The Inheritance (The Donatelli Series) (2 page)

The nurse came in and walked to the other side of the bed. “You need to rest now, Mr. Banner. Do you need a pain pill?”

“Yes. Is my attorney here yet?”

“No, sir.”

“Bring Blade back when my attorney gets here.”

Blade walked toward the door and the old man’s voice pulled him back. “Blade? I’m glad you’re here, son.”

“So am I.” No man had ever called him son. His father called him ‘the little bastard’ and worse when he drank.

His grandfather wasn’t exactly what Blade expected. The old guy seemed sharp, a man unafraid to say what he thought. Blade’s father had been a weak man, too weak to stop drinking and too mean to care. Blade was five when his father left, and he still had the scars on his legs and backside where his father hit him with his belt buckle before he left. Sunny gave him bourbon to stop him from screaming.

It wasn’t the only time she’d poured liquor down his throat.

<>

The manager of the temp agency handed Maria Fredricks her final check. “Sorry, Maria. We can’t use you again without losing one of our biggest clients.”

“But it was a family emergency.”

“I know, but the attorney is still angry that you bailed out on him in the middle of the job. He said if we didn’t fire you, he’d use a different agency, and we can’t afford to lose his business.”

The attorney was a rude jerk who didn’t care that Maria’s son had been injured at school. She’d told the attorney she’d come back and finish the job, and he told her not to bother. Maybe she should have called Mom and asked her to take care of Robbie that day, but the kids were her responsibility, not Mom’s.

She took her paycheck and left. It wasn’t enough to buy groceries, and her car insurance was due next week.

She drove past the road to her mother’s house and down to the park three miles away. The rain had stopped and she needed to clear her head. Swapping her pumps for walking shoes, she locked the car and walked down the path to the waterfront. The water in Puget Sound was cold and gray, but being near the water calmed her. The past year had been a nightmare—telling Fred she’d given up on their marriage, moving in with Mom, and then the divorce proceedings.

The cool breeze off the water invigorated her as she walked down the deserted beach. Not many people came down here this time of year, but she needed quiet time.

If not for her mother giving her and the kids a place to live and taking care of the kids while Maria worked, she didn’t know how she’d get by. She had to work, but good jobs were hard to find in Gig Harbor. There were a few jobs in Seattle, but it was too far to drive every day, and she couldn’t afford to live there. Some of her temp jobs had been in Tacoma, but she spent way too much time sitting in traffic, and she was gone from six in the morning until six or seven in the evening, which didn’t give her any time with her kids.

As she watched the waves lap and suck at the shore, she prayed that the hard times would pass, that she’d find a decent job, the kids would settle in, and they’d be all right. Thank God for her family. Without them, she didn’t know what she’d do.

Shivering with the cold and damp, Maria pulled her jacket tighter around her and returned to her car. It was the first week in March, and although Spring would officially be here soon, the icy wind cut through her as though it were mid-January.

She drove home to find her cousin, Nick, drinking coffee with Mom. Maria gave him a big hug. “Hey, Nick, what’s happening? How’s business?”

“Business is good, and that’s why I’m here.
Max and Company
needs a decorator, someone to tell us what to use to finish off the spec homes we’re building. I talked it over with Angelo and Tony, and they said you’d be perfect for the job.”

“But I’m not a decorator.”

“You don’t need experience in decorating to do this job, Maria. We need your sense of style and your intuition.”

He’d created a job for her, and she loved him for it, but she didn’t want his charity. “You don’t need to make work for me, Nick. I’ll find a job.”

“I know you will, but we need you, Maria. The last decorator we used did a shitty job. You helped me and Cara figure out how to finish our house, and I want you to do the same thing for
Max and Company
. I figure the job would be part-time, about twenty hours a week, give or take, so you can work it around the kids’ schedules.”

“If Fred paid child support, part-time would be enough, but you know Fred.”

“Yeah, I know Fred. Take him to court again. We’ll help you out until you get things settled.”

She swallowed her pride and accepted the job. The work sounded interesting, and the hours were perfect for a working mother. “Thanks, Nick. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d do fine. Fred was a fool to give you up.”

Fred hadn’t given her up. She’d given up on him. He’d beaten her down and cheated not with one woman, but with many. If his next wife thought he’d be faithful to her, she’d better think again. Knowing Fred, he was already scoping out his next conquest. If not for the kids, Maria would have left him years ago, but if she had, she wouldn’t have Andy and Jimmy, and she couldn’t imagine life without her two little boys.

At fourteen, Molly was her oldest, and then came Robbie. He was eleven, with the intelligence of a college freshman. Andy and Jimmy were seven and six. Four kids and no child support. She loved her kids, but if she’d known her marriage would end up like this, she wouldn’t have married so young. She would have waited and built a career, something that paid enough to support herself and her children, and she would have chosen her husband more wisely.

<>

Maria started her new job the next morning. Thursday mornings, the local real estate agents held their brokers’ opens. She drove around, following the open house signs, and toured the homes along with the agents. Listening to the comments about things the agents liked and didn’t like opened her eyes. They liked some color, but too much strong color drew buyers’ focus away from other aspects of the home. Beige and white were safe, blank slates for buyers to work with. Wood floors got raves, and so did granite and marble in the bathrooms and kitchens. Clean and clutter-free brought the best comments on resale homes.

She picked up the kids at the bus stop on the way home. After she got them settled with snacks and put the dog out, Maria left the kids with her mother and went to look at the homes
Max and Company
had under construction now. Two homes were nearly finished, and Nick was right. They definitely needed help. The countertops and cabinets clashed in one house, and the wood cabinets didn’t go with the wood floors in the other one.

She found her brother, Angelo, in the third house. He’d been working for Nick since the company began four years ago. “Angelo, have you ordered any countertops or cabinets for this house?”

“Not yet.”

“Don’t order anything else until I see the samples.”

“No problem,” said Angelo. “Tony used to do that stuff, and with him in California, Nick gave the job to me. I usually end up with whatever the vendor wants to get rid of. Teresa says I have no taste.”

Maria laughed a little. “Listen to your wife. I’ll need a list of vendors and what they sell, lead times, and whatever else you think I need to know.”

Angelo kissed her on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re working with us, Maria.”

“Me, too.” The job was perfect for her, and Nick paid well. She’d make almost as much working part time for
Max and Company
as she did working full time through a temp agency. And she didn’t have to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to get to work.

<>

Blade expected to be going back to Gig Harbor that week, but every day he spent with his grandfather was a gift. Hearing about the old man’s life and learning about others in the family gave him a sense of belonging he’d never felt before. They talked and laughed at times, but the man clearly suffered a lot of pain, so Blade kept his visits short.

Hearing about the things his grandfather’s family did together, Blade got a sense of what his life could have been like if he’d known them when he was a kid. They had a tight, loving family, a family Blade never knew existed. John Banner was the only Banner he’d ever known. Blade remembered a mean drunk who never had a kind word for his bastard son.

Listening to the old man talk, Blade felt cheated. John had a privileged life and he threw it away, traded it for endless bottles of scotch. Instead of bringing his only child here, where he would have grown up with love and kindness, John left Blade in the hands of an abusive woman who’d turned him into a lush before he reached high school. He had no kind thoughts for the father who’d left him to that fate.

Blade grew to respect his grandfather, but after ten days, the old man slipped into a coma. He died three days later, and Blade felt an unexpected deep loss. In only ten days, Edward Banner had become an important part of his life, the only family member who’d ever treated him with respect and affection.

The funeral was a private affair. Edward Banner had prepared for his death, and his attorney, Colin Jacobs, handled all the arrangements. All Blade had to do was buy himself a new suit and show up. Edward Banner was laid to rest beside his wife, Mary Elizabeth Covington Banner, his beloved Mary Beth.

Colin Jacobs held the reading of the will the afternoon after the funeral. Edward Banner had left generous gifts for each member of his household staff. Blade felt relieved. He had no intention of living here, and he didn’t want to send these people away with nothing. His life was in Washington, and he intended to return there as soon as he got things settled here in New York.

Edward Banner left his home in New York and a winter home in Florida to Blade. A million plus taxes came to him immediately and the balance of the estate would be his when he married. The marriage condition surprised Blade. He could contest it in court, and he might do that if he couldn’t find a woman he wanted to marry. He’d never met one he wanted to spend more than a night or two with. The thought of waking up to the same face every morning for the rest of his life always brought him to his senses in time.

Blade had already decided to sell the house in New York. He’d keep the one in Florida until he had a chance to check it out. Probate would take time, but the attorney would handle it, and he would also handle the sale of the house.

After Blade bought himself a new house in Gig Harbor, he’d return and sort through the contents of the house in New York. He wanted to keep some things for himself, but he had to have a place to put them. He couldn’t stuff anything else in his little rental house. He only had two tiny bedrooms, and he used the second one for an office.

He wanted a nice piece of waterfront property in Gig Harbor. He couldn’t afford it before, and now he could. He could afford to buy everything he’d ever wanted.

Blade transferred a sizeable chunk of money to his bank account in Gig Harbor, called his boss to tell him he would no longer be available, bought new clothes, and spoke with each member of his grandfather’s household staff. He asked some of them to stay and maintain the house until probate settled and someone bought the house. “If you find another position before everything is settled, then by all means take it.”

The butler, an elderly man who had worked for the Banner family for nearly fifty years, would retire. Blade’s grandfather had given him a pension large enough to keep him for the rest of his life. The cook had already found other employment, but the gardener would stay, and the housekeeper said she’d gladly stay until the house sold. “Mr. Banner would want the house kept up,” she told Blade.

Blade felt overwhelmed with the enormity of the changes in his life. It was like winning the lottery, only he didn’t know any lottery that paid out this much money. He’d gone from barely getting by to having more money than any reasonable person could ever expect to spend. And he’d found a grandfather only to lose him a few days later. Someone in his family cared about him and was proud of what he’d accomplished. Too bad they didn’t connect when Blade was a kid, when he’d needed someone to believe in him and encourage him.

He’d gone from a man who worked for a living to a wealthy man who would never have to work again, and he could get millions more if he married.

Even though the Banner-Covington Shipping Corporation had gone public years ago, it was still the Banner family legacy. Edward Banner had kept a sizeable thirty-seven percent of the stock, and he’d asked Blade to do his best to maintain the integrity of the company. Blade’s grandfather didn’t expect him to work for the company, but he did expect him to be a member of the Board of Directors. That was fine with Blade, but the stock wouldn’t be his until he married.