the years, I'd have a better chance at … well, everything.
After an hour of suffering through my math homework, my brain is fried and I decide it’s probably best to put it away for another day. I still don’t understand this bullshit, but every day it gets a little easier.
With homework mostly out of the way, I hurry back into the pool house and as I’m stripping out of my school uniform, a thought occurs to me. Charles Carrington was a greedy man. He wouldn't go and get married like that, and this time I don’t mean it as a confused statement, but a fact. What if he didn’t actually get married? What if this is all some kind of sham and Jacqueline forged the paperwork to cash in?
I pull on a pair of high waisted shorts, tug a black crop over my head, and fish through my bra for my phone that’s been stashed in there all day.
It rings twice before Nic’s handsome face appears on my screen. “Facetime?” he questions with an exaggerated gasp. “What did I do to receive this honor?”
I roll my eyes but can’t help smiling at the idiot. “I missed you,” I tell him, my lips pulling into a goofy as fuck grin. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I know, babe, but it’s just been a week.”
I let out a heavy sigh and focus on the way his eyes soften as he watches me through the screen. “A week is too long.”
A scoff comes from the background before the phone is wrestled out of Nic’s hands and Sebastian’s face appears. “What the fuck is this?” Sebastian demands. “Nic gets a Facetime call and all I get is an occasional text message when you remember to actually send one.”
“Shut up,” I laugh. “You know I love you too. Shit has been a little crazy here.”
“Yeah right, you’ve probably just been distracted by the new boyfriend of yours.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“I’ll believe that wh–”
The phone is stolen right back and I hear Sebastian’s objections in the background before the screen drops to the ground and I hear the familiar sound of Nic’s heavy punch slamming into Sebastian’s flawless skin. A loud, pissed off groan sails through my speakers before Nic picks up the phone and his face re-appears. “So, what’s up, O? You never Facetime. Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing wrong with me exactly,” I say with a cringe, wondering how he’s going to feel about me asking to help when it comes to Carrington business. Hell, Colton’s probably going to be pissed when he finds out I was talking to outsiders about something that’s clearly a family matter.
“Spit it out, babe. I’m about to go on a run.”
Shit.
“Do you remember the crying bitch from Charles’ funeral?”
“Yeah, the same one who was sucking his dick at that party?”
“Yeah, that’s her. She kinda showed up here late last night claiming that she’d married Charles in secret and is wanting, well, I don’t exactly know what she wants but it doesn’t seem right to me. Something fishy is going on and I was wondering how easy it is to forge a marriage certificate and have a room full of thirty lawyers completely stumped?”
Nic scrunches his face. “Come on, babe. I really don’t think I should be getting involved in this shit.”
“Please. I just … I don’t need you to get involved but can you at least look at the certificate and tell if it’s fake or not?”
Nic groans and he stares at me for a long moment before finally giving in. “Fine. Go and get your mom and dad’s marriage certificate and make it quick. I’ve only got ten minutes to spare.”
“On it,” I beam, hurrying into mom’s room and pulling down the box she keeps in the top of her closet that is filled with all our important things. I rifle through it, skipping over my birth certificate and dad’s death certificate before finally finding a copy of their marriage license and the original marriage certificate.
“Got it,” I announce, holding it up to the phone so he can see.
“Good, now go and get the one you think is fake.”
My eyes bug out of my head. “You want me to go into that room and take the one thing they’re all fretting over?”
Nic stares at me as though he’s looking at some kind of stranger. “Fuck me, O. I knew moving away was going to change you but I didn’t think you were going to lose