Page 1 of Grave Kisses
Chapter One
Kendra
“I’m so sorry foryour loss,” the woman says with a stiff smile. None of these people knows who I am. I used to think that being unknown was best, but not now. Not here.
“Thanks,” I say, averting my gaze down to the casket where Alan is, and I blink away unshed tears. He looks like he is sleeping peacefully, just like when I found him. I could have sworn someone else was in the house screaming and begging him to wake up, but apparently that was me. How different would things be if I had left my apartment on time to have dinner with him?
The woman awkwardly walks away, and I am left alone once again. People are only talking to me out of obligation. I hear the whispers in the assumptions about who I am. Most think that I am just some gold digger who broke up his family. I’ll let themhave their assumptions because telling the truth is like opening Pandora’s box, and I’m not ready to go there. Not without proof, anyhow. Don’t they know I paid for this service? Every dime of it came from my savings. Why? Because he deserves everything I have to offer, plus more.
Alan Barnes was the only father I ever knew. He took me into his home when I was fifteen and gave me the chance at a life I never would have had access to otherwise. Most people think that everyone has the ability to do what I did, but it was Alan being a multimillionaire that helped me. I did the work, but money opened the doors before I got there. I did pay for school on my own since I got a scholarship. He tried to get me to take money from him to live off, but I settled for letting him pay the rent at my apartment. He would have given me the world and the moon if I had let him.
Alan encouraged me to bust my ass and make something of myself, so I did. I graduated from high school at sixteen, went to MIT, and graduated with high honors and a master’s in computer engineering. I specialize in cybersecurity, since that is what Alan’s company handles, but I have multiple areas of expertise. I worked remotely for him from day one of college. Now, I am the woman behind the curtain, so to speak.
CyberSafe Inc. is a company founded by Alan himself under an umbrella company called Vanderbilt Technologies, which is owned by his best friend, Martin Vanderbilt. CyberSafe, in layman’s terms, makes firewalls that protect companies against hackers. We have clients with the government, the medical industry, a few grocery store chains, and several banking institutions. We have a facet of the company that handlespersonal use security, but most are those same high-end clients, just on a personal level.
Now that Alan is gone, taken far too soon by a massive heart attack, I am unsure of where my life is headed. He was only fifty-five. He hadn’t made preparations for retirement yet. I know he wanted us to talk about it soon, but we never made it that far. The one thing I know for sure is that if his biological son, Archer, inherits everything, I’ll be looking for a new job. I don’t care what he says or does; I’m gone.
His lawyer, and my best friend, Jesse Huber, keeps telling me not to worry, but she can’t tell me what the plan is until his will is read tomorrow. Our other best friend, Julie James, was Alan’s executive assistant and says that she will also quit if Archer gets the company. That girl would poison his coffee on the first day.
I hold onto my necklace and think of Alan. It hurts to picture the better times, like when he gave me this necklace. It’s simple, but special. I had been living with him for about four months when he told me, “Never take this off so you will always remember that you are safe.” I take it off only to clean it. Once I broke the chain and had to replace it, but it stays around my neck no matter what. I don’t know what kind of voodoo powers it has, but a lot of the time, all I have to do is hold it, and I can remember all of the times he promised me that it would keep me safe. What he meant by that, who fucking knows? It’s probably just a placebo effect type of thing, but I don’t care. It helps when it feels like the world is caving in.
“Hey, sweetie,” Julie says, wrapping her arm around my waist and squeezing me.
“Hey,” I sigh. “Everyone hates me.”
“Kendra, baby. They don’t know you. There is a difference,” she tells me.
“I keep getting called a gold digger, Julie. Did they really think so low of him?”
“The people who mattered to him the most knew you were his daughter.”
“Martin,” I say.
“I was summoned?” Martin says from behind me. I turn, and he wraps me in a tight hug, forcing emotion to the surface. “He loved you so much, Kendra.”
“It’s not fair,” I sniff.
“I know it’s not, but this is where we are,” he says, pulling back to look at me. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. I keep getting called a gold digger. They know I can hear them, too.”
“You could tell them the truth, Kendra,” he suggests.
“No,” I say simply. “They all think I broke up his family. I don’t need to be victim-shamed as well.”
“I get it,” he says. “When is the will being read?”
“Uh. Eight,” I sigh.
“You know you are getting everything, right? He wouldn’t leave Archer anything. Not after what he did.”
“He’s going to be there,” I say. “I haven’t seen him since… well, since Alan disowned him. I guess he is holding out hope.”
“Well, I’ll be there,” Martin says. “My son will also, since he runs Vanderbilt now.”
“He’s hot,” Julie says.
“He gets it from his old man,” Martin says with a grin. “Yes, Marcus isn’t getting into town until tonight, or he’d be here. He tried to get back.”
