Page 39 of Overnight Inheritance

He took a sip of wine as he thought. “To be honest, I think it would still be the same. I like the world of property development. I like seeing evidence of what I’ve achieved, and helping to change the landscape of the city. I can’t even imagine myself not doing it.”

He did seem well suited to the work, and his staff respected and liked him. She took another sip of her wine. “Before I can do good in the world, though, I still want to do something for my mother’s family, especially my grandparents. It just seems wrong that they suffered so much from my father harassing them and losing their daughter. His money shoulddosomething for them.”

He shrugged. “When I met them, they were pretty adamant about letting you and Heath keep the money.”

“Which is why I need a plan.” She and Heath were in one-hundred-percent agreement that the O’Donohue family deserved a share of the money; the only question was finding a way to give it to them that they’d willingly accept.

“As a father,” Sebastian said, glancing at the baby monitor, “I think about Alfie’s future more than my own now, and money is framed that way in my mind, like I’m thinking a few steps ahead. So maybe you could talk to your grandparents about setting up college funds or trust funds for the grandchildren. That moves money into their family, while bypassing their concerns about the adults profiting.”

The beauty of the idea unfurled in her imagination. “You know, I think that would work. You are a genius, Sebastian.”

“Another compliment,” he said, raising his glass to her. “We are definitely coming back here every weekend.”

“I could get on board with that,” she said, leaning back to look at the twinkling stars. It was such an amazing place that she could imagine spending a lot of time here. “I’ve been thinking more about the company Heath and I own that my grandparents and uncles work for.”

“I remember it. We tried to offer them paid consultancies and they outright rejected the offer.”

Her grandparents had been far more curious about Sebastian and his connection to her than they had been about the offer. “What if we broke up the company? I was reading some stories where employees banded together to buy the company they worked for. What if we combined that idea with that thing some businesses do where they hand out stocks as bonuses?”

“You want to give the employees stock bonuses that will total the entire capital of the company?” he said, his voice full of amused wonder.

“Pretty much. Maybe offer 5 percent of stock to each of twenty long-term employees, which would of course include my grandparents and uncles, and those twenty become like a co-op, and run it together. If it’s treated like a bonus and goes to other staff as well, then it’s all aboveboard and my grandparents would still have the option of giving their shares away to other employees if they didn’t want them.” She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since she’d found the stories online. “What do you think—is it doable?”

Sebastian set his arms wide on the arms of his chair. “I think, Mae, that your mind is an amazing thing, and that your idea has some interesting possibilities that we will discuss. Tomorrow. But right now, I think you should come over here and join me on this chair.” He was smiling; she could hear it in his voice.

“Why would I do that when I have a perfectly good one over here?” she said in a breathy voice, all faux cluelessness.

“This one has me,” he said simply, but with certainty.

Laughing, she stood, finished the wine and then deposited the glass on the small table. “You might need to scootch over a bit so I have some room.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” he said, snagging her hand and drawing her down on top of him. “Sharing this chair is a contact sport. Full-body contact, to be precise.”

She stretched out against him. “I think I can live with that,” she said and kissed him.

Ten

Just over two weeks later, Mae let herself into Sarah’s apartment, feeling pretty pleased with herself. With Heath’s blessing, she and one of the lawyers had set up generous funds for each of her cousins that could be used for education or other purposes their grandparents approved. Her mother’s parents had finally been happy with a money-related plan when she’d explained that it was for their grandchildren. She still had plans to distribute the company’s stock with them as well, but she was taking it one step at a time. Once her family’s needs had been squared away, she’d turned her attention to finding a solution for Larry Sheridan, and this morning, the pieces had finally fallen into place.

She found Heath and Sarah at the table in the formal dining room, documents spread across its entire surface.

“I’d really like Freya’s take on this one,” Sarah said.

Heath glanced up. “She said she’ll meet me here after work, so we can get her to look at it then. I never thought having a forensic accountant in the family would come in so handy.”

Mae dropped her bag on a small table nearby, and Sarah looked up, saw her, and smiled.

“You were out early this morning,” her aunt said. “Gone before I even made it to breakfast.”

“There were a couple of last-minute things I wanted to check out or clear with people before I present my plan to you both.”

Heath sat back. “That sounds intriguing. And vaguely alarming.”

Mae slid into a chair across from them and squared her shoulders. “Our charitable trust was set up as a tax write-off, and historically, it just donates minimal amounts to established organizations. I’d like to change that so that we take on projects of our own as well.”

“Like what?” Sarah asked, tapping a pen against the papers under her hands.

Mae bit down a grin and tried to appear like a serious businesswoman for her pitch. “There’s an old house in Brooklyn that’s on the market. The owner is Larry Sheridan, and he originally bought the house when he married and lived there with his wife and raised a family. Now he’s widowed and retired and needs to downsize, but wants his house to somehow do good for his neighborhood. I spent some time talking to him and a few of his neighbors, and I think this would be a perfect opportunity for us to do something good.”

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