Chase quietly opened the door at her Mom's house and snuck through the kitchen. She wanted to get into the house without the fuss that usually greeted her when she arrived.

"Chase, what are you doing skulking in the kitchen?" She heard her mother's voice at her back.

Chase stopped and turned. "I wasn't skulking Mom, I was merely trying to get a glass of water." Chase grabbed a glass and headed towards the water cooler.

Her mother cocked an eyebrow. "Well, you might want to try a clean glass then." She took it out of Chase's hand and set it down. "Really Chase, there are refreshments in the living room. We have all been waiting on you to get started. Let's go." Her mother walked out of the room.

Chase watched her mother's back, taking in the beautiful cream silk blouse and black pin-striped slacks. Put together as always and not a hair out of place. Looking down at herself, she saw she already had wrinkles in her pants. Somehow she'd spilled something on her top, probably the takeout she had eaten in the car on the way over. It was never good to be too hungry around her family. Besides making her cranky, no one really ate and they treated her oddly whenever she had more than one bite of anything. Chase never understood why there was always so much food around, but no one ate it. It was a complete waste.

When they entered the living room, her mother pointed to a chair beside her brother and said, "Sit."

Chris nudged her when she sat down. "Ha, I knew you would come. Couldn't resist it could you? I've been hearing whispers that old Grandma actually had some money somewhere."

Chase shook her head in disgust. "Chris, you really take the cake, you know? Grandma was wonderful to you, to all of us, and all you can think about is whether you going to get any money now?"

"Your holier than thou act isn't working today, Chase. You obviously want what's coming to you. Why else are you here?"

"I wouldn't be if some guy claiming to be the executor of Grandma's will hadn't called and forced me to come. I don't want her money. I'd rather have her back."

"Ssshhh," hissed their mother, giving them the face that said they were making a spectacle of themselves. And therefore her.

A man at the front of the room cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. When Chase glanced up, she saw he was gorgeous. He had dark brown hair with a slight wave to it. It wasn't too short or too long, but suited him perfectly. His beautiful green eyes flashed as he waited for everyone to settle down. Maybe they were contact lenses, as they appeared way too nice to be real. She guessed him to be over six feet tall.

"Excuse me, but I'd like to get started." When he spoke, Chase realized it was the voice on the phone. Ahhh, Mr. Weston. It was nice to see his looks matched his voice. That seldom happened in her world.

"My name is Reece Weston. I'm here representing the estate of Mrs. Nancy Chase Taylor. She had asked me to gather you all here and take care of certain matters for her."

"Yeah, right, scammer." Chris muttered under his breath.

Chase quickly turned her head to him. "What do you mean?" she whispered. "Do you know this guy?"

"Nah, no one seems to know him. He just suddenly appeared during Grandma's last days. There's talk that she was so taken with him she literally forgot about the rest of us."

"I was with Grandma a lot during the final days. She never mentioned this guy, and I never saw him." Chase squinted intently toward the front of the room again.

"Mrs. Taylor bequeathed a large portion of her estate to charity. There are certain pieces of jewelry and odds and ends that will go to individual family members. Her lawyer will go through that after I have finished. I am here solely for one reason, and that is for a specific request Mrs. Taylor had." Reece looked around the room and his eyes settled on Chase. He gave a slight nod and continued. "As some of you know, Mrs. Taylor did not have a lot of cash. Most of it was tied up in real estate. She directed her lawyer to sell off the smaller house in Burnaby and most of the proceeds from that will go to charity, estate taxes and a few small bequeaths. Her main property in West Vancouver is to be shared between Ms. Chase Taylor and..." Reece stopped, consulted the paper again, looked over to the lawyer and then back to the paper. "And Mr. Reece Weston. Er, me."

Outrage broke throughout the room as voices tumbled on top of each other.

"What?"

"Who is that charlatan?"

"There has to be a mistake."

"No. This is not right!" The loudest voice of all came from Danielle Taylor, Chase's mother. "I don't know who you are or how you hoodwinked Nancy, but you are not getting anything that belongs to us! And definitely not the beach house!"

"Mother!" Chase said, shocked at the venom in her mother's voice.

The lawyer, John Bellamy, stood up and held up a hand. "Ladies and gentlemen. I know you're upset, but these are Nancy's wishes. Mr. Weston had no idea what he was going to announce, as I handed him the sealed envelope right before he started reading. There is more, so I ask you to all sit down. Go ahead, Mr. Weston."

Reece appeared stunned as he continued to stare at the paper in his hands. "Yes, well, okay. Um, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Weston are to each live in the house for a period of six months prior to making any decision to sell it. They are not allowed to sell the house, rent it out or dispose of it until such time as they have lived there jointly for six months. At that time, if they so desire, they may decide to sell it only to the other person for the sum of ten thousand dollars. However, if at that time neither of them wants the house, then Mr. Bellamy will proceed with the sale of the house with Ms. Taylor and Mr. Weston each receiving ten thousand dollars and the remaining proceeds being distributed to charities as previously arranged."

Chase sat in her chair with her mouth hanging open. She was not entirely sure she had heard correctly. Who was this guy and why did Grandma want her to share a house with him?

"Ha! I knew you were here for something!" Her brother poked her in the arm. "How did you get Grandma to give you her house? The rest of us got next to nothing. Mom's furious!"

"Stop poking me, you moron. First off, it's half of a house. Secondly, I didn't do anything to Grandma except love her and try to take care of her. The rest of you treated her horribly at the end. When was the last time you even visited her?"

"Chase, I need to speak to you now." Her mom was standing over her with her hands on her hips. "In the kitchen."

"Ms. Taylor?" She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Reece. "I was wondering if we could get together and talk about this situation."

Danielle Taylor turned on Reece. "How dare you? You somehow conned Nancy out of what was rightfully ours, but don't you try that on my daughter. Chase, now."

Chase muttered a quick sorry in Reece's direction and followed her mother into the kitchen.

"Mother, what is wrong with you? You're being terrible this afternoon."

"Listen, Chase, I spent forty years sucking up to that woman and how does she repay me? Nothing. Not one red penny. Yet, that ... that man gets half of a house worth over a million dollars? I don't think so. And what's this talk about ten thousand dollars? I think Nancy had really lost it at the end. Why on earth would she have you sell it for ten thousand dollars when it is worth so much?"

Chase led her mother to a chair and sat beside her. "Okay, Mom. Calm down. Frankly, I cannot believe you're talking this way. When did you ever suck up to Grandma? You never got along with her as far as I could see. It was her right to do whatever she wanted with her stuff."

"Of course, that's easy for you to say since you also got half of that house," her mother sulked.

"Fine. I'll talk to Mr. Weston and we'll see what we can do. Perhaps I can deed you some of my half. I'm sure it's not quite the way it was read. Why would Grandma want me to live with a stranger anyway? That seems very odd."

"She was a crackpot wasn't she? Always meddling. But you were her favourite, so I can see why she left you something. We'll just have to work it out so you can sell it and take care of your brother and me. I'm sure other wagons will come circling you now, as well, but you just leave that up to me." Her mom tapped a manicured nail against her wine glass.

"Okay, Mom. Whatever. I'm not getting in to this with you right now. My grandmother is dead and I miss her. You can think whatever you want, but I need to get the details of all of this before you run off half-cocked. Dad would be spinning in his grave to hear you talk like this." Chase stood up. "Now, I'm going to find Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Weston and figure this thing out."