“Let me guess, the other half passes to Tiffany.”
Mr. Mathers’ grin turned into a scarily wide smile. “No, my dear. Your half included the house. The dwelling has been in your name this whole time.”
I cocked a brow up in surprise. “Wish I’d known that a whole lot sooner,” I said.
He chuckled. “No doubt that was why your father never told you.” He cleared his throat and then glanced down at the paper. The other thirty acres that were in your father’s name are being split between you and Mrs. Tiffany Baker Billups. She gets the five acres that abuts the far western corner near where the local motorcycle clubhouse resides. The land has no water rights, no well, and is incapable of producing its own water.” He paused for a moment and looked me dead in the eye. “That is veryimportant information. The other twenty-five acres were willed to you. There are two wells on that property and another on the property you already owned near the dwelling. You could offer her water rights, if you choose to, but you are under no obligation.”
“So, you’re saying I’ve always owned the house and the property surrounding it. That is without question and was done before my father met Tiffany?”
“At the very least, it was done before he married the woman.”
“So, there is nothing she can do about that?” I asked.
“That is correct. She cannot contest the fact that you have owned that property all along.” He smiled at me again. It was a little off-putting, but then again, he seemed to hate Tiffany on a level I didn’t think I’d ever see from anyone else, so it was all good.
“Does she still live there?”
“She does.”
“Then I might need to hire you to file the eviction notice.”
Mr. Mathers chuckled and threw his head back and devolved into full-on laughter. “Oh, sweet girl, no worries there. The paperwork was already drawn up. Your father and I figured that might be your response.”
“Is there anything else I need to know?”
“She will try to contest the Will and the fact that you got the other twenty-five acres while she only received five.”
“It was all once my mother’s property. She’s lucky she got anything besides my dad’s bank account.”
“That’s the other thing. Your dad did leave her with about $25,000 in a bank account and whatever cash they had at the house. He left you with an account that still holds the insurance money that came from your mother and you are named as the sole beneficiary on his own life insurance policy. In total, youwill inherit just under a million dollars. That is before taxes, so don’t get stars in your eyes just yet.”
“Is the money something the bitch can contest?”
“She has not been made aware of any of it, but no, she would lose very quickly if she tried to contest the insurance money. What came from your mom was direct deposited into that account and has never been touched. In fact, it has earned quite a bit of interest over the years as well. Again, because we can prove where the money came from, she can’t contest a single penny of it.”
“Good. Is that all this time?”
“It is. Your father didn’t leave a letter or anything for you. I asked him if he wanted to and he said that you probably wouldn’t want to hear anything he had to say other than‘I’m sorry,’and even then, he wasn’t sure you would care. He loved you very much. I think the man was lost in his grief and made a terrible decision with Tiffany because she made him forget he was drowning for a while. By the time he came up for air and realized what he’d done, it was too late to course correct. The day he discovered you’d left for the Army - which was the same day you left, by the way - he came to see me to make sure that no matter what, you would be taken care of if anything ever happened to him.”
“How did he find out?” I asked. “Do you know?”
“I do. Your neighbors went to see him.”
“My neighbors?”
“Mr and Mrs. Davis, I believe. They sat your father down after they kicked Tiffany out of the house, so she couldn’t be involved, and they told that man just how badly he’d been fucking up with you. Excuse my language,” he added as he cleared his throat. I waved it off as nothing and he carried on. “When they were done reading him the riot act about your graduation, your father went to go get you from your room toapologize again. That was when he came back with the note you left. I don’t think the man stopped crying for a whole week. Mr. Davis told him about seeing you off that morning and that you were going to leave alone - thinking not a damn person on the earth gave a shit if you left, lived, or died. Your father was devastated and he would have paid for your college, too sweetheart. He had money set aside and was waiting for you to tell him where to send the checks.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what? Out of everything else you said, that is the one thing I don’t believe. He never once spoke to me about college money.”
“I understand, but he kept your mother’s insurance for exactly that purpose, or for you to open a bakery or whatever it was you decided you wanted to do with your life. One of his biggest regrets was not telling you sooner, but he didn’t want Tiffany to ever get wind of that money, so I guess he decided to keep it from you as well, in case you ever wanted to throw it in her face.”
“Once again, he chose that bitch over me and my well-being.”
“And he lived with those regrets until the day he died, especially when you never showed up while he was sick.”
“I never knew.”
“We figured that out a bit too late,” he said as he slid a piece of paper over to me. “This is the information for the funeral service and the wake that will follow. The service is private, just for you. The wake is where his friends will be if you choose to show up, you might just hear some stories that will remind you that your father did care, even if he lost his way for far too long.”
