‘I think this strengthens our hand,’ said Donald. He looked at Alex. ‘Dad would never have left his property to a nun.’
‘Just because he was upset by what happened to children in the care of religious orders years ago doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have left the money to his daughter all the same,’ said Alex.
‘Never!’ cried Gareth. ‘And you know what – Abbey Andersen probably knew that. Which is why she pretended she couldn’t contact her mother and why she came here herself. And now she’s found that she’s getting what’s rightfully ours and all you want to do is help her.’
‘That’s not true,’ protested Abbey. ‘I didn’t even want to come.’
‘You were playing hard to get,’ said Gareth. ‘Making him feel even more guilty. Pushing sob stories at him until he had a heart attack.’
‘No!’ Abbey was close to tears. ‘Of course I wasn’t.’
‘And you were keeping your mother out of it because you knew that her being a nun would muddy the waters.’
‘You don’t understand,’ said Abbey. ‘I didn’t have the opportunity to tell him about Mom.’
‘You had plenty of opportunity, but you decided to come here and see what was on offer before reporting back to your mother in her zealots’ commune,’ retorted Donald.
‘I did not. And it’s not a commune. Nor is it a laundry. It’s a place of quiet and solitude and reflection and ministry.’ As Abbey spoke the words, she realised that it was the first time she’d truly believed them. Because when Ellen had taken off to the monastery, she’d had the same view as the Fitzpatricks about it. She’d thought that her mother was a crackpot. That she’d allowed herself to be brainwashed. But Ellen was quite insistent that her decisions – first to spend six months with the community on what they described as an ‘estancia’, where she learned about their everyday lives, and then to serve a further number of years as a postulant before moving on to her novitiate – were the only possible ones she could take. Because of her background, she was now spending an extended time of temporary commitment with the order before making her final profession, something that Abbey knew she hoped to do the following year.
‘Bollocks.’ Donald’s voice was emphatic. ‘I think you should leave. You’ve no business being here.’
‘Well, actually,’ said Ryan, ‘she does. As a beneficiary of the will—’
‘There is no way on earth that a court will uphold that will!’ cried Gareth. ‘No way.’
‘What happens to me and my daughters if it’s set aside?’ Deirdre interrupted him.
‘If there’s no other will, Mr Fitzpatrick will be deemed to have died intestate,’ said Alex. ‘The estate will be divided up between his family in accordance with the 1965 Succession Act.’
‘We’re his granddaughters, that makes us family.’ Karen sounded pleased.
‘Yes, although any share to those other than his direct children might depend on how the court interprets Mr Fitzpatrick’s wishes. Family usually means the immediate family, which in this case would be his children, Donald, Gareth and Suzanne. I should also warn you that this would be a very expensive process.’
‘Bloody hell,’ said Sorcha to Karen. ‘We’ve got our money. Maybe we should tell Dad to leave well enough alone.’
‘Will enough alone,’ muttered Karen, which made her sister giggle.
‘It’s not funny!’ Donald was so angry, his face was almost purple. ‘Dad has made fools out of all of us.’
‘I’m sure we can work something out,’ said Abbey.
‘You think?’ There was a hint of wickedness in Suzanne’s voice. ‘I’m quite sure that if the nuns know that your mother has a huge inheritance, they’ll definitely want their part of it. I don’t care whether it’s Catholic or ecumenical or just plain crazed, with all these religious orders you end up giving them all your worldly goods.’
Abbey was silent.
‘Over my dead body is this house going to a gang of nuns!’ cried Donald. ‘We’re contesting and that’s that.’
‘I think you all need a bit of time to reflect before you start talking about legal action,’ said Alex. ‘I realise this isn’t what any of you expected. I raised all these issues with Mr Fitzpatrick, although clearly neither of us had any idea of his daughter’s … calling at the time. All I can say is that he was adamant that he wanted to provide for her and for his granddaughter and he thought this was a fair way of doing it.’
Lisette looked at Abbey. ‘Surely you can see that you have no right to my father-in-law’s house,’ she said. ‘You must give it up.’
‘I …’ Abbey didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t help feeling that Lisette was right, and yet she didn’t want to rush into doing or saying anything stupid.
‘Y’see!’ Donald’s expression was triumphant. ‘She’s got her hand in the honey pot and she won’t let go.’
‘I need time to think,’ said Abbey.
‘Any normal, decent person wouldn’t think twice about doing the right thing,’ said Donald.
‘Any normal, decent person would’ve mentioned to his sister that he’d got a great wedge of cash from their father a few years ago,’ Suzanne observed.
‘Get over it,’ snapped Gareth. ‘That’s not the issue here now.’
‘We’ll see them in court,’ said Donald. ‘And we’ll win. Because we’re Dad’s family, we’re Dad’s heirs, and we’re the people who really mattered to him.’
‘Do we all have to contest the will?’ asked Deirdre. ‘After all, my girls are being looked after. Maybe not as much as they should’ve been, but …’
‘They’ll be better looked after when we get it overturned,’ said Donald.
Gareth looked at him. ‘Are you saying that you’ll sell the house and give extra money to your children?’ he asked.
‘Uh, no, not exactly.’ Donald sounded flustered. ‘Of course I’ll look after Jerome and Fleur too. I’ll make sure that everyone is better off,’ he said, recovering his composure. ‘Except the last woman to see my father alive and her allegedly monastic mother.’
‘That sort of talk isn’t helping anyone.’ Ryan glanced at Abbey, who was white-faced.
‘There might still be another will,’ said Gareth.
‘I can assure you there isn’t,’ Alex told him. ‘As far as this one is concerned, I would seek counsel’s advice. Abbey and her mother could possibly renounce their rights to the bequest, but—’
‘That’s all that needs to happen,’ interrupted Donald. ‘They admit that they’re not entitled to a cent. Get the paperwork ready, Alex, and have them sign it. Let’s face it, we need to get a move on so that we can plan our futures.’
‘I can’t make any decisions until I talk to my mom,’ said Abbey. ‘I don’t know what the situation is regarding an inheritance when she’s in the monastery. But the last thing she’d want is for you to be upset.’
‘I think the best thing now is for all of you to go home and think things over,’ said Alex.
‘I don’t need to think a single thing over,’ Donald told him. ‘Dad has acted like a fool, but I’m not going to let him make a fool out of me.’
‘C’mon, Don. Let’s go.’ Zoey took him by the arm.
Donald hesitated and then allowed her to lead himfrom the room. One by one the rest of the Fitzpatricks followed him.
Finally, only Ryan, Alex and Abbey were left behind.
‘That went pretty much as I expected,’ said Alex. ‘Though the nun part of things has pretty well put the cat among the pigeons, hasn’t it?’
‘I’m truly sorry I didn’t say anything before,’ Abbey told him. ‘I didn’t think it would matter. After all, as far as I was concerned I was coming to meet with Mr Fitzpatrick and tell him a little about me and my mom. Obviously I would’ve told him about her vocation. I didn’t expect him to die and leave us everything!’
‘You should have told me.’ Ryan sounded hurt. ‘I thought you trusted me. I’d have gone to the monastery and dealt with thi
ngs in a sensitive manner and we could’ve headed all this nonsense off at the pass.’
‘I did trust you,’ Abbey said. ‘But … well, first of all, Mom was leading a retreat when you came to the States and so I couldn’t get in touch with her. I didn’t say why because I didn’t think it would matter in the end, especially after Mr Fitzpatrick asked to see me instead. I was going to tell him about her life. I had to, because she was never going to be able to visit him and I needed to explain why. But I didn’t want you going to the monastery, Ryan. It’s not the sort of place where you fetch up with a sheaf of legal papers and tell one of the nuns that you need to have a chat about her long-lost dad.’
‘So how does it work? How often do you talk to her?’
‘Not very often,’ replied Abbey. ‘The Benedictines live a monastic life. They don’t go out into the community like other nuns. They spend a lot of their time doing contemplative stuff. Praying mostly. Growing vegetables, tending the garden, that sort of thing. They have a certain amount of interaction with people outside of the monastery too. They do art work – stained-glass ornaments that they sell. And, of course, they run the retreats and other prayer ceremonies. But it all fits in around their day, which is still sort of old-fashioned. They get up very early, they go to bed early. They don’t talk at certain times …’
‘Bloody hell!’ exclaimed Ryan. ‘That’s medieval.’
‘It’s not something we’re accustomed to in the modern world,’ Abbey acknowledged.
‘How did you know your mother was running a retreat, in that case?’ asked Ryan. ‘And how do you contact her?’
‘The monastery has a website,’ said Abbey. ‘I know that sounds a bit odd given what I’ve told you, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. It’s a way of them reaching out to people while living a more cloistered life. They post information on their retreats and services. I check it every week and I contact my mother by email. The nuns are allowed a certain number of personal emails every year. It wasn’t like that when Mom first joined, but the monastery has developed quite a big social media presence since then. You can send prayer requests and the nuns tweet Bible quotes and inspirational messages and stuff like that.’
‘Now you’re really having me on,’ said Ryan.
‘No,’ said Abbey. ‘They put out their message to the world, you see. But … but they don’t talk to the world in the same way as you or I do.’
Ryan rubbed his forehead. Abbey understood how difficult it was for him to understand. It had been difficult for her too, at the start, and the truth was that it was still difficult. Because no matter how happy Ellen insisted she was, Abbey couldn’t help feeling that a woman who had loved to travel and meet people must surely feel like a trapped bird inside the four walls of the monastery, even if she could look outwards in a virtual way.
‘We’d better get a move on,’ said Alex, who had been making notes as Abbey spoke. ‘Obviously Ellen’s situation is unusual, but she’s still a beneficiary of the will. That hasn’t changed, and I want to make sure that whatever you or the Fitzpatricks decide to do, I have the files and paperwork ready. You said you can speak to your mother in a week or two?’
‘I need to contact the prioress of the monastery,’ said Abbey. ‘She’ll let me know when I can talk to Mom.’
‘Why can’t you talk to her whenever you want?’ asked Alex.
‘Because it’s the rules.’
‘Presumably you can make an appointment to see her, though?’
‘Only occasionally. Obviously if there’s an emergency the prioress will be extra accommodating.’
‘And this is an emergency,’ said Ryan.
‘Well …’ Abbey looked doubtful. ‘We might think so, but the prioress might view it differently.’
‘Bloody hell.’ Ryan scratched his head as he looked at her. ‘I never thought it would end up like this.’
‘Neither did I,’ said Abbey.
Ryan drove her back to the Harbour Hotel, but the journey was conducted in near silence. It was an awkward silence too, Abbey thought, quite unlike the easy comfort she’d felt in his company until now. She knew that he was disappointed in her for having kept her mother’s way of life a secret from him, and she could understand that. Things might have been a bit easier today if she’d shared the information sooner. But she still wouldn’t have allowed him to hotfoot it to the monastery and demand to see her mother.
When Ellen had told her of her decision more than eight years earlier, Abbey hadn’t at first realised how life-changing it would be. After she learned more about the way of life at the monastery, she’d been appalled. She’d felt as though her mother was abandoning her and shutting her out, and that she herself must have done something to push her away, even though Ellen had insisted that joining the nuns at Los Montesinos was a true vocation. A calling from God, she had said, which had made Abbey snort in derision, because they’d encountered more than one God in their travels and numerous different types of beliefs in him. She couldn’t accept that her mother had decided that the Christian God was real, and someone (something? Abbey wasn’t quite sure) she was going to devote the rest of her life to. Religion, in any form, had never been high on Ellen’s agenda before, and back then, Abbey couldn’t help thinking that her decision to shut herself away was a reaction to the death of her parents. And perhaps to having lost Jon, Abbey’s father, too. Abbey had sometimes wondered if their nomadic lifestyle had been a result of Jon’s death – if her mother had been looking for something to help her cope. Perhaps she’d kept on looking, even when they were living in San Francisco and even when Pete came along. Abbey had been very sure for a long time that Ellen’s so-called vocation was more to do with her personal life than any calling from God.
Yet the nuns didn’t take in people who were going through personal crises, which was why Ellen was spending such a long time with them before making her final profession. They wanted to be sure, and Ellen, in her last conversation with Abbey, had said that she was happy to walk a slow road. This was another thing that had shocked Abbey, because Ellen had never taken a slow road anywhere before. She’d always been in a hurry to move on, find somewhere new, do something different. Realising that she had changed was probably the hardest thing for Abbey to accept. If her mother had been the same woman as always when she saw her, she might have believed in it more. As it was, she thought that Ellen had been seduced by the serenity and the support of the community and the fact that her life was ordered and measured when, in the past, she’d had to work everything out herself.
The hardest thing, initially, had been the fact that she couldn’t speak to her mom whenever she wanted. Even when she’d had a major life crisis on her hands, she hadn’t been able to call, although in fairness, her major crises were usually to do with work or boyfriends and never seemed so bad in the light of day. In any event, they nearly always resolved themselves. The monastery’s rules often made people outside take a slower road too.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said again as Ryan drew the car to a halt outside the hotel. ‘I should’ve told you.’
‘I would have done some things differently,’ he said.
‘Yes. I realise that.’
‘But you weren’t to know that Fred Fitzpatrick had already changed his will. And you certainly weren’t to know that he’d have a heart attack within a couple of minutes of meeting you.’
‘I’ve never been great at timing,’ said Abbey.
‘It wasn’t your fault.’
‘I’ve made things tough for you.’
‘That’s why I’m paid the big bucks.’ His tone was lighter but still carried a hint of disillusionment.
‘Um …’ She spoke hesitantly. ‘Can I go back to the States right now, or do I have to wait here for things to be sorted out?’
This time Ryan chuckled. ‘You’re talking about the law, and that never moves quickly,’ he reminded her. ‘I’ll speak to Alex, but I don’t think there’s a compelling reason for you to s
tay. You’re correct in that you can’t do anything independently of your mother, and no matter what happens, it’ll take time before you can access the estate. But Abbey, you need to think long and hard about what you want to do. It was Fred’s wish that you and your mom share that house. He wouldn’t want you to give it up.’
‘I was delighted when he left me the five K,’ said Abbey. ‘But the house is a different matter. I know what you mean, though, and – well, I have to admit that it’s the only chance I’ll ever have of getting my hands on that kind of money. All the same …’ She looked worried. ‘What have I done to deserve it?’
‘What you’ve done or haven’t done isn’t the point,’ said Ryan. ‘What Mr Fitzpatrick has done, because he wanted to, absolutely is. And perhaps when the others calm down, they’ll see that some kind of negotiated settlement is best.’
‘The two brothers were pretty mad, weren’t they?’ observed Abbey. ‘The others not so much, though they all got cash … but Donald is furious at the very idea of Mom’s existence. I understand it, I honestly do, but I’m not sure that spending a fortune on legal action is the right way to go about things. Sorry,’ she added. ‘I’m sure you have a different view, it’s your livelihood after all.’
Ryan looked amused. ‘Most legal professionals spend a huge amount of time telling people not to go to court at all,’ he said. ‘It’s messy and expensive and you don’t always get what you want. As far as I know, if Mr Fitzpatrick’s will is contested, everyone’s money will go back into the estate. Some of the lesser family members might be worse off.’
Abbey sighed. ‘Life without money can be hard, but life with the possibility of having it might be even worse. All the same, the house isn’t in the best of conditions, so I guess it isn’t a fortune we’re fighting about, especially after taxes.’
‘How much would a similar property in Sausalito be worth?’ asked Ryan.
‘Pete’s is worth about four million dollars,’ Abbey replied. ‘But everyone knows that real estate prices in Sausalito are crazy and Bella Vista Heights is an exceptional property.’
‘Furze Hill is in a very desirable location,’ Ryan told her. ‘Abbey, I think you should expect to get close to a couple of million for it.’
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