The Inheritance by Zelda Reed Read Free Book Online

“Do you mind?”
    Suzanne fills with glee. “Of course not.”
    She drops her hand into his palm, his strong fingers grazing over her ring. Justin stiffens and places an arm around Suzanne’s waist, his wife transfixed with watching Neal inspect her ring.
    “It’s from Tiffany’s isn’t it?” Neal says.
    Suzanne dreamily nods. “Every girls dream.” She turns to Justin. “A diamond from Tiffany’s.”
    Neal releases her hand and Suzanne places it against Justin’s cheek. She stares at him for a long moment, thumb caressing him, lips slowly parting before she presses their mouths together in a kiss. It’s slow and dramatic, tongues sliding against tongues, Justin’s hand tightening on her hip. If its attention she wants, she’s getting it, the small groups clustered around us, turning towards them with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.
    Suzanne releases a breath and turns toward us with a grin. Take that, bitch .
    Neal laughs, honest-to-god laughs before he claps Justin’s shoulder. Justin stands straight as Neal says, “I’m sorry man, it’s just. You look like a pretty intelligent guy --”
    “Pretty intelligent?” Suzanne says. “Justin’s pretty much a genius.”
    “Oh yeah?” Neal says, raising an eyebrow. “What do you do?”
    “I own a couple breweries,” Justin says. “Here and in Wisconsin.”
    “A couple is an understatement,” Suzanne says. “He owns seven.”
    Neal looks impressed but I squeeze his arm as if to say, don’t be. Justin’s father created those breweries and willed them to him when he died.
    Neal leans forward. “Well you might be a genius, but you got swindled on that ring.”
    Suzanne’s eyes widen in offense. “What are you talking about?”
    “Tiffany? They don’t sell well cut diamonds, they’re selling you a dream and packing it in a ten-thousand dollar box, to make people who know nothing about diamonds feel like they’ve made a well informed choice. Everyone,” he clears his throat. “Most people know they’re nothing but a well branded scam.”
    Suzanne’s mouth drops open before it quickly shuts. She glances between Neal and me and Neal and Justin, her bottom lip quivering as her mind attempts to dig up a response. She’s short circuiting, her hand clutching Justin’s arm as she downs her entire glass of champagne. “Come on,” she says to Justin. “I really need to get another drink.”
    They say nothing as they walk away, Justin throwing me one last glance over his shoulder before they disappear in the crowd.
    I look up at Neal who’s watching me with an amused raised eyebrow. “Is all that true or did you bullshit for my sake?”
    “It’s one-hundred percent true,” he says with a smile.
    “And you know that how?”
    “Family business.”
    When I pull away from him a chill rides up the right side of my body, a welcome weight slowly lifting from my shoulders.
    “I’m sorry about that,” I say. “I just…”
    Neal smiles. “I’ll forgive you on one condition.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “We go find a nice corner and you tell me what the fuck just happened.”

Six
     
    I’ve never been the sort of person who finds comfort in opening up to strangers. It’s a trait I inherited from my father. He knew the trick of poking tiny holes into your past and your personality, allowing others just a peek before you turned your attention towards them. The key is to ask a slew of questions, one after the other in rapid succession, so fast they don’t have time to stop and think about how they know absolutely nothing about you, because they’re enthralled with talking about themselves.
    Neal pulls the same trick on me.
    Behind the bar, near the patio, we lounge in two dining room chairs pushed into the corner. A flower pot full of cigarette buds stands to my right, smokers carelessly dropping them when they come back inside. (After the sixth cigarette I snap at a woman with wild red hair. “Really? Have some respect. You know my