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“That’s—” It closed her throat, clutched at her heart. “That’s horrible.”
“It was. She fell, coming down the stairs during the reception. There was nothing anyone could do. Collin was never quite the same. He rarely left the manor. He grieved, Ms. MacTavish, deeply.”
“Sonya,” she murmured. “I can’t imagine how awful it had to be for him.”
“He spent the rest of his life mourning her, largely closed off from the world. I was allowed in, and my family, as they’d become his family. But he cut himself off from his own. As for the business, the work of it was left primarily to cousins, though his grandmother kept her hand in until the day she died. As his lawyer, I handled his financial interests in the business, and as a Poole, he retained that financial interest, but he spent his days painting and maintaining the manor he and Johanna loved. The home they’d planned to spend their lives in together.
“The home,” Oliver continued, “and all it contains, he left to you.”
Chapter Four
Shockwas too mild a word.
“I’m sorry, what? That’s crazy. He didn’t even know me.”
“You’re his brother’s only child.”
“But—you said cousins took over the family business. It doesn’t make sense for him to leave a house to a stranger.”
“You weren’t a stranger to him. You’re family. And while he was a reclusive man for the last decades of his life, he had an interest in you, your career. He admired your work.”
“My… work.”
Oliver gave her that slow, easy smile.
“The manor has excellent Wi-Fi—Collin saw to that. Reclusive didn’t mean ignoring technology or modernization. As I said, when he learned about your father, his brother, his twin, through my research into his genealogy, he had every intention of contacting him. Then another tragedy, another death. He mourned your father, too, Sonya, though they’d been separated only days after sharing a womb.
“You’re what’s left of his brother, and the only direct descendant of their biological father.”
For the first time in her life, she fully understood the concept of head-spinning. “Listen, I’m going to appreciate the sentiment, even the cinematic weirdness of the inheritance from a long-lost uncle.”
Oliver let out a laugh at that. “He would have liked you. I think you would have liked him.”
“Maybe, but beyond sentiment and weirdness, there’s practicality.I’m just months into establishing my own business. What am I going to do with a house in Maine? A house,” she added, “you keep calling a manor. Which implies a big house in Maine I wouldn’t be financially able to afford or maintain.”
“There’s a trust for that.”
“Excuse me?”
“Collin established a trust for the maintenance of the manor. It’s very well-funded and broad-based. I should know, as I’m the trustee. Practicalities such as utilities, taxes, insurance will continue to be paid out of the trust. Repairs, any necessary or desired changes—paint, for example, or other upkeep and personal taste options? You’ll find the trustee very open, as his client instructed.”
“I—”
“As his heir, you’ll inherit the rest of his estate, including a five-percent interest in the Poole businesses. This percentage is a token, a maintaining of tradition. He left the rest of his interest to your cousins, and that is substantial.”
Then he paused, adjusted his glasses. “Your inheritance is contingent upon you taking up residence in the manor for a period no less than three years, for no less than forty weeks per year.”
“Live there?” The shocks just kept coming. “I’m supposed to just pick up and move? To Maine?
“You can contest the will. I’m a good lawyer, Sonya, so the terms are tightly knit as my friend and client wished. But you can contest it, and may prevail there. It would cost you a great deal of money and time. On a personal level, I’ll tell you I wish he’d taken my advice—as his friend and lawyer—and contacted you.”
“I can just say no. I could just refuse to accept any of it.”
“Of course. I hope you won’t.” He took two thick packets out of his briefcase. “I have a copy of his will, financial data, information on the businesses, the house. Photos, an inventory of the contents of the house.”
He smiled at her. “A great deal of legal nonsense, which I’ll be happy to explain once you’ve had time to absorb all of this.”
“Right now? I think that might take years.”
