Trouble in High Heels Read Online Free Page A

bones. Nothing would stop him, especially not the whiny, nerve-racking Princess Granger, who had somehow managed to pussy whip even the toughest accountant. The Granger account was just one more little battle to conquer, and both heaven and hell knew he’d fought tougher opponents than Lori Granger.

Chapter Three
    “You will always be my little sunbeam.”
    – SUNNY COLLINS
     
    L ori sat on her bed with Kenny by her side as she looked at the contents of the package she’d received earlier that afternoon. She couldn’t remember being this angry in her life.
    She snatched another Oreo from the plateful on her bedside table, then lifted the nearly empty bottle of Cristal champagne and guzzled it straight from the bottle. She’d smashed her crystal champagne flute against her closet a couple of minutes ago.
    Her personal line rang, and she was so disgusted she almost didn’t answer. Glowering, she snatched up the receiver. “Hello,” she said in a voice that sounded both slurred and cross to her own ears.
    “Lori Jean? Is that you?”
    Lori immediately recognized her sister Delilah’s voice, and something inside her eased. “It’s me. I am so angry at my father I could scream.”
    “What’s wrong? You don’t sound like yourself at all.”
    “Probably because myself is so furious I can’t stand it.”
    “I know Harlan had almost as much money as the devil himself, but what could he do from the grave that would piss you off this much?”
    “It’s not what he did from the grave. It’s what he did before,” she said, scooping up a pile of letters from her long-deceased mother. “Did you know Momma sent me at least three letters a week until she died? He kept them from me. Even after she died, he didn’t let me see them.”
    “I’m sorry, sweetie. If it helps any, my father wouldn’t let me read them, either. He was actually worse, though. He burned them right in front of me.”
    Lori knew Delilah’s father had been downright harsh. He’d even been known to beat Delilah. It was a miracle Delilah had turned out as loving and successful as she had. No one would have predicted she would marry one of the Houston Huntingtons and start having babies right away, but Delilah had always been one for the unexpected.
    “Your father was a toad. He was worse than a toad,” Lori said.
    “Lori, sweetie, you sound very strange. What are you drinking?”
    “Cristal, but I’m balancing it with Oreos since you’re not supposed to drink on an empty stomach.” She glanced around her room. The decor hadn’t changed much since she’d first moved here as a frightened young girl so many years ago. Once Harlan had learned that his quick affair with her mother, Sunny Collins, had yielded a daughter, he’d smeared Sunny’s reputation in court and won custody so fast it made heads spin. He had been a doting but controlling father, determined that Lori not go the way of her slutty mother.
    Delilah snickered. “I approve the champagne, but you’re gonna feel horrible in the morning.”
    “I’ve felt horrible for the last few days, so it won’t be anything new. I knew my father was controlling, but this, this just takes the cake. Between the will and the letters, he was-”
    “What about the will?” Delilah asked.
    Lori winced. She hadn’t wanted Delilah to know about the will and the trust. “It’s nothing, really. He was just being his regular controlling self, wanting to control my entire life. I swear if he could have put strings on me to make me dance like a puppet, he would have done that.” She picked up another letter addressed to her in her mother’s flowery script and felt a dull pain behind her ribs. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to forgive him for this.” She felt so betrayed, so horribly betrayed. She had longed to contact her mother, but Harlan had prevented every effort. All because he was terrified that she would end up a floozy like her mother.
    “Lori? Lori Jean, are you still