didn’t want him to see me hurting. “The businesses will be fine then. I’ll make do.”
“Okay.” The floor creaked under his weight. When he spoke again, his voice a little farther away. “What about the homes your father owns? There’s a good list of them.”
God.
The homes too. Did I want to give him everything?
I could handle the homes. I could talk to a realtor, have them sell everything, unless there was one I wanted to keep.
“No. I’ll handle the homes.”
“Okay.” I still heard his hesitation, but then I heard his footsteps on the floor, down the hallway. I could hear a slight murmur from the distance as Claude met him at the door, and a moment later, Claude was speaking behind me.
“Is there anything you wish of me, mistress? A nightcap, perhaps?”
My stomach rumbled at the mere mention, and I pressed on it. “No, thank you, Claude.”
“As you wish.”
He was leaving when I rounded. “Claude?”
He paused, and to his credit, he didn’t flinch when he saw the tears on my face. “Yes?”
“Can you put a list together of the household staff?”
“Of course, mistress.” He started to leave.
“And list their family dependents?”
“Ma’am?” His eyebrows pinched together.
I almost smiled. Almost. I’d never seen Claude confused. And to hell with it. I spoke clearly. “I need to know how many families depend on my father’s money to get by. I’d like to know, if you can add this to the list, even though it might be an invasion of privacy, how much in need everyone is?”
“Ma’am?”
He still didn’t understand.
“Just make the list, Claude. Please.”
“As you wish, mistress.”
This time, I didn’t correct him. It wouldn’t matter soon anyway.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Two months later
Everything was nearly done.
Tanner was back to conclude our business, and he had been right. Kai gave me a decent price for everything. I was shocked at the number when I saw it.
“I told you he’d give you a good price.”
“Yes,” I said faintly.
He could’ve cheated me. He knew it. I wouldn’t have been allowed to sell to anyone other than him, but this number, it was at least double what I could’ve gotten from someone else.
“Just sign here.” Tanner showed me all the places.
There was a lot of paper, a lot of different holdings Kai was taking over. I began signing.
“Are you sure you don’t want a lawyer to look everything over?” he asked.
I paused, shooting him a look.
“Right.” He laughed. “I got it.” He nodded, stepping back. “Sign away. Do you want coffee? I was going to grab a cup while you’re doing all that.”
I shook my head. “No, thank you.” I hadn’t had coffee for three months, at least.
“I’ll be back.”
I was nearly done signing when a soft knock sounded at the door. My realtor came in, flashing me a smile. “Hi! I called your butler, and he said you were in here for the day. Hope it’s okay I came? I wanted to tell you in person.”
“Yes. Of course.” I sat back, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
Shannon Caldriss, mid-thirties. She was someone Claude said he trusted, so I’d been working with her over the last couple months to methodically price and sell every house my father owned. I wanted all of them gone quickly, and to her credit, most of them were. There were three left to go: the main home, a cabin my father owned in Colorado, and a lake cabin north of Duluth. I hadn’t traveled to either of the last two, mainly because of Kai’s no-leaving-Milwaukee clause, but she had. She walked me through them on her phone, so I felt familiar enough to know that I didn’t want to stay in either place. There’d been talk that maybe I would keep one for myself. It was looking more like I would sell all three, though.
She shut the door, folding into one of the chairs, her eyes lit up. “So.” A bright wide smile. “I have good news. No.” She held her hands out, shaking them in excitement. “I have great news, actually! Phenomenal news. A buyer approached us and offered on both homes.”
“Both?”
“The Colorado one and the Minnesota one.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve talked it over with both other realtors, and we all feel it’s a really good deal. They want to offer ten million, so basically five for each home. There might be some back and forth with the agencies because the Colorado team is already vying, saying it’s fifty-fifty, so that means more of a commission to them than they normally would get, but that’s