Chapter 8 - THE LEGACY OF EVELYN COLLINS
A month later,
Beatrice Vance invited me to Evelyn’s favorite garden for tea.
It was a quiet place,
filled with the scent of lavender and old roses.
“You’ve done well,
Avery,”
Beatrice said,
pouring a cup of Earl Grey.
“The foundation is thriving.”
I had used a portion of the inheritance to set up a scholarship for women in business.
I called it the Evelyn Collins Grant.
“I think she would have liked that,”
I said.
“She knew what she was doing,”
Beatrice said,
leaning back.
“She knew Scott would fail the test.”
“She wanted to make sure her legacy went to someone who wouldn't waste it.”
I looked at the garden,
thinking of the cold,
precise woman who had corrected waiters.
She hadn't been mean.
She had just been demanding of the world.
She had demanded that things be right.
“Scott is working at a car rental desk,”
Beatrice mentioned.
“He’s living with his mother.”
I didn't feel joy at the news.
I just felt the finality of it.
Scott had been a passenger in his own life,
waiting for someone else to drive him to the destination.
Evelyn had just forced him to walk.
“Are you dating?”
Beatrice asked,
a twinkle in her eye.
“I’m dating my career,”
I said.
“And myself.”
“Good,”
she said.
“Self-reliance is the only true inheritance.”
I walked back to my car,
feeling the weight of the gold watch I had bought for myself.
It was a simple,
elegant piece.
It didn't need a cashmere sweater to look good.
I drove through the city,
passing the building where I had given the presentation.
I remembered the moment the phone rang.
I remembered the navy dress.
I remembered the cold clarity.
It had been the worst day of my marriage.
It had been the best day of my life.
I arrived at my penthouse and opened a bottle of wine.
I toasted the empty room.
“To growth,”
I said.
“To control.”
“And to Evelyn.”
The city hummed below me,
a symphony of millions of lives.
I was just one of them.
But for the first time,
I was the one in the center of the mattress.
May you like
I was the one who wrote the papers.
And I was the one who was never going back.
