831 Marriage Lane (Cherry Falls)

1

Kenton

I read over the background check again on Willow Crimson like something new is going to pop up. From the looks of things, this Willow is all but a saint. The girl doesn't even have a speeding ticket. I suppose it’s hard to break the law when you’ve spent a lot of your life sick. The young girl has beat leukemia.

The investigator I hired to dig up anything he could on her couldn't find a single person that had something negative to say about the girl. I know I probably sound like an asshole for doing this, but this does concern my only brother.

I don’t want to see him lose everything he’s worked hard for in life. I pull up the picture of the girl again, trying to figure out why my brother is so hung up on her. You’d think she’s some pin-up girl or something.

She’s rather plain, if you ask me. A bit on the skinny side too. Nothing about her stands out to me. I’m clearly not seeing what my brother does. And I’m definitely not understanding why the hell he would make this girl that he barely knows the head of his whole fucking estate. Not only as his lawyer do all kinds of red flags start popping up for me, but more so as his brother.

My little brother has made a killing on some of the medical equipment he’s made in robotics. He’s one of the world's youngest billionaires. So when my assistant dropped the papers onto my desk to update my brother's estate, to say I wasn’t happy about it is an understatement.

Especially when I found out he was changing everything over to some girl that I’d never heard of. Making her in charge of everything if something was to happen to him. That was a huge red flag and made me start looking into what the hell was going on. Flashbacks of my mom taking advantage of our dad immediately started running through my mind. Knowing I couldn’t let that happen to my brother, Lennon, I started digging.

I’ve always handled my brother's affairs with being a lawyer and all. I was better at many aspects when it came to things of this sort than him. He is a genius when it comes to technology. He wanted to work on his projects or ideas, not bother with the numbers and bottom lines.

It didn’t matter to me what he did with his money for the most part. If something happened to him, he could donate it all. I don’t need his billions. I have my own. I invested in everything Lennon showed interest in over the years, knowing whatever it was would make a killing. I was right. Plus, there’s the little fact that I’m one of the best divorce attorneys in the country. One that has handled some high-profile divorces and seen how greedy people get when money is involved.

I won’t stand for some bloodsucker trying to drain my brother dry. I’m actually a bit shocked that some woman hasn’t gotten her hands on Lennon already. He’s always been too nice. The only reason a woman hadn't gotten their claws into him years ago is because my brother fell in love with a girl when he was only a boy himself. He’s spent his whole life holding out hope that he would find this girl again one day. Now he thinks he has. But I’m not so convinced.

I don’t think there’s a fat fucking chance that this girl is who she says she is. I think it’s more likely that Willow found out about my brother and this torch he’s been carrying for a girl and is pretending to be her. It has to be that. I know it.

Too bad everything seems to be checking out on Willow Crimson a bit too perfectly. Her timelines are matching up with the girl Lennon has been searching for. The crazy lovesick bastard is going to hand over to this girl everything he has. She’ll end up taking it all, and it will kill him.

I love my brother, but for as long he’s been trying to find the girl he swears he married when he was a young boy, I think this could do him in. He’ll be one of those stupid schmucks that dies of a broken heart.

He never dated anyone because he stood by the fact that he married a girl when he was a kid in a hospital chapel. At least I had a sane reason for avoiding the opposite sex. I didn’t want the life and money sucked out of me. I got front row seats to that growing up. And I’ll be damned if I let my brother succumb to the same fate as our father.

“We’re landing shortly, sir,” my assistant, Hilton, says. I close the file. It’s pointless to keep reading it. I’ve got the damn thing memorized at this point. “Ms. York keeps emailing about setting up a meeting.”