“You’ve been served.”
I take the letter from him as he gets back in his car and drives away. I pay him no attention as I tear it open and scan the documents.
“What’s it say?”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “It’s basically a letter telling me that I’m to pause the sale of any items from this ranch, including and not limited to the cattle, until this court date.”
“I’m so confused.”
“That makes two of us. Gimmie a second.”
I pull out my cell phone and dial Jen, who answers almost immediately.
“You’ve been arrested?”
“Ye of little faith.”
“I’m joking. What’s up?”
“I just got served.”
“I’m sorry?”
I read her what the document says, then pull the phone from my ear when she goes off on a tirade. Once she quiets down, I listen again.
“The man doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He had no legal right to anything. I can only assume he pulled this shit just to inconvenience you and force you to spend money. What I’mstruggling to understand is how the fuck he got a judge to sign off on it.”
“Well, the cattle sold. The guy came to collect them this morning, as agreed, before the letter even arrived.”
“Good. If the sale predates the papers you received today, there is fuck-all they can do. Leave it to me. I’m going to dig into this. I sure as shit wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Alright, that’s all I wanted to hear. I just can’t believe Porter had the audacity to pull a stunt like this.”
“Men always act like children when someone takes away their favorite toy, and that’s what the ranch clearly was to him. I’m actually going to put together a notice myself. I’m planning to counter-sue because these figures just aren’t matching up. I think he’s been funneling money, likely to offshore accounts. At the very least, I’m going to insist that the judge order a full audit. And by pulling this stunt, he can’t refuse. In a way, it’s done us a favor.”
“I’m just going to have to trust you on that. Speaking of which, have you had any luck getting the website up and running since I emailed over the things you needed?”
“It’s up and ready for you to go over. It’s not live yet. David says he’ll do it as soon as you’ve checked everything to make sure you’re happy with it, and that you have stock to be able to fulfill any orders placed.”
“Perfect. I’ll have enough of the basics by the end of the week. Some of the more complicated things will need a little longer, so I’ll get David to mark them as temporarily out of stock.”
“Alright, I’ll let you confer with him. I’ll keep you posted on the rest.”
“Yeah, that’s fine by me.”
“While I have you, I wanted to let you know that I’ve dug into your father. That man, well, I’m not even comfortable calling him a man. He’s more like a fucking virus that infects everyonehe touches. But I digress. You asked me to figure out if he knew about the inheritance. And everything I’ve been able to find suggests no. Legally, if you had died before you inherited, it would have been passed down to the next female descendant in the Hart line. And if there wasn’t any, it was to be divided up to a dozen preselected charities, most of which are domestic violence shelters and various children’s services.”
“What about if I’d inherited and then died?” I have to be sure there wasn’t a clause somewhere. Just because he didn’t arrange for me to be killed inside doesn’t mean that option is off the table now, especially if he’ll benefit from it.
“It still wouldn’t have gone to your father. If you had a working will stating otherwise, that would be different. But as it stands, it goes into a trust. And, again, would have been funneled into various charities unless you made provisions for something else yourself. As I’m an excellent lawyer, I’ve drawn up a will for you to review. You can add what you want and make stipulations, but this is just another guarantee that nobody can touch that place or your money.”
“Thanks, Jen.”
“I’ll always protect you. That’s what I’m here for. Well, that and margarita Tuesdays.”
I laugh as she hangs up, and turn back to Riggs. “Jen has everything handled.”
“Well, I for one won’t doubt that woman anytime soon. If she says she has it covered, then she has it covered.”