Chapter 30: A Meeting with the Lawyer

Emily touched my arm and said, “Catch you later, Paul.” I nodded.

“No, it’s okay. Actually, it might be better if you hear this anyway,” Lily said. “Let’s go in here.” She opened a nearby classroom door.

“Lils, it’s break. Can’t this wait?”

“Trust me, Paul. You want to hear this. Five minutes. That’s all.”

I shrugged and followed her into the room. Emily slipped in too and closed the door behind her.

“Make it quick, Lils. I’ve got Maths next and—”

“I know, Paul. Look...” She took a deep breath. “Usually when I’ve finished my homework, I go back downstairs to make a drink—hot chocolate. It helps me sleep. And usually, I ask my parents if they want one too—”

“Lils, what has this—”

“If you keep interrupting this will take longer. So shut up.”

Emily sniggered.

“The point is that last night Daddy wasn’t in the lounge with Mom. She told me he had a visitor in his study, so, I went to see if his visitor wanted a drink too. Anyway, the study door was open and as I got closer, I could hear them talking. I know I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but I couldn’t help it. I heard Daddy say that Christine had been on to him about postponing Clarissa’s inheritance. Christine is Clarissa’s mom’s name, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“Anyway, the other man said that Christine had spoken to him about it too. I don’t know who he was, but he sounded like a lawyer or something because Daddy asked him what the situation was and he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He said that two of the three trustees, or something, had to agree to the postponement to make it happen. Daddy said he didn’t see any reason to delay and the other guy said he didn’t either. Daddy then said that’s that then and they’ll sign everything over when she turns eighteen regardless of what Christine says.”

My eyes got wider as I listened to this. “What was the lawyer’s name? Did you hear his name?”

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

“Did you see him? What did he look like?”

“Tall. Bald.”

“It’s Will. I know it is. He as good as told me represented the trust.”

“When?” Emily asked.

“It’s not important.” I took my phone from my pocket and picked out Will’s number from the address book. He answered within five rings.

“Paul? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Sorry to call you at work, Will, but this is important.”

“Shoot.”

“It’s true you’re one of the trustees of Clarissa’s inheritance, isn’t it?”

“Paul, you know I can’t—”

“Is it true that there are three trustees and that two of them have to agree in order to postpone signing everything over to her?”

“How did you—? Look, I told you I can’t—”

“This is important, Will.” I took a deep breath to compose myself. Losing my temper with Will wouldn’t help. He was just doing his job. “Look, do you know what Clarissa’s mom is making her do? Do you know why? You can put a stop to it. You can give her back her life. You can let us be together again.”

“Paul, I don’t understand. I thought the two of you had split up.”

“Exactly! We split up because her mom threatened to withhold all her money unless we did.”

“I see.” He paused, then, “Can you meet me after school? Both of you? Say, four at your house?”

“We’ll be there. Thanks, Will.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I’ll see you at four.”

Will’s car was parked on the road outside my house when I got there. He was in the lounge talking with Vicky and they both looked up when I entered. Vicky touched his arm and said, “Thanks for the advice, Will.”

“Don’t make any decisions yet, Victoria. Like I said, this isn’t my area of expertise. But I’ll put you in touch with my colleague, Jeremy. He’s the man to speak to about it.”

She nodded. “Tell him I’m waiting for his call.” She stood. “I better go and get ready for work.”

“Where’s Clarissa?” Will asked after Vicky had left.

“She’s on her way. I hope. It’s Emily’s job to get her here.”

“Emily?”

“A friend.”

He nodded. “Paul, you know I can’t discuss anything with you unless Clarissa’s here. And then only if she asks you to stay in the room. If she wants you to leave, that’s her right.”

“I know. But she’ll want me here. I know she will. Can I get you a drink while we’re—” The doorbell rang before I could finish the offer. “That’ll be her.”

She threw herself into my arms when I opened the door, clutching me to her so tightly I could barely breathe. Then she kissed me with all the seismic passion we shared, leaving me gasping for air when we’d finished.

“Hi,” she said with a goofy smile. “I’ve been waiting to do that since Christmas.”

I returned her goofy smile with interest.

“So, what’s this all about? Ems wouldn’t tell me, but when I told her I couldn’t risk mom finding out, she said after I’d heard what you had to say, it wouldn’t matter if she did. I told her to stop being so damn cryptic and just tell me, but she just smiled at me and said it would be better coming from you.”

I grinned and said, “What a bitch, huh?”

Clarissa laughed. “Yeah, total bitch. So, are you going to hold out on me too? Or did you get me around here on false pretences so you could take advantage of me?”

“Come with me.” I held out my hand.

“You are taking me upstairs to take—” I leaned in and kissed her.

“Maybe later. But for now, your lawyer has some questions to answer. And you need to hear the answers.”

“Lawyer? Mr Brown? He’s here?”

I nodded. “Come on.”

I led her into the lounge and after she and Will had exchanged greetings, she sat and said, “Now are you going to tell me what this is all about, Paul?”

“You mean you haven’t told her?” Will said with a frown.

“Not yet. I haven’t had the chance.” I turned to Clarissa. “Lily told me something interesting today. A conversation she overheard between her dad—” I glanced across the room. “And Will.” I quickly recounted the story, adding to Will at the end that he shouldn’t be upset with Lily.

“We should have been more careful about who was listening, although, to be fair, I didn’t expect we would be overhead.” He shrugged.

“Is it true?” Clarissa asked. “You and Mr Williams are both trustees and Mom’s been trying to persuade you to withhold my money?”