About a half and hour later, Lou stepped back onto the street. How can I be pregnant! God, I’m not even with Kid anymore and I can’t go running back to him just because I’m having his baby. He doesn’t love me and he proved that by asking Samantha to stay on in town. What kind of a life is in store for this child!
Lou limply collapsed onto someone’s porch swing. She was sitting there crying when a man came over to her.
“Excuse me, Miss Louise McCloud?” Lou nodded and he continued. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I have some good news for you.”
“I could use some good news right now, sir.”
“Well, Mr. Kay came into my office earlier this morning and put your name in his will.”
“He did what?”
“He’s named you as sole recipient of his estate and all his worldly goods.”
Lou just stared at the man.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably and continued, “He left you all his money, his estate in New York City, his horse ranch and everything on it.”
When Lou didn’t say anything he said, “Ma’am, you just have to come to my office, sign some papers and it’s all yours.”
Lou just nodded. She couldn’t’ believe that someone who she had known for so short a time, could have cared enough to bequeath all his worldly goods to her.
“Do you want me to come sign the papers now?”
“That would be fine, Miss McCloud.”
Lou stayed in St. Joe for a few days after the shooting and took care of the arrangements for Jonathan’s funeral. He was buried on a Tuesday. Lou read the eulogy at his funeral service:
“I only knew Jonathan Kay for a couple of days and, yet, he managed to change my life. He was a kind, generous gentleman, who had a lot of guilt to carry around with him. In the end, I hope he managed to forgive himself. He taught me a lot about myself and about how it doesn’t matter who you are, but what you are that counts. He made the ultimate sacrifice for me. He saved my life and I’m going to live every day to the fullest to get the most out of his gift. I thank him and I loved him. Thank you and good-bye, Jonathan.”
Lou left St. Joseph’s the day after the funeral and continued on with her plans to visit her brother and sister. The visit went well. Lou and her brother had a long talk one night and reconciled their differences. Her brother was finally getting old enough to appreciate and understand the choice that she had made for them. Lou didn’t tell them about the ranch that she now owned. She knew that she couldn’t tell her brother and sister about her newfound wealth or her pregnancy, before she took care of some other business first.
On to Chapter Eleven
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