Chapter 40
It took an hour to get some facts through to the thunderstruck Millers. Not only were Joseph and Elizabeth shocked, they were stubborn and suspicious.
Although Theo and Piper had eroded much of Duane’s fortune, a big chunk remained.
Ronnie had ordered a trust created that rightfully belonging to the true Sophia Cardot, now known as Margaret Miller, their adopted daughter.
As Ronnie explained this to them, I caught flashes of the kids outside, running around, chores forgotten.
Two of them reddish-to-fair-haired, one of them was darker with longer lashes, and a clear beneficiary of Madeleine Cardot’s beauty.
The trust would soon be funded with ten million dollars when Duane’s life insurance policy paid out, him having been missing for seven years now.
Ronnie would see to that herself, and the ten million was to be used as the family saw fit, in the rearing of the children.
Plus, Margaret Miller and her guardians were now the rightful owners of a small beach house in New Jersey.
Ronnie offered to manage the trust, free of charge.
She would make arrangements for the back taxes and the bills and penalties of the beach house to be paid, and they could visit anytime they liked, and bring the Yoders and Madeleine and whoever they wanted with them.
The ten million dollars would earn interest and likely increase in value, instead of decreasing, and they could request distributions whenever they wanted.
A new generator, perhaps? A heifer? A hammer?
They’d earned the reward with a lifetime of hard work and maturity. If anyone could resist the evil impulses that came with sudden wealth, they could.
I hoped.
Joseph hemmed and hawed about the wealth. He said he needed to talk it over with his bishop and the elders. Elizabeth said maybe now they could afford that hand-cranked wheat grinder she had her eyes on, plus some fabric for new dresses.
“We have enough,” Joseph kept repeating.
But I could see him balancing the mental list he maintained in his head, of items around the farm that needed fixing or replacing.
Some out-of-reach big ticket items just got a lot closer.
Plus we could almost see ocean waves cresting in Elizabeth’s eyes, the more she thought about it.
In the end, they refused to sign the papers until talking it through with the Yoders and others, including an attorney at their church. But it didn’t take any foresight to predict they would sign when Ronnie promised to return next week. We said our goodbyes, each of us more buoyant.
Outside, Manny was throwing a baseball with the boy, and the girls whispered under a yellow apple tree. Ronnie and I shut ourselves into the front seats of the car, and I said, “Are you familiar with the Diderot effect?”
“Of course not, Mackenzie.”
“It’s the natural human desire of wanting more stuff, once you acquire one new item. That first purchase leads to an avalanche of others. Once Elizabeth buys a new dress, all the other dresses will look shabby by comparison. Once he buys a new hammer…”
She grabbed my hand, like Elizabeth had done with Joseph, and squeeeeezed it, smiling so big she had tears in her eyes. “You did it. You did the Mackenzie thing, finding a magical happy ending. So don’t ruin it now with fears about the Diderot effect.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Case closed. I’m glad I hired you.”
I snorted. “Obviously.”
Manny waved goodbye to the kids and we trundled down the hard-packed dirt drive, leaving a wispy cloud of dust in our wake. The boy ran beside us in the grass, trying to keep pace the first hundred yards.
“Boy’s got speed,” said Manny. “Look what happens, you don’t play video games.”
“They’re all so beautiful,” said Ronnie. “Beautiful and awkward and sweet.”
We passed the pasture of dairy cows and Madeleine waved goodbye in the distance, not knowing who we were or what we’d done for her granddaughter.
That was okay, on some level it’d never been about her anyway.
When she returned to the farmhouse, she’d find the champagne and chocolate Ronnie had left for her.
We turned onto the paved road and left Amish Country in our rearview. Before we’d gone fifteen miles, Ronnie was at rest, smiling in her sleep.