Way to Her Heart - By Melanie Schuster Page 0,56
that he’s been so cavalier about the existence of his child for all this time doesn’t make him a candidate for father of the year. Very few judges would be willing to entertain the idea of allowing him into her life until he shows the willingness and ability to act as a responsible parent—something you’ve done all by yourself for all these years.”
Sherri was immediately comforted by his assessment of the situation.
“In fact, I’d keep them as far apart as possible until we determine what he has to gain by claiming her. There has to be something in it for him and we have to uncover his motive. Beautiful and brilliant as you are, the notion that he suddenly woke from a deep sleep to decide that you’re his soul mate is more than a little shaky. So let’s find out what his real motivation is, shall we?”
He cleared a space on his crowded desk and whipped out a legal pad and a pen. “Okay, let’s start with the basics. What’s his name?”
“Trevor Barnes,” she answered.
Royce’s eyes went from the legal pad to lock onto hers with a look of disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding. Trevor Barnes? Did he go to law school at University of South Carolina?”
“Yes, he did,” Sherri said with confusion on her face. “We met when he was in school.”
“Is he tall, brown-skinned with curly black hair, used to drive a silver Mercedes?”
“Yes, he did. I’d forgotten about that car, but he really loved it.”
“We were in the same year at USC. May I say that you had a very narrow escape, Sherri? If he’d stepped up and done the right thing by staying with you, your life would be hell right about now. Did he ever pass the bar exam?”
“Of course he did. He passed it before he left Columbia. That’s one of the reasons he bailed because he’d just gotten a job with this...” Her voice trailed off because Royce was shaking his head back and forth with his eyes shut.
“Trevor Barnes was in the bottom tenth of our class. He was nowhere near passing the bar exam when he was here, and he had no job offers whatsoever, unless some firm needed a janitor. As a matter of fact, word around the campfire is that he still hasn’t managed to pass the bar. I stay in touch with a lot of the people I went to school with, especially my frat brothers. It’s like a running joke among us that he still hasn’t made it. The last I heard, he has a job selling high-end used cars in Pomona or someplace like that.”
Sherri’s mouth dropped open and her eyes were like saucers, but Royce wasn’t finished.
“This is all making more sense now that I know that the man in question is my old classmate. I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Trevor’s family is loaded. His grandfather is a self-made millionaire, maybe a billionaire. He made his money the old-fashioned way—he earned it. He was a pharmacist who developed a lot of medicines that he patented and ended up owning a huge pharmaceutical company. His son, Trevor’s father, didn’t have the gene for scientific research, but he has a brilliant legal mind, so he helped keep the company in the family’s hands. They’ve staved off every takeover attempt and kept it private, even though they’ve had all kinds of offers to go public,” Royce explained.
Fascinated by what she was hearing, Sherri asked how Royce knew all of the family history.
“Because Trevor couldn’t stop bragging about it—that’s how. He was my fraternity brother and we shared a house with some other guys for a while. Didn’t he talk to you about his brilliant future as the scion of Barnes Pharmaceuticals? Didn’t you notice how much money he had? He wasn’t the typical starving law student, not by a long shot.”
“Are you serious? I know I sound really stupid here, but I don’t remember Trevor flashing any money around me. The only thing he had of value was his car, and he said it was a gift for graduating at the top of his class when he got his bachelor’s. He never seemed to have any money, not that I really paid any attention. Med school is pretty all-consuming. It’s a miracle that I had any time to spend with him,” she said.
She was deep in thought for a moment, trying to remember details of their dating life. “He talked