Chapter Eleven
Seated in the front row beside Aunt Lily, Victoria saw Kelly Lovelock Abbott, her father’s second wife, arrive only an instant before the guard closed the doors to the parlor for the official reading of Horatio Beauregard Lovelock’s final will and testament.
The expression on Kelly’s face hadn’t changed much since Victoria had last seen her, before she divorced Horatio, as she told everyone. Victoria was fairly certain that it had been a mutual separation at best. It was more likely that Horatio initiated divorce proceedings and sent Kelly packing for refusing to keep having children until she produced a son for him. It had been paramount to his way of thinking at that time.
Then again, it was possible that Kelly had had her fill of Horatio and his dictates and hightailed it out of his presence without waiting for his suggestion to leave.
For years, Victoria wondered why her father had chosen to marry Kelly, since even before their separation they hadn’t seemed to get along very well the few times she’d seen them together during the Christmas holidays.
His reason became obvious later on.
Kelly was the only girl in a family of five children. Kelly’s mother had three brothers and her father had five brothers. It was clear that Horatio thought all those boys in the family would give him an edge on producing a son.
That had been very flawed thinking, as it turned out. Horatio never let a small thing like science—and the fact that it was the father’s genetics that determined the sex of the child, not the mother’s—get in the way of what he wanted.
After the Christmas fight that heralded the end of Horatio and Kelly’s marriage, Victoria had been shipped back to boarding school before the New Year. Not long after that, Horatio and Kelly had officially split up.
Kelly took Colleen, Darby and Evaline to live with her wealthy, but apparently aging, parents on the other side of Philadelphia.
By the time the next Christmas vacation rolled around, Victoria’s father had endured a bitter, months’ long divorce proceedings from Kelly. Victoria had been shuttled to his home in Philadelphia for the holidays.
She didn’t even remember if she saw him that Christmas. She spent the holiday with Horatio’s servants. That, if she recalled, was less fraught than the previous Christmas, and she was grateful for small blessings.
This was the first time Victoria had seen Kelly or her daughters since that last Christmas together when they were children. It was only because of Aunt Lily that she knew anything about them at all.
Their aunt was the barest of threads that kept the scattered Lovelock sisters connected, however tenuously. But she didn’t know any of them very well. Victoria certainly didn’t know her sisters like she wished she did.
That issue was something she’d been thinking about while walking on the beach this morning with Miles. Victoria wanted to get to know her sisters, all of them. She hoped that after this gathering, perhaps they could check in with each other regularly going forward.
She’d made the first steps to do that with Jacklyn and Jessica. Of Kelly’s daughters, Victoria thought she might start with Darby, then see if Colleen and Evaline would be amenable to staying in touch. She could only try.
Settled on that, Victoria gripped Aunt Lily’s hand as Miles began his duties as executor of the last will and testament of Horatio Beauregard Lovelock. There were quite a few formalities and what she considered legalese gibberish that they all had to listen to before the meat of the will and testament was revealed.
Many of Horatio’s faithful staff at his residences in Philadelphia, Chicago and Florida were remembered in his will with generous bequests.
Victoria was glad to discover that her father had not taken an economical approach when it came to doling out money to his long-serving staff. She absolutely did not view their financial bounty as a more-for-them-less-for-me scenario. Honestly, she didn’t expect to get much. If she got anywhere close to what any of the staff members had received, she would be grateful and happy to move on with her life.
Several Lovelock Enterprises employees received nominal amounts for their long service and continued loyalty through the years. She thought that was nice. She had no doubt that anyone who worked for her father deserved compensation. He had not been an easy employer, at least in Victoria’s possibly prejudiced opinion.
Once all of those bequests had been rendered, Miles stood up and announced that the remaining contents of the will were to be heard by family members only. He nodded at the guard manning the closed doors at the back of the room and he unlocked and opened them.
As the non-family beneficiaries stood up and filed slowly out of the room, Victoria saw the man seated with Colleen say something to her, kiss her cheek, then get up and leave, too. That was when she noticed a young, dark-haired woman at the back of the room who didn’t make a move to exit with the others.
Victoria thought perhaps she was waiting until the rest of the crowd left before she tried to make her way out. However, once the guard manning the doors followed the stragglers out and closed the doors behind him, the young woman remained seated.
That left the six Lovelock sisters, Aunt Lily, Horatio’s two ex-wives, Miles and the mystery woman.
Interesting.
Victoria wondered who in the world the dark-haired young woman could be. Could she be a cousin of some sort? Child of a cousin or other distant family member? She pushed out a sigh, telling herself to wait. Listen and you’ll likely discover who it is.
When Miles started talking again, she put her focus on him.
“Thank you for your patience today as the last wishes of Horatio Lovelock are rendered. He wanted only family members to be present for this portion of his will and to hear of the personal bequests to each of you.”
Miles sat back down at the desk and shuffled a few papers around as if he were putting off trying to tell them news that he didn’t think they were going to want to hear.
He cleared his throat, grabbed up an official-looking legal-sized document and began to read, “To my sister, Lily Violette Lovelock, I leave the building, property and contents of the Lovelock Inn on Valentine Key in its entirety. She will retain full ownership and responsibility for that business endeavor and she will decide where the property will go whenever her will and testament is delivered, or at another time of her choosing.”
Victoria was surprised. She’d thought Aunt Lily already owned the Lovelock Inn. Her aunt squeezed her hand, garnering her attention. When Victoria looked at the older woman, she smiled and nodded as if this was either what she’d been expecting or that she was grateful she did indeed get to retain the property.
For her part, Victoria would’ve been angry if the Lovelock Inn had been left to anyone else. She glanced around the room and saw Sunshine nodding as if she, too, believed Aunt Lily should retain the Lovelock Inn.
“To my ex-wife Kelly Lovelock Abbott, I bequeath the small Rafe Santiago oil painting we acquired on our honeymoon in Liechtenstein, an item that I mistakenly retained and only recently discovered that should’ve gone back to her long ago.”
Victoria didn’t dare look to see Kelly’s expression. Knowing her even the little that she did, Victoria didn’t expect that Kelly would appreciate being dragged down here so that she could have something returned to her that she apparently should have had all along.
Even if it was a pricy painting by a famous artist.
“To my wife, Sunshine, I allow and enforce the prenuptial agreement that we signed with the following stipulation: Regardless of the fact that you never gave me a son, I want you to have the money promised to you as if you had.”
There were sharp intakes of breath all across the room, including from Sunshine, who looked the most shocked of all. She stood up halfway as if she weren’t sure whether to sit or stand or something in between, and said in a clearly stunned tone, “You mean Horatio never got the divorce finalized? Are you telling me we’ve been married all this time?”
Miles paused in his reading of the document in his hands and said, “Yes. I know this comes as quite a … surprise. However, you will be listed as his widow of record once this meeting has concluded. I will see to it myself that the prenuptial agreement you signed is codified. You will receive everything due to you as set down in that document.”
Sunshine sat, but didn’t look any less shocked. She put a hand to her chest and bowed her head, as if needing to absorb the shocking news. She wasn’t the only one.
Jessica and Jacklyn looked just as stunned. Victoria knew she was amazed to find out her father had never divorced Sunshine. There had to be a reason. He certainly wouldn’t have neglected such a thing for sentiment alone.
Miles read on. “To my daughters, I want you to know that I have quite a few regrets about how I treated you all while you were growing up. I regret that I didn’t spend as much time as I should have with each of you. I regret that I didn’t stop and appreciate the healthy daughters I had without demanding a son instead.
“As anyone who has known me at all for any part of my early adult life, they know I was driven by a deathbed promise to my own father to produce a son to in order to leave our long-held family business to a male child, as it had been done for generations before me.
“As I come toward the end of my life, I realize that it was a dire mistake to undervalue the abilities and possible business acumen of my own daughters. For that, I am deeply sorry. I don’t expect it, but I hope you might one day forgive me.
“Lovelock Enterprises will remain intact. However, it will be run and maintained by the board of directors, assigned and stipulated by previous business determinations regarding me not having a natural-born son.
“I can’t change those rules, as they were put in place long before even I was born. While those stipulations are out of my hands, I do have a substantial amount of wealth and a personal portfolio to distribute in this last will and testament. To that end, I have a challenge for all of my girls, if you’re willing to accept it. And it applies to every single one of you.”
Miles cleared his throat and looked around the room once before putting his focus back on the document in front of him.
“To Victoria, Colleen, Darby, Evaline, Jessica, Jacklyn and, of course, Marigold, I have a challenge for you all.”
His final words were almost drowned out by the sound of a collective intake of breath from almost everyone in the room. Victoria couldn’t help but turn her head and look at the young woman. Was that her? Marigold. A seventh daughter? It had to be.
Beside her, Aunt Lily let out what sounded like a muffled sob.
At first, Victoria could honestly say she didn’t know how to react. Judging by the expressions on the faces around her—well, except for Miles—everyone in the room looked simply stunned by the news of the existence of another daughter so boldly and callously revealed during the reading of Horatio’s last will and testament. Then the fact of that sank in and Victoria was incensed on Marigold’s behalf.
How could her father have done this to his own flesh and blood? Put her in such a position?
Miles continued, “To Marigold, I would like to offer a special apology for, first of all, never letting anyone else in my family know that you existed and, second, for never making an effort to let you into my life. I know you must harbor resentment for me, but please don’t let that stop you from getting to know your sisters, even at this late date.”
Miles paused to look at the stunned, shocked, surprised and possibly distraught crowd of women in front of him. “I realize that the information contained in this will has come as quite a shock to many of you in more ways than one. I would ask that you wait until I’m finished reading the entire document before we discuss what needs to be done moving forward.”
No one in the room looked happy about that announcement, but there were a few nods. Victoria took a deep breath and tried to settle herself down.
Aunt Lily sniffled again. She knew that if they hadn’t had to finish listening to the reading of the will, Aunt Lily would’ve raced over to Marigold and hugged her like the long-lost relative that she was.
She also would’ve started talking a mile a minute about everything she could think of that she considered important about the family, about the history of the Lovelocks in Philadelphia, about the Lovelock Inn, about all of Marigold’s sisters. And then the questions to her new niece would’ve begun.
Where was Marigold from? Who was her mother? What did she do for a living? Was she married? Did she have children? And a whole host of other queries that poor Marigold wouldn’t have time to answer or even get a word in.
Aunt Lily would’ve asked Marigold to tell her every intimate detail about her life since birth. Yes, it would’ve been quite a long speech delivered in a warm and wonderful way, as only Aunt Lily could do. And, of course, it would be done out of an abundance of love and sorrow for never having known about her existence until now.
Unfortunately, Miles thwarted Aunt Lily’s unspoken desire by insisting on reading the rest of the will. Rules were rules in the will-reading business, Victoria supposed, and protocols likely had to be maintained.
Miles looked down at the document and resumed reading out loud. “Now, as to the challenge I mentioned before—here’s what I would like for all of you to do.
“There is an open seat on the board of directors that I can name an appointee to hold so that I know the family’s wishes will be, if not carried out, at least heard. The seven of you will all have a vote to determine who that appointee is. My suggestion is, of course, that you name Miles Lang. However, while I wish it could be one of you, the one stipulation I have no control over is that, unfortunately, it cannot be a family member, as I do not have a son to pass Lovelock Enterprises on to.”
Miles took a long sip from the glass of water on the desk before continuing.
“The following is the challenge I have constructed for the seven of you. I would like for each of you to take over an existing business, a commercial one that I have chosen specifically for you. I’d like for you all to participate in a competition of sorts, and to manage your selected business here on Valentine Key.”
A murmur of whispers filled the room. Victoria didn’t look at any of her sisters, but she could feel the vibe of curiosity. She was also incredibly curious.
“Should you accept my challenge, you will be given management of a business to run for a year. Each of you will start with the same advantages with regard to the building, the business, the staff and all you would need to start out. What I want to determine is if you could be good managers of these businesses, even if you feel like it doesn’t use your particular skillset. I want you to be challenged to succeed anyway.
“Miles will be in charge of determining who wins this challenge at the end of one year’s time. Whichever of my daughters wins this business challenge will be the one to choose who gets the seat on the board of directors. She will also be given a five-million-dollar stipend to donate to whatever charity she would like those funds to go to. Lastly, she will be a non-voting member of the board of directors of Lovelock Enterprises to make any concerns or ideas known on behalf of the family. She might not have a vote, but she will at least be heard.
“Miles will, of course, give you all the details and the documents for you to sign, but my wish for all of you is to live in the same town for a year and get to know each other. However, I also feel like a spirited competition is warranted in this endeavor.
“At the end of the year, each of my daughters will be allowed to continue the business they have managed for the year if they choose to do so. Of course, my other hope is that perhaps all of you will stay on Valentine Key permanently.
“If at the end of the year you do not want to stay, I will not require it. Out of my personal fortune, and after a certain portion has been given to my sister, Lily Violette Lovelock, the rest of my personal finances will be divided evenly by seven and distributed to each of my daughters at the end of the year. The value of my estate will be finalized at that time.”
Victoria took that to mean that either there wasn’t very much left in his personal fortune or he was still so rich, he didn’t want any of them to know exactly how much he was worth. None of them would know if the payoff after a year would be worth it. That was a typical Horatio Lovelock move.
Miles stopped reading, put the paper he held flat on the desk before him and looked up at the stunned crowd of women before him.
Victoria had been forced to really work hard to keep her mouth from dropping open every time Miles read some new edict from her father’s last will and testament. It had been one shock after another.
Sunshine was still his wife?
There was a seventh sister they hadn’t known about?
Their father wanted them to upend their lives to come down and participate in a competition for a whole year, pitting sister against sister for a non-voting seat on the board of directors of Lovelock Enterprises and get an unspecified inheritance at the end of the “competition”?
She didn’t know how to react to any of this news. Victoria turned to Aunt Lily, whose sniffles had turned to outright crying. Not quietly crying, either. She was sobbing, tears streaming down her face as she gazed at Marigold seated at the back of the room, all by herself, after the bombshell of who she really was had been revealed.
“How could he have never told me about his seventh daughter, Marigold? I can’t believe it. I’m so angry at him that I don’t know what to do.” Aunt Lily bowed her head, gripped Victoria’s hand until it was almost painful. Her shoulders shook with heartfelt grief.
“It’s okay, Aunt Lily. How could you possibly have known? None of us knew.” Victoria put her arm around the older woman’s thin shoulders and squeezed, trying to give comfort. “Let’s go welcome her into the family, such as it is.”
“Yes,” Aunt Lily sniffed. “Let’s welcome her in.”
Victoria glanced over her shoulder at Marigold, whose focus was like a laser pointed at the back of the chair parked in front of her. Victoria made a personal vow that she would not only befriend this woman, but ensure she knew that she was welcome in this family. Even if she had to angrily contend with every single one of her other sisters to make it happen.
She didn’t know any of them well enough yet to understand how they would react to having an extra sister get a slice of some nebulous amount of money after a yearlong competition. But Victoria would stand up for Marigold, no matter what.
She stared at Miles, trying not to look as betrayed as she felt. She knew he’d have to quote the foolish lawyer-client confidentiality clause for why he’d had to blindside them all a whole year after their father’s death.
Miles caught her gaze, held it for only a moment before averting his eyes in seeming unease. There would be a discussion about why he had failed to mention this news.
Victoria would make certain of that.