Page 118 of Just for Tonight

Monday morning, it’s show-time.

I’m early getting to Paula’s office but she has the conference room set up already. This woman has organizational superpowers and I’m so glad to have her on my team. We go through the drill one last time, check a few quibbles, then I start my laptop and get ready for my family to dial in.

Mike is first, naturally. He gives me a wave. “Break a leg, Jake,” he murmurs and I give him a thumbs-up. I shared my idea with him earlier, partly to check my presentation and partly to be sure I had one person on my side. He likes it but has concerns about building consensus here. That’s totally fair.

We’re Cavendishes, after all. Consensus and compromise aren’t in our DNA.

Next is Abbie. She smiles and waves. She looks happy, but then she knows she’ll likely get Gram’s house out of this. That’s a good solution for her. I don’t know where she is, maybe at Cameron’s.

Madison appears next, looking skeptical. Candace is with her and could be day-drinking already. I hope she’s not worried.

Ethan logs in, bored and sulky that I ruined his day off.

Grayson appears next, wary as usual. It’s striking to see the array of attendees on my laptop screen since we pretty much all share the Cavendish dark-hair-blue-eyes combo. It’s clear that we’re related. Grayson is the notable exception, with his auburn hair, brown eyes and reserved manner. He’s Candace’s son by her first husband. I realize he was always the outsider and that people knew it at a glance. Maybe I understand his wariness a bit better than before. He ran even further from Empire than I did, and works in high tech in Seattle.

Richard Bradshaw logs in, as I requested, and I’m going to guess that Daphne and Luke are in the room with him. Not for me to call him on that.

Austin is last, of course, making us all wait five extra minutes for him to show up. He keeps his sunglasses on, which is exactly what I expect from him. He snaps his fingers at me with impatience to begin, as if I’m the one keeping him waiting. “Busy filming day here,” he says. “Chop, chop, Jake.”

“And that’s all of us,” I say before Austin can hijack the conversation to be sure we’re aware of his importance. “I invited you to this call to discuss the dispersion of our father’s estate. As you likely all know by now, this task is complicated by the fact that there is no cash. The bank accounts are empty. Pretty much everything is mortgaged and leveraged to the max, so we have a lot of debt to service. From first glance, it appears that none of us will have any legacy, despite what the will says.”

I do see Candace take a big gulp of her beverage of choice. The others are very still. “The one asset is our father’s real estate collection, the vast majority of which is located in Empire. That diminishes its value, and we could argue about how much of an asset it actually is, given that property taxes etc. still have to be paid on those holdings. But I think it offers a promising possibility to create some legacy and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.”

I clear my throat, even though they are silent. “The will specifies that a certain sum will be paid to each of Patrick’s children, and that the sum is the same amount for his listed children. This list does not include all of his children, as he has specifically excluded Luke Jones from the list. He has included Grayson Knowles, Candace’s son by her first marriage, who was not biologically his child but raised within the family. The remainder of our father’s estate was intended for his wife, Candace, along with the family home.”

I wait for questions but there are none.

I have their undivided attention, which is better than anticipated. I thought I’d be challenged early, but sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

“The challenge for me as executor is that the actual instructions of the will cannot be followed because of the lack of funds in our father’s accounts when he passed away. The house, for example, is on the cusp of foreclosure, which means it cannot be deeded to Candace, at least not for long. I would like to suggest an option to you that maintains the spirit of the will. I have to give credit for this idea to Luke Jones, who suggested to me that Abbie might like her grandmother’s house either as a legacy or as the result of him purchasing it for her from the estate. After some discussion with Richard Bradshaw, I have come up with an alternative that is fair to everyone, I think. Paula duBois, a real estate agent here in Havelock, has created an exhaustive record of our father’s real estate holdings, such as they are, and assigned each an asking price based upon her knowledge of the market. Most are empty. Most are in Empire. All are in need of maintenance and repair, but they are assets and they do have some value.”

I pull up a display on my computer and share it with them. “Paula’s database includes the specifications for each property. I gave her access so she could photograph them as well, a huge job that has been completed in the past month. My plan has two parts. The intention is that the portfolio of properties can be sold in the hope that the resulting revenue is sufficient to allow Candace to remain in the house, thus fulfilling that stipulation of the will. It will depend upon how quickly the properties sell. The other part of my plan is that each of us, being the listed children with a legacy, should choose a property from the list first, and that would be our respective inheritance in lieu of the cash legacy stipulated.”

There is a murmur about this. They’re surprised.

“Each of us would have an amount that we can call a credit toward said acquisition. That amount is the same as the cash legacy we were supposed to have. Credit instead of cash, and credit that has to be used in a specific way, but still that’s better than nothing.”

There are nods of agreement at that, some more enthusiastic than others.

“What if I don’t want to live in Empire or own anything there?” Austin demands. He’s got to be the least dependent upon any legacy of all of us, given that he’s the star of a television show, but I don’t rise to his bait. (See? Sometimes I can be nice.)

“Then you can flip it. I don’t care what you do with your inheritance once you have it. My hope is just to give you a legacy.”

“But it’ll be in Empire and we know that market isn’t exactly on fire,” Austin says.

“I can’t help that. Our father bought what he bought, and it’s all I have to work with.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Abbie says. “I think we should give Jake credit for figuring out a solution.”

“Me, too,” Grayson contributes, again to my surprise. “Let’s hear him out before we start to pick things apart.”

Ah, yes, that’s the part I’m dreading.

“The plan is this,” I continue. “You get access to the database and essentially shop it, choosing the property you want. You can apply your credit against the purchase price. If the property you choose has a price higher than the credit from the estate, you will have to arrange for a mortgage or other financing to pay the rest. Remember that the last property tax payment is due in December in Empire, so that will be your responsibility, as well. I would like to have our choices made and the properties closed by December 1, then the rest of the portfolio can be listed for sale through Paula’s agency. If you are planning to choose a property and flip it, sooner would be better. Empire will become a buyer’s market after December 1.”

“What if it’s less?” Ethan asks. “Will you pay the rest in cash?”

“No. There is no cash,” I say flatly. It’s clear he isn’t listening – he thinks I’m lying. Neither possibility improves my mood. “There must be a couple of rules. One: there is no negotiation over the listing price. Take it or leave it. Paula has put her experience to work and the number is the number. Two: as just mentioned, there is no change back from your legacy. If you choose a property that has an asking price that is less than the credit, that’s how it goes. I won’t be paying you the difference because I can’t. Third, we have some admin choices to make but I’ll get to that in a second.”