AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There was no mistake, Ms. Bailey. Your father was very clear that everything must be left to you and no one else. He also insisted that the business should not be sold, but given that everything is in fact in your name, what happens to the business is now up to you.”
Lovely. Thanks for the pressure, Dad.
“Okay so…the bank manager that he had accounts with mentioned that he’d like to offer a price if I do decide to sell, so how would I go about that?” I say, eager to wash this nightmare away from my reality.
Michael looks at me with a sudden and stern glance. I don’t like the feeling that it gives me.
“You can sell, I’m not saying that you can’t. I’m just saying that it wouldn’t be wise,” he says, and I scoff.
“Why wouldn’t it be wise? There’s people that would offer a lot of money, and if I take it, I can tell you that it won’t be worth anything,” I say and he sits back in his chair, twirling his pen around in his large fingers.
“They may be offering a lot of money, but not nearly what it’s worth. This business is worth a lot of money, and a lot of people depend on its success for their livelihood. I’ll tell you right now that if a bank takes it, it’ll be a factory and many people will be without jobs. People that your father cared for. People that have worked with him from the start.”
Well, now I just feel like an asshole.
“That may be the case, but Michael, I don’t know the first thing about running a ranch or company of this size, let alone any company. I went to school to read books and be a professor, not a business owner. I don’t know what my father was thinking, leaving all of this to me,” I say in defeat, and Michael sighs before leaning forward to speak to me closely.
“Alison, your father was very adamant that this business gets left to you and you alone. He trusts you with his livelihood, I doubt he did that unknowingly. You’re a smart girl, you can figure it out. Just don’t sell, if you want my advice. It would ruin everything that he worked for,” he says and I feel the lump take up residence in my throat once more, but I swallow it down.
“So what do you suggest that I do?” I ask, looking down at my shoes.
“If you want my opinion, I say go to the ranch. Talk to the workers, mingle and get to know the town. You may grow to love it and feel a sense of pride. These people have families, homes. Don’t sell that all away. Get to know them. I’m sure many of them can lead you and help you through this,” he says so simply.
Go to Montana? I can’t go back there. Not when I know that my dad won’t be there waiting for me.
“There’s nothing left for me there,” I say, swallowing the lump down. “Not without him.”
Michael clicks his pen and hands my father’s will over to me.
“There’s a whole business there for you. A home. People who know you and know your father. He is there still, Alison. Everything that he loved is there. Do the right thing,” he says as I stare at the will, my eyes running over my dad’s signature.
How is this real?
* * *
The ride back home is short and anything but peaceful. My mind is wandering a mile a minute and I have a knot in my stomach the size of Montana itself. I have to tell my mom about everything, even though I don’t want to. All I want to do is lie in bed and wish all of this would go away. Wish that my dad was still at the ranch, running things as normal while I look for plane tickets to Europe.
None of that will or can happen, because it’s all just a dream now. Now, this is my reality. I am a twenty-two-year-old owner of the largest, and most profitable ranch in the country and I haven’t a clue of how to run it. I have a billion dollars to my name and several people’s lives on the line if I make the wrong choice. I am overwhelmed and I am still grieving the loss of my father. Time refuses to slow for me, and I hate it.
I walk up to my mom’s apartment and open the door quietly, hoping that she’s asleep and that I can escape reality for a few moments, but I should’ve known that wasn’t going to happen.
Mom greets me with a phone to her ear, she’s talking to my aunt and rushes off the line as soon as she sees me.
“Where’d you go?” she asks once she hangs up the call.
“To the bank and a lawyer’s office,” I say, setting my satchel down on the counter as I sit and hand over the will to my mom.
She scans it and her eyes widen like saucers, I swear they just might pop out of her head.
“Ali, what is this? How did you get this?” she asks in disbelief.
I rub my hands over my face before taking the will back from her and shoving it in my bag.
“I got it from Dad’s lawyer. He left it all to me, Mom. The money, the land, the business, everything,” I say clearly, even though I can’t think straight, especially when she starts to pace across the kitchen.
“You own the ranch?! Did he lose his mind? There’s no way this is possible! Surely, you can just sell it-”
“I can’t just sell it, Mom,” I say, staring at the countertop as she stops with her hands on her hips, staring me down.
