Chapter 2 #3
“She thought you were all pretty much on track on the paths you wanted to be on, and she didn’t want to upset the balance of your lives.
She didn’t really lead a life of luxury herself, except for this property.
But she turned it into a home, a haven where she could write, not a showplace.
You know yourselves, she wasn’t a showy woman.
She was always very down-to-earth, and all she wanted was to write the books, and see all of you when you had time.
” She had built an empire for them, and he was intrigued to know what they were going to do with it.
Quinne seemed very much like her mother, and Scott could see that material success had not been one of Quinne’s goals, and that the windfall she was about to receive came as a total shock.
“I could do another startup,” Charlotte said with stars in her eyes, “without investors to drive me nuts this time.” Veronica and Isabelle were noticeably silent and looked stunned.
“We could set up a foundation, and bring inner-city kids here for two-week camp sessions all summer, or even all year,” Olivia said, visibly excited. The suggestion was so typical of her that the others smiled. She was deeply philanthropic, and was already thinking of who they could help.
“Do we want to keep the property?” Veronica asked them, catching her breath. “It looks gorgeous. Maybe we should keep it for us,” she said cautiously, not wanting to offend her charitable sister Olivia.
“Let’s look around before we make any decisions,” Charlotte said sensibly. “It’s too soon to decide anything. We’ve owned it for ten minutes, although Sean and Julia would love it.”
“I could spend summers here with the kids, and I wouldn’t have to go to my in-laws in Maine anymore,” Isabelle said, smiling, but who knew how all of that would shake out if the rumors about Ian having an affair were true.
Maybe he was going to leave her. She didn’t know what to believe.
Within twenty-four hours she had learned that she might be losing her husband, and that her mother had left each of them a bequest worth nearly thirty million dollars each.
She couldn’t wrap her mind around it yet, and she didn’t want to tell Ian about it now.
She didn’t want him to stay with her for that.
She felt as though she no longer knew him.
His family had always treated her like a lesser person because she didn’t have money, and now suddenly she had more than they did, and a much nicer country home.
While Ian was about to ruin everything with another woman in his life.
Veronica was wondering how Anson was going to react to her windfall and unexpected inheritance.
She had been completely dependent on him ever since they’d been together and she’d given up her law career for him, and she had no income.
She depended on him for everything and he always said he didn’t mind.
She didn’t like to be beholden to him, but there was no other choice if he wanted her to be constantly available at a moment’s notice, with no other life, no friends to take up her time, no projects or engagements to occupy her.
No children. No job. Her whole life was a waiting game, expected to be there to offer him comfort, support, love, and nurturing, and sex any time.
She was in effect a paid courtesan, which was what her mother had objected to so strenuously about her situation.
Now Felicia had changed all that in an instant, and materially Veronica would no longer be dependent on Anson.
She wondered how he would like that, or if he wouldn’t.
She didn’t want to upset him, and had already decided to wait until the right time to tell him, and not right away.
She and Isabelle had good reasons to hide their news.
Quinne wasn’t sure either how Cooper would react.
They didn’t live in abject poverty, but they led a very simple life, and contributed equally to everything they did.
They had an entirely equitable relationship which was about to change dramatically, and Coop was sensitive about things like that.
Maybe he’d trade her in for a poor girl.
They’d both been living on what they earned, and their combined incomes were very modest. Felicia had changed all that, for all of them.
The only two who had no partner to consider were Charlotte and Olivia, who were very much alone in their lives, and only had themselves to think about, except for Charlotte’s children, Sean and Julia.
She had no intention of telling them that they had become rich overnight, thanks to their grandmother.
She would tell them one day, but not for a long time.
They were too young for her to explain wealth of such magnitude to, and they were liable to tell their friends about it.
Charlotte thought of something else then, and turned to Scott. “Are you going to tell our mother’s publisher that Morgan Reed is dead?” she asked him. He had thought about that as well.
“You’ll have to discuss that with Robert, and see what he advises.
As I understand it, he has six or seven of her latest unpublished manuscripts that aren’t part of the current contract, so you don’t need to rush telling them, which gives you time to make a wise decision.
That’s really his province, not mine, and you’ll have a lot to discuss with him, now that you know the truth about the books and who wrote them. ”
They all had a great deal to think about after the meeting.
Scott discussed their mother’s investment portfolio with them, which was in very good shape.
She had been a consummately responsible person, a practical woman, and since she was doing it all for her children, she was particularly careful, and never invested in anything high-risk.
He assured them that they had all the money needed to pay the estate taxes.
Felicia had an insurance policy for that, and additional money set aside in case of surprises.
She was leaving them a whistle-clean estate and an astounding inheritance, and a beautiful property they could use and enjoy.
It took two hours to go over all the details and bring the sisters up to date, and he handed them each the letter from their mother.
It was brief and handwritten to each of them, apologizing for never telling them the truth about the Morgan Reed books, but saying that she thought it was best handled the way she had chosen.
None of their lives had ever been disrupted by the impact fame would have had on all of them, which had been her goal in using a pseudonym for her entire writing career.
It protected all of them from the price to pay for fame, which she had ardently avoided for her entire literary career.
She apologized to all of them for not telling them about the farm in Connecticut. It had been her hideaway, her safe haven, and now they could enjoy it among themselves, and she hoped that they would be as happy there as she had been.
“She was such a solitary person,” Quinne said sadly, “and none of us spent enough time with her in the last ten years. We’ve all been busy with our own lives, and we thought she was busy editing and didn’t need us.
She was so self-sufficient, but she must have been lonely here.
It’s such a beautiful place, it makes me sad to think of her here alone. ”
“Mom preferred it that way,” Charlotte said, and Quinne suddenly wondered if they had known their mother at all.
She had kept some very deep secrets from them for more than two decades, such as an important writing career, one of the most major literary careers in the States.
She was the queen of thrillers, and she kept the secret of her home from them, and the money she was saving for them.
Quinne wondered if there were other things they didn’t know about her.
Anything was possible. Veronica wondered the same thing.
Charlotte had always misjudged her mother.
She had assumed that the facade Felicia showed to the world, and even to them, was the real one.
And Veronica and Quinne were no longer so sure.
Who was Felicia really? They didn’t know her at all.
The beautiful country estate was proof of that.
Olivia’s mind was racing wildly, thinking about the foundation they could establish in their mother’s name, to honor her memory and do philanthropic deeds.
Ever since her accident, her focus was always on what she could do for others less fortunate than she was.
Isabelle’s mind was clouded now with worries about her marriage.
Losing her marriage, if she did, meant even more to her than the fortune she had just gained.
It was hard to focus on both at the same time.
Life was so strange. It gave with one hand, and took away with the other.
Her head was spinning by the end of the meeting.
When Scott was finished speaking to them, he suggested they look around the property they had just inherited and explore the main house and the cottages and outbuildings, which they all wanted to do.
The housekeeper appeared with a platter of sandwiches for all of them.
They helped themselves before they began looking around, and they thanked Scott for all his explanations.
Everything they had heard that day was good news, but their mother was still dead and was never coming back.
Quinne wiped away tears and blew her nose and commented to Charlotte before they ate their sandwiches.
“You were so wrong about her,” she said. “You always were. She wasn’t trying to complicate anything for us. She’s given us incredible gifts.”
“I’m beginning to think that I never really knew her,” Charlotte said, mollified after the revelations of the morning.