Underestimated Too (13 page)

‘Much better, he’s awake,’ she flirted back.

My smile instantly vanished, and I frowned, noticing
Warren Fitch exiting the building. What the heck was he doing there? Mr.
Callaway told me that he’d had his will changed the day after Michael was
buried. Shaking my head as I realized what was going on, I entered his room. Of
course everything was left to my mother, and now, well, he was there to sign
everything over to me. Lucky me, I thought. ‘How are you?’ I asked, pretending
to give a shit. He did look better, although his face still drooped on the one
side. He was sitting up and his right arm lay dead, palm side up in an awkward
position in his lap.”

Drew described like it was yesterday.
His attention to the detail surprised me a little, not that I was complaining.
I wasn’t at all. It intensified the things he was saying leading up to meeting
me.

“Mr. Callaway ordered me to sit down. I sat with a
scowl, barely understanding what he’d said due to the slur in his speech. He
nodded to his personal nurse. ‘Hand me that folder,’ He signaled, struggling to
speak. Mr. Callaway never told me to come to him or to stand. I moved to his
side, needing to see what he had. Positive it was the new will, leaving
everything to none other than me; every last dime. He nodded towards the door,
excusing the lady.

‘We can do this another time. Let’s wait until
you’re feeling better,’ I pleasantly and sympathetically offered. I didn’t need
to know how rich I was going to be right that second. It could wait. Mr.
Callaway opened the manila folder and pulled out a picture. I frowned, looking
at the dark haired girl, maybe sixteen years old. Moving my eyes to his, I
waited for an explanation.”

The picture was me, I was sure of it
before Drew even said so. I wonder where it is now.

“Then Callaway stunned me with his words, ‘This is
my granddaughter,’ he said, smiling at the girl in the photo,” Drew said while
turning to smile at me.

I smiled back with an increase speed of my heart.

“I told Callaway, ‘Granddaughter? I think you need
to rest.’ I knew he didn’t have a granddaughter. He had one son, Michael, and
he was dead. I was sure the old fucktard was delusional.

‘I wanted to tell you a few days ago. Things have
been a little crazy around here this past week. Michael told me about her the
day he passed. He’s never taken care of her. Look how she’s been forced to
live,’ he said, sliding the photos clumsily to the side.

I grimaced, inspecting the photos of the girl who
looked like welfare scum. She was welfare scum. Somebody was after his money,
my money, it was all a scam.”

“I am not welfare scum,” I had to spit out.

“I know you’re not, love. I’m telling a story from
eleven years ago, okay?”

“Okay, sorry,” I apologized, trying to tell myself
how long ago this was, and he was only describing how he saw things. I needed
to calm down and let him talk.

Drew began again, “So I told Mr. Callaway, ‘With all
due respect, I think this is some sort of a hoax. I’ve lived with Michael since
I was twelve. We’ve worked side by side for the past ten years. I’m sure I would
have known this.’

She’s his. He was sure. His thumb brushed over the
girls face while the expression on his own looked sorry, or upset that she was
there,” Drew explained like he was talking about someone other than me, or like
I wasn’t even there.

“Callaway was adamant. ‘Look at her hair. Look how
there are no curls except at the bottom. That’s a Callaway trait. Look at her
eyes. Those are Callaway eyes,’ he said.” Drew sternly mimicked Mr. Callaway.

I smiled at his acting ability.

Drew continued, “I thought it was absurd. So what if
the girl had green eyes. Lots of people had green eyes. ‘Where did you get
these photos?’ I wanted to know.

‘I sent Walker there to get them for me. I wanted
you to go, but after a series of unfortunate events, I sent him. You’re going
there now.’

Confused, I asked him, ‘Going where?’

‘You’re going to West Virginia, I want her mother to
go away.’

I was sure his stroke had gone straight to his head.
He was insane. I wasn’t going to West Virginia.” Drew laughed a little
recollecting that day. “Shocked, I hesitantly asked, ‘You want me to kill the
mother?’

‘No, I don’t want you to kill anyone. I want you to
offer her money. See this? This is her little brother. He doesn’t belong to
Michael, but I’m willing to take him too. I would feel horrible for leaving the
boy in that situation.’

I looked down at the little boy maybe four of five
years old. Nothing, I wasn’t feeling the sorrow for the family that he was
feeling. I wasn’t going anywhere near that place.” 

The mention of Justin made my chest heavy, causing
me to hate Drew—again. He could have taken him. Justin could have lived at the
mansion with me. Pulling my thoughts away from my little brother, I turned back
to Drew, continuing to relive that time in his life.

“Callaway began telling me, ‘Her name’s Morgan.
Isn’t that a lovely name?’ he asked with some sort of nostalgic smile, gazing
down at the girl in the photo like he missed her or something. He didn’t even
fucking know her. I felt like I needed to sit down.”

“Drew, you’re talking about me. Stop saying
that
girl
,” I demanded, getting angry. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help the
nostalgia that I now felt with the mentioning of Justin, and him calling me
that
girl
, was pissing me off. I was sitting right there.

“You were
that girl
then. Do you want me to
stop?”

“No, go ahead,” I pouted with a wave of my hand for
him to continue.

Drew continued in Callaway’s voice again, “I
informed Callaway that this lady was not going to sell her kids. ‘This is
absurd. She’s probably just after your money. Stay away from them,’ I ordered,
sure that someone was playing a dirty trick on him, wanting my money.”

“You mean
my
money,” I spat out. I couldn’t
help it.

Drew gave me a dirty look right after Deidra did,
and continued, “Callaway started yelling then, ‘She doesn’t know I EXIST,’
getting angry with me.

‘This is crazy. What do you want me to do?’

‘I want you to go there, offer the stupid bitch
enough money to go start a new life, get her out of there and away from those
kids.’

‘And the kids?’ I asked, this idiot was delusional. He
wasn’t making a bit of sense, I thought.

‘You’re going to bring them here, but not yet.’

‘Bring them here?’

‘Yes, Morgan is going to graduate in a few months. I
don’t want to disrupt her last year of school. She probably has friends and
proms and stuff,’ Callaway said to me.”

I snorted.

Deidra interjected Drew’s story, “Do you have
something to say, Morgan? I think maybe you should be involved a little more
here. Why did you just snort when Drew mentioned your school?”

“Nothing, it’s just that I didn’t really have that
kind of school,” I replied.

“What do you mean?” Deidra asked.

Drew turned and leaned against the windowsill to
listen to what I had to say.

“I didn’t go to dances or proms. I didn’t really
have friends.”

“None?” Drew asked, like he was surprised that I’d
never gone to school dances or anything. I wasn’t really that type of girl.

“Not really. My cousin Stacy, I guess, and I had a
friend, Julie, but she got pregnant in the ninth grade, and we didn’t really
hang out after that.”

“Boyfriends?”

“No, I wasn’t really the pretty girl at school. Kids
either made fun of my clothes and shoes, or ignored me altogether. Can we just
get back to the story?” I asked, wanting the focus off me and back on Drew.

“Drew?” Deidra nodded for him to continue.

“I tried to tell Callaway that I had business to
tend to, that I didn’t have time to be dealing with a couple of inbred hillbillies
from West Virginia—No offense, baby,” Drew quickly added. “I couldn’t believe
Mr. Callaway was serious about this. I thought he was going to add a heart
attack to his stroke. 

He sat up with a look of pure vengeance. ‘That
inbred hillbilly is my granddaughter, and furthermore, she has my blood running
through her veins. YOU DON’T!’ he kindly reminded me with a yell which in turn
caused his personal nurse to rush in.

‘Mr. Callaway, please calm down. You can’t be
getting yourself all worked up like this,’ she pleaded with him, rubbing his
arm and glaring at me with warning. ‘I’m fine,’ he assured her, patting her
hand. Please leave us. We’re just about finished here.’

I gave in, ‘Fine, what do you want me to do? I’d do
whatever he was babbling on and on about just to put this shit behind me.

‘I want you to marry Morgan and take care of
Justin,’ Callaway stated.”

Now I was pissed all over again at Drew. I knew he
said it was all him, he was the one that didn’t want to take Justin, but
hearing him say that Callaway was willing to bring him there too, infuriated me
to a point of boiling over. Bouncing my knee in effort to keep calm and rid
angry energy, I turned back to Drew, biting my bottom lip to keep quiet.

“I sat down on that note. He was beyond crazy. Planting
myself in a chair, I assured him I was not going to marry some girl I’d never
even met. ‘I’m not going to marry that girl. You just said she wasn’t even
eighteen yet.’ I sighed.

‘And you’re only twenty four. She’ll be eighteen
before you bring her here.’

‘Mr. Callaway, sir, I am not going to marry this
girl. I don’t even know her. She’s not going to want to marry me. This is
ridiculous.’

‘Fine, you can see yourself out.’

I stood, shaking my head. Hoping he’d be in his
right mind after he rested a little. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ I said warily,
making my way across the room.

‘Walker, seize Drew Kelley’s funds from my estate,
have the locks changed on the mansion and his high-rise, and send someone to
pick up his car from the hospital.’

Of course, I stopped dead in my tracks, listening to
the one sided conversation. I turned to him with a frown, and he smiled the
same smile that I’d seen on Michael’s face a million times. I wanted to drop
kick him. ‘Hold off until I call you back,’ he lilted with a deviant,
victorious smile. ‘Change of heart?’ he taunted me.

‘You can’t be serious about this?’ I asked him.

‘I am very serious. You bring my granddaughter back
here and promise to take care of her for the rest of her life, and you will
have an endless supply of good fortune.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘You’ll have nothing. You’ll walk away with what you
came with.’

‘I was ten.’

‘So you’ll leave with what you came with when you
were ten. Surely you have some Pokémon cards or something?’

‘What do I do?’ I asked him, accepting my destiny,
for now. I wasn’t planning on doing any of what he was suggesting. I was going
to marry Skyler.

‘That’s my boy. First thing I want you to do is get
rid of the mother. I’m going to send Walker there with you this week to offer
her money. The sooner she goes away, the happier I’ll be. What kind of mother
lets her children live this way? Callaway spat.”

That remark pissed me off too.
The poor kind that
the father doesn’t pay any child support to.
Who was Callaway to judge my
mother? I know she wasn’t the best mother growing up. I could judge her. He
couldn’t, he didn’t have that right.

 “Callaway continued, ‘She’s a very pretty girl,
don’t you think?’

‘Yes, she is a very pretty girl. You are aware that
I was getting ready to propose to Skyler. You were there when I picked out the
ring,’ I reminded him.

‘And I told you to stay away from that family.
Skyler is after my money. Skyler doesn’t care about anything but money.
Everything in my will has been left to Morgan Willow, and unless you marry her
and take care of her, you and Skyler can go live wherever you want, without my
money,’ he threatened me.

‘You changed your will! Are you crazy? That girl has
no idea what to do with that kind of money!’ It was crazy. The guy was a
lunatic.

‘That is why you’re going to marry her, manage my
money, and help her spend it. We clear here? I’m a little tired.’

‘Yeah, all clear,’ I caved, leaving him alone. I
spent the next few days researching what I could about this family. There was
nothing, nothing because the whole fucking family was nothing. The half ass dad
was a lazy drunk, the mother worked at some whole in the ground truck stop,
they lived in a dump, and had two kids that had been neglected their entire
lives. That was the information I was able to acquire about or obtain about
your family,” Drew said looking at me again.

I didn’t smile this time. I was feeling a little
bitter about the whole situation.

Drew added, “No matter what I said, what I did,
nothing was getting through to Mr. Callaway. He was insisting that I do this.”