Page 119 of Key West Homecoming

“You okay?”

“I don’t know what I am. I thought this was about the cottage. I knew it was messy, but I didn’t know it was this.”

“I think the cottage was the part Gloria knew she could protect most clearly. It was also the part tied to your father and to you.”

Emma thought about her father’s initials beneath the porch railing. Gloria had held on to that house for years, protecting it for a granddaughter who hadn’t understood what it meant to her.

Then she thought about Jake. For three years, he had paid Arthur twenty-two hundred dollars a month without knowing the cottage belonged to Gloria. There was no reason he should have known. Arthur had presented himself as the owner, collected the rent and apparently kept every dollar.

“So what happens to all that rent?”

Rachel folded her hands on the desk. “If we establish that Arthur had no authority to rent the cottage and keep the income, the estate may have a claim for it. The same is true of other money we can trace.”

“Meaning Arthur could have to pay it back.”

“Potentially, yes. I’m not going to promise what a judge will order, but we can ask for an accounting and pursue whatever remedies are available.”

Emma looked at the figures Rachel had written down. Ten years of rent was a great deal of money, but strangely, she found that she didn’t care about it as much as she thought she should.

“What happens to the rest of Gloria’s estate if the court accepts her later will?”

“Then we work through what should have happened under that will from the beginning. We trace what was sold, determine what remains and ask the court to restore what belongs to the estate. The condo can’t be unsold if it went to an innocent buyer, but the proceeds can be traced. The same is true of the brokerage account and the jewelry.”

“And after that?”

“After that, the estate is distributed according to Gloria’s will. There may also be claims arising from Arthur’s conduct as personal representative. Some of those decisions belong to the court, and some may eventually be yours to make.”

“What if I don’t want to pursue him for every dollar?”

Rachel studied her. “You don’t have to decide that today, and I don’t want you giving anything away before we know exactly what happened. My job right now is to protect the estate and make sure Arthur can’t dispose of anything else.”

“I understand.”

Emma looked down at the papers covering Rachel’s desk. A week ago, the numbers might have overwhelmed her. Now they seemed less important than the reason she was sitting there in the first place.

Gloria had been angry with Arthur and frightened by what he was doing, but she had still loved him. Even after everything, she had left him things that mattered to their family. Emma couldn’t believe her grandmother had done that by accident.

“I want the cottage protected,” Emma said. “All I’ve wanted was to stop Arthur from selling it, and I want the court to recognize Gloria’s will. Beyond that, I don’t know if I want to spend the next year trying to take everything from him.”

“There may be consequences that aren’t yours to decide.”

“I know. If he broke the law or violated his duties to the estate, that’s for the court to deal with. I’m talking about me.”

Rachel nodded.

“My grandmother loved him,” Emma continued. “Whatever else he did, he was still her son. I don’t think she left me that cottage because she wanted me to destroy him. I think she wanted me to keep him from taking it. There’s a difference.”

Rachel nodded.

Emma looked again at the columns of numbers. She wanted Gloria’s wishes honored, but she didn’t want Arthur’s mistakes to decide what the next year of her own life looked like. She had already spent too much of her life giving time to things that left little room for anything else. She finally understood that winning didn’t have to mean taking everything she could get.

“I want my grandmother’s house,” she said. “That’s enough for me.”

“Then we protect the house, establish the will and let the rest unfold the way it has to.”

“Okay. Tell me about Wednesday.”

Rachel walked her through the hearing. Judge Ellsworth would hear argument on the competing wills and the requests Rachel had filed concerning the estate. Edmund would testify if his health allowed it. Rachel expected Arthur’s lawyer to challenge Gloria’s capacity and the circumstances surrounding the later will, and she had already begun preparing for both.