Chapter 5 Impossible!!!

Dante had hid himself from Phoebe and he wouldn't return home. Hannah was not happy about it and Phoebe never cared. She wasn't planning to stay long. After the burial of her stepfather she was only planning to stay a week and then return to her house. All through the burial, she and Dante didn't say a word to each other. In fact they never looked toward each other's direction but it was really suffocating the two. Finally, the ceremony and all was done and Phoebe was going to return home in two days time. She was really happy to leave because she didn't like the aura of the house.

Her mother had pleaded with her that she should stay but Phoebe was adamant.

"The lawyer said he's coming to read Andrew's will tomorrow," her mother said to her.

"And what's that got to do with me?" she asked.

"You will be there?" Hannah replied.

"No I won't. Hasn't that arrogant boy called us gold diggers enough? If you enjoy his insult, I don't," she said bluntly.

"C'mon don't be rude, girl. I didn't ask you to stay but Andrew's lawyer did," she said and walked away.

Phoebe looked at her angry mother. She then felt a bit guilty for annoying her mother. Her mother had just lost her beloved husband and she couldn't be nice for once.

Phoebe didn't have any choice when the lawyer insisted that she stayed. She wondered what her business was for. She wasn't even Andrew's daughter.

"Why is she here?'' Dante asked with a frown on his face when he saw Phoebe seated at the reading of his father's will.

Phoebe looked at Dante with her nose raised in mockery before eyeing him and then looked away. "As if I wanted to be here?" she grumbled.

"Your father asked her to be seated," the lawyer replied.

Dante didn't have a good feeling about Phoebe being there. Since Phoebe had entered his life, he had never felt comfortable around her. It's been over a decade since he had seen her and the feeling won't leave.

"And why is that? She's not even part of our family," he complained.

Not having a choice, he had to accept Phoebe's presence. The lawyer started reading Andrew's will.

"To my beloved wife, I give five percent of all my properties and to my son Jude, I give ten percent of all that I have......"

Dante looked at his stepmother and brother to know their reaction but none had any. Jude was too young to know what was given to him and Hannah didn't care about the properties.

"To Phoebe my step daughter......" Phoebe looked at the lawyer when she heard her name. She wasn't expecting that at all. "I give five percent of my property."

Phoebe was so shocked that she looked at the lawyer again. Five percent of Andrew's wealth was like giving her the whole airport for an inheritance. She can never be poor again. Andrew was the richest man in the whole country and even beyond. Phoebe looked at Dante and saw that he was looking at her. She wondered if he had anything to say. At the end Dante didn't say anything.

"Lastly," the lawyer said.

Everyone knew that the remnant of the property belonged to Dante. Dante had always been his father's beloved.

"The remaining eighty percent should belong to my son, Dante."

No one was surprised but what the lawyer said next shocked everyone. Even Dante wasn't left out.

"There's a clause attached to you inheriting your father's property. You don't have full ownership of your father's property until you get married. Miss Phoebe will be in charge of all your father's property until you get married. And if you don't get married within three months, all the properties would be transferred to Miss Phoebe."

"Impossible!" Dante shouted.

He was so furious that he looked at Phoebe who was also very shocked. She didn't know why her stepfather decided to use her to make his son get married. They were both enemies and this might be bad for her.

"Not in your life would you have my father's properties!" Dante shouted glaring at her. "You are not worth it!"

Phoebe snorted. She didn't need Andrew's property but she hated Dante's arrogance.

"If sleeping with a strange person is possible, then having your father's property can,'' Phoebe said nonchalantly.

Dante's heart skipped as she said that and guilt struck him but he hid it. Those seated wondered why Phoebe said that. Hannah knew that Phoebe wasn't interested in what Andrew gave her but she didn't know why she was accepting it even when she knew that it would annoy Dante.

Dante ignored Phoebe and faced the lawyer. "You are joking with what you said right?"

The lawyer was scared at the coldness in Dante's voice but he knew he didn't have the power to change the will.

"Sir, it is your father's will. There's nothing I can do about it," he said quickly.

If Dante hadn't known the lawyer for a long time, he would have said that he conspired with Phoebe and her mother.

"Sir, all you have to do is get married and all the property would be transferred to you."

Dante was really mad at his father for hurting him that much. He would have ignored his father if he had willed all his property to his brother, not his step sister who came from another man. He was angry and wouldn't let his father's property go into the hands of a stranger.

When the lawyer left, Hannah decided to talk to her daughter.

"Phoebe you don't need the property, just give it to Dante," she said in a soft voice.

Yes Phoebe didn't need the property indeed but she was sad with what her mother said. She didn't forget how her mother did take sides with Dante when they were young even though he was the one who hurt her. Now she was repeating the same thing.

"Don't even start your partiality. I was on my own and I didn't request for anything," she said angrily.

"Don't get me wrong honey. I just want peace to be in this family. Look, I'll give you my five percent. Please just let Dante have his property," she pleaded.

Hannah had promised her husband she would make sure the family they built is united. But with what was going on, her promise was shaking.

Jude seeing that his mother wasn't happy, decided to help his mother.

"Sis, I'll also give you my ten percent. Just let bro have the property," Jude said softly.

Phoebe looked at her brother and her heart melted. Since she arrived, she had got to know that her brother had a good heart. He was the only one that made her happy since she came back. But then she also wanted to honour the last wish of her step father.

"I don't need any of your shares. I'm only honouring my stepfather. Even if Dante won't get married in the next three months I'll still give him the property but mom, Jude, we shouldn't feed his pride. Just trust me," Phoebe said.

Not that she was happy that her mother was taking the side of Dante but she didn't want to look greedy.

Hannah believed Phoebe and nodded her head.