"I want to speak to you and your sister," Leslie said.

"I don't know where she is," Vince said. "Shouldn't we be heading downstairs for the will reading?"

"This is important," Leslie insisted. "Can you help me find your —"

"Here I am," Akilah said, hurrying down the hallway. "What's up?"

"I want to talk to you both about something," Leslie said. "It involves your father."

Vince tensed up at the mention of his father, but stepped back regardless to let his mother and sister inside his room.

"You smell like cigarette smoke," Vince whispered to his sister, as they sat on the edge of his bed.

"Shut up," Akilah snapped, elbowing him in the rib.

Leslie closed the door and took a deep breath to prepare herself for the news she was about to deliver to her children — it had been a long time coming, that's for sure.

"There's something you need to know about your father's parents," Leslie said.

"You told us they were dead," Vince said.

"They are," Leslie said. "Maybe. Possibly. Your father grew up in foster care with his brother. Only Sean was eventually adopted and provided for, whereas your uncle was left in foster care...now, I'm not trying to excuse any of the things he's done to this family, but part of that is where your uncle was coming from."

"I don't give a damn where Derek was coming from," Vince said. "I hope he's burning in hell right now."

"Mom, what does this have to do with us?" Akilah demanded. "Who adopted him?"

Leslie paused for a moment.

"Mom," Akilah repeated.

"Kevin Hanley," Leslie said finally. "Kevin adopted your father. Which technically, makes him your grandfather."

"We're already Hanleys," Vince said. "Michael is our stepfather."

"Then we're Hanleys times two," Akilah said. "Mom, what does this mean?"

"Why did you never tell us?" Vince demanded, angrily rising to his feet. "Don't you think we had a right to know?"

"I wanted to protect you from this family," Leslie said. "After what they did…what I thought they did to your father."

"So you decided to go and marry into it?"

"I love Michael, you know that."

"So do I," Vince said. "At least, I did before he let me live in his house for three years without telling me he was my goddamn uncle."

"Does this mean we're getting some money today?" Akilah asked.

"Shut up, Akilah," Vince snapped. "This is why Derek wanted our father dead, isn't it? To get his hands on the Hanley fortune?"

"Vince, will you sit down? I would like to talk about this like —"

"Man, I was so worried about coming back home, worried about how I'd treated you all over the past couple of years," Vince said. "But I had no idea you'd been lying to me this entire time."


FOYER

"This is certainly exciting," Valerie muttered. "Should be a nice pick-me-up after that dreary funeral."

"Valerie, don't be so snide," Felicia said.

"Oh, don't pretend like you were in love with my...our father," Valerie said.

"Far from it, but the man is dead. We can finally move on."

"I doubt that," Valerie said. "This will reading? I'm expecting to get what's owed to me. But you ignored what Kevin Hanley told you. You told everyone that he was your biological father. I'm sure he hasn't forgotten that."

"You're the one who told everyone," Felicia reminded her.

"Only after you told me first," Valerie said. "Semantics!"


MARQUETTE COVE COUNTY PRISON
MARK ZANE'S CELL

His attention was caught by the sight of a guard coming into his view. Mark's eyes lit up — the response he had been waiting for may have finally arrived.

"Yes?" Mark said, greeting the guard.

The guard remained silent. He reached into his pocket and in a split-second, brandished something shiny and metallic. Before Mark had a chance to react, the object was shoved into his chest.

Mark groaned in pain as the object was quickly removed from his chest. The guard placed the object back into his pocket and swiftly walked away from the cell.

Mark tried to speak, but something was blocking his airwaves. He couldn't scream out for help. He opened his mouth but nothing could escape from his lips. There had been something else on the sharp tip of that object — some kind of poison. He was now feeling its effects.

And then, without any further struggle, Mark slumped to the floor unconscious. His last thoughts were a prayer that this would not be the last time his eyes were closing.


HANLEY HOME

Michael Hanley and his wife, Leslie, entered the living room and took a seat on the couch. Eventually, they were followed by Vince and Akilah, with anguished expressions on their faces. He had only seem them look like this once before — at their father's funeral.

Eric Hanley walked into the room, drinking a Corona. He plopped down in an armchair and rested his feet on the coffee table, winking at Akilah as he did. Disgusted, she rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

Valerie and Felicia were the last to enter the living room, along with Riley Schaefer, the man who ran the entire Hanley household from behind the scenes. Robert shared a brief glance with his ex-wife before he was quickly brought back into the reality of the moment by Michael clearing his throat loudly.

"Robert, may we begin?" Michael asked.

"Oh, yes," Robert said. "Of course."

Michael smirked — this moment was several years coming. He turned his head slightly and saw that his sister had a similar expression on her face. He started to wonder what Valerie knew that he didn't, but chose to ignore those notions.

Whatever she thought was coming to her had to be wrong. The cards were absolutely stacked in Michael's favor. Just as always, the house was going to win. MADISON SQUARE PARK
NEW YORK CITY

"Sean."

Sean glanced up to find his wife, Denise Price, smiling at him. She had just

returned with the extra napkins he'd asked to get for his greasy burger.

"Thanks honey," Sean said.

He was going by the name Sean again, which was the only nod to his past he would allow for himself. Denise accepted this change when he told her than Simon had been his middle name, and he preferred going by the name Sean. A simple lie.

A lie so simple, yet one that was a part of a larger lie that had burdened Sean for the past two years. Hiding his past from Denise was a chore, but a necessary one in order to protect not only himself, but his family — the Hanleys.

Scarcely two years ago, Sean discovered the truth about his past — that his "neighbor" Derek was actually his brother, and he had been working in tandem with Michael Hanley, Sean's adoptive brother. They both plotted to kill Sean, but Derek had been double-crossed and was unaware of it. He was unaware that Michael held Sean prisoner for years in the hopes of brainwashing him.

Things spiraled out of control when Derek found out he'd been betrayed, however, and a power play between Derek and Michael ensued. Sean had finished it when he confronted Derek one year ago — a confrontation that ended in Derek's death. Sean then had to lead Michael to believe that he'd left for Paris, never to return to the United States and ruin his plans.

Sean wished he could be in Paris, but he didn't want to make his wife move. Denise loved living in New York, and so did her son, Nate. So they remained. And Sean did all that he could to keep his former family from finding out the truth about him.

They had already grieved for him — they had already moved on with their lives, he didn't want to return and upset them. Especially not when his wife was now married to Michael, the man responsible for all of the pain and turmoil they'd been through. Learning the truth would destroy her.

Sean couldn't destroy Leslie like that. From what he could remember, he loved her far too much for that.


HANLEY HOME

"You heard me, Michael," Robert said. "Kevin left you nothing. Your father left you nothing."

The room had gone completely silent at the announcement that Kevin had left none of his assets to Michael. All except for Valerie, that is. She began clapping immediately, barely able to contain her bemusement.

Oh…so smug, Valerie, Michael thought, bitterly. He kept up his anger, all the while knowing that his "outburst" was merely a ruse. He was expecting something else to happen in the will, and part of that involved him being left nothing.

"May I please continue?" Robert asked.

Robert lifted the will and began to read once more. "To my daughter, Felicia, I leave this personal record of a joyous time in her life."

"Personal record?" Felicia repeated.

"There's a DVD here," Robert said.

He removed a DVD from his briefcase and walked toward the television set in the living room. He turned on the television and opened the DVD player. Felicia sat nervously as she awaited the viewing of whatever was on the DVD.

Robert didn't want to admit it, but he was worried for Felicia as well. This will reading was only serving one purpose so far, and it was apparently to humiliate and terrorize Kevin's children from beyond the grave — as if he hadn't done it enough while he was alive.

Leslie extended a hand and rested in on Felicia's knee — it was all she could think of to show her support at the moment. Valerie did the same, and for the first time ever, these three women seemed to be on the exact same page.

Robert pressed play on the DVD player. After a few seconds of static, a room became visible on the television screen.

"That's my bedroom," Michael said, still standing. This time, he wasn't feigning any surprise or anger. He had no idea what was about to play on the screen.

Suddenly, the sound of laughing came from the television. Two people came into view in Michael's bedroom, carrying a bottle of wine. They landed on his bed and began to kiss.

"Is that…oh my God," Felicia said, suddenly realizing what was happening. The night that she had been outed as a Hanley to Michael and Robert, the night she had almost slept with her own brother, had been recorded for her father's enjoyment. "Someone turn that shit off!"

"Oh come on, Felicia," Robert said through a smirk, unable to hide his own enjoyment. "I want to see what angle the camera catches me at when Valerie and I walk into the room."

"You're a sick bastard," Michael said, sprinting to the television set and turning it off. "You knew this was going to be played, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't," Robert said. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it. Watching you two have to relive a mess you made. When you destroyed my marriage with —"

Leslie stood up. "Robert. Not now."

"Fine," Robert said, rolling his eyes. "We'll continue with the will reading. And in case you wondering, no, he didn't leave you anything else, Felicia."

Vince leaned in to Akilah and whispered in her ear, "And I thought I used to act immature."

"To my grandchildren, Eric and Ariel, I leave my shares in Hanley Enterprises," Robert read, continuing from where he'd left off.

Eric grinned. "Awesome. How much do you think I could get for those?"

"Eric, shut up," Michael snapped.

"Chill out, pops," Eric said.

"Seventy-five percent of my assets, I leave to the only one of my children who never disappointed me — Sean Moore," Robert said. "In the event of Sean's death, I leave those assets to his surviving children. Their mother or an appropriate guardian will remain in control of those assets until the children have reached the age of 21."

"Shut. Up," Akilah said, stuck with utter disbelief.

"You're kidding me, right?" Vince asked.

"No, I'm not," Robert said.

"This is…I don't know what to say," Leslie said, in as much shock as her children.

"Be grateful," Michael said.

Michael was now able to smile, without giving away that he knew full and well where his father's money would be going. Now, of course, he had a limited window to gain control of those assets — he was going to have a lot of work to do.

"What about me?" Valerie demanded. "Where the hell is my name?"

"I'm getting to it," Robert said.

"Then hurry the hell up."

"The remaining twenty-five percent of my assts, I leave to my daughter Valerie —"

"Thank heaven," Valerie said, interrupting. "I was beginning to —"

"Can I finish?" Robert asked. "I leave to my daughter Valerie's husband, Simon. For having to put up with her when I grew tired of the ungrateful bitch."

Michael burst into laughter as Valerie folded her arms and stared daggers at Robert. She stalked over to the will and snatched it from Robert's hands so she could see it for herself.

"What is the meaning of this? Simon left me!"

"But he didn't divorce you," Robert said. "I've already contacted him about the assets that were left to him."

Valerie paused for a moment. "You...you were in contact with Simon?"

"This morning," Robert said.

"Did he say anything about me?" Valerie whispered. "Do you have a number where I can —"

"He asked me not to tell you where he is," Robert said. "I'm sorry...actually, you know what? I'm really not sorry at all."

Valerie slapped Robert across the face. He continued to smirk and removed the will from her hands.

"But wait, there's just one more thing," Robert said, in his best Colombo impersonation. Despite herself, Felicia laughed at Robert's impersonation, remembering times when they used to watch Colombo movies on the weekends after Alec was asleep.

"To my daughter, Valerie — I am perfectly aware that it was you who set fire to my storage building four years ago," Robert continued. "And I not only have the evidence to prove it, but I've also had said evidence sent to the Marquette Cove Police Department. As of this will reading, the police should be on their way to arrest you for arson."

Valerie's face fell. She turned to look at the others in the room, but no one made eye contact with her.

"Robert, you're kidding," Valerie insisted. "This isn't true, I didn't burn anything down!"

"I saw the evidence, Valerie," Robert said. "I had it delivered to the station myself this morning. I also informed Simon — he didn't seem to care much. He said you'd dug your own grave and now you can get buried in it."

"No!" Valerie shrieked. "I'm not going to jail! I can't go to jail!"

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Riley walked into the foyer while Valerie continued to scream inside the living room. Moments later, Riley returned with two police officers.

"Valerie," Riley said. "These men are here to —"

Before Riley could finish speaking, Valerie had already fainted and collapsed onto the carpet.