“If you died, this property would go to your mother, and thus Herbert and their children.”
“But surely, Grandmother, you don’t think my family would try to kill me for a house.” Sandi was becoming stressed over this new information. She needed to concentrate on getting better. This only gave her more to worry about.
“Casandra, your net worth will be in the billions.” Her grandmother asked for her help to stand up, and Sandi hurried over to support her. “People have done much worse for much less.”
“Well, Grandmother, I will try hard to find my memories.”
This information was worse than she could have imagined. The idea that someone could have tried to kill her was frightening. She felt peace however to discover that this grand woman was her very own grandmother. She smiled as she helped her walk out. Sandi wanted to get to know all about her.
Her mother came in and helped Sandi as they walked her grandmother to the limo waiting outside.
“Where do you live, Grandmother? I would like to spend more time with you.” Her grandmother handed Sandi a card and told her whenever she called, her driver would come and get her. Sandi kissed her cheek and thanked her for coming. It seemed a paltry display, considering the fortune involved.
Just before the limo door shut, her grandmother said with a twinkle in her eye, “I would love to hear all about the adventures you have been having since you left.” Then the door shut, and the limo drove down the long driveway to the front gate. Sandi determined to get together with her as soon as she could.
When Sandi was shown to her room, she went through the closets and was amazed at the clothing she found there. She had a whole room full of closets. Beautiful gowns filled one closet. Horse riding apparel in another. She lingered in that one. Each one was full of not just one but many options for any event she could imagine. The jewelry table was breath taking in the extreme. Was this all real and if so why wasn’t it in a vault somewhere. Sandi changed clothing and went down to dinner.
She heard a woman complaining as she came down the stairs. From the parlor out walked a woman and Willard. It was evident they had been arguing. Well maybe he had found another person already. They both stopped talking and looked at her sheepishly.
The woman came forward gushing. “Kiki I am so thrilled you are back.” The hug was quick and the greeting seemed fake to Sandi. She looked at Willard questioning.
“Oh Kiki this is your sister Terra.” Willard pointed at Terra. She smiled at her speculatively.
“My step sister then?” She walked into the dining room where her mother sat with her step father. Everyone seemed a potential enemy now after talking with her grandmother. She determined to try to be civil and give them all the benefit of the doubt. “I am so happy to see you. I am sorry for my disability at present but I am sure I will regain all of my memories soon.”
Sandi’s mother motioned for her to sit in the chair next to her. At dinner Sandi was feeling a bit light headed and asked. “So why am I called Kiki? Of all the names I imagined I might have, this one was not even close.”
Terra started laughing. “Well, I am afraid it was my fault. As baby I couldn’t say Casandra and ended up calling you Kiki. It stuck.”
“I didn’t complain about it as I got older or went to school?” Sandi was feeling a bit peeved.
Willard responded, “At school, you were of course registered as Casandra. Terra continued to call you Kiki, and everyone else did too.”
“Well, for now I am choosing to be called Sandi if you would rather not say Casandra. I would appreciate all of you trying that one out.” She made a point of looking at each member of the family.
Her mother passed the rolls to Sandi. “Of course, my dear.” The rest of the dinner went well. They asked her to tell them about her rescue and all that she had been doing.
Sandi looked over at Terra and Willard. “Were you both on the cruise?”
“Yes, we were there with a group of friends from New York,” Willard answered.
“Why did I go?” An uncomfortable silence settled on the room.
Willard answered, “It was an engagement party.”
So why were the guests at my engagement party your friends from New York? She caught Terra giving Willard a meaningful look. She was getting tired of this runaround. Obviously they knew something that they were not planning to divulge.
“It was so nice to see you all. But I am a bit tired and want to retire. Good night.” She didn’t care how rude she was being. She was tired, and she was tired of these people.
She went up to her room and called Shane. After talking with her family, it was such a relief to hear his voice. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“I have learned a lot of things. Not all of them good.” She described the visit from her grandmother and all she learned at dinner. “So, I am to inherit billions.”
“Trust me, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Yes, but that’s the thing. My grandmother said that if I died, the money would go to my stepfather and stepsiblings.” Sharing with Shane the potential danger she was in was comforting.
“Do you want me to come out there?” Shane asked.
“No, not now, but I will keep you posted. I need some rest. I see the doctor’s tomorrow.”
“OK, have a good sleep and thanks for calling. I can be there in a heartbeat. Bye.”
Chapter 12
Sandi sat in the waiting room of the doctor’s office with her mother. “Mom, what was my father like?” She felt such a loss at the thought that she would never remember her own father. She had been an infant when he died.
Olivia’s face softened. “He was such a competitive man. He fought off many of my potential suitors in order to sweep me off my feet. He was that way in his business as well.” She sighed and took Sandi’s hand. “I wish you could have known him.”
“What was my relationship with Herbert?” She looked over earnestly at her mother.
“He was your dad, Sandi. When Terra and then Tom were born, he tried to be fair in his time with all of you. I think he felt he needed to make it up to them that he didn’t provide for their future like your father did for you. Particularly since Terra threw it in his face.”
Sandi was called into the office. The doctor asked a lot of questions, and they did an MRI to check her brain. Everything looked normal. The doctor concluded that she had retrograde amnesia, and he wanted to try sessions of EMDR. Basically they would try to reroute the brain’s pathways to open up the memory cells. He wanted her to come every day.
He did mention that sometimes his amnesia patients don’t want to remember—that was another issue they would work on if this didn’t help. Sandi left the office feeling hopeful.
“Well, he seemed confident that this would help,” her mom said.
Sandi was happy her mother came with her. It was nice to have her opinion on everything. “Mom, do you think someone would deliberately try to hurt me?”
Her mother’s face fell, but she said, “I can’t imagine that happening, Sandi, I truly can’t.”
When they got home, Sandi changed and headed for the stables. She walked in and found Albert brushing Bailey.
“Hi, Albert, how is he doing this morning?” Albert gave her the thumbs up, and Bailey whinnied. “Hey, Bailey, I’m still here.” She turned to Albert as she put some hay in the stall. “Albert, why do you think Bailey was afraid to go into the big stables?”
“Well, Miss Sandi, I have my opinions, but they don’t matter.”
“They matter to me, Albert. Please can you tell me?” Sandi touched his arm. Albert nodded.
“The day you had your accident, they brought Bailey back home to the stables. He was quite upset and racing back and forth in the stall. I went in to remove his saddle, and I found a sharp metal spur under the saddle, digging into his back.”
Sandi gasped.
“The cut was deep, and he was still bleeding. When Mr. Herbert came in and saw the spur, he pu
t Bailey in a trailer and drove away. Later he returned and said he had sold Bailey because he wasn’t a safe horse for you to ride. But I think he was protecting Miss Terra. It was her spur under that saddle.”
“Poor Bailey.” Her heart skipped a beat. “Do you think she wanted me to have that accident?”
“I can’t say, but she was plenty jealous of you, miss. She was just a teenager, and I do believe she felt very bad about it until you came out of your coma.”
Sandi brushed Bailey for an hour, taking the time to think. She was more desperate than ever to regain her memory. If she did have enemies, the sooner she knew who they were, the safer she would be.
“Bailey, you are such a good soul.” She looked closely at his side, searching for a scar, and found it just where the saddle would have put the most pressure when jumping. This had been a cruel, vicious act, teenager or not. She took out her phone and called her grandmother.
“Grandmother, is this a good time for a visit?” She had to smile as she pictured her kind, determined face. She was so proud to be descended from such a woman, and she wanted to know more about her.
“Any time is good for you, Casandra. Why don’t you stay for dinner? Charles is on his way.”
Sandi rushed into the house to change. She saw her mother in the hall. “Grandmother has invited me for dinner. I hope you weren’t planning something else.”
“No, Sandi, but tomorrow your brother Tom is coming up. I do hope you will be here to see him.” Her mother looked concerned. In fact, she had seemed unsettled ever since Sandi came back.
“Of course. It’s funny, but I have always felt I had a brother.” She couldn’t help thinking of Shane’s antics. She chuckled.
The limo arrived, and she bounced down the stairs and got in. “Hello, Charles, thanks for picking me up.”
Charles smiled and turned around. “I don’t often get thanked, Casandra . It’s always been a pleasure driving for you.”
“So you know me, then. What kind of a person was I, truthfully?” She was hoping he would be honest with her.
“You were always a bright, happy, positive, and very determined young lady. You had goals and worked hard to achieve them. You were very intelligent, like your father. You have much of him in you. He had a great sense of humor and was kind and considerate.”
“You knew my father?”
“I sure did. Let me tell you a story: when he heard that my mother was being forced out of her home by her landlord, he bought the home and gave it to her. All he said to me was, ‘Problem fixed.’ You don’t often come across a man like that these days.”
“Thank you, Charles, I love hearing about him. I am sure I was not as good as you make me out to be. But it’s kind of you to say so.”
She arrived at her grandmother’s home, which was much smaller than she expected after seeing the estate. But it was lovely with beautiful gardens and a tunnel of climbing roses leading to the back.
She loved this grand woman. “Hello, Grandmother, I am so happy to be here.” She gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. They walked into the house and sat in the sunny parlor.
“Okay, now sit right here and tell me all about your adventures.”
Sandi talked on and on with encouraging smiles and chuckles from her dear grandmother. Once Sandi was finished with the story, her grandmother looked at her, questioningly.
“You seem worried, Cassandra.”
Then she told her about Shane and how she felt about him. And her worries about remembering what had been going on with her family.
“Oh poppycock, if you love him now, you would have loved him before, Casandra.” A cloud of worry seemed to dissipate from around her.
“Grandma, what can you tell me about Willard Manwaring? It’s hard for me to imagine that I was planning to marry him.”
“Well, I don’t like him, Casandra. He met Terra in New York, and they were an item for a time before he switched his attentions to you, the older sister—and heir, I might add.” She huffed.
“I don’t feel right about him either, Grandmother, I’m glad you agree. He hasn’t mentioned the engagement, so I’m hoping he thinks it’s off.”
She enjoyed hearing her grandmother talk about her father. When she got ready to leave, her grandmother gave her two books of family history: The Hiltons and The Goldmans.
“Casandra, you come from a good family. These books are a history that I feel will answer your questions about where you come from far better than I could.”
Sandi was thrilled. She could read whole books about her family. “Thank you so much. I will see you again soon.”
She bounced down the steps to Charles and the limo. Just talking with her grandmother lifted her spirits. While Charles was driving her home, she called Willard and asked him to meet her in the front stables just before dinner the next day. She did not invite him for dinner. Her brother Tom was coming. But she wanted to talk with Willard and hopefully gain some insight into what kind of a relationship they had. So far she had barely heard more than a few words from him. There had to be something there between them.
She spent that evening and most of the next day reading the family histories. It was fascinating and a joy to read some of the journals. She could see that her own approaches to problems were shared by her ancestors. It gave her a sense of her foundation. As the time approached to meet Willard, she decided to go over early and spend time with Bailey in the back stable. When she got to the stables, she noticed the hay was depleted. The bales were in the loft, and Albert was off duty.
She quickly climbed the ladder and was just about to throw down a bail when she heard Terra and Willard arguing as they walked into the stables. What were they doing here?
“Look, Willard, I didn’t push her off the ship, you did.” Terra’s voice was filled with hate.
“I was just trying to keep her from falling over after you pushed her.” Willard raised his voice in defense.
“I didn’t push her over. She fell and hit her head when we struggled.” Terra’s voice went up an octave.
“Well, it’s just too bad the sharks didn’t finish the job.” Willard sighed in resignation.
As Terra moved over closer to Bailey’s stall he became agitated and reared up, kicking at the door.
“Oh, so you remember me, Bailey.” She laughed wickedly. “How I hated you and the ribbons you and Kiki brought home.” She threw the brush at him. He stomped and reared back.
Sandi kept quiet and moved farther away from the edge of the loft. She could feel the hate in the room. Memories started flashing before her, one right after the other, of all the times she had rationalized away the animosity Terra had for her.
She sunk slowly to the floor with tears rolling down her cheeks. She remembered the argument that night on deck between her and Terra. For the first time in her life, she had realized how much Terra hated her. She could remember the shock and terror she felt at being the recipient of such hate. Terra had lunged at her, and they struggled until Sandi fell back, hitting her head on the table. The last thing she saw was the deadly intent in Terra’s eyes before she passed out.
Terra’s accusation toward Willard brought her back. “What are you planning to say?”
“We are okay as long as she doesn’t remember. I will suggest the best way to get her memory back is to move forward with her life’s plans.” Willard paused for a minute. “A divorce settlement is faster and waiting for a will and then splitting everything with Tom, is not the most advantageous for us.”
“Call me when you’re done.” Terra’s footsteps echoed as she left.
Sandi stayed quiet until she was sure they were both gone. She was exhausted and slowly climbed down the ladder. She walked to the entrance and saw Terra driving out, passing another car driving in. It was Tom, her little brother. She knew him! He stopped by the stables and ran over to her, picking her up and swinging her around. “Kiki, I am so glad you are home!” She didn’t even mind the pet name; it was said w
ith so much love.
“Tom, I am so glad you are here. Can you come with me to the front stable? I have a meeting with Willard, and I would like you to be there with me.” She walked into the stables and found Willard sitting on a bench by the horse stalls. “Just stand here, Tom, and I’ll explain later.”
“Sure, Kiki.” He leaned back against the door frame.
Sandi walked back toward Willard. “Thank you for coming. I wanted to talk without everyone around.”
Willard stood up and looked surprised to see Tom standing by the stable doors. “Of course. I am happy to be here, Sandi.”
“I was talking to my grandmother yesterday, and she gave me a brief summary of our relationship.”
Willard frowned. “Well, your grandmother never really liked me that much.”
“Can you explain to me why I would go ahead with our relationship in the face of my grandmother’s sentiments?” Sandi now remembered exactly how she’d stupidly accepted his proposal. She wondered if Terra and Willard had been after the money from the very beginning.
“Sandi, you need help. I am sure you are getting a lot of advice from those around you. My advice is that we marry right away. A husband is in the best position to assist in a situation like this.”
Sandi really couldn’t believe the gall of Willard. Amnesia made you forget, but it didn’t make you stupid. What was he thinking? Her temper was flaring, and she was done with this man.
“Willard, I would be interested to know when you came to this epiphany. Was this before or after you threw me overboard?”
Willard sputtered a response but the look on his face was pure guilt. With that she turned and walked toward Tom—he hadn’t heard what was said, but the explosive emotions were obvious.
“Tom, I am so glad to know you! I can remember now!” I have a brother, someone I can trust. Sandi felt wonderful, having faced Willard. It was wonderful, being surefooted in her life again. She was grateful for the return of her memory, and she supposed she had Willard and Terra to thank for that. It was their hate-filled conversation that brought it all back.
Her Billionaire to Remember (A Texas Ranch Romance Book 5) Page 10