Dominic was out of his seat in a flash. He leaned across the desk and stuck his nose in Matthew’s face. “Are you shitting me?”
Matthew, a good head taller than his opponent, stood and leaned forward to meet the angry glare. “I’m not finished! Sit down, or I’ll call security.”
Dominic dropped back into his chair with a heavy thud.
“Lastly, Alice requested that Charlie Barnes be the executor of her estate, and she has included a second stipulation that if anyone challenges him, his decisions, or the decisions set forth in this will, they will ultimately forfeit anything previously designated for them.” Matthew leaned back in his chair and nodded. “Now go ahead and open the envelopes.”
In Dominic’s envelope there was a single sheet penned in Alice’s shaky handwriting. He sat and read in silence, sharing nothing of what she said.
“All these many years, I have loved you,” she wrote, “and nothing you have ever done has changed that. A grandmother’s love is not given or taken away because of merit; it simply is what it is. A simple unadorned thing meant to last forever.
“Yes, I sometimes pushed you to do things, but it was only because I thought they would bring you happiness. Now that I am nearing my final hour, I realize it was never up to me to find your happiness; that’s something you must do for yourself.
“I pray I have chosen wisely in leaving you the car and the money. I thought long and hard about this decision, but in the end felt it best not to burden you with the farm since, for you, it has always been a symbol of being left behind. Now it’s time to start anew, Dominic. Forget your mama. Just go forth and be a better person than she was. Hopefully this bit of money will help you get on your feet and set you up with a fresh start. Find a place where you can be happy, and always remember I loved you dearly.”
When Dominic finished reading, he slid the letter back into its envelope and tucked it into the breast pocket of his jacket. He blinked back a tear, then folded his arms across his chest and sat with his face turned to the side.
Matthew then gave Gabriel a nod, and he opened the envelope in his hand. It was addressed to Tracy and himself. Unfolding the pale-blue paper, he read the letter aloud.
“Dearest Tracy. They say that the good Lord makes things right in His own way and time, and surely that is true. For as I lost a daughter when Dorothy disappeared from my life, I found one when you allowed me to be part of yours. I can never thank you enough for giving me the joy of knowing my great-grandson. Lucas is a child filled with love and grace; I have only to look into his sweet face to know he will one day be a man like Daddy DeLuca.”
Gabriel’s eyes flitted ahead to the next sentence, and his voice cracked as he read the words.
“And Gabriel, what joy knowing you has brought. I am an opinionated old woman who was at first prepared to dislike you. I considered you the stumbling block that kept Dominic from being with his child. Watching you and Tracy together, though, I soon came to realize I was wrong. Far from being a stumbling block, you are the glue that is strong enough to hold this family together.”
A tear sprang to Tracy’s eye, and Dominic gave a disgruntled snort.
Gabriel sucked in a heavy breath, then continued reading. “You are not of our family, and yet you have a heart like Daddy DeLuca. I know I can trust that you will take the farm he so dearly loved and turn it into a place where children like Lucas will bring new life to the land with their happiness and laughter.”
She went on to say because she had great faith in Gabriel’s judgment, he was free to subdivide the property and sell off parcels to fund the construction of the camp if he deemed it necessary.
“Trust Charlie,” she advised. “He is a wise man who will stay by your side to help and guide you in moving forward. He has been a good friend to me, and he will be a good friend to you, also.”
As Gabriel read her final words, his eyes filled with tears.
For several moments there was only silence in the room.
Dominic’s left eye twitched, and he continued to jiggle his foot as he’d done the entire time Gabriel was speaking. When no one else spoke, he gave an impatient huff.
“This is bullshit!” he said with a snarl. “I’m not gonna just sit on my hands and let some do-gooder take over.”
Matthew glared across the desk. “Do I need to remind you that by challenging Alice’s will, you forfeit whatever she has given you?”
Dominic leaned back in his chair, his jaw quivering and his brows so low his eyes seemed hidden beneath them.
With his arms stiff and his hands braced against the desk, Matthew leaned forward and looked at Dominic. “So do you intend to challenge this will or not?”
After a moment, Dominic asked, “How much money is in the account?”
“Eight thousand three hundred and forty-two dollars.”
Dominic sat there with his chin jutted forward and sparks of anger bristling about him. As much as he believed the farm should have been given to him, he could ill afford to risk the money and a car that ran without problems.
“This is so wrong,” he said and looked at Gabriel. “You stole that farm from my grandma! I don’t know what line of bullshit you gave her, but—”
“Enough!” Matthew shouted. “The only question on the table is whether or not you intend to challenge this will. I want a yes-or-no answer, and that’s it!”
Dominic’s shoulders slumped. “I guess Grandma made up her mind,” he said. “Nothing I do is gonna change it.”
“Yes or no?” Matthew repeated.
After a long moment, Dominic said, “No. Once I get my money, I’m out of here.”
Matthew took a large manila envelope from the folder and handed it to Tracy. “Alice also left this for Lucas. She asked that you hold on to it and give it to him when he is old enough to understand.”
With a wan smile curling the corner of her lips, Tracy nodded.
67
Tracy Briggs
When we left Mr. McGinley’s office, Gabriel and I were in a state of shock. We rode down in the elevator with Dominic and Charlie, but no one said a word. As we stepped out onto the street, I noticed the look on Dominic’s face and couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
He turned off in the other direction and was halfway down the block when I called out to him.
“Hey, Dominic,” I said. “If you want to come and visit with Lucas the way your grandma did, it’s okay with me.”
He gave me that look of disgust he’s so good at, then turned away, shook his head, and kept on walking.
Now that his grandma is gone, I doubt we’ll ever see Dominic again. He hates this town, and Lucas and I seem to be a part of the same package.
Maybe I should feel sad about Lucas not knowing his birth daddy, but the truth is, I don’t. There are some people you’re better off not knowing. Dominic’s one of them. First, he makes you feel sorry for him. Then that leads to loving him. Once you start loving him, you’re trapped. He drags your love across the floor like a mop, and if you try to leave, he threatens to kill himself because he can’t live without you. So you stay, caught in his trap, too miserable to enjoy life and too intimidated to leave it behind.
Thank God for Lucas.
Loving him is what gave me the courage to walk away. There are a million things you can forgive a man for doing, but being uncaring about his own child is not one of them.
I guess it’s like Alice said. Everything works out in its own sweet time. I may have given Lucas a terrible birth daddy, but I’m more than making up for it with the daddy he’ll soon have.
68
Fair Trade
After Dominic learned what was in the will, he called Hiram Selby.
“My grandma gave the farm to the school. That kills the deal,” he said. “There’s nowhere to go from here.”
The one thing Hiram hated more than being referred to as short was losing money, especially money he’d been counting on.
“We’ve still got a case,�
�� he replied. “We can argue that Grandma was off her rocker, incapable of making a decision. We’ll claim she was an old lady taken advantage of by conniving money-grubbers.”
Dominic drew in a labored breath, then let it go. “Not gonna work. She had the damn thing notarized, and they’ve got witnesses.”
“That’s nothing. We’ll argue undue influence. Say they made her believe that’s what she wanted to do.”
Dominic thought about the money and the car that would be taken away if they argued the case and lost. “What do you think the odds are of us getting the decision changed if we made that argument?”
“Fifty-fifty. Higher if we can prove she was mentally unstable.”
For a moment Dominic wavered, thinking of how much he could end up with if he sold the farm and pocketed the profit—or at least half of the profit, because Hiram would take half before he handed over a nickel. Then he remembered the clause in Alice’s will. If Hiram argued the case and lost, he got nothing; Dominic would also get nothing, and he’d lose the money and car he already had. The question was, did he trust Hiram enough to risk the eight thousand dollars?
“Fifty-fifty isn’t good enough,” he said. “Let’s just forget about the whole thing.”
Knowing that a piece of something was better than nothing, Hiram asked, “What about shared custody of the kid? You’re gonna go through with that, right?”
“Nah. What good is it at this point?”
“Wait a minute! You’re pulling out of everything? I put time into this. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to meet with Judge Kingston. We could still—”
“Forget about it. Without the farm, I don’t need the kid.”
“So that’s it?” Hiram grumbled. “Okay, I’ll let Kingston know we’re dropping the lawsuit, but I still expect to get paid.”
“Really? How are you gonna get paid if I don’t have any money?”
“Your money problems aren’t mine. If you don’t come up with the money, I’ll sue you and take whatever you’ve got.” Hiram pictured the black Chrysler he’d seen Dominic driving. “If there’s no cash, I’ll take your car.”
Dominic laughed. “That’s it? I give you my car and we’re square?”
With him giving in so easily, Hiram grew suspicious. “Your car’s not on a lease or something, is it?”
“No lease,” Dominic said. “I own it outright.”
“You got the papers to prove it, right?”
“Yup.”
When Hiram agreed to the deal, Dominic said he’d have the car over to him within the week and hung up.
That evening, Dominic called Charlie and asked how long it would be until he could get the money Alice left him.
“Probate takes a while,” Charlie said. “I’m guessing a month, maybe two.”
“Any way to get it faster?” Dominic asked. “I don’t think I could stand to stay at the farm, knowing it’s about to be taken away from me.”
Having promised Alice he’d watch out for Dominic, Charlie mentioned he had a spare bedroom.
“You can stay here for a while,” he offered.
“That’s not quite what I’m looking for. I’m pretty anxious to leave town and get going on that fresh start Grandma wanted me to have.”
Charlie couldn’t point a finger at exactly what it was, but the way Dominic spoke led him to believe there was more than what was being said. As they went back and forth about one thing and another, he grew increasingly suspicious. He considered the facts a dozen different ways. Knowing Alice’s money had to come through him for distribution, he figured it was safe to spot Dominic an advance.
“I can let you have two thousand,” he said. “I’ll send the rest once the estate is settled.”
“That’ll work,” Dominic replied.
A few days later, with twenty crisp one-hundred-dollar bills in his pocket, Dominic slid behind the wheel of the beat-up old Buick that still had one blue fender and drove to Aldridge. Broom followed behind, driving Alice’s Chrysler.
When he rounded the corner of the street where Hiram Selby lived, Dominic coasted to a stop alongside the curb. The sky was black overhead and the street as silent as a cemetery. He climbed out of the car, closed the door quietly, and then started up the walkway with the title for the Buick in hand. Tiptoeing onto the porch, he held the papers against the front door, then pushed a thumbtack through them.
As he hurried back down the walkway, he gave a snarky laugh. By the time he got back to the curb, Broom had moved into the passenger’s seat. Dominic slid behind the wheel of the Chrysler, and they headed back to Murphy’s.
“You don’t figure this lawyer guy’s gonna come after you when he finds out that’s the car you’re giving him?” Broom asked.
Dominic curled his upper lip and shook his head. “No way. He’s a chickenshit to begin with, and I’m gonna be long gone before he can come looking.”
That night, they had three beers and then swung by the boardinghouse where Broom lived. Having decided to leave town with Dominic, Broom tossed his things in a duffel bag and left the landlady a note saying he’d moved out. Neither of them knew where they were headed. They only knew it would be north of Georgia.
“We’ll know where we want to be when we get there,” Dominic said.
By the time Hiram discovered he was the new owner of the beat-up Buick with one blue fender, Dominic and Broom were well into Tennessee.
69
A Unanimous Decision
For several weeks, Meghan held off on having another family discussion regarding the fate of the Snip ’n Save. She’d been hoping against hope that some miracle would happen, the kind of miracle that would enable her to hang on to the magazine. But once Alice’s will had passed through probate, it was understood that the school would be building a children’s camp, and Tracy wanted to be part of it. When Gabriel asked that she take over as full-time director of the camp, her eyes had sparkled with delight, yet she’d said she’d have to wait until a decision was made about the Snip ’n Save. Although she’d held the answer in abeyance, she was already talking of craft classes and campfires where the children could toast marshmallows.
When Lila suggested it was time for the family to make a final decision, Meghan knew there could be no more delaying. Until now she’d said nothing about her conversation with Sheldon. Her first choice had always been to keep the Snip ’n Save, but since that was no longer possible, selling it to Sheldon would be less painful than handing it over to a complete stranger.
As soon as they were settled at the kitchen table, Lila came right out with it. “Have you given any more thought to the problem at hand?”
Tracy saw Meghan’s downturned expression and said nothing. Yes, she wanted to be free to work at the camp, but a promise was a promise. Meghan had stepped in to help when she needed someone, and she was determined to do the same. If Meghan insisted on keeping the Snip ’n Save, Tracy wouldn’t argue the point.
Lila waited a moment and then said, “Well?”
Without lifting her eyes or looking square into her mama’s face, Meghan said, “I’ve already talked to Sheldon, and he wants to buy it.”
“Sheldon?” Tracy said, her voice airy and light, the sound of happiness threaded through the name. “Why, that’s perfect! He knows everything about the magazine!”
Without giving credence to it being “perfect,” Meghan interrupted with the details of what she and Sheldon had discussed.
“Fifteen thousand now and a three-year payout for the rest of it.”
“How soon can we get the deal done?” Lila asked.
Meghan looked up, wide-eyed. “Is there some kind of rush?”
“Yes, there is,” Lila answered. “Your sister’s wedding is only three months off, and it would be nice if she could get herself settled ahead of time.”
Tracy reached across and covered Meghan’s hand with hers. “Take as long as you need,” she said. “Gabriel and I will have the rest of our lives together. A month or two doesn’t ma
tter.”
Meghan turned to Tracy with a melancholy smile. She thought back to the days before her own wedding, how thrilling it was and how excited they’d been. She didn’t want to rob Tracy of that same joy.
“He’s ready to make the deal,” she said. “It’s a cut-and-dried transaction, so I think we can wrap it up by next week.”
“Wonderful!” Lila said. Knowing the sacrifice Meghan had made, she looked over and smiled. “I think your daddy would be very proud of you right now.”
With her chin tilted toward her chest, Meghan gave a shrug. “I just hope he can find it in his heart to forgive us for selling something he worked so hard to build.”
Lila stood, came around the table, and hugged Meghan’s shoulders.
“Sweetheart, you worry about the most foolish things. If George were here sitting at this table, he’d say exactly what I’m saying. The Snip ’n Save was nothing more than a business. The only thing your daddy and I ever wanted was to see both of you girls happy.”
Meghan forced a smile and said, “Thanks, Mama.”
A week later, Sheldon Markowitz signed the papers and became the new owner of the Briggs Snip ’n Save. Although he was now the owner of the magazine, it would forever be called the Briggs Snip ’n Save, which was the final stipulation Meghan had requested and Sheldon had agreed to.
That evening, Meghan cleaned out the office and packed up any last remaining bits of information for the new owner. She was wearing dark jeans and a black T-shirt that, if not for her blonde hair, would have made her seem a shadow floating around the room.
“Want some help?” Tracy asked.
Meghan shook her head. “No, thanks. This is something I need to do myself.”
She went through the file folders one by one, saving every scrap of paper and discarding nothing. Things such as dried-up ballpoint pens and pencils with chewed erasers she set aside; those she planned to take to the clinic and keep in her desk. She scoured the computer for the family pictures her daddy had kept, and after she’d gathered them into one folder, she uploaded it to her flash drive. Rubber bands, paper clips, a key chain puzzle, a miniature flashlight, a Rubik’s cube—all of it went into the pile of things she would carry home.
A Year of Extraordinary Moments (A Magnolia Grove Novel) Page 24