Ladd Fortune

by Dianne Venetta

  “She seemed real intent on talking to you.”

  Annie nodded, dropping her gaze to the two half-eaten sub sandwiches sat on the coffee table before them, food Candi had graciously picked up on her way over after work. Candi understood this development was significant. Annie had to do something. If she were to keep the property, she had to think, plan, strategize—but it was the details that were tripping her up. This was out of her league. She didn’t do financial calculations. She did nails!

  A flurry of angst peppered her chest. Shooting her gaze out the back windows of her apartment, Annie latched onto the range of Blue Ridge Mountains. Saturated by a late afternoon sun, the hills were ablaze with orange, red and gold with clumps of green tucked here and there in between. Beyond, the sky cooled to a bluish-lavender. Fall had come early this year, dropping temperatures into the upper thirties for the third day in a row. There was even talk of snow, though Annie didn’t believe the first word. Snow in early November? It would never happen.

  “Annie?”

  Annie looked to Candi. Caught by a sudden chill, she shuddered. What was she going to do? Annie knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to call the woman. She wanted to speak with Ms. Devane about the financial potential of her share of Ladd Springs. Casey’s share, Annie corrected. Delaney Wilkins had finally acquiesced and signed over half of the Ladd Springs property to Annie’s daughter, Casey. Over five hundred acres of pristine forest snaked with rivers and streams, dotted with springs Delaney had given to Casey because Casey was a Ladd. Eighteen long years and a paternity test had proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was a fact Delaney could no longer refute or ignore. Annie’s daughter belonged to Jeremiah Ladd which made Ladd Springs her birthright.

  Originally Ernie Ladd had willed the land to Delaney’s daughter, Felicity Wilkins. She was his kin, his granddaughter, but that’s as far as he went. But seeing how Casey was Ernie’s granddaughter too, it made sense she should have her half. In Annie’s mind, the logic had been simple. Trouble was, now that Casey retained title to half the property, Annie had to figure a way to keep it. That part wasn’t as simple.

  “Do you think this woman can help?” Candi pressed, hanging on the edge of her seat. She’d been Annie’s closest ally throughout and truth be known, the reason Annie and Casey had title to the property.

  “Maybe.”

  “She seemed real eager to talk to you when she gave me that card.”

  Whereby Candi had immediately rushed to Trendz, the salon where Annie worked as a nail tech, and delivered both business card and message. Please have Ms. Owens call me at her earliest convenience. I will make it financially worth her time.

  Seems Jillian Devane had a proposition for her.

  Annie wasn’t stupid. She’d heard the woman was in town to get revenge on Nick Harris, boyfriend to Delaney Wilkins, and the owner of Harris Hotels. His company was currently transforming Ladd Springs—the other half of Ladd Springs that belonged to Delaney’s daughter, Felicity—into an upscale hotel and spa resort for the very wealthy. Nick had signed a 99-year lease to use the land, land that old man Ernie Ladd had refused to sell, instead willing it to Felicity as a life estate. Ernie died a few months later, right after his son Jeremiah arrived home from Atlanta, and now the land was free and clear to be developed.

  “Do you think Jillian Devane wants to build a hotel like Nick?”

  Visions of an exclusive wooded retreat for elite guests swam through Annie’s mind, guests who would pay top dollar to lose themselves in the mountains of Tennessee. Felicity was barely eighteen and stood to earn a fortune from her deal with Nick Harris while Annie and Casey had nothing but bills. “I don’t know. Maybe,” she lied.

  Annie knew full well Ms. Devane was interested in building a hotel. In fact, Ms. Devane had purchased land an hour north of here for that very reason. She wanted to ruin Nick’s new hotel by building one of her own and making it bigger, better, grander. Annie’s sister Lacy had told her everything. Married to Nick’s partner Malcolm Ward, Lacy had the inside scoop and dished it out readily to Annie—because Annie had forgiven the past between them.

  Leaning forward, Candi grabbed a cheddar-coated chip from a shiny blue plastic bag. “Have you asked Cal about it?”

  Annie looked at her friend, ignoring the loud crunching from her mouth. If it weren’t for Candi calling Jeremiah back home, none of this would have ever happened. Casey would not have title to the property and Annie would not be in a position to earn money from it. “I don’t want to bother him with it.”

  “Why not? He helped you get the loan to pay the back taxes, didn’t he?”

  “He did,” she acknowledged. Which was easy. His father owned a bank and pulled the strings. But Annie knew Cal meant well. Calvin Foster helped, because he’d been calling on Annie since his return from Arizona, making it real clear he was sweet on her. Annie had grown up with Cal, but never thought of him romantically. He was nice-looking enough, but back then she’d only had eyes for Jeremiah. A year after she became pregnant with Casey, Cal moved to Arizona and she hadn’t seen or heard from him until the Memorial Day party this past summer.

  Candi pulled a sip from her coke, her cheeks hollowing before she said, “I bet he could come up with an idea to help you earn some money with this woman. Cal is smart that way.”

  That’s where Annie begged to differ. Cal had become friendly with Malcolm, a man equally invested in the Nick’s hotel construction. If Cal let on to Malcolm or Nick that Annie was even considering a discussion with Ms. Devane, Annie had no doubt the men would be angry. Lacy had given Annie the blow by blow on the history between Nick and Jillian, too. Harris Hotels and Eco-Domani were in constant competition and six months ago, Jillian Devane made a visit to Fran’s Diner, putting Nick on notice that she intended to build in Tennessee as well. If Annie worked with Ms. Devane in any way, it would be seen as crossing enemy lines, something you didn’t do around here unless you packed two barrels and were ready to fire them.

  “I think Lacy and Malcolm would disagree,” Annie said. “Any involvement with this Devane woman will be seen as a betrayal.”

  “Well, Lacy and Malcolm don’t have a say in what you do. They’re not helping you make ends meet, are they?” Candi vehemently shook her silky straight hair. “It’s your decision. Yours and Casey’s, I mean.”

  Yes, Casey. Casey was the named owner, but Annie was the designated trustee. When Delaney had Felicity sign over half of the land, she had stipulated Casey was not to receive control over the property until she turned thirty years of age. Because Casey had a history of instability. Because Casey was too young and not ready for that kind of responsibility.

  But Annie was. Seemed responsibility was all she knew. Sometimes, it felt like responsibility was her whole life. Expelling a sigh, she smacked the business card onto the table. “I don’t know what to do, Candi. I only know I wish it wasn’t so damned hard.”

  Annie had finally won the battle—legitimacy for her daughter and the procurement of her rightful inheritance—yet she had no way to keep it. Sure, Cal had helped her secure a loan to pay the back taxes but there would be a new tax bill this fall. In another month, she’d be facing the same dilemma all over again. Her eyes went quickly to the hills out her windows, a panicky need to escape weaving through her soul. As it was, she was stretching her last dollar bill to pay the current loan for the taxes. How was she ever going to afford another payment?

  Candi scooted close and wrapped an arm around Annie’s shoulders. “I know it’s hard, honey, but you’ll think of something. You always do,” she added brightly, brown eyes shining with encouragement. “You got that paternity test out of Jeremiah, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  “And the property out of Delaney.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you can get some money going, too.” Candi hugged Annie to her side. “I know you can.”

  Annie peered into hopeful brown eyes. Leave it to Candi to see the positive i
n her situation. It was her nature, always had been. Candi was the one who’d encouraged Annie in high school, convinced her to try out for the lead role in a school play, acted as cheerleader when Annie earned straight A’s two semesters in a row, even encouraged her to chase after the boy she dreamed impossible to get. Her stomach tightened. Well, she couldn’t hold that against her. Annie couldn’t see past Jeremiah at the time and he was all she wanted. Now she wanted money. Income. As trustee, it was her job to not only pay the taxes, but ensure her daughter’s future. As trustee, she was entitled to a percentage of earnings for her time and trouble, but they were earnings Annie had to earn first. If she couldn’t, all she’d be handing over to her thirty-year-old daughter would be a big fat tax bill.

  “I’ll talk to Cal,” Annie said. “He’s looking into some logging possibilities for me. We’ll see what he’s come up with.”

  “Logging? You mean to tell me you’re going to cut down all the trees?”

  Mildly amused by the look of horror pasted on Candi’s face, Annie shook her head. “No, only a hundred acres or so. According to Cal, it might be all we need, until I can figure something else out, that is.”

  “Like how to rent the land to a hotel developer, same as Delaney?”

  Candi knew Annie better than anyone. Whether Lacy and Malcolm and Delaney and Nick cared or not, Annie was a survivor first, a group player second. She had to look out for Casey’s future, same way Delaney had looked after Felicity’s. Now in college, Felicity’s future was set. In gold, Annie mused, a tinge of bitterness curling her heart. Delaney included the section with the gold in Felicity’s half enabling her daughter to earn income from Nick’s hotel deal as well as from selling the gold discovered in a rock, deep in the forest.

  Gold. On Ladd Springs. So far, the vein had yielded more than anyone expected and Nick and Delaney were taking full advantage. They were having a local jeweler design a pendant in the shape of a wishing well, a pendant they intended to sell in the hotel boutique store. It was supposed to represent the natural springs on the property, eternal hope and spiritual fulfillment. To Annie it represented yet again how she and her daughter were left to fend for themselves.

  Annie snatched the business card and glared at the telephone number. “I’m going to call her.”

  “You are?”

  “Yes. There’s no reason I shouldn’t explore my options.”

  “That’s right,” Candi agreed, faithfully manning her pom-poms. “No reason at all.”

  “Why can’t I lease our property to Jillian? How would that hurt anything?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I mean, if Nick and Malcolm are afraid of a little competition, how good can they be?”

  “Now you’re talking!” Candi bounced on the cushion beside her. “Why should they have all the profits from a hotel business and not you?”

  While Annie couldn’t quite share Candi’s level of exuberance, she did share her viewpoint. Why shouldn’t she be able to use her property the way she saw fit? Would they rather have her destroy trees? After all, Nick’s claim to fame was his sensitivity to the environment. Wouldn’t that make him a hypocrite if he advised someone to log the land instead of build something in tune with Mother Nature?

  Gaining steam, Annie decided it was the right thing to do. Casey was stuck in a dead-end job waiting tables at Fran’s Diner and if Annie could give her something better to look forward to, wasn’t that what she should do? Course her Aunt Fran was sweet to give Casey a job, but that didn’t mean she had to keep it for the rest of her life.

  “When are you going to call her?” Candi asked.

  “Tomorrow.” Annie twisted the card in hand. “I’m going to call her tomorrow.”