Home / After Giving Up My Inheritance, I Finally Had a Family / Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

All Chapters of After Giving Up My Inheritance, I Finally Had a Family: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

When my mother Helen took my speech, half the guests had already arrived. Right in front of them, she fed the pages into the shredder. The machine hummed, and the five-year plan I had spent several sleepless nights writing turned into strips of white confetti."Lydia just called me," my mother said. "Julian's mother is in the hospital again, and they can barely make the payments on their apartment. If you announce tonight that you're transferring the Harbor Hotel to her, that will shut those people up.""Which people?""The ones waiting to see the Ashford family humiliated."I nearly laughed.Three years ago, over everyone's objections, Lydia had insisted on marrying Julian Mercer. Julian came from a working-class family in Ohio, had gotten through Yale on scholarships, and was now up for partner at an architecture firm in Boston. He was smart, presentable, ambitious, and genuinely good at what he did.But good is not the same as rich.Lydia had been taking private jets on vacation sin

Chapter 2

Just before the gala began, Lydia arrived late.She wore a couture gold gown worth roughly half a year of Julian's salary. My mother went to help her out of her coat. My father asked if she had been cold on the way. No one asked why I was so pale.Lydia saw the script in my hand and understood everything at once."Evelyn, I don't want your hotel," she said, even as she slipped her hand through my mother's arm. "Julian would feel humiliated.""Then don't take it," I said.Her smile froze.My mother glared at me at once. "Evelyn, she's only thinking of your feelings.""So am I." Lydia's eyes reddened. "I know Evelyn's always minded that Julian met her first. Now that my life is hard, she must be delighted."I looked at her. Three years of marriage hadn't matured her. It had only taught her to turn every disappointment into someone else's crime.Julian came in behind her, looking worn out. He said quietly, "I didn't know about the hotel. We won't take it."Lydia spun around. "Of course yo

Chapter 3

My father had security close the estate gates.He thought that as long as I couldn't leave, everything I had just done could be explained away as an heir's emotional outburst.After the guests left, we were kept in the breakfast room. My father slapped the renunciation down on the table, and the edge of the paper caught the back of my hand, leaving a thin red cut."Do you know how much money you've just given up?""The lawyer estimated it.""Two point seven billion dollars." He stared at me. "Don't try to scare us with childish tricks. You're not capable of living an ordinary life."I almost thought I'd misheard.All these years, I was the one reading operations reports at six every morning, the one rushing out in a blizzard when the hotel's pipes burst, the one who negotiated financing from three banks on my father's behalf. In his eyes, I was still just the daughter who couldn't live without the family credit card.My mother softened her voice. "We admit we overlooked your feelings t

Chapter 4

Bell Harbor had no airport and no five-star hotel.It took two bus transfers to get there. November sea fog wrapped the little town, and the wooden houses along the road glowed with dim yellow light. My heels caught in the gaps between the flagstones, and one wheel on my suitcase broke.When I dragged the suitcase to the door of the Tide Inn, a man was standing on a ladder fixing the sign.He wore an old denim jacket, the cuffs spotted with white paint. When he saw me, he jumped down from the ladder first, then looked at my shoes."Evelyn Ashford?""That's me.""Noah Reed. Ruth sent me to change the bulbs." He took my suitcase. "She also said you should have been here half an hour ago, so the fire's been fed twice already."No one blamed me for being late, and no one asked why I was in such a state.The inn was older than I remembered. Six guest rooms, two of them leaking, half the kitchen oven dead, and the books showing three straight years of losses.Ruth handed me the keys and held

Chapter 5

Three months after I left, my father finally called in person.I hadn't answered the forty-seven calls before it. My mother's messages went from orders to accusations, and from accusations to pleading.You have shamed the entire family.The lawyer says the statement has taken effect. What is it you actually want?The Harbor Hotel hasn't been sold. We can talk.At least tell your mother you're safe.They remained convinced I was playing hard to get. The more completely I gave up, the higher they assumed my price was.This time I answered, because my father's voicemail said the inn in Ruth's name might be caught up in an old title dispute. I was afraid he would actually do something to this place."Come back." When the call connected, there was no greeting. "The board is willing to keep your seat. Your mother has also agreed to write the sapphire brooch into the supplementary agreement."I looked at the white curtain stirring in the sea wind."The brooch was always mine.""Evelyn, stop q

Chapter 6

After I refused to go back, Lydia formally took over the family foundation and the consumer division.Charles messaged me now and then. He no longer accused me. He just reported the changes at home the way you'd report the weather.Lydia had founded a high-end members' club called Lydia's House.My father approved her first ten million dollars.She signed properties in Manhattan, Miami, and Los Angeles all at once.The auditors said the cash flow was a problem, so she fired her CFO.I had read the business plan. Lavish renovations, lifetime membership rebates, celebrity endorsements, and free private jet transfers. Every line burned money. Under normal circumstances, the board would have halted the project before the second funding round.But Lydia cried and said everyone looked down on her because she wasn't me.So my mother mortgaged the New York townhouse, my father guaranteed the loan in the group's name, and Charles put in the pension fund he managed.They had finally put away all

Chapter 7

Lydia's House collapsed in the winter of its third year.First the press revealed that she had used pre-sold membership fees to buy a yacht and jewelry. Then the banks discovered that occupancy at three locations had been double-counted. Investors pulled out, suppliers sued, and the loans all came due at once.To cover her losses, my father sold the family collection and mortgaged the ancestral house. My mother still believed that if Lydia were given one more chance, she could turn it around.Lydia, meanwhile, chartered a private jet to St. Barts.Under the photo she wrote: A woman should never lower her standard of living for other people's incompetence.That photo was the last straw for the Ashford name.The banks took over the holding company, the charitable foundation was frozen by regulators, and the estate went into auction. The Ashford family, which had once graced the society pages, lost most of its assets in six months.When Charles called me, his voice sounded ten years older

Chapter 8

Noah and I were married in the backyard of the Tide Inn.No press, no crystal chandeliers, and not a single guest who had to show a family invitation. Ruth baked three lemon cakes, Margaret cut every hydrangea in her garden, and the town's children scattered the petals, half of which the wind carried into the sea.My parents and Charles all came.My mother wore a plain blue dress with nothing at her collar. Before the ceremony, she handed me a small box.Inside was my grandmother's sapphire brooch."It was always yours," she said. "Not compensation, and not a trade."I pinned the brooch to the ribbon of my bouquet.It didn't mean the past was erased. It only meant I was willing to let my grandmother's blessing appear in my new life.My father didn't ask to walk me in. He stood in the last row, like a guest who had finally learned to respect a boundary.I walked toward Noah on Ruth's arm.She whispered, "Nervous?""No."I had never been so sure of where I was going.In his vows, Noah sa

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP