Page 37 of The Acquisition

"Evie, I'm going to run now and see if there's anything I can do now. Don't you go worrying about this though."

"I can't not worry about you."

"I know, and I love you for it, but you just focus on my niece and I'll handle this."

"You know you won't be the baby's aunt," Colt said after I hung up.

"Why, because I'm not blood related? Evie and I have been through a lot together. She'd be an aunt to my kids. Blood doesn't matter, look at what my blood is doing to me."

"It isn't that. You're going to be," he winced, "the baby's grandma."

My eyes widened as the horror of what he was saying dawned on me. "I can't be a grandma. I'm only twenty-six."

"I'm only thirty-eight, and yet here we are. Also, your kids will be Evie's brother or sister, not her nephew or niece."

"That would only be true if we have kids."

"You're going to be my wife."

"To get my trust fund."

He shrugged. "If you say so."

When he made this ridiculous proposal I assumed we may explore our attraction to each other, but not that he intended a real, lasting marriage.

"Grab your stuff, we've got to go see my investigator," he said, ending my train of thought.

We walked a couple blocks and were right back at Hot Spot. This time he didn't linger in the main area, but headed straight to an office in the back of the bar.

"Jana, this is Doug. He's working with the forensic accountant I hired to track your money."

I reached out and shook his hand.

"What do you have for us, Doug?" Colt asked, getting down to business.

"From what I have dug up," he fidgeted in his seat, "in, uh, not entirely legal ways."

Colt nodded. "Go on, I told you to do what needed to be done."

"Okay, well, it looks like Maxwell has promised investors an influx of millions of dollars. The amount matches the sum of your liquid assets, Jana. There were emails going back and forth as late as this afternoon."

"Before or after the story broke?" I asked him.

"It looks like it was just before. I've already spoken to the lawyer you put on retainer and she filed an injunction preventing Maxwell from accessing those accounts. An independent trustee has been placed over the account. Have you ever seen your grandfather's will?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, he died when I was in middle school. My grandma always told me I was his favorite, and he made sure I'd be taken care of. I used to go to the office with him. It's what made me want to work for the company. It wasn't the same without him though."

"There's a lot of holes in the documents I've found. But, from what I've found, it looks like your grandparents really didn't trust their own son when they created your account. He has the ability to sign off on your decisions, but it turns out he can't withdraw any money without your signature, Jana."

"I don't get it. If he needed my signature, how did he plan to get it by freezing me out of everything?"

"Yeah, this is going to take some digging. To be honest, there are a lot of transactions that don't make sense. I think there is much more to the case the FBI is building," Doug theorized.

Doug turned his screen around, and I froze. "I found an addendum to your trust fund he scanned into his documents. If you are unmarried by the time you are thirty or have not gained an executive-level position, you forfeit your inheritance. Also, if your marriage is proven fraudulent, you will also forfeit your inheritance. But there aren't signatures on these pages, so it looks like there's at least another page to this document."

"Even so, I'm only twenty-six, how would this give him access now?"

"He recently demoted you, correct?" Doug asked.

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