The third book in the Channel series, 2007

Screwed! She was royally, totally, and completely screwed. And all because that charming old man who had been her grandfather came from a generation that still believed in happily ever after. Ashley Cordelia Kimbrough, the richest woman in Egret Pointe, could have told you that there was absolutely no such thing as happily ever after.

"You can't find any way around his will?" she asked her attorneys for what was probably the hundredth time. "Nothing?"

Rick Johnson and Joe Pietro d'Angelo shook their heads at her.

"You've still got eighteen months," Rick said. "A lot can happen in eighteen months, Ash. There's still plenty of time."

"Yeah," Joe chimed in. "And it would have been a lot worse if we hadn't found out about Derek. If you'd married him, it would have cost you a lot of money, Ash. A lot of money. I would have thought a guy like that would have been smarter, but maybe it's just been luck that kept him one step ahead of the law. But once he started howling about the prenup, bells started going off around here."

Ashley sighed. "Thank God you two checked him out, but everyone seemed to think he was the perfect match for me. But then, what wasn't to like? He was tall, blond, athletic, well-spoken. He was a great dresser, and seemed to be well-fixed himself. Who knew that Derek Douglas Carruthers was wanted in Georgia and South Carolina for fraud? And that his real name was Elmer Oswald Leonard?"