Chapter 19 #2
“Oh no, you don’t,” Jane said, grabbing Pamela’s purse and pulling out the documents. She glanced at the first page and frowned, then her eyes widened as she read further. “Uh...”
Her head shot up, and she looked at William holding up the documents. “Is this right?”
William took the papers from Jane’s hands and went through them, his expression growing darker with each page. Finally, he looked at Pamela with barely contained anger.
“You are even more despicable than I ever thought,” William said, his voice low and furious.
“You know, when your father cut you out of his will, I stuck up for you. I said you’d been through a lot in your life, that he should give you another chance.
He said that he’d tried and tried with you, but you were always so cold to him and that you hated him so much you’d even tried to get him declared insane to take over his company. ”
“I don’t care what that horrible man said,” Pamela hissed. “I didn’t choose to leave him. He cut me out of his life. I had to live with that woman while he lived the high life.”
“You lived in one of the biggest houses in St. Augustine with a chauffeur, a chef, and staff waiting on you hand and foot,” Julie pointed out sharply. “I’d say he kept you in the lap of luxury.”
“Shut up!” Pamela snapped at Julie. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d have been James Christmas’s daughter. I’d have grown up in a happy family, but you stole him from my real mother!”
Julie looked stunned. “What?”
“My mother was supposed to marry James Christmas,” Pamela said, her voice rising. “Not that cold, arrogant Richard Sullivan. But you came along and stole him away. The life I should have had, the family I should have had, you took all of it!”
She rushed at Julie, but a steel band of an arm linked around her waist, stopping her.
“I wouldn’t do that, Pammie,” Victor’s voice was soft and sad. “I think you’re in enough trouble as it is.”
“Victor!” Pamela’s eyes widened with shock. “I don’t know what they’ve told you, but I was trying to get the inn for you. For us. This was supposed to be—”
“Pamela, I know everything,” Victor said quietly. “Everything. The lies. The manipulation. The fraud. I know all of it.”
He looked at the gathered group with genuine regret. “Again, Jack, Julie, and Jane, I’m deeply sorry for all the problems my... for all the problems Pamela has caused your family. Trust me, you won’t be hearing from us again.”
“Wait,” Jane said suddenly. “What about Simon? Where is he?”
Victor’s expression hardened slightly. “Mr. Bennett is currently having a very interesting conversation with some colleagues of mine. Turns out, attempting to defraud an heiress of money is taken quite seriously by the authorities. Who knew?”
Pamela’s face went white. “You called the police?”
“Among others,” Victor said. “Come on, Pamela. Let’s go.”
He turned and guided a now-silent Pamela from the bathroom.
For a moment, everyone just stood there in stunned silence.
“Well,” William said finally, glancing around the bathroom. “I think we should allow the ladies to get back to using their facilities properly.”
That broke the tension, and everyone laughed as they filed out into the hallway.
Twenty minutes later, Jack called a meeting in the library to fill everyone in on what was happening.
Jane stood beside her father, looking at everyone gathered before them.
Christopher, Gabe, Isabella, Holly, Charlie, Logan, William, and her gran were all staring at them.
She swallowed, trying to hold back the tears.
She couldn’t believe this was finally over.
And if what she’d glanced at those documents of Pamela’s were true…
Jane could save the inn a good few times over. It still felt so surreal.
“So let me get this straight,” Christopher said, looking around at everyone.
“Yesterday, Victor and Terry met with Charlie, William, and Julie to let them know that it wasn’t Victor after the inn, but Pamela.
She thought it was her right to have the inn because her mother was supposed to marry Jack’s father, James, and that Julie stole him from Pamela’s mother? ”
“Yes, and my dad and my gran stole the life she was supposed to have,” Jane finished for them.
“Yup.” Jack nodded. “Victor told us all of this yesterday afternoon. That’s what that meeting was really about. He wanted to help us stop her.”
“James and her mother had broken up long before I met him,” Julie said indignantly. “She was already engaged to Richard Sullivan when James and I started dating. There was no stealing involved.”
“Pamela was an unhappy child who grew up with everything money could buy except the one thing she actually wanted,” Holly said thoughtfully.
“A loving family. She equated the Christmas Inn with that family unit and happiness. In her mind, if she’d grown up here instead of in that big empty house, she would have been happy.
So she became obsessed with taking what she thought should have been hers. ”
Jane nodded slowly, understanding but not excusing. “But what I don’t get with her was if she wanted the inn so badly, why leave Dad and marry Victor in the first place?” She held up her hands quickly. “Not that I wish she’d stayed and raised me.” She shuddered. “Heck no.”
“Victor came from an exceptionally wealthy family,” William explained. “Pamela needed wealth and connections to eventually get the inn. She’s been obsessed with this place since she was a child. But here’s the thing—Victor never wanted the inn. He had no idea what Pamela was planning.”
“And get this,” Jack added, his voice tight. “It wasn’t Victor who bankrupted my company ten years ago.”
“No,” William confirmed. “That was Simon Bennett and Pamela. They worked together to destroy Jack’s business in Charleston, hoping it would force him back here and make the inn financially vulnerable.
” He sighed. “Only, Jack was snapped up by a firm, and it took another ten years before he came home.”
“So it was like they were playing a long con,” Gabe said with disdain. “I’m so sorry, Jack… I…”
“Hey, you’re not responsible for the sins of your father, Gabe,” Jack assured him. “You are a completely different person.”
“I never knew,” Holly said, her eyes dark with emotion. “Simon never told me any of this. I thought I knew him.”
“I know,” Jack assured her. He gave her a reassuring smile. “None of this is your fault.” His eyes darkened. “And if he hadn’t taken Pamela as a client, you, Charlie, Trinity, Gabe, and Christopher would never have come here.”
“That’s true,” Christopher said.
Jane’s head was spinning. “But the sting was a bit risky, though, Dad and Charlie!” She raised her brows at them. “I went into that bathroom still not knowing what Pamela wanted me to sign.”
“That’s right,” Charlie said. “When Victor came to us yesterday, he explained everything except the specific document Pamela was after. He knew she was trying to get you to sign something, but not what.”
“Terry found the divorce papers and the purchase agreement in Pamela’s name,” Holly added. “That’s what she sent me copies of. But not the other document.”
“So we set up the sting,” Jack explained. “Got Pamela and Simon to come in, made them think we were desperate and defeated. Made them overconfident.”
“Abe helped too,” Charlie said with a smile. “That ‘updated inspection report’ showing foundational problems? Complete fiction. Abe created it specifically to give to Simon, to make them think we had no choice but to sell.”
“But how did you know Pamela would take Jane aside?” Gabe asked.
“We didn’t for sure,” Julie admitted. “But William suspected she’d try one last time to get Jane alone, to make her pitch without the family interfering. That’s why we were waiting in the bathroom.”
“In the stalls,” Holly added with a laugh. “For twenty minutes. My legs were going numb.”
Jane turned to William. “You knew what was in those documents, didn’t you? What Pamela was really after?”
“I had a very good idea,” William nodded. “Which brings us to the real revelation of the day.”
The room went quiet. Everyone turned to look at William.
“William,” Jane said slowly. “Is what I saw in that document true? What Pamela was trying to get me to sign?”
“Yes,” William said, his expression serious. “Pamela was cut out of her father’s will. Richard Sullivan left her nothing except a trust that pays for her living expenses. What she was trying to do was get you to sign everything Richard left to you over to her.”
“Richard left Jane something in his will?” Jack and Julie said in unison.
“Not something,” William said, and a smile broke across his face. “Everything.”
Gasps filled the library.
Jane’s eyes widened as realization dawned. “You’re the executor of Richard’s will, aren’t you? You’re the mystery benefactor!”
William nodded. “I’ve been managing your estate since Richard’s death, Jane. And per his instructions, I’ve been using funds from your inheritance to pay off the inn’s debts.”
“You’ve been paying off the inn’s debt?” Jack said, his voice incredulous.
“Not me personally,” William clarified, looking at Julie’s shocked expression.
“Jane’s estate has. It’s all perfectly legal and in accordance with Richard’s wishes.
He wanted to ensure the Christmas Inn stayed in the family.
He knew how much you meant to Jane, Jack.
How much this place meant to all of you. ”
Jane felt tears pricking her eyes. “My grandfather did that? The man I never met?”
“He loved you,” William said gently. “He couldn’t be part of your life because of Pamela, but he made sure you’d be taken care of. And he made sure the people you loved would be taken care of, too.”
“He left me everything?” Jane asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
William smiled. “Everything.”
The room was completely silent. No one seemed to breathe.
“I’m sorry,” Jane said. “It still hasn’t quite sunk in. I’m an heiress?”
“You can say that, yes,” William confirmed with a laugh.
“I knew it!” Logan said and turned to Jack. “Remember I told you that William knew who the benefactor was. The way he said that, I wish I could tell you.” He snorted and shook his head at William. “You sly old dog!”
Everyone laughed, and Jane stepped back a bit to catch her breath as the implications of what William said suddenly hit her. She walked over to William.
“William,” Jane said quietly. “Can you take me to my grandfather’s grave?”
“Of course, dear,” William said, his eyes shining with pride for the beautiful young woman standing in front of him. “You may not have known your grandfather, but he knew everything about you, Jane.”
Tears stung her eyes as she nodded. Today had been tremendously nerve-racking.
Tonight was the lantern lighting ceremony, and Jane knew this year would be different.
This year, she wouldn’t make wishes. She would light her lantern in remembrance of the grandfather who had loved her without ever knowing her, who had protected her family from beyond the grave.
For all the lost loved ones who had paved the way through their sacrifices, their struggles, their quiet acts of love that echoed across the years.
She had everything she could ever want. And she owed it all to those who were no longer with them but whose love remained.