“Yes, my store,” I repeat after him. “But I found out she was planning on selling it before she passed. I thought she wanted me to push the store forward, but now I’m not so sure anymore. I know it might be a stretch, but I was hoping maybe she gave you some information that I may have missed during the craziness of taking over the Book Nook.”

He leans into his brown leather wingback chair.

“That is a perfect question to address what you’re needing and also what your dad is trying to accomplish.”

“Okay.” This might be the first time in history that what I need and what my dad wants complement each other, but I don’t question it. “So what is it that my dad wants?”

I don’t know why I ask. I know what he wants. He’s always been a greedy SOB, and it’s only gotten worse with Gran’s death.

“He wants to dispute the will,” he says, which I’m already aware of. “He’s claiming that you manipulated Alice Young to leave the store to you even though he is her rightful next of kin.”

Even though this is not even a little bit of a surprise to me, I still didn’t anticipate the way it causes my blood to boil. Maybe it’s because after feeling like I’m the only person who’s been manipulated lately, it strikes a pretty raw nerve.

“He’s the worst kind of human.” I don’t mean to say it out loud, but I don’t regret it when I do.

“If it makes you feel any better, this isn’t anything we haven’t dealt with in the past.” He mistakes my rage for sadness and pushes a box of Kleenex across his massive desk. “This might have been something he could’ve argued when the will was first read, but it’s pretty late in the game to bring up these concerns. It also doesn’t look great that he already accepted the part of the will where he was left a very valuable property.”

A property he didn’t even let me walk through before I was forced to attend the estate sale like the rest of Denver to buy Gran’s old jewelry box and the silver tray I helped her polish every Christmas.

Again, have I mentioned how big of an asshole my dad is?

“Yes, he acted very fast on that.” I hesitate before what I tell him next. I don’t want to drag Daisy into this mess, but I also can’t let him bully me out of the Book Nook, no matter what I feel about the store right now. “From what my sister told me, he pocketed a cool million from the sale.”