The High Price of Secrets

She closed the last letter with the name of the legal firm in Auckland that oversaw her and Ethan’s inheritance.

Tamsyn struggled to her feet, easing the stiffness out of her muscles as she walked toward Lorenzo, who rose to greet her.

“We don’t need the land, Lorenzo,” she said after explaining what Ellen had done. “It should be yours. We already have far more than we need at home, you especially should know that.”

“I do know that. I worked for your family for many years and I know what your family land means to you all. This is why you should know what this meant to Ellen to give you something that is purely yours, from her. You and your brother may do with it whatever you want, but remember, it was her only way of leaving you something of her. Think on it, and make your decision once you have talked to your brother, yes?”

Tamsyn nodded. “Okay.”

Back at the house, after everyone had gone, she gathered her things together for her flight away from here. Away from the pain, away from the memories, both good and bad. Finn waited at the door as she approached, a wrapped rectangle in his hands. She’d done her level best to avoid being alone with him since Ellen’s death and with her spending so much time with Alexis, it hadn’t been difficult. Finn, too, had been out of the house a lot—helping to coordinate the funeral as well as being a constant support for Lorenzo. Tamsyn had told herself she was relieved he hadn’t had the opportunity to wear down her shaky resolve to leave, but right now she felt so raw it was as if she was bleeding inside.

“Before you go, I’d like you to have this,” he said, handing her the parcel.

She looked at the bright Christmas wrappings and shook her head. “No, Finn. Please. Not a Christmas gift. We’re not…I can’t…”

“It’s yours, you have to take it.”

“Fine then,” she said, grabbing it from him and shoving it under her arm as she pushed past and carried on to her car.

She wouldn’t open the gift, she decided as she got into her car and, without a backward glance, drove down the hill toward the road that would take her to the airport.

* * *

Once she reached Auckland, she could have stayed with either of her cousins. Judd Wilson, who had grown up with her and Ethan at The Masters, lived in the city with his wife, Anna. So did Judd’s sister Nicole, who’d grown up in her father’s custody in New Zealand and who Tamsyn had only gotten to know in the past year, with her new husband, Nate. But the prospect of having to explain what she’d been through this past month or so was more than she could bear. The anonymity of a hotel was just what she needed and she’d been fortunate when a last-minute cancellation had secured her a room in one of Auckland’s most prestigious hotels.

The next morning Tamsyn checked with the airlines several times. Nothing was available, not even taking a more circuitous route through Sydney or Melbourne. It seemed everyone wanted to go to Australia for Christmas. To take her mind off the unsettled feeling that she’d left something vital behind in Marlborough, she phoned the lawyers her mother had mentioned in her letter. To her surprise, she was able to get an appointment immediately.

Later, sitting in a café on the waterfront, Tamsyn sipped a latte and let the news she’d just received sink in. She needed to talk to Ethan and dialed him up immediately.

“Have you got a flight yet?” he asked as he answered his phone. “We’re looking forward to having you back where you belong.”

Did she really belong there, back at The Masters? Sure, it was where she’d been brought up, but she had been restless, unsettled, for a long time. That feeling had begun to lift while she’d been in Marlborough, while she’d been with Finn. She stubbornly pushed that last thought aside before answering her brother.

“No luck with flights yet but I’m on the lists. Just keep your fingers crossed, okay? In the meantime, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What’s that?”

“Our mother. She left us property here in New Zealand. Apparently she had been putting the money Dad sent her into some land close to where she was living. Once she’d paid it off, the balance went into an account that’s been held in trust in both our names.”

“Seriously? She did that?”

“There’s more. She wrote us letters, lots of them. They explain everything.”

Tamsyn gave him the full rundown on the letters’ contents. There was a long pause before Ethan answered.

“And do you feel better about everything, about her, now?”

Did she? Had reading the letters brought her any closer to understanding, to making peace with the myriad of answers she’d sought?