Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
The rest of the school week went by smoothly. Brandon and Oliver avoided me at all costs. I heard that Alicia followed Brandon around constantly trying to get a chance with him. It wasn’t any of my business.
My meeting with my grandfather, JJ, and Prue was moved up to Saturday morning. Bram offered to go with me. I thanked him and I told him I had to do this on my own.
I wore a pretty, somewhat expensive blue dress so dark it was almost black. It was slim-fitting, had three-quarter-length sleeves and a V neckline, and cut off just above the knee. I wore white pearl jewelry and expensive new black pumps.
I triple-checked that my father’s letter was in my purse before leaving.
I was nervous the entire drive to JJ’s office and as I rode the elevator up to his floor.
JJ’s legal office was very nice. He was a partner at his firm, and his name was on the wall I passed to get to the front desk.
I told the receptionist who I was and she led me to JJ’s large corner office, which had a great view of Summerhaven.
Prue was already there, sitting at a large conference table that took up one side of the room.
Prue got up and greeted me with a hug. “I’m glad you came.”
Before I could respond, JJ walked in with my grandfather right behind him.
Sullivan Kendry had been very intimidating to me all my life.
Even Mother seemed to get nervous around him.
He was tall with a salt-and-pepper Ivy League haircut.
Heavy on the salt. He had the same blue eyes as my father and the same nose.
He was wearing a very expensive tailored gray suit with white gold and black diamond cuff links.
We stared at each other. My face was schooled. His was empty, as it always was when he stared at me.
“Hello, Grand—” I stopped myself. “Hello.” I couldn’t call him that anymore.
He knew I wasn’t his granddaughter. His own letter from Father had told him so, and Grand—Sullivan had informed me of this when I’d called him.
In fact, it was just as I had assumed. Sullivan had suspected for my whole life that I wasn’t really his son’s child.
In our to-the-point phone call on Wednesday during the mess with Brandon, I’d told him I had a lot to tell him, and started with not really being his granddaughter before I jumped into what Mother had been planning with the Carmichaels and the shares Father had left me.
After he was done listening, he said that he would come to Summerhaven sooner and I was to be at the meeting with JJ and Prue.
The price for his help was for me to let him read my father’s letter to me and to consider selling him my father’s shares. I had agreed.
“Did you bring it?” was his greeting back.
Ignoring the slight disappointment I felt, I pulled my letter from my purse and handed it to him.
He took it and went to sit at the head of the conference table.
I followed, sitting in the chair to his right.
JJ claimed the chair to his left and Prue sat on my other side.
When Sullivan was done reading my letter, he asked for Prue’s and JJ’s.
They both handed off theirs and we sat quietly as he read each with a stoic expression.
Once he finished, he stared blankly off into space for a minute. Then he leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “You said you had more to tell me.”
I nodded. “It’s about how Father died. I saw it. I saw how he was killed.” I didn’t think anyone blinked as I went into the details of that night.
Sullivan stood abruptly. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I flinched at his harsh tone.
Prue came to my defense. “She was terrified. You have no idea the hell Bethany has put this poor girl through.” She reached into her purse and pulled out pictures. As she started laying them out, I saw that they were pictures of me, beaten and bloody over the years.
That prompted me to start from the beginning about the abuse I had endured, Prue chiming in with her perspective of the incidents.
Sullivan asked why Prue hadn’t gone to the police when she had evidence. I explained how Mother used money—my money—and the Kendry power to make people look away. If Prue had gone to the police, I would have lost the only person on my side in that house.
“I stuck around all these years because Mr. Noah asked me to look after Charlotte to the best of my ability if anything were to happen to him. I’m sure he didn’t picture the extent of this outcome. I know I didn’t when I made that promise to him,” Prue said.
“I think we should go over the damage your mother has done to what your father left you over the years,” JJ said, laying out documents.
The real estate had been left untouched.
I had a condo in New York, a house in Aspen, and a beach house in California, all of which Mother had frequented but I’d never seen.
According to JJ, the locks had been changed and staff informed that Mother was barred.
He had also started the eviction process to get Mother out of my house here in Summerhaven.
He went over a list of vehicles, safety deposit boxes, stocks, bonds, so on and so forth.
There was so much Father had left me that I was beginning to get overwhelmed.
Then JJ started talking about the accounts and how their balances had changed since Father died.
Mother had spent millions over the past twelve years; across all accounts, I had a little over a million left.
With my shares in the Kendry company, I would have continuous income, but I told Sullivan I would sell them to him.
“I don’t know how she planned to get away with spending all this,” JJ said.
“I’m surprised she didn’t just kill Charlotte to get everything,” Prue said.
“Because I would have known,” Sullivan said as he stood by the large window and stared out at Summerhaven.
“After my son died, I suspected her. I didn’t have any proof, but she knew I suspected her.
Especially after how upset she got when she learned Noah had willed everything to Charlotte.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to get away with murder a second time.
So she went about it a different way.” He turned to face me.
“We went to court over your custodianship and she won simply because she was your mother. I may have influence and power in the business world, but judges are hard to sway unless I can get dirt on them.”
He was a scary man.
“She probably never planned to tell you what Noah left to you,” he continued.
“She enjoyed the control and spending of your wealth while she could. Planned to sell you for one last cash grab and probably would have disappeared. Or she would have killed you after you married into the Carmichael family and pinned your death on them. Spun it as if they were after the shares Noah left you.” He made his way back to the head of the table.
“We may never know what that woman had planned exactly, but it’s over for her now.
I’ve texted my assistant to bring the police here.
I trust that you will all provide statements.
” He pointedly stared at me when he said that.
Prue and JJ said they would and I nodded.
“Good. While we wait for them to arrive, I would like to discuss the buyback of the shares you have in my company.”
“All right,” I said.
Prue stood. “I’ll go sit in the lobby until the police get here,” she said, excusing herself from the room.
Sullivan looked to JJ, who handed him a document. Sullivan read it over and pulled a pen from the inside pocket of his sport coat. He crossed something out on the document and wrote something over it. He then slid the document over to me. “This is my official offer for the shares.”
I read over it. He had crossed out the original price he was willing to pay and doubled it.
“After reading all the letters my son wrote, I realized that the main focus in every letter was you,” Sullivan said as he stared at me. “To make sure you were taken care of.”
I stared down at the document as I thought.
Sullivan leaned back in his chair. “I could have never raised or loved someone else’s child.”
I did not react to his harsh words, only stared back at him.
“But my son was a kinder man than I’ve ever been. He loved you. He claimed you as his own. I increased my original offer because I loved my son.” He went quiet for a moment. “Do you still intend to go to Brown and follow in your father’s footsteps?”
I shook my head. “I want to have a quiet life where I can draw and be happy.”
He didn’t look pleased. “Everything your mother did is going to cause a scandal. I would like to lessen the number of things she got away with under my nose. One being your illegitimacy. I would like you to keep the Kendry name and not advertise that Noah wasn’t your real father.”
“Some people know. I’m currently living with my biological father now,” I said.
He didn’t look pleased by that, either. “Try not to tell anyone else. If it comes out later on, I’ll tackle it then, I suppose.” He glanced at the document in front of me. “Along with my offer for the shares, I would like to add a stipulation.”
“And that is?” I asked.
“I would like you to spend time with me for at least one week and one holiday each year,” he said.
I tried not to react and failed. “To keep up appearances?”
“No,” he said. “I may not be able to see you as mine, but you were Noah’s. A child he loved greatly, and I owe it to him to know you better.”
I thought about it and stared down at the amount he was offering me. There were a lot of zeros. It was a lot more than Mother would have gotten for selling me to the Carmichaels. “All right.”
Everything went by in a blur after that. The police showed up and we all spoke to them. Then I was sent on my way.