Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jade chickened out and sent Hunter a text instead, like a coward.
Maybe it should have said more than:
Jade: Went to Connecticut. We’ll talk later.
But she quickly sent off the text and turned her phone to airplane mode before she could second-guess herself. She closed up her store, leaving a Closed Until Further Notice sign in the window.
Then she hopped on the first plane to Hartford without giving herself much time to think about any of it…including what she was heading into, or how little money she had left in her account after buying the ticket. She needed to do this. Now. And she had to stay strong if she was going to face off with Cassandra and Lane. And if she was going to finally read her father’s letter…
Right before she dashed out her front door, she’d opened her treasure box and grabbed it. It had taunted her for too long, screaming at her to read it. She didn’t know if she was ready, but then again…
Would she ever be ready?
It was dark by the time her flight landed and she checked herself into a hotel. She had set up an appointment with the trust accountant first thing the next morning. So, for the rest of the night, she would raid the hotel’s mini fridge, indulge in the harmless-looking tiny liquor bottles, and read her father’s final words to her. Despite getting her ass kicked by Maggie’s Punch the night before, she needed some liquid courage to read his letter.
Hopefully, the alcohol would numb some of the pain that had never left her since his death.
After several deep breaths, she settled onto the bed, pulled the letter out of her purse with shaky hands, and opened it with slow, reverent movements. Her eyes immediately watered when they landed on her father’s elegant cursive handwriting. She had once told him if he’d lived back in the Middle Ages he would have been a scribe. She could still remember the way he’d laughed at that.
Once she started to read, it didn’t take long for the tears to start streaming down her cheeks.
My darling Jade,
If you are reading this, it means I am now gone. I wish we could have spent more time together, but I have accepted that my health will not allow me to live long enough to see my daughter get married or bounce my future grandchildren on my knee. I know you must be grieving, but I do not want you to mourn me. I have lived a good life and have seen all I wanted to see. I have loved deeply, in ways I never thought were possible. And I am leaving behind a beautiful, intelligent daughter who has brought me nothing but profound happiness as I have watched her grow from a delightful, bubbly little girl into an amazing young woman.
I know you have never been one to care for materialistic possessions, for which I am immensely proud of you. But I have put the vast amount of my life’s fortune into a trust for you upon my passing. I also know that you have become a most remarkably independent woman, and you have done a wonderful job of earning your own way in life. Though I realize you do not need (or probably want) this money to live on, I still ask that you use it. Travel to Paris as you have always wanted, or buy a horse, or indulge in a beach house.
I want to leave this world knowing that all of my hard work over the years will benefit you, allow you to achieve your dreams, and live the life you wish to lead. I have wanted nothing in this world but for you to be happy. And if this money helps to accomplish that, my final wish is for you to use every last cent of it.
I have left specifications for the trust to be transferred into your name upon your 28th birthday. Call me a sentimental old fool, but it’s the same age your mother was when I met her, and I felt it was appropriate. I have told you so many times how much like your mother you are, and it has always been the truth. Like her, you are gentle and kind, passionate and loyal, and strikingly beautiful. Not to mention you could both have a bit of temper when pushed. I always assumed it was the red hair.
Your mother was the great love of my life, and I have missed her every day these many years. I pray that you will know that kind of love one day, Jade. That your heart will give itself to someone worthy of your love. That he will take care of you and cherish you every moment of every day, because, as we both have learned, life can be so very fleeting. You deserve to find someone who will make you the light of his world, as your mother was mine.
If I have one regret, it is that in my desperation for companionship during my loneliest years, I fell victim to Cassandra’s wiles. It was an old man’s folly, one I subjected you to, and for that I am sorry. As a man of principle, I felt I had a responsibility to uphold, which I honored. But if I can make one final request, I ask that you not allow Cassandra and Lane to erase the memory of our true family and all that we once were. Stay strong in your convictions, as you always have, and protect what is most important.
Now that I am gone, you must think you are all alone, but you are not, my darling girl. Your mother has watched over you since she left us, as I am now doing with her. I hope you know how much we love you. You will always have us with you, wherever life may take you, and I want you to live that life to the very fullest. You deserve every magnificent thing this world has to offer. May you find peace and joy and a love so great that nothing else around you seems to exist. Be happy, my precious daughter.
Until we see each other again,
Your loving father
Heart-wrenching sobs ripped from her throat as she collapsed against the plump hotel pillows. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to see her father again. No matter how much time had passed, the pain was as fresh as it had been the day she buried him.
She drew herself a hot bath and sat there in the dim lights of the bathroom for an interminable amount of time, repeating her father’s words over and over in her mind. Reflecting on every message he’d offered, and every request he’d made.
Despite the feeling that she’d lost him all over again, it also felt as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. That unopened letter had haunted her these past months. She had been so afraid it might say she didn’t live up to his expectations, or that he wasn’t proud of the person she’d become.
Now she never had to wonder about that again.
Her heart warmed at her father’s last praises and encouragements. It gave her the courage to finish what she’d set out to do.
To protect what was most important.
Starting with signing those damn inheritance papers.