Free Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles) by Kimball Lee Page B

minute, then a hot-shot lawyer the next. I was gonna settle a score for you. She left you at the altar, didn’t she? She acts like a cold fish, but I could tell she was eager to get down and dirty. You know, maybe learn a thing or two about bodily breaking and entering….”
    Bly threw him against the wall hard, then jerked him up as he slid to the floor and didn’t stop beating him until West wrestled them apart. Bennet lay bloody and unconscious, and Gabby walked in the room and began to scream.
    Evangeline followed Gabby’s screams into the living room and said, “My God, you’ve damaged my Picasso, Alexander, couldn’t you boys have taken your argument outside?” She finished her martini and motioned impatiently for Amanda to get her another one.
    Bly’s fists were a bloody mess and he looked ready to finish Bennet off for good if West would just let him go.
    “Mother, you’ve never shown any love for me, and I’m telling you this only once. Your sister and Bennet are no longer part of this family and I want you to wash your hands of them. I have a good mind to have him arrested for attempted rape. He as much as said that’s what he intended and Amanda is a witness,” Bly said, he was seething mad as he faced his mother and her hysterical sister.
    “Oh Alexander, you’re over reacting, I’m sure Bennet was just boasting to impress you,” she said, looking at her damaged Picasso with disgust.
    Bly yanked the painting out of her hand and tossed it aside, “I’ll buy you another fucking painting, now, are you done with them or not? Decide, Mother, I’m sick of waiting for your love and your loyalty. Either choose me or that hopeless neurotic and her rapist son.”
    Amanda drew in her breath, there, she thought; he’d finally said it. It had taken him all his life to stand up and demand his mother’s love.
    Bly left the room and went upstairs. Evangeline took a cigarette from silver box on the coffee table and lit it. She never smoked unless it was a life or death situation. He came back downstairs with his luggage and stood in the entry hall looking back at Evangeline.
    “Let him go, and good riddance,” Gabby said, drying her eyes and speaking directly to her sister. “He always was an insolent child and he’s grown into an arrogant man, just like his father. I’ll decide whether or not to file assault charges, Alexander, you’d better get your checkbook out. I can assure you that your fit of temper today will cost you dearly. However, it will help support me well for the rest of my life. Ha, you’re not so cocky now are you? You really do seem for all the world like a forlorn little boy whose mommy has deserted him.”
    Evangeline calmly handed the cigarette to West and slapped her sister’s face so hard it knocked her to her knees. Then she extended a hand and helped her sister stand up again. Gabrielle stood and opened her mouth to scream in outrage, but Evangeline grabbed a handful of her hair and led her to the front door and held it open.
    “You, Gabrielle, are a fool above all your other faults. If you think for one second that I would choose you, or that lowlife criminal son of yours over my child… well, think again you toxic idiotic leech. Get your shit and your drooping ass out of my house and away from my family. Just so you know, Alexander didn’t get that arrogant attitude from his father, he got it from me.”
    With that she pushed her sister out into the cold, closed the door and stopped to kiss Bly’s cheek as she walked to the living room.
    “Put your bags away, Alexander. You and I have some talking to do before I go on my honeymoon,” she said, and she turned to him from the far end of the room and gave him the warmest smile he’d ever known.

    Chapter Six
     
    Bly tried to get Charlotte on the phone after the jet left Paris and headed to California. She didn’t answer his first three calls and then she blocked his number. He started to ask to use Amanda’s phone,