by Kathi Daley
“And did Olivia know who Marilee was?” I asked, anxious for Adam to get to the point of the story.
“She did. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Olivia is married to a man named Darwin Hollander. Since Darwin was always around when we visited our family’s English arm, I know him well. Darwin has siblings, who I’ve never met, and to be honest, I’ve never asked about. Since I’ve been here in London, I’ve confirmed that Darwin has two sisters: Joslyn and Amber. Amber is married to an American named Kent Wentworth. They live in Massachusetts. Joslyn married a man named Leopold Macalester, who happened to be the son of Nicolas Macalester, a major land and vineyard owner who lived in Northern Italy.”
Okay, this was new information, but I was still waiting for it to become relevant. I schooled myself to be patient and let Adam tell the story at his own pace.
“When Nicolas died,” Adam continued, “Leopold inherited the Macalester land as well as the majority of the Macalester fortune. Keep in mind that we are talking about a lot of money. The Macalester family has the sort of wealth that brings an abundance of political power with it.”
“Okay. So Olivia’s husband’s sister, Joslyn, married into a wealthy and powerful family. Still following, I think. Do we need to keep Amber in mind? Is she going to be part of the story?”
“She will be, but not yet.”
“Okay. Go on.”
Adam continued. “Joslyn and Leopold had one child, Arthur. Arthur married a woman named Adora. The couple had two daughters.” He paused for so long I thought I’d lost him.
“Adam? Did I lose you?”
“No. I’m here.”
“So Arthur and Adora had two daughters.” I prompted.
“Yes, they did, and they named their daughters Ava and Avery,” he said in a voice so soft that at first, I wasn’t sure that I’d heard what I had.
“Ava and Avery?” I gasped. “Arthur and Adora are my parents?”
His voice grew somewhat louder. “I’m pretty sure they were your parents, assuming, of course, that everything else we know to this point is accurate.”
“Were?” My voice cracked.
“I’m afraid Arthur and Adora were killed in a small plane crash when Ava was three and Avery was one.”
I’d never met these people, and in reality, they existed in my mind as little more than names, but I still felt a deep sense of loss, which was odd in a way since I’d actually assumed they were dead all along.
“So, what happened?” I asked after a moment. “Why did we end up on the run?” By this point, tears were running down my cheeks.
“Are you sure you want me to continue?” Adam asked. “We can finish this later.”
“No. I need to know. My parents died, and then what? How did we end up living on Piney Point?”
Adam blew out a breath. “Okay, this is where Marilee comes in, and this is also where it starts to get complicated.”
“Okay. I’ll try to keep up. Go on.”
“Marilee is the daughter of Amber and Kent.”
“The couple who live in Massachusetts.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And you’d never met them or even heard of them before this?”
“Correct again. When I spoke to Olivia, she made it sound as if Darwin wasn’t really close to either of his sisters, which is probably why I never met either of them.”
I took a shaky breath. “Okay. Marilee is Olivia’s niece by marriage. How did Marilee end up on the run with Avery and me?”
Adam cleared his throat and then continued. “After your parents died, Marilee flew to Italy to look after the surviving children. I guess that even though Marilee was born in the United States, she spent a lot of time visiting Arthur and his family. Keep in mind that Arthur would be her first cousin since their mothers were sisters. Marilee was single, and since she had visited often, she was well acquainted with the children, so it made sense to the family that she’d be the one to step in and act as temporary guardian.”
“Okay,” I said with hesitation. So far, the story had been sad, but nothing had been said that would indicate why Avery and I ended up at the house on Piney Point. I could sense that the other shoe was about to drop. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know what came next, but I was equally sure that I needed to know.
“I guess after Marilee arrived in Italy, she decided to make herself familiar with everything that was going on with both the estate and Arthur’s family,” Adam continued. “It seems that with the death of Arthur, his eldest child, you, had inherited the land, the money, and the potential political clout that came with the money and the land. Of course, you were only three years old at the time and were unable to manage any of this on your own, so a man named Warren Cornwall volunteered to step in.”
“Wait. Who’s Warren?”
“Warren is Arthur’s cousin on his father’s side. He’s the son of Leora Cornwall. Leora was the twin sister of Arthur’s father, Leopold.”
“Was? So Leora is dead as well?”
“Yes. As of the point of your parent’s accident, both Leopold and Leora were deceased.”
“Okay. Go on.”
“At first, Marilee was grateful for Warren’s help since she had no idea how to manage an estate the size of the one Arthur had left behind. If Olivia’s story is correct, however, as time went by, Marilee began to suspect that rather than managing the estate on your behalf, Warren was slowly carving out an inroad that would allow him to take over completely.”
“Okay, wait,” I said, needing a minute to catch up. “Arthur inherited the estate from his father, Leopold, who was dead. When Arthur died, I inherited the money and the property. I assume that if I died, Avery would inherit. Assuming that neither of us had children, who would inherit after Avery?”
“Warren.”
“So after Arthur died, the only people between him and the land and wealth were Avery and me.”
“Exactly.”
“So what are you saying exactly? Are you saying that Marilee went on the run with us because she was worried that Warren would do away with Avery and me to get at the wealth I owned, and he managed?”
Adam cleared his throat. “Yes, but there’s more to it than that. This is where it gets complicated.”
“Gets complicated?” I screeched. “Are you saying that the most complicated part is yet to come?”
“I’m afraid so. For you to understand why Marilee ended up on the road with you, you need to understand the history of the trust that sets the terms of who inherits what.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I reopened them, I felt somewhat refreshed. “Okay. I’m listening.”
Adam paused before beginning once again. “To really understand the circumstances that have brought us to this point, we need to go back several centuries.”
“Centuries?” I was already totally lost. There was no way I was going to be able to keep up if we went back centuries.
“Don’t worry. I plan to condense things as much as possible,” Adam promised.
“Okay.” I forced my mind to focus. This really would have been easier if he’d been here in person. Maybe it would have been better to wait, but now that I knew what I did, waiting for the rest was out of the question. “Go on.”
“Several hundred years ago, a man named Livingston Macalester, who interestingly was Scottish, became one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in Northern Italy after being gifted with the land that now makes up the Macalester Vineyard for services rendered during a political uprising. I haven’t taken the time to actually dig into the history of the whole thing, but for the purpose of this discussion, I think it’s important to know that the money and land owned by the Macalester family have been passed down from the eldest son to the eldest son for generations.”
“So the eldest son inherits the whole thing, and the other siblings get squat?” I asked.
“Basically. It appears that there is enough wealth that all the children g
et something, but it is the eldest son who has historically received the land and the bulk of the wealth, and with that land and wealth comes prestige one can only wield if it’s inherited.”
“Just like royalty. The eldest son and his offspring are in line for the throne, but the other siblings never really amount to much more than a footnote in history.”
“That is a perfect analogy and basically the gist of the entire situation,” Adam agreed.
“So, how are Avery and I even in the mix? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a son, and neither is Avery. When Arthur died, shouldn’t the ‘crown’ have gone to Warren anyway?”
Adam paused before answering. “I’m afraid that in order to answer that question, my story is going to need to get even more complicated than it already has been.”
“I feel like I should have been taking notes.”
“Don’t worry. We can go over all of this again when I get home. For now, I think you just need to know about Jaren and Maria Macalester and their contribution to the story when they amended the trust that was originally set up by Livingston Macalester.”
“Livingston Macalester was the Scottish man who was gifted the land for services rendered,” I confirmed.
“Yes.”
“Okay. Livingston was gifted the land and then wanting to control who inherited the land, he set up a trust that outlined who got what.”
“Exactly. You see, Livingston and his wife, Amberley, had five children. Amberley wanted to leave each of their five children an equal share of the estate, but Livingston realized that it was the totality of the estate that brought both wealth and power to the family. He argued that if the land was divided into fifths, none of his children would have the political influence he wielded as a major landowner. Additionally, Livingston feared that each of those five children might divide their land amongst their offspring, who would divide it amongst their offspring, and so on. Then after only a few generations, the Macalester family would no longer be the powerful land barons they were during his lifetime. Livingston was so committed to the idea of the ownership of the land being passed on to one child, the eldest son, that he created a trust to ensure this.”
I didn’t say anything as I waited for Adam to continue.
“The estate was handed from the eldest son to the eldest son as Livingston had decreed until about a hundred years ago when Jaren Macalester married a progressive thinker named Maria. Maria was very skilled at using her beauty and feminine wiles to get what she wanted, and it seems that what she wanted was for the trust to be changed so that the eldest child would inherit the land, wealth, and political clout, whether they be a male child or a female child. At the time the request was made, Jaren had two sons and a daughter. The daughter was the youngest of the three children, so I suppose Jaren figured there was little risk to his legacy by agreeing to his wife’s request. He hired legal counsel to make the change to the trust, so from that point forward, it was the eldest child who would inherit, whether male or female, providing, of course, that the eldest child maintain the Macalester name even if the heir happened to be female.”
I supposed I got that. The Macalester land really should be passed down to a Macalester.
Adam continued. “The problem was that, before Jaren’s death, both of his sons died in a local uprising, making his daughter, Isabella, the rightful heir to the estate. Isabella, who was the first woman to inherit the land, money, and clout, married an Englishman named Bishop Penryn, but the newly outlined trust required that she keep the Macalester name. Isabella also gave the Macalester name to her sons. Her eldest son, Nicolas, was Leopold’s father.”
“Okay. I’m still following. So Olivia’s sister-in-law, Joslyn, married Leopold Macalester.” I was beginning to think that I probably hadn’t needed such an in-depth history lesson to understand what any of this had to do with me, and I really wanted to get to the point of this discussion. “How is this important?”
“As I’ve already mentioned, Leopold had a twin sister named Leora. According to the amendment to the trust Jaren made, the eldest child, rather than the eldest son, would be the one who inherited the land and the Macalester fortune. While Isabella had set a precedent and established the legitimacy of the changes Jaren made to the trust which would allow for a female heir, it seemed that Nicolas still preferred a male heir, which made the order of birth in this instance very important.”
“We know Leopold inherited the estate, so he must have been the firstborn.”
“According to their birth certificates, Leopold was the eldest twin by just a couple minutes,” Adam confirmed. “As we’ve already established, when Leopold died, the land was handed down to his eldest child, Arthur.”
“My father.”
“Yes. This is where we circle back around. As we’ve already established, you became the blood heir to the land and money when your father died. Since you were only three, Marilee was sent to oversee the care of both you and Avery, but the management of the land and wealth was given to Warren on your behalf.”
“I know all of this. How does this lead to Marilee running with Avery and me?” I supposed I was becoming more impatient than I really should have been, given the complexity of the issues.
“I’m getting to that. I warned you this would be complicated.”
I blew out a breath. “I know. I’m sorry. Go on.”
“Apparently,” Adam continued, “even before the death of your parents, there had been discourse in the family. It seems that Warren had reason to believe that it had actually been his mother, Leora, and not Leopold, who’d been born first. According to what I’ve been able to find out so far, Warren claims to have some sort of proof that the female twin had been the firstborn, while the male child arrived shortly after.”
“Wait? What?”
“Warren claims that his grandfather, Nicolas, had wanted a male heir, so he convinced the midwife to switch the time of birth on the birth certificates.”
“So if Leora actually had been born first, she would have inherited the land and wealth rather than Leopold.”
“Exactly. And it would have been Warren who was in line to inherit the land rather than your father.”
“So you’re saying that Marilee was worried that Warren would try to kill Avery and me in order to inherit the land he seemed to feel he was entitled to, and that’s why she took off with us.”
Adam took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Yes. That’s exactly what Marilee thought, and that’s the reason she gave to Olivia for running. Not only was Marilee convinced that both your life and Avery’s were in danger, but she managed to convince a lot of people that the plane crash that killed your parents had been the result of tampering as well. Personally, I’m uncertain about this fact, which is why I’m heading to Italy before I fly home, but I think the story explains why Marilee felt that you were in danger and why she hid you and Avery at Piney Point.”
Wow. This really was a lot to take in. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut, but I also felt that for the first time, I might actually be on the right track to find the proof I needed to explain everything that had happened to me and hopefully find Avery.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I guess that makes sense to this point. But what happened next? Why did Marilee leave Piney Point with us once we were safe? And how on earth did I end up in Georgia? And even more importantly, where is Avery?”
“I don’t know. Olivia swears she doesn’t know. She told me that Marilee was convinced that your safety had been compromised, and that Warren was coming for you and that the only way you’d be safe was to move you. Marilee enlisted Wilma’s help, and then the two women disappeared with the two children. Olivia said once Marilee left with the children, she never heard from or about anyone from the group again. She told me she’d wondered all these years what had happened to you but didn’t have a single clue to follow until you showed up.”
“Based on what we’ve learned to this point, it sounds as if Marilee a
nd Wilma split up, each taking one of the children. Did Olivia know who took who?”
“No, Olivia didn’t know. She suspected that Marilee would have gone with you since, in her mind, you were in the greatest danger, but she didn’t know this with any certainty.”
I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. “So what do you think? Do you think Warren killed my parents? Do you think he tried to kill my sister and me?”
“As I indicated before, I’m less certain of the story Marilee told Olivia than Olivia was. There are just too many odd circumstances and loose ends.”
“Like what?”
“For one thing, why would Warren try to kill you when he basically had control of the land and money already? You were only three. He had a lot of time to do something smarter. If he actually did have proof that Leora was born first, he had fifteen years before you turned eighteen to challenge your right to the estate in court.”
“Do you know what sort of proof he had?” I asked.
“No, but that’s one of the things I’m hoping to find out during my visit to Italy.”
“You don’t think I’m actually in any sort of danger from this man at this point in time, do you?”
“No, I really don’t think so, but I still don’t plan to mention you when I speak to him. I’m just going to show up as some long-lost cousin a whole bunch of times removed and try to get to know the guy. Based on my impression of the current status of affairs, we can decide together what to do next.”
“So you won’t tell this man anything until after we speak?”
“I won’t. I promise. I only plan to spend a few days in Italy, and then I’ll be home. We can talk about it in-depth once we can get together face to face.”
“Okay. I guess that sounds like a good plan.”
“Are you okay?” he asked after a brief pause. “This is a lot to take in.”
“I’m still trying to sort it all out in my mind, but I’m okay.”
After Adam hung up, I just sat on the sofa and stared out the window. Of all the possible explanations for what had happened to me as a child, the idea that my parents were killed for land and money had never been on my radar. I’d planned to go to my office today, but instead, I found myself logging onto my computer. Suddenly, I had an insatiable need to look up Warren Cornwall and get a peek at the man who might very well have killed my parents and tried to kill my sister and me.