessed when you meet the one criterion he specifically insisted on."

"What criterion?"

And when the lawyer specified Ethan's condition, she couldn't believe her jaw could drop even more. Sure her brother was a man full of surprises.

* * * * * * * *

Alice strode the corridor of the office building of Owen and Ethan's company. She kept her chin up and refused to acknowledge the gawks she received from the workers behind the cubicles. Maybe she shouldn't have tapped her high heels that much and maybe they wouldn't have noticed her this much. But of course they will. They haven't seen her since so many months ago. And then probably their minds are in chorus about how different she looks and how much she now sways her derriere.

She reached the two doors at the end of hallway. The door to Ethan's office still had the nameplate on it which meant that his things are yet to be cleaned out. But she wasn't here to visit Ethan's office. She knocked on the opposite office door and stepped in without waiting for a 'Come in.'

Owen averted his attention from the board he was drafting at and the call he was making to the lusciously-clad woman at the door. He had to take a double look at her. Even his brain shut down briefly to recognize Alice. Those clothes and makeup have stolen the Alice he knew more than her volatile character did.