Page 31 of The Forever Rule

I forced my jaw to relax. “Are you telling us that we need to have all twelve of us at dinner once a month for three years in order to keep what is rightly inherited to us? To keep people in business and keep their jobs?”

“We don’t need the money, but everyone else in our employ does,” James snapped. “As do those we work with.”

“Damn straight,” Dorian growled.

“How are we supposed to believe this?” I asked, asking the obvious question.

“First, only five must attend, and two must be of a different family.” The lawyer continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Of course you areallfamily…”

“Again, how are we supposed to believe this?” I asked.

“Here are the DNA tests already done.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Isabella asked.

I looked at her, as she had literally taken the words out of my mouth.

“Isn’t that sort of like a violation?” Kyler asked, his face pale.

“We need to get our own lawyers on this,” James whispered.

I nodded tightly, knowing we had much more to say on this.

“There’s no way this is legal,” the youngest said, and I looked over at her.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Emily. Emily Cage Dixon,” she said softly, and we all froze.

“Your middle name is Cage?” I asked, biting out the words.

“All of our middle names are Cage,” Sophia said, shaking her head. “I hated it but Dad wanted to be cute because our father’s name was Cage Dixon, or maybe it wasn’t. Is he also a bigamist?” she asked.

Her mother lifted her chin. “We never married. Andno, your father’s name was not Dixon, that was my maiden name.”

“What?” Sophia asked. “All this time…are our grandparents even dead?”

“Yes, my parents are dead. The same with Loren’s.” The other mother’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry we lied.”

“We’ll get to that later,” Isabella put in, and I was grateful.

I let out a breath. “In order to keep our assets, in order to keep the family name intact, we need to havedinner. For three years.”

The small lawyer nodded, his glasses falling down his nose. “At least five of you. And it can start three months after the funeral, which we can plan after this.”

“This is ridiculous,” Hudson murmured under his breath, before he got up and walked out.

I watched him go, knowing he had his own demons, and tried to understand what the hell was going on. “Why did he do this?” I asked, more to myself than anyone else.

“I never really knew the man, but apparently none of us did,” Isabella said, staring off into the distance.

“Leave the paperwork and go,” I ordered Winstone, and he didn’t even mutter a peep. Instead, he practically ran out of the room. James and Flynn immediately went to the paperwork, and I knew they were scouring it. But from the way that their jaws tightened, I had a feeling that my father had found a way to make this legal. Because we would always have a choice to lose everything. That was the man.

“It’s true,” my mother put in. “You all share the same father. That was the deal when we got married, and when he decided to bring this other woman into our lives.”

“I’m pretty sure you were the other woman,” the other mom said.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

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