Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(8)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I heard the words he was saying, but I just couldn’t believe it was happening. "No, this can’t be right."

He pushed a couple pictures toward me and I felt the room beginning to spin. The first picture was my mother in a wedding dress with a man I didn’t recognize and the second picture was the man leaning over my mother and a newborn baby in a hospital. On the back of the picture were my parents’ names and my name. I covered my face with my hands and started to cry. "This can’t be happening. How could I not have known this?"

Elle was quiet as she rubbed my back. This wasn’t exactly how she had imagined this going and I knew she felt horrible for me.

"Charlie, you were only ten when your parents died. Maybe they planned on telling you when you were old enough to understand."

I heard what she was saying, but all I could think about was how he hadn’t come looking for me when he found out I was an orphan. "Why was I put into foster care if I had a father out there somewhere?"

“When you were adopted your biological father had signed over parental rights and even if he wanted to care for you, he wouldn’t have been able to because he was incarcerated."

"Great, as if it couldn’t get any worse, my father is a murderer."

The lawyer clocked his pen over and over. "He didn’t murder anyone. Look, my father was the divorce attorney for your parent’s case. I took over his practice when he retired. From what I gathered from his notes, twenty years ago your father was addicted to alcohol and then narcotics. He used to beat on your mother, which sent your mother into the arms of your step-father. One night he drank himself to a stupor and tried to drive home. He hit another car and killed someone. That is what sent him to jail. Once he was clean, he was a different man. In fact, my father helped him out when he first got out of prison. Your father owned a bar, and even though he was a recovering alcoholic, he never took another drink, not even when he was on his deathbed."

There was a lump in my throat and my eyes were filled with tears. "Just tell me why I’m here. It doesn’t even matter what kind of man he was, because I needed him to be my father and he wasn’t."

He cleared his throat again and slid me a stack of papers. "Your father set up a will the day he found out he had cancer. He stipulated that you were to get three quarters of the ownership of his business located at Highland Street."

I don’t even know if what he was saying was registering. "Three quarters? Who gets the other quarter?"

He passed me another paper. "The other quarter goes to a John Thomas. We have yet to locate Mr. Thomas."

"This John guy, is he like my brother or something?"

He turned white and his face changed from steady to worried. "No, John is not your brother."

"Well can I just sell him my half of the bar?"

"Your father stipulated that the bar isn’t to be sold until after five years of you taking it over." He explained.

"I don’t want the damn thing. I’m in college, what would I want with a bar?" I was being a bitch, but this was just unreal.

"I think it could be cool. Maybe we would go visit the location before you freak out any more." Elle was really trying to get me to be more optimistic.

"The tavern has been in your family for over thirty years now. Your grandfather opened it when he moved here from Ireland. It was the one thing that he prided himself in keeping in the family."

He could say all the good things about my father that he wanted, but the only memory that I ever had of the man was the one where he was beating the shit out of my mother. The fact that he went to jail, didn’t make me feel all giddy about finding out my long lost dad left me anything. "He still killed someone and I’m pretty sure that he would have killed my mother had she not left him. What do I have to do to get rid of this bar? I don’t want it. I don’t want anything to do with him."

I was done with all of this. I needed to make an appointment with my therapist as soon as possible.

"I’ll see what I can do to get the ball moving, but something like this is going to take time. I highly recommend you at least visit the property. There is a studio apartment located on the top floor that comes with the place. Your father lived there."

"Oh my God, Charlie, your own apartment. You have got to check it out." Elle’s excitement was pissing me off.

I buried my face in my hands and tried to make enough sense out of everything to make some kind of decision. Obviously I had some kind of legal obligation that I needed to see through, but I was certain that I wanted no part of whatever my biological father had his hands in. "Just do what you have to do to get my name off of things."

The lawyer scratched his head and looked confused again. "Well, there is one last thing you need to know before I move further."

"What’s that?"

"John Thomas may not be your brother, but Ryan McNally is and right now he is without both of his parents."

I stood up and looked right at the guy. "What are you talking about? A child? Where is his mother? What am I supposed to do about it?"

He held his arms up again and started to laugh. "Forgive me, I just never thought that today was going to be going like this. I just assumed you knew your father, or at least something about him. You see, your father liked helping people. Around five years ago, he helped out a woman when her husband was beating her. He thought of it like he was repenting for his past sins against your mother. I know you probably don’t care, but he fell in love with her and they had a child. Unfortunately, she went back to her old ways and the state awarded your father full custody. In the meantime, his biological mother was sent back to jail on drug charges. The child lost the only parent he’s ever had."

I cut him off. "I’m sorry, but are you trying to make me feel bad or something?" Maybe I was being rude, but this was just not getting any better. Not only did they want to ruin my life with a rundown bar, but I was supposed to take responsibility for a small child too? No, I don’t think so…

"Ma’am with all due respect, this child is going to be sent into the same foster system that you were in. I know it isn’t always the best of conditions."

I stood up and grabbed Elle’s arm. "Thank you for having me here today. In light of everything I’ve learned today, I will be in touch regarding the property."

I pulled my friend out of that office before she could stop me. By the time we made it to the car, I collapsed against the steering wheel and started bawling my eyes out.

"If you’re going to throw up, at least open the door, so you don’t make me sick." I grabbed my purse and slapped Elle in the arm.