The Fine Print - Chapter 1
by yhh
A poisoned cigar. A poisoned cigar, finally rid the world of his dear old
dad. So simplistic, yet so brilliant and deadly. Who was the evil genius
that thought of it? He wished it had been him, but alas it was not. Julian
Crane covertly scanned the library wondering if the genius was in the room.
He looked to Fox, who had one hand on Whitney’s slightly rounded stomach
and the other hand intertwined with hers. Ah, young love, Julian thought,
but fraught with so many obstacles. Shaking his head, he returned to his
thoughts. He believed Fox could have pulled this off, but Fox’s time as of
late was consumed with Whitney and the baby.
He easily dismissed Eve, Sheridan, Theresa, Pilar, and Ivy. None of them
had the heart to do such a dastardly deed. Luis, Antonio, and TC were all
too passionate and angry to let Alistair die in such a slick and easy way.
So that left his newly raised from the dead stepmother, Katherine, and her
lover, Martin. They had managed to elude his father all these years; they
could have pulled this off. And there was also Becky. He had not forgotten
Becky held a degree in biochemistry from Brown although she worked hard
to cover that little tidbit. He might have to send his latest ex-wife, courtesy
of the Caribbean, a little diamond bauble as a thank you gift, just in case.
Julian smiled.
Fox wondered why he was here. He had more important things to do, for instance
find out why Whitney wasn’t more excited about the baby. Yes, the pregnancy
was unplanned and a shock, but they were about to become parents and he
had happily accepted it. Hell, he sent out announcements to everyone in
his blackbery and he hoped that soon he would be sending out wedding invitations.
He thought she was coming to terms with Chad being their half-brother, and
their intimate relationship with the daily sessions with the psychologist.
But maybe it wasn’t working as well as he thought. No, he thought, shaking
his head. It was something else; something else was bothering her. Turning
his head to face her, he vowed to get to the bottom of it.
He turned his attention to the reason they were all here. Why hadn’t this
will reading started, he wondered? He didn’t care if Alistair left him anything.
He had been siphoning off money from various Crane owned companies and dummy
companies since he was 15. Invested correctly, he had enough money that
his great great-grandchildren never had to work. And he knew his father
was a billionaire in his own right. So the question reasserted itself, why
was he sitting here?
Eve slipped into the room as quiet as a mouse. She prayed she snuck in
unnoticed, but she immediately felt Julian’s gaze upon her. She refused
to look at him so she lowered her head. The last thing she needed was for
TC or Simone to see her have any sort of interaction with Julian. She didn’t
want to be involved in any fights or arguments today. What she really wanted
to know was why she had been summoned to the Crane mansion?
Looking around the room, Sean Raymond noted everyone in the room and mentally
checked them off his list. The Lopez-Fitzgeralds, the Russells, the Bennetts,
the Winthrops, the Hastings, Miss Lenox, and of course, the Cranes.
“Good afternoon. I’m Sean Raymond, Mr. Alistair Crane’s personal solicitor.
In lieu of a written will, Mr. Crane made a video will,” Sean concluded.
Oh heavens, would he never be rid of Father, Julian said to himself, as
the tape began.
Fading in from black was Alistair Crane larger than life, looking healthy
and alive. “Friends,” Alistair began, then laughed. “None of you were my
friends. In fact you were all beneath me and before you get into an uproar,
the library doors have been locked so you have to listen to me. So Luis,
Sam sit down.”
Pausing midstride, the two men went back to their wives’ sides.
“Now to the part you hungry vultures are waiting for, the division of my
estates is as follows: all Crane properties, except for the house in the
Hamptons and the yacht, I leave to my worthless and undeserving son, Julian.
What a bitter disappointment you are to me, thank God your mother is dead
and can’t see the louse you are,” Alistair said matter of factly.
An intense pain ripped through Eve’s heart as she listened to the vile
last words Alistair said to Julian. She wished she could go over to him
and wrap her arms around him, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.
“Ah, it’s good to know even in death Father is still Father,” Julian said
sarcastically.
“But you are better than the rest of the losers in this family,” Alistair
continued.
Whitney squeezed Fox’s hand as Gwen laid her head against Ethan’s shoulder.
Although Ethan was no longer a Crane technically, Gwen knew in his heart
he still was and always would be. Many nights, she held and rocked her husband
as Ethan cried for all he had lost. For as crazy, manipulative, and murderous
as the family was it was the family he knew, loved, loathed, and missed.
“Sheridan and Luis, I leave the Hampton estate to you.”
Sheridan and Luis looked at each other in disbelief. Luis quickly prepared
himself for the catch as Sheridan recovered from the shock.
“The estate is where I first discovered that your whore of a mother, Sheridan,
was cheating on me with your deginerant of a father, Luis. I’m pretty sure
this is where the two of them decided to fake their deaths and leave you
kids alone with only one parent. Though I personally think Pilar got the
worst end of the deal, five kids to support by cleaning up after Julian,
Sheridan, and I, day after day, then come home bone weary to take care of
her mixed breed brats. All of this forced Antonio and, you, Luis to grow
up and be men before your time,” Alistair commented, shaking his head. “Such
a shame.”
Antonio tightened his arm around his mother.
“Kids, don’t listen to him. He’s lying. He’s trying to hurt you,” Martin
cried to his children.
Luis started towards Martin, but Sheridan grabbed his arm and shook her
head. She held on tightly to his arm. After staring into his wife’s eyes,
he calmed himself slightly and sat down.
“Dr. Eve Russell, or should I say Dr. Eve Johnson? Has TC finalized the
divorce yet? Well whatever your name is, the yacht is yours,” Alistair began.
Julian groaned. Why wasn’t he surprised his Father knew?
Eve prayed this wasn’t what she thought it was as she felt TC's, Simone's,
and Liz’s intense gazes on her.
“You no longer have to reminisce on all the fun times you and Julian had
frolicking around on it. Have you two used it since Eve was kicked out of
her house?” Alistair questioned.
“You (overused derogatory adjective) , you slept with him while we were
married?!” TC yelled with clenched fists.
Shaking her head furiously, Eve refuted the charges against her. “No, TC,
of course not. I never cheated on you.”
“Yeah, right,” Simone said cynically.
TC opened his mouth to say more when Liz patted him on the shoulder and
whispered into his ear. Whatever she said seemed to appease him and he merely
sent Eve deadly glares.
Eve looked into Simone’s eyes and saw hatred, but beyond that was hurt,
disillusionment, and bewilderment.
Eve hated that the past she tried to hide so desperately was ruining her
youngest baby girl’s heart and life.
“And finally, the main event, the distribution of Crane Enterprises. Julian
will have controlling interest with 51%. The boys, Nicholas Foxworth, Little
Ethan Martin, and Ethan each will receive 10%.”
Ethan moved to the edge of his seat and looked at Gwen. Why was he in Alistair’s
will?
“And finally for the girls, Sheridan, Regan Winthrop, and Quinn Diana will
each receive 5%, and the remaining 4% is left to the future child of Julian
and Eve. Cause the way you two have been going at it, there’s bound to be
another bastard child,” Alistair finished.
“You lying tramp! I knew you were sleeping with him,” TC shouted. He ran
over to Eve and got in her face.
Eve thought quickly on how she should handle this and decided to fight
fire with fire. “And you’ve been keeping your hands off my sister? I think
not. You’re having sex with my sister in our house,” she said to TC in a
firm voice.
For a split second, TC had the decency to look away.
“So don’t get in my face and scream at me,” Eve continued.
“Liz is worth ten Julian Cranes. You’re a whore and I’ll make sure our
daughters stay away from you,” TC said menacing.
Deciding enough was enough; Julian jumped in the fray and went to stand
in between TC and Eve. “Lying in wait for her sister’s husband makes Liz an
upstanding citizen? You can’t be that stupid, can you, Thorton?” Julian questioned.
TC’s heated gaze turned to Julian. “Don’t you open your mouth to speak
to me. Even your father thinks you’re a parasite,” TC said angrily as he
took a swing at Julian.
Sam grabbed his arm before it could connect and pulled him away from Julian
to the other side of the room.
“Man, you gotta calm down,” Sam told TC.
“Turn this off, we don’t want to hear anymore,” Luis demanded.
“I’m sorry sir, but my instructions where to play this to the end. If it’s
of any help, he’s almost finished,” Sean responded, politely.
“Oh TC, I was just joking with you. You do anger so easily. Let me correct
myself, Sheridan, Regan, Quinn, and Endora Lenox each will receive 4.75%
stock in Crane Enterprises. And yes, I did say Endora,” Alistair said laughing.
Julian and Tabitha stared at each other. Feeling Eve’s gaze on him, Julian
turned to her and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
Sheridan shook her head disappointed and TC smirked triumphantly.
“Chad, if you’re wondering why you weren’t included in my will. Well that’s
a long story, but I’ll make it quick. While Eve was laboring away in New
York City all by her lonesome, so was Ivy with a half-drunk Julian outside
in the waiting room. Due to the pain medication, Eve never got a good look
at her baby until the next day. And what was described to me was the whitest
looking baby anyone had ever seen a black woman give birth to. The doctor
assured me the little boy wouldn’t get any darker and since I couldn’t allow
Julian to raise a non-Crane- - yes, Ivy I knew about your last minute romp
with Bennett- - I switched Eve’s baby with the dead Bennett passing as a
Crane baby- -“ Alistair continued.
Ivy fainted, landing in a heap at the foot of her chair. Ethan and Sam
were both too devastated and stunned to attend to her. Secretly enjoying
the entertainment Alistair was providing, Tabitha saw to Ivy.
“Don’t worry Ivy, I didn’t kill your baby. It was already dead. SIDS, the
doctor believed. Ethan, you can now drop this ridiculous Winthrop name thing
and retake your rightful Crane name. Now back to you Chad, your mother was
a nice Southern woman whose husband had died a month before in an accident
at work and she died giving birth to you. Neither she nor her husband had
any family to speak of. So I guess once again you’re an orphan. But I’m
leaving you a quarter of a million dollars for helping wreak havoc in TC’s
life,” Alistair informed Chad.
Whitney clutched Fox’s hands as if holding on for dear life. God answered
her prayers now she prayed that this baby was somehow Fox’s and not Chad’s.
Fox wrapped his arm around her. This was the best thing he had heard all
evening; Chad wasn’t their half-brother. His future wife hadn’t unknowingly
committed incest. Everything else, he could deal with later.
“I have reclaimed my eldest grandson, Ethan and acknowledged my newest,
Endora and now on to my great-grandchildren. Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, you
are carrying my twin great-grandchildren. But you do so by illegal means,
I have tape of you locking Ethan and Gwen’s real surrogate into a closet.
I also have pictures of you drugging Ethan’s drink then putting on a wig,
pretending to be Gwen, slipping into bed with him, and forcing him to have
sex with you,” Alistair stated.
“Theresita,” Pilar cried.
“Theresa,” Martin echoed.
“Outside the library doors, Miss Lopez-Fitzgerald, awaits the Sheriff,
because your brother and Bennett couldn’t arrest a rat in a cage, to escort
you to your cell. You’ll be arraigned on charges from rape to possession
of illegal drugs to false imprisonment. But don’t worry, I put in a good
word for you with the Governor and he’ll let you have the twins here in
Harmony when the time comes. And oh by the way, Grace, you were never married
to David Hastings. It was a lie that Ivy came up with to break up you and
Bennett. And yes, that means John isn’t your son. Ivy blackmailed both David
and Eve to help pull the wool over your eyes.”
Ivy fainted once again after seeing the evil looks Sam was giving her.
She had finally and truly lost Sam.
Grace grabbed John to her and murmured softly into his ears. Jessica, Kay,
and Sam formed a circle around them and held them tight.
“My monies will be distributed the same as the stock for Crane Industries.
Julian, don’t embarrass this family or ruin my legacy. My arms are far reaching,
even in death. Good-bye,” Alistair concluded laughing and the screen went
black.