Icing On The Cake

“In a word, yes. Possibly as much as a fifty-fifty share.”

“Share?” She tosses back her veil. Her face is flushed, her eyes tight, and her mouth thinned by anger. “You were Teddy’s attorney. Do something!”

Lionel says dryly, “Without evidence of the possibility of tampering, duress or diminished capacity on the part of the signer, a lawfully executed will should stand up in court, aside from the aforementioned widow’s portion.”

While watching her squirm has been fun, the last thing I need around my neck is another millstone business. “What if I refuse the bequest?”

Lionel leans back and steeples his fingers. “If I may, Mrs. Talbot, I would strongly caution you to consider every possible ramification for your long-term future. The Talbot estate is estimated to be worth in excess of fourteen million dollars.”

Now it’s my turn to gasp. “Fourteen mill-ion?”

Lionel picks up a bound folder. “This is a recently complied list of assets of Mr. Talbot’s estate.”

When I don’t reach for it Sarah whispers, “Know thy enemy, Mom.”

This feels like an invasion of privacy to which this Mrs. Talbot is no longer privileged. Scan it only for the essentials, I tell myself.

Okay, Talbot Advertising is estimated to be worth thirteen million. I knew Ted was doing well after the bobble in profit caused by my leaving the firm. But, this well? Jeez!

For one wild moment I envision myself rolling in a king-size bed full of crisp green dollar bills, feeling as flush as Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal.

The next, I feel the sting of a hundred paper cuts from those bills. This can’t possibly be real. No court is going to give me Ted’s company. The buzzing in my head is not, I realize, caused by evaporating euphoria but the next line of words swimming before my eyes.

“Well hell!” Ted had a second retirement fund the size of which my lawyer suspected but could never discover. Worth one point three million. Mental note to me: never hire cheap when it comes to divorce.

“A time-share in Vail?” I look up at my girls. “Did you know about this?”

They look off in different directions.

“That’s in my name,” she answers smugly, then leans in and whispers to one of her attorneys.

He nods then addresses Lionel. “The Vail property is in Mrs. Talbot’s name as sole proprietor.” He slips some paperwork onto Lionel’s desk. “In addition, you have before you paperwork to prove she is the sole owner of her house and its contents, two cars and a string of tanning salons.”

“What tanning salons?” I glance at her hard-body bronzed thighs with new understanding. That day with Celia at the tanning salon. Oh, no. That was her tanning salon!

She smirks. “Teddy said he wanted to invest his portion of the divorce settlement in something people could actually benefit from. So I suggested tanning salons.”

My vision blurs. So, Ted took his portion of the divorce and invested it for her?

“The hell he did!” I toss the papers as if they’d suddenly burst into flame. “He—I…the bastard! What kind of—of—?”

“Mom, you’re stuttering,” Sarah points out unhelpfully.

“Don’t let this weird you out, Mom,” Riley adds in solidarity.

I swing my head toward Riley but I can’t focus on her face. My eyeballs are jumping as if I have a tic in both at the same time. “I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”

When I’ve subsided into my chair Lionel says, “Mrs. Brandi Talbot claims the aforementioned items seem to be in order. Therefore, the estate mentioned in the will would seem to include only Talbot Advertising and Mr. Talbot’s retirement fund. His insurance has been left in trust to his daughters.”

“How much?” I ask this after a second’s hesitation because I know my girls are reluctant to.

“The insurance in is the amount of one million dollars to be held in trust until Ms. Sarah and Ms. Riley Talbot reach the age of twenty-five.”

“Holy shit!” Riley says this in an unusually subdued voice.

“I would suggest,” Lionel says, “that both Mrs. Elizabeth Talbot and Mrs. Brandi Talbot seek counsel, who will look for a solution that will keep this out of the courts.”

“You’re advising arbitration?” Sarah is taking notes. My daughters have assumed the sisterhood alternative to her suited sharks.

“It would behoove both parties to consider it.” Lionel is one cool customer. “A protracted legal battle will tie up assets on all sides for the foreseeable future. An equitable agreement reached before the will is filed for probate would greatly simplify matters.”

“Like hell!” She folds her arms under her rib cage, drawing attention to what money can buy. “My attorneys say I should fight this.”

The other man in black, who until now has been mostly silent, speaks. “There’s every possibility that there will be a second claimant against Mr. Talbot’s will.”

The hair on my head snaps to attention. Oh, that’s right! She and Ted…

My gaze tracks down her front to where her dress wraps like cellophane about her torso. It’s been two months since…could it be?

Unflappable Lionel says, “You have informed these offices of Mrs. Brandi Talbot’s potential for procreation.” Who, but an attorney, talks like this? “The real question is—”

“Are you pregnant?” Riley, who has been hunkered down in her chair like a military combatant, springs to her feet and approaches her. “Well, are you?”

She dips her head. “Possibly. It’s still too soon to know.” She lifts eyes swimming in tears. “It’s what your father wanted. We were talking about it the day—”

It’s a good performance. I am maybe the only one in the room who doesn’t believe for a second she’s pregnant. There are tests accurate to within days of conception. Yet I wouldn’t put it past her to do something sneaky underhanded drastic.

But that’s not the reason I suddenly feel threatened. I don’t want anything to do with any of this. I don’t need—who am I kidding? Who doesn’t need half of thirteen million? I need any piece of it I can get. No! What I need is to get out of here and think. Think? What’s there to think about? I won’t know until I get a chance to do it.

I rocket to my feet, little puffs of flour escaping the folds of my baker’s duds. “If you will excuse me I need to find the ladies’.”

“Me, too. Me, too,” my girls echo, popping up from their chairs.

“I’m going to sue. I can sue, right?” she asks as I head out the door.

Sweet as they are, I don’t need daughterly advice just now. I bypass the ladies’ and step into the elevator. Events of this magnitude require consult with a higher power.

As the door closes I hear my daughters, caught short on the other side of the closing door, chorus, “Mom? Where are you going?”

“To Olympus.”

Chapter 6

“Liz, darling! Isn’t this a nice surprise?” Sally busses both my cheeks. “But whatever are you doing here?”

She means how dare you, darling, show up at my apartment on the Upper East Side, and not telephone first. But, kiss, kiss, of course, I love you.

“I need to talk, Sally. Can I come in for a minute?”