Page 25 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

Taylor had taken Ivy with her to the reading of the will.

She didn’t want to be here, and didn’t care who knew it.

The attorney was an older man who looked like he’d rather be anyplace else but with her, too.

She supposed it didn’t help that she’d been sniping at him since she’d arrived.

She had better things to do other than to sit around hearing from people that she didn’t know or care enough about her to get to know her.

As soon as the man, she’d forgotten his name twice now, got down to business, she understood a little more about what was going on with her mother, too.

“They wanted me to explain a few things to you, please, before we begin. They were an older couple when they had Gilda Jane. In their late forties by then, and they didn’t expect to have any children of their own.

You might say that they were, at the beginning very happy to have a healthy little girl to see them into their golden age.

” He cleared his throat before moving on.

“Not to say that she did anything for her when she got older, but to make their lives a living hell. The child that she became was much worse than the adult that she eventually became.”

“I don’t understand. I was told that they pampered her every need, and that’s why she was like she was.

Thinking that the world revolved only because she was in it.

” He said that they had, but there was more.

“More what then? I mean, they were feeling guilty about making her marry my dad, given the way that she was. What else could it be?”

“She killed two people by the time she was a teenager.” She didn’t know what to expect, but that would have been low on her list if at all.

“They had to pay for her not to go to prison, and that was just the beginning of the trouble they had with her. They were forever paying to get her out of one thing or another. Millions of dollars were spent on getting her out of one thing or the next. In addition to the two deaths, there were numerous lawsuits brought against her because she didn’t like not being the center of attention. As you well know about.”

“She killed two people because she couldn’t—why wasn’t she in prison?

I mean, most people would be because they killed someone.

” He said it was her mental capacity. “I still don’t understand.

Perhaps you should start at the beginning.

That way, I can understand what she was about when she murdered two people and didn’t spend any time in jail for. ”

“When she was born, she wasn’t very healthy.

They pampered her too much, even I saw that, but they were loving, too.

They didn’t just give her everything that she wanted, but they were able to afford to give her things just to keep her in line, too.

A pony had been her third birthday gift.

Then, when she was sixteen, they bought her a car.

Things that most parents with a little bit of funding do for their kids.

” She nodded, waiting for him to get to the part where they left her in her father’s care.

“They never wanted her to marry and had even told your father that he shouldn’t marry her.

But they needed out. They were getting too old to handle her temper tantrums all the time.

They even warned him not to have children with her. ”

“He never told my grandma that part. He said that they just got her married off to him and left him trying to get her to behave.” He said there was much more than that to the entire story.

“I’m assuming so now. Why did he want her to have a child when he’d been warned and probably lived with her for a time, knowing what she was like? ”

“He told her that once the child was born, he’d take care of everything.

He thought, and I can understand why he’d think this, that if she had someone who was dependent on her, she’d be less selfish about her own needs.

She only got worse.” It seemed to her that he was jumping all over the place when she simply wanted to understand what had happened.

Asking him to start at the first part again, he nodded and handed her a file that had several sheets of paper in it.

Taylor handed it off to Ivy so that she could get the man in gear to tell her what had happened.

“A man that she had seen in the grocery store told her to behave herself, that she was making a scene. She didn’t like to be told no, as you well know, and she picked up a can of something and beat him nearly to death with it.

He died later at the hospital. That was the first time that your grandparents paid for something that she’d done.

They had her put into an asylum then, but she didn’t last but a few days; they’d had enough of her and had them come and get her.

The next time wasn’t as bad, but the child that she’d been wanting to play with had wanted to go home, and she didn’t want that.

Gilda Jane killed him by pushing him into oncoming traffic, which resulted in the second time they had to pay.

” She didn’t know what to think. Her mother was a murderer?

This wasn’t right. She should have been in prison—

“That’s why she tells people that she’s going to kill them.

She’d gotten away with it twice as a child, and she thought that someone would just pay off whatever she’d done, and that’s why she thought that I should just give her money.

To shut people up.” Taylor leaned back in her chair.

“She really is a monster. And they knew it when they got her to marry my dad.”

“Your father knew too. He was given a contract to sign telling him of all her misdeeds and horrific childhood.” He handed her another file, and she again handed it off to Ivy.

“I don’t know the mind of your father, Mrs. Tucker, but I do know that he was well aware of things that had gone on before he’d married her.

I don’t know if he thought that he could change her or what, but he had a complete understanding of what kind of person she was before he wed her. ”

“Then I’m more confused than ever. It was said that she killed him off at a young age because of her demands on his life.

That can’t be true if he had knowledge of her before they were wed.

” He said that the only thing that came to mind was that he thought that he could change her somehow.

“So he goes into their marriage with his eyes wide open and his heart thinking that he’s better at changing someone with a mental disability like she had and thought that he could change her when nothing else worked.

I’m assuming that there had been doctors’ appointments with professionals, too. ”

“More than a dozen. When it was obvious that nothing was going to work, they gave up, gave her what she wanted, and when your father came along to marry her, they made sure that he knew what he was getting into. After the wedding, your grandparents hid from your father more than they did their daughter simply because they thought that he’d divorce her after a time and they’d be stuck with her again.

” Taylor didn’t know what to think, so she just sat there.

Of course, he could tell her anything that he wanted, and there was no one to dispute his word, but the contract that her father had signed was proof that he knew something was going on with her mom.

“Are you ready to hear what else they left you? I know that they knew that your father had died and that you were born. They kept close tabs on you, too. Knowing that you had your great-grandmother around soothed them in some ways.”

“Soothed them? Who was there to soothe me when she was demanding all my time? Who was there for me when she told me that she’d kill a child that I had simply because she wanted all the attention on herself?

No one was there.” Ivy simply put her hand on her arm, and she calmed down a bit.

“I don’t know that I want to know what they left me.

The money to me was dirty enough. But this?

This feels like they’re trying to buy me off with the will and whatever it says. ”

“I would imagine that’s exactly what they’re doing.

” She was startled by his saying that and stared at him.

“They had no qualms about telling people what they’d done.

In fact, they were shunned in most places they lived because they’d abandoned you in fear of their daughter.

When they approached my firm with wanting to get their will taken care of, they were turned away at first. Then, of course, there was the money involved.

The firm that I worked for was forever doing things because of the money involved in things.

So your grandparents were no different in wanting things taken care of so that they could die without any fears of being guilty of any of their past deeds.

I almost didn’t want to do it myself, but I was given a bonus just to do it. ”

“I’m sorry.” She was, too. None of this was his fault.

She was thinking that her best move would be to let him read the will and take what was given to her and move on.

Just because it had been something they wanted her to have, she didn’t have to take it.

She could do just what she’d done with the money, give it away and not have to worry about it again.

“If you’d not mind reading the will, I can leave you to the rest of your day and whatever you have planned. ”