Adam's First Wife by Ron Schwab

Author:Ron Schwab [Schwab, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Uplands Press
Published: 2019-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

21

Lilith sat in what she now considered her office in the house, experiencing a rare introspective moment. Ordinarily she never second-guessed herself, refusing to acknowledge errors or poor decisions. She just forged ahead and shifted strategies to get whatever result she sought. She allowed nothing to stand in the way of her plans. But she found herself wondering now if the New Mexico journey had been ill-advised.

For several days she had pressured Adam to handwrite and sign a will that left the land grant property to her. She could write up such a will and have him sign it, but her lawyer had told her several witnesses would be required if the entire document was not written in his own hand, and she was not willing to rely on the testimony of such persons in a court of law. Regardless, he was refusing to sign any such document, insisting it would be his own death warrant. She had given up on the burnings. His male parts had become a mass of red scars, which gave her some satisfaction, and he had not given in when she extracted his toenails.

She had a fair chance of inheriting in the absence of a will, but her three children would take a half share. Raphael would not be a problem, but her discovery that Gabriel was not the namby-pamby she had thought troubled her. He would not lightly surrender his interest in an estate nor would he allow Margo to do so. Her greater concern was that Adam had another will secreted away that could only be revoked by a subsequent will. In that case she could claim a spousal share by proving she was Adam’s rightful widow, but she would end up owning half the ranch with the will’s beneficiary, presumably Angelina Perez. She shrugged. She supposed she could force a sale of the property and return to New Orleans with a nice bundle of cash. She was not about to spend the rest of her life in this godforsaken country anyway. It was not just the land. The people were strange and unpredictable. She found their motives and intentions difficult to evaluate, their loyalties less certain. She would settle for what she could and get the hell on her way. But Adam had to die first. And very soon.

She looked up at the sound of someone clearing his throat. Gabriel stood in the doorway, hat in his hand and his head wrapped with a bandana that did not quite cover all the swollen flesh around the wound Raphael had inflicted with the fire iron. His shirt, one side covered with brown drying blood, drooped over his slender, sinewy frame. This was not a boy, she realized, but a full-grown man, and he would be easy on the eyes for any young woman. How had she not noticed this before?

“Sit down,” she said, nodding at the straight-back chair in front of the desk.

Gabriel sat down but said nothing.

“The wound in your side. Is it serious?”

“No.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.