A Fortune to Die For (White Oak - Mafia Series Book 1) (7 page)

Helen nodded. “I considered just giving her the land, but her father would have made her life hell if I did. Your solution is perfect. She won’t own the land, so there’s no reason to torture her, but the state gets the best possible manager for these woods at no cost to them. And Tess gets her dream job.” She blotted her eyes with a tissue from her pocket. “I am so glad I found you.”

“I am too,” Meg admitted.

“So let me call Jonas, my lawyer, and have him write up a contract to sell you my land.”

“I came with a contract. I only need to change the dollar amount, and then I can email it to your lawyer. He can make revisions on it and send them back to my guy. That will speed matters up.”

Helen smiled and stood. “I’ll call Jonas and let him know you’ll be sending him an email.” Her spryness had returned as she left the room with a lilt in her step.

Meg corrected the amount and notified her lawyer, David, informing him of the change, and gave him Helen’s lawyer’s number so they could work out any details.

After a quick knock on the door, Tess eased in and closed the door behind her. “What did you say to Grams? Uncle Jeffrey got her so upset I was ready to call her doctor, and now she’s happier than I’ve seen her in a long while.”

“Sit down. Since you are a big part of my proposal, you’ll need to agree to it before I start pushing this through bureaucracy hell.”

Tess’s eyes rounded as she sat on the bed.

“Helen is going to sell her lands to me for a hundred and thirty million dollars.”

Tess frowned and raised her hand. “Two concerns—it’s worth much more, and where will you get the money?”

“I am paying Helen the amount she asked. And I have sufficient funds to buy and then give it to the state under two conditions. It remains as a state park for perpetuity, and until you graduate with your degree, you will be hired each summer as the assistant to the Forest Manager, and upon graduation, you will be promoted to Forest Manager, a job which you will retain as long as you wish.”

“No way!” Tess yelled with happiness and catapulted herself from the bed. Then she came to a complete halt, turned, her expression sober, and reclaimed her seat. “What if they want your land but refuse to take me.”

“Then they’ll have to risk losing the lands entirely. However, once they see the current condition of these trails presently under your care, I cannot imagine them doing so.”

Tess wrapped her arms around Meg. “No wonder Grams is so happy! This is perfect!” Then she suddenly released Meg. “Where is Grams going to go?”

“She’s staying here. And when she dies, the house becomes yours.”

Tess stared at her. “Are you some sort of guardian angel? Because you’ve just made all my dreams come true.”

For the first time in four years, Meg felt good about winning the lottery.

Tess, Helen, and Meg sat in the living room with its grand glass wall, securing the future of the trees before them. A speakerphone rested on the coffee table. The craggy old voice of Helen’s lawyer, Jonas Dunkin, came through it as he reviewed every page of the contract. The only thing he challenged was the price. When Helen informed him it was her number, he declared he had no other objections and would drive up right away to get it signed.

A few hours later, a short, stout old man with bushy white hair and a pretty, young assistant, Amy, arrived for the signing.

“Tess and Amy will sign as witnesses,” Jonas explained, as they sat around the coffee table.

Helen shook her head. “I don’t want Tess involved. The family will skin her alive.”

Jonas groaned and covered his face with his withered, old hands. Finally, he looked up at Helen. “I wish you would have mentioned you didn’t want her signing while we were on the phone because the contract requires two witnesses.”

Helen laughed and patted his leg. “I know. It’s why I called down and asked for more groceries.”

A red light bulb turned on at the hall door. “That should be our second signer. I’ll go get him.”

She soon returned with Andy, and both copies of the documents were signed, witnessed, and notarized by the assistant.

Jonas handed one copy to Meg with a stern glare. “If you need any extra help getting your plans for this land accepted by the state officials, let me know. I have connections.”

Meg laughed. “In that case, I would like to hire you to help me.”

Helen gripped his arm. “Before you say you aren’t taking new clients, I’m firing you, so you have an opening.”

“The hell you are. You’ve opened a can of worms with this sale, as you are well aware. You’ll probably be occupying half my time for the next year. Therefore, I cannot take Miss Williams on as a client.” He then looked at Meg. “But I will give you the name of a lawyer with better connections and who has successfully helped a client donate their land to the state.”

“I would greatly appreciate that,” Meg said.

He opened his leather case and pulled out a paper list of contacts. He wrote a name and number on the back of his card and handed it to Meg. “Let him know I referred you.”

His glare moved to Tess and Andy. “Now, neither of you are to say anything about this contract to anyone. Do I make myself clear?”

Their heads bobbed in unison.

Finally, he focused on Helen. “I’m having dinner with Judge Hathworth tomorrow, and you are coming as my date.”

Helen’s eyebrows rose in challenge.

He huffed and looked at Andy. “I imagine you have things to do.”

Andy gulped, as if terrified of Jonas, and escaped with haste.

Jonas then asked his assistant to wait in the car. However, when he stared at Tess, she crossed her arms. “I’m staying.”

“I was about to say you two and Helen should hear about some of the potential problems that may result from this transaction.”

Both Tess and Meg sat at once. “What problems?” Meg asked, annoyed he wouldn’t have discussed all issues
before
she signed the contract.

Helen refused to sit. Instead, she put her groceries away and started lunch.

“First of all, the sale is almost certainly to be contested.”

“Can they do that?” Tess challenged. “It’s Gram’s property. Why should anyone else have a say?”

“They will claim she is old and has lost the ability to make decisions and insist Miss Williams manipulated her into entering a contract Helen would not have signed if she were in her right mind.”

“But none of that is true!” Tess yelled.

“Well, I
am
old,” Helen said as she placed fresh fish on her kitchen grill.

“That is why Helen is going to accompany me to dinner tomorrow. The judge will make a very credible witness to Helen’s state of mind given he was a psychiatrist before he decided he could do more good as a judge.”

“Which he has,” Helen added.

“Will that be enough?” Meg asked.

“When Helen explains her reason for selling the property below market and the fact she sought you out, not the other way around, it will repudiate their claim of manipulation.”

Helen turned around. “Hold on, you can’t use my letter to Meg. She changed her identity, and all my research was done on her prior name. I don’t want any connection made between who she is and who she was.”

Jonas snorted and glared at Helen. “Name changes are not confidential government records. Anyone can find out who she was.”

Meg’s heart tightened in worry. Had she gone through all this effort for nothing? Was the curse going to cling to her for life? “Are you sure? The FBI assured me no one would connect me to my former self.”

His brow furrowed in a hundred wrinkles. “Your identity change was handled by the FBI?”

She nodded.

“Then there should be no trail. I thought you had merely submitted a name change to the clerk’s office of your state.”

Meg breathed out in relief.

“If you are under witness protection, then your handler should be notified of this contract before we go any further.”

“I’m not.”

His frown remained.

“Jonas, it’s not our business why Miss William had to change her name.”

“Then you don’t know either?” he challenged.

Helen placed a hand on her hip and waved her cooking fork with the other. “In fact, I do, but it doesn’t change my issue. You’re just being nosy.”

Jonas’s stern eyes focused on Meg. “I beg to differ with Helen. I can’t afford to be blindsided.”

Meg agreed. “I was getting death threats that the FBI judged to be credible. While they lacked the manpower to protect me or determine who sent them, they did help me change my identity.”

He still didn’t relax. “And were these death threats due to any crime you may have committed.”

“No!” Helen yelled before Meg could answer. “I probably know more about Meg than myself. She is honorable, honest, and hardworking. Which is why I sought her out to buy my land. And for your information, she is the one who came up with donating the land to the state to keep it safe forever and hiring Tess to manage it.”

Jonas held his hands up in surrender. “I withdraw the question.” He smiled at Meg. “And apologize.”

“You’re just looking after Helen,” Meg said.

“I try, but she doesn’t make it easy. Donating the land will take time, possibly a year, to execute. Still, if you begin the process immediately, it will convince the judge your motive is not to swindle Helen.”

“Which he would think if I bought and kept the woods, given she is selling the property to me at below market value.”

“Precisely.”

Meg smiled as she thought of another issue. “The stipulations protecting the trees from being cut down should also help since they lower the value of the property significantly. A developer wouldn’t have paid a dime with those restrictions in the contract.”

Jonas smiled. “Excellent point. And it proves Helen is as smart as she ever was.”

“Meg wrote the contract,” Helen said as she flipped the fish.

Meg shook her head. “I asked my lawyer to include the conditions Helen had stated in her letter to me. They take precedent until and unless the land is donated to the state to remain as a forest in perpetuity.”

“Do you mind if I claim Helen as the originator of that part.”

“Not at all, because she was.”

“Any chance you have the letter?” Jonas asked.

“Yes, but it’s addressed to my prior name.”

Helen glared at Jonas. “Move on old man.”

Jonas turned and faced Helen. “Will you, at least, be willing to confide with the judge tomorrow why you prioritize your trees over your children and grandchildren, including this nonsense Jeffrey has gotten into?”

She huffed. “I don’t see how it’s his damn business.”

“Because he will either rule on your competency case or, if he recuses himself, he will be the best witness we can get.”

“But what if he gets Jeffrey’s fraud case?”

“I’m hoping we can get the matter settled with no charges filed. Once the developer realizes the land is gone, then his best option will be to accept the amount he loaned Jeffrey.”

Meg doubted he’d take so little. “He’ll probably want more since he’ll know the amount you received from the record of the sale. He may ask for it all.”

Helen snorted.

Jonas held his hand up. “The developer knows Helen’s recalcitrant nature. Our best offer will be the loan amount plus a five percent interest. If he refuses to settle, then I’ll advise him to sue Jeff and see what he can get.”

Meg smiled. “So he can be reasonable, or get nothing but the satisfaction of seeing Jeffrey in jail. Which he probably won’t do if he and Jeffrey are friends.”

Helen laughed. “How did you figure that out?”

“Because no sane person would have loaned anyone but a friend so much money without verifying this land was irrevocably the property of the borrower.” She paused. “To be honest, this has the markings of an attempt to swindle you, Helen.”

Helen glanced at Jonas. “She’s a smart one. She doesn’t even know Jeffrey.”

Jonas smiled at her. “I’m impressed again, Miss Williams. We do in fact believe this is a scheme to force Helen to sell her land to the developer. And since he would hold all the cards, he’d no doubt lowball the price he’d pay. My guess is Jeffrey expects to get a substantial kickback beyond the relinquishment of his outstanding loan of sixty million dollars.”

Meg nodded. “If razed to the ground, they’d be looking at billions from the property.”

A faint smile came to Jonas. “I didn’t think you knew the potential value of these woods, but clearly you did. Yet still, you wrote the contract in such a way to make the land nearly worthless.”

“I’ll speak for the trees on this matter,” Tess said. “They think the contract is priceless.”

“Lunch is ready.” Helen placed a platter of grilled salmon, broccoli, tomatoes, and brown rice on the counter. She then walked behind Tess already seated at the counter and kissed her on her head. “I love you so much.”

Tess smiled up at her. “I love you more.”

Helen playfully smacked her forehead. “Do not.”

“Do, too.”

Jonas stood and frowned when Helen set out a fourth plate. “Not going on a date unless you have lunch with me,” she warned.

“But my assistant is waiting in the car.”

“Tess, go get the poor girl. She’s probably half-starved and in need of a bathroom.”

Tess hurried off and soon returned with the young woman who went to Jonas and whispered in his ear before sitting down.

Jonas smiled at Meg. “May I ask when you had time to wire the money?”

“I sent it the moment you said the contract was good.”

He shook his head. “Now, that was foolish. It is not uncommon for the opposing lawyer to throw in all sorts of nonsense right up to the signing, especially if they know the money has already been sent.”

Helen focused on Meg. “I appreciate your trust in me, but what you did was reckless.”

Normally, Megan hated to be scolded, but in this case, she’d earned it. “I never have before and probably never will again, but I knew without a doubt that I could this time. Even if Jonas had been the shifty type, you would have held him to your word.”

Jonas lifted his glass to her and then winked at Helen. “She would, too.”

“All right, you were spot on this time. But don’t ever do it again.” Helen sobered. “I might not be around in the future to make Jonas behave, and he’s a wily old bird.”

Jonas rubbed his furrowed brow and stared out the wall of windows.

Knowing why Helen might not be around, Meg had to excuse herself to the bathroom before she burst into tears. The thought of such a fabulous woman dying was too much to bear.