“Chloe, how about you?” Sloane asked with a smile, speaking in a singsong voice, trying desperately to tempt her. “Want to go check out the vineyard?”
“Mom! We did that this morning,” Chloe replied in that whiny tone of voice that made Sloane want to rip her own hair out.
What was wrong with her daughter? Didn’t she understand how important it was to be charming and charismatic?
“Fine.” Sloane turned on her heel. “I’ll go and see what’s cooking in the kitchen.”
She left the room, ever hopeful that they would suddenly realize what they were missing out on and change their minds. But no one ever followed Sloane when she saidfineand stormed out of a room. Alan especially. He always just let her go.
CHAPTER 6
FIONA
As soon as the lawyers packed up and left, Ruth rolled Mabel’s wheelchair away from the table. She said they had a plane to catch and pushed her aunt out the door without a single glance back in my direction.
“They’re not happy about this either,” I said to Maria. “I can hardly blame them. No wonder they want to fight it.”
“Yes, but you heard what Mr.Wainwright said. They can’t fight it without clear evidence of blackmail or fraud or undue influence.”
I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “My mother would never blackmail anyone. You should have seen how she cared for my dad every day of her life. She was a saint.”
“Except for the fact that she was unfaithful to him,” Maria gently reminded me. “Maybe you didn’t know her as well as you thought you did.”
I had no choice but to accept that Maria was right. “I don’t know anything anymore,” I said. “I didn’t expect this to happen today. I thought I was just going to inherit some dinky little plot of land somewhere, maybe half an acre with a little house on it. Not the whole kit and caboodle.” I sat forward again. “How much is this winery worth,anyway? The lawyer said there were nine hundred hectares. Is it all vineyards? Because that sounds like a lot of grapes.”
“It’s one of the largest and oldest wineries in Tuscany,” Maria replied. “My husband said it’s probably worth close to a hundred million euros.”
I blinked a few times, then lost my breath. “What did you just say?”
“That’s why Connor and Sloane want to fight this new version of the will. They’ve grown up thinking they would inherit the mother lode. Three million British pounds is a pittance compared to what they were expecting.”
I barely heard a word Maria was saying about Connor and Sloane. I was too busy doing the math in my head.
One hundred million euros?
I had no idea that Anton Clark—my actual biological father—was worththatmuch money. Imagine what I could do with a windfall like that! I’d never again have to worry about falling short when it was time to pay Dottie or Dad’s other home care workers. I’d give Dottie a raise so that she would stay with us forever. I could even have a life of my own, maybe get my own house and buy a new car. I could definitely pay off the wheelchair-accessible van we just purchased and get Dad a new computer with the very latest voice-recognition software. I’d get him all the bells and whistles. Maybe I would take him on a trip. His biggest bucket list item was to see Billy Joel in concert at Madison Square Garden. I could afford front-row seats!
I was starting to hyperventilate. I’d always felt a little guilty for keeping such a big secret from my dad all these years, even though it was for his own good, but surely this made it worthwhile. Never mind how I would explain the sudden change in our financial situation to Dad and Dottie when I got home. I’d figure out something.
Maria touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure. I think I’m in shock.”
“Me too,” she replied. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised he left you everything.”
I looked up. “But why in the world would he do that?”
This was too much.One hundred million euros.I had to be careful. I couldn’t let myself fall into the trap of thinking that I’d just struck it rich, only to learn later that it was all a big mistake and I was poor again. Certainly, it was fun to dream about buying a new house and taking Dad to see Billy Joel, but I needed to keep my feet on the ground in case this fell through in a few days’ time.
Even if it didn’t, wouldn’t it make sense to share it with Connor and Sloane?
“The letters that the lawyer mentioned ...,” I said.
“Maybe they explain what Anton was thinking,” Maria suggested. “Maybe he really did love your mother. Maybe she was the great love of his life.”
I shook my head at that notion, because I remembered the look on my mother’s face when she told me I was another man’s child. It was a look of regret and shame. At best, what happened between them was a one-night stand.
“Mom was only here for a summer while Dad was researching his book,” I explained. “Wouldn’t she have told me if she actually loved the man who was my real father?”
