Page 49 of Recklessly in Love

The two-hour drive out of the mountains and through the Eastside is like descending into a different world. Busier. More packed. Businesses, homes, roads, people — more of them than even the last time I was here a few months ago — and the hundred miles feels like light years from the quiet isolation of Alpine Ridge.

Despite the gorgeous drive past Lake Sammamish, over Lake Washington, and toward the striking downtown Seattle skyline, I’m not excited to be back. I’m a small-town guy through and through, and this is all … well, a lot. Or maybe I’m already on edge from the looming conflict with my father.

Given that, as I park and walk to the café where I’m meeting Sera in Belltown, I’m not surprised that I find the amount of traffic and noise overwhelming. Then again, it could just be from growing up in Yakima, a small city in the middle of Washington state, far from the bustle of Seattle, and then having moved to an even smaller one, even though Ellensburg barely counts as a city with just under twenty thousand residents. And then again to an even smaller town … well, almost a town. In any case, I’m just not equipped to be in the city anymore.

I sigh in relief as I spot Sera at a small table in the back corner. I wave and head over. She stands to greet me, her long and wavy light brown hair shifting with the movement. She’s wearing a long-sleeved purple shirtdress that’s somewhere between business and casual. She hasn’t changed a bit since I last saw her, save the happy grin she’s giving me. I remember her being more serious. It’s a good change, and I smile at her as I approach.

“Hey, you,” I greet her, pulling her in for a hug.

She squeezes me hard. “Hey, hermit, long time no see,” she teases.

I release her and shake my head, laughing. “Don’t knock the hermit life. It’s pretty nice. I don’t know how you live in all this chaos,” I respond as I sit across from her. “Though I gotta say, you look pretty happy.”

Her grin widens. “I am. And I’m sorry we’re not getting together under better circumstances,” she responds, her smile fading.

I nod and grab a menu from between the napkin holder and the ketchup bottle. “We’ll get to that. First, food. What’s good here?”

She makes some suggestions, and we order. “So, shall we get the worst of it over with?” she asks bluntly.

I give her a wry smile. “Let’s.” It’s one of the things I love about Sera and why she’s one of the only family members on my dad’s side, or at all for that matter, that I get along with. Well, that, and she doesn’t get along with most of our family either. Neither of us suffers fools or sugarcoats things. Two traits that have always kept my circle small.

She folds her hands together and leans on the table. “All right. I imagine it will come as no surprise that the window to challenge your grandfather’s will has been closed for a long time. So he’s got no legal basis for challenging your ownership from that angle,” she begins.

“But?” I ask suspiciously.

“But he’s clearly up to something. However, I can’t figure out what. A partition action can only do one of three things: force a partition in kind, which is a physical partition of the property that divides the land equally and assigns you each a wholly-owned parcel; a partition by sale, which is exactly what it sounds like — the property is sold, and the proceeds are split equally between you; or a partition by appraisal, where, in this case, your father buys you out by paying you your share of the appraised value of the land. So the only way he could claim complete ownership is the partition by appraisal.”

“But he’d have to buy me out to do that?” I clarify.

Sera nods. “Yes. By bringing in the trust, I believe he’s trying to prove he shouldn’t have to buy you out. But no judge in Washington state is going to buy that. Trust laws are clear on challenge periods, and you’re well past those.”

“So why try? Why not just offer to buy me out?”

Sera’s eyebrows raise. “He hasn’t?”

I shake my head. “Not once. He’s always only pressured me to go ahead with development I didn’t support.”

A look of understanding passes over Sera’s face. “Have you considered that your father may not have the money to buy you out?”

My jaw drops. “No, I haven’t.” But I kick myself because I should’ve. “But I think you might be onto something.”

“It would explain his attempts to drive you out without a payout. And his grasping at legal straws,” she muses.

“It’s also consistent with his complete inability to have ever run Grandpa’s empire to begin with,” I murmur, my mind spinning on the possibility that my parents might be that broke.

Our waiter delivers our food right then, and we eat silently while I process this. After a few minutes, Sera gently says, “If it’s true, you hold all the cards, you know.”

I set my burger down and wipe my mouth. “How so?”

“If he doesn’t have the cash to buy you out, he sure as hell doesn’t have enough to go forward with development.”

“And?”

Sera smirks. “He must be planning to finance it. Which he’s obviously figured out he can’t do without your approval.”

“Fuck.”

Sera smiles wryly. “Precisely,” she replies, going back to her sandwich. After she chews and swallows a bite, she adds, “But unless you get really lucky with a judge who’s willing to dismiss the case, you’re likely to be offered the choice between the three options.”

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