Page 1 of Who's Your Daddy
Chapter 1
Lola
“How could you hide this from me?”
My boss leans his forearms on his mahogany desk. He sighs as if exhausted by me, but I’m not the one trying to ruin our lives. “What good would it have done if you’d known, Lo?”
“I could have convinced him not to do this. He always cared about my opinion.” Arms crossed over my black wrap dress, I glare.
“Obviously not about this, seeing as how he came to me, yet left you in the dark.” Brian’s tone isn’t the least bit sympathetic as he talks about the man who was like a second dad to me.
I’ve worked at Murphy and Machon since I was twenty-two and Terance Murphy took me under his wing.
My heart sinks at the memory of the day I met him. I still can’t believe he’s dead.
His death is only part of the shock that’s rocked through the firm recently. The rest came when Terry’s will was read.
“It’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be.” He laces his fingers on his desktop. “We only have to live and work there for a year. As long as we make that happen, nothing in the main office will change.”
“There?That’s what you're going to call it?” It’s a rat-infested shit hole in Jersey. “Who lives in Jersey?”
“Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Simms, Bon Jovi, and all those?—”
Annoyance flares hot in my veins. “I swear to God if you say desperate housewives?—”
“It’s actually real housewives.”
Head tossed back, I scoff. “Why do you know that?”
“I live alone. I get bored sometimes.”His smirk is far too mischievous for this ridiculously spotless office. The man keeps everything streamlined. There isn’t even a paper on his desk.
If we end up in Jersey, that’ll change very soon.
“Not anymore,” I taunt.
Brian’s smirk falls, and I swear he fights a wince. That little crack in Brian’s normally perfect composure hints at just how unhappy he is about this massive change too. He’s just good at hiding his emotions and playing his part.
Terry was damn near close to the most rational person on the planet, so it’s impossible to wrap my head around why he would risk all he worked for over decades on some half-cocked whim.
“Apparently, you’ll be living with dumb and dumber soon,” I tease.
He sighs, his posture sagging slightly. “Sully is not that bad.”
Sullivan Murphy is one of Terry’s sons and a junior partner in the firm. Although I guess he and his brother are full partners now. Brian too. Terry’s will, though chock-full of shocking terms, did stipulate that the three of them should have equal shares.Conditionally.
“Sully’s almost worse than Cal lately. And that’s saying something.” Sully is a grumpy asshole on his best days, and since his wife Sloane left him, his bad attitude has grown exponentially. The vast majority of the staff are afraid of him. None of them even want to walk into his office.
He waves me off. “Cal’s harmless.”
“Cal’suseless,” I correct. “He spends more time on his hair than he does on his case files. You know he has highlights, right?”
“No, he doesn’t.”
I bite back a grin. “Being that pretty is not natural.”
His lips tip up slowly. “You think he’s pretty?”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” I toss my hands in the air, the annoyance in my veins building. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
