“Umm, no.”
“Don’t slouch,” Caroline bites out, waving an irritated hand at me that has my spine straightening. “You can have all your grandmother’s old, old money. Your entire inheritance.”
“If?” There’s always an if.
“Marry a Morelli.”
All the blood drains from my face and the room spins. “W-what?”
“According to what Ulrich and Anthony uncovered for me, you’re able to have your inheritance if you take the same deal your mother said no to. Marry a Morelli.”
“Ew,” I snarl. “Never. They’re evil, scary rats. They’re the enemy.”
She glowers at me, continuing to peel me apart. “Anthony is still looking into a number, but, darling, it would make you rich. We’re talking millions and millions.”
An image of Leo’s handsome but frightening face fills my mind. A full-bodied shudder wracks through me. I’d rather die poor and living under a bridge than willingly marry one of those mobster creeps.
“I would never marry a Morelli,” I grind out. “I don’t care if Win and I break up. Nothing would ever make me marry one of those monsters.”
“The Morellis have money too,” she reminds me, her gaze fierce and calculating. “But you’re playing a long game, hmm? Why have your grandmother’s money and the Morellis’ money when you could be…how do you put it? Team Constantine?”
“I have no long game. I don’t care about the money.”
“It’s a gamble.” Her blue eyes blaze with challenge. “You could lose both.”
“I said I don’t care,” I growl. “I’m going to college to make my own damn way. Winston and I started as some sort of game, but we’re not anymore. It’s complicated to others, I’m sure, but something the two of us understand.” I pin her with a hard stare. “I don’t plan on losing Win, and honestly, I don’t think he’d let me go.” A smile curves my lips up. “He put Shrimp in the will.”
She blinks hard several times.
“Our bird,” I elaborate, enjoying the way her sculpted eyebrow twitches.
Ignoring my comment, she grabs her iPad, swipes it on, and then hands it to me. Her perfumed scent wafts around me, threatening to choke me. I snatch the device from her and stare at the document in front of me.
A will.
My grandmother’s will.
Curious, I read through it. Caroline was right. I’m to be the sole heiress to the Huffington fortune as long as one certain provision is met. I must marry a Morelli. If I don’t marry a Morelli by my twenty-first birthday, or if I marry someone else, my money goes to the next of kin. There’s a lot of legal jargon that I don’t understand, but that’s the main gist.
“Like, if I got pregnant?” I ask, confused on the “next of kin” part.
Caroline Constantine shudders, actually shudders. “Dear God you better not be pregnant.” She rushes along as though that thought is too horrifying to consider. “Since you have no siblings, your next of kin is your father.”
I don’t like where she’s going with this.
“Dad can have the money,” I grumble. “I said I don’t care.”
“I’m sure he was counting on that childish attitude,” she bites out, stinging me with her words. “He probably thought he could manage the money on your behalf as well. Such a noble father. But you just said he blew through your college fund on Manda Mannford. Hmm. Something doesn’t add up. That doesn’t seem very noble at all.”
Tears prickle at my eyes. Dad couldn’t have known about this. He and Mom gave up the inheritance so they could be together. If he didn’t care then, he certainly doesn’t care now. Right? Dread pools in my stomach. Ever since Manda came into the picture, Dad has been different.
“Baron knew,” Caroline says, eerily reading my mind. “There’s documentation of him reaching out to your grandmother’s attorney when you were still a minor to obtain the newest copy of the will. Not long after he started his relationship with Manda.”
My blood runs cold. “What are you saying?”
“That you may not care about money, but every single person around you does.” Her glare is icy cold. “If you’re so set on my son, surely you’ve noticed that money is the driving factor of everything he does.”
“No, his family is,” I interrupt. “Then the money.”
She studies me for a beat before continuing. “My point is, if you have any hope of being with him in the long run, you’re going to have to start to care. His fortune is his legacy. It’s what makes him a Constantine. Ignoring his money is ignoring a part of him.”
“Manda is loaded.” My brows scrunch together as I try and figure out what all this means. “She wouldn’t care about my inheritance. I don’t understand it, but she really loves my dad.”
“Does she?” Caroline asks. “Or was this some scheme? The woman has a history of getting what she wants.”
“Dad wouldn’t allow himself to get manipulated.”