Jane watched Prett spread grape preserves on his slice of toast. They had a rare moment alone, for his brothers hadn't yet come to breakfast.

Questions swirled in her brain and one popped out before she could stuff it back down. "Did you know Vivian Montgomery?"

Prett raised his eyes, his knife hovering a couple inches above his toast. "Vivian Montgomery?"

Jane couldn't read his expression. Confusion? Curiosity? Suspicion? She regretted opening her mouth without thinking. Again.

That wasn't true though. She'd thought about it. She'd spent the last two days thinking about it. And hadn't come up with a single scenario that didn't end with her appearing greedy. Sure, Vivian Montgomery had intended the money as a gift. But was Jane still entitled to it? After twelve long years? Surely someone would have tried to contact her before now if she was. But no one ever had.

Still, why was Prett writing checks on the dead woman's account? Was Genevieve involved with Westfall-Montgomery, LLC? How could that be? And why had Vivian Montgomery sent the money to Jane in the first place?

If only Aunt Evie's dementia hadn't manifested itself in paranoia. If only Jane had sorted through Evie's belongings when the latter entered the nursing home instead of shoving it all into storage. If only a decade hadn't passed with the letter lying in a box, unopened and unread. If only Vivian hadn't died and her bank account closed. If only...

If only I didn't have a habit of blurting my thoughts.

Prett continued to stare at her. Waiting for her to speak.

"I noticed that—it's just—you wrote me a check from Westfall-Montgomery, LLC, and that's who I was looking for. Vivian Montgomery, I mean. She—um—she knew my grandmother. That's why I came to Nebraska. To find her."

Prett leaned back in the bar stool with apparent astonishment, his eyes never leaving her face. "Vivian Montgomery?"

"Yeah. I know she's dead. I saw her gravestone at the cemetery. I was just wondering...if you knew her."

Prett shook his head as if to clear it. He looked at this toast. "Not well." He focused on her again, his brow furrowed. "Why were you trying to find her?"

"She wrote me after my parents died, saying she'd known my Grandma Jane. Only Aunt Evie hid the letter, and I didn't find it until I sorted her things. Just a few months ago. That's why I never knew about it. Or Vivian. I thought maybe if she knew my grandmother, she might know if..." Jane looked down at her cereal, holding back tears and feeling a familiar ache in her chest. "If I have any other family."

Prett gave a short nod, but said nothing. Val entered the kitchen, followed soon after by Danny. Prett spent the remainder of the morning ignoring Jane, which further convinced her he knew everything and thought her a money-grubbing gold digger.

I never should've opened my mouth.

After church they ate lunch at Genevieve's. When she stood to help Cadence and Holly clear the table, Prett stopped her.

"Miss Jane here was asking about Vivian Montgomery," he said to Genevieve. "Seems Vivian knew Jane's grandma."

Genevieve's face lit up. "Is that so, dear?"

"Wh—uh...I...Vivian wrote me a letter—"

"Of course she did! Vivian loved writing letters. Such beautiful penmanship."

"Vivian Montgomery was GiGi's sister-in-law," Prett said to Jane. "She can tell you all about her."

***

"Close the doors, dear. Close the doors." Genevieve maneuvered her wheelchair beside the desk in her office while Jane shut the French doors, leaving Prett to scowl on the other side of the panes.

In an instant Genevieve had switched from delight in talking about her sister-in-law to agitation. She had been curious to see Vivian's letter, but the moment Jane produced it from her wallet, Genevieve insisted they retreat to her office and exclude the others from their conversation. "The rest of you don't need to hear an old woman ramble about her past," she had said.

Prett followed the two women, but Genevieve shooed him away, and now Jane was literally shutting him out. She shrugged in perplexed sympathy to him before pulling up the chair Genevieve directed.

"Now, dear," Genevieve said, "is this the letter?"

Jane nodded and placed it into Genevieve's tremorous hands. The elderly woman held it close to her eyes, studying the peach pastel stationery.

Then she handed it back, saying, "My eyes are too bad. You read it to me."

The quivery handwriting was difficult to decipher, but Jane had read it many times searching for clues that eluded her. She knew it by heart.

February 28, 2001

Dear Miss Johnson,

I wish to extend my deepest sympathies on the deaths of your parents last month. I did not know them personally, but upon reading their obituary I discovered your grandmother was formerly Jane Aden. Long ago she extended me a great favor. I was never able to thank her properly. Please accept the enclosed on her behalf. It cannot replace your horrible loss, but perhaps it will help with your future. If I can be of further assistance, don't hesitate to contact me.

My best wishes to you,

Viv Montgomery

By the time Jane finished, Genevieve had pulled out the handkerchief she kept tucked in her sleeve. She dabbed her eyes then took Jane's hand, patting it.

 "Jane Elizabeth. When you've lived as long as I have, you see the past always catches up to the present. We can outrun it for a time, but we can never truly escape. If it doesn't come back in our lifetime, it does in our children's. Or our grandchildren's." She squeezed Jane's hand. "We have to turn and face it head-on if we want peace in our hearts."

"I'm not sure—"

"My, my! To think you're Jane Aden's granddaughter! You don't resemble her a bit."

"You knew her?"

"Of course! Her sister Catherine married my father.""

What?!" Jane pulled her hand away in shock.

"Oh, the marriage didn't last. Catherine was so young. Just fifteen. And my father so cruel..."

Jane stared at her, her mouth open.

"Jane came to help Catherine through her pregnancy and never left. Lands! Never were two sisters so unalike. Catherine so light and airy." Genevieve fluttered her hands in demonstration. "No substance at all. A meringue puff. And Jane so dour and rigid! I thought she was raised on lemons. I didn't care for either one." Genevieve's eyes teared up, and she dabbed them again. "'Senseless and Sourpuss' I called them. How wrong I was."

"I don't know what to say," Jane said. "I never knew any of this. I barely remember my Grandma Jane. I never knew about a sister. Catherine, you said?"

"Eh?" Genevieve leaned towards Jane before sitting back again. "Yes, Catherine. She was a year younger than me. I wasn't about to call her 'Mother.' Ridiculous!"

Jane looked at the letter she held in her lap. "How did Vivian know Grandma Jane?" She lifted the note. "Do you know what she meant by a favor?"

"Vivian." Genevieve smiled. "My oldest, dearest friend. Since we were babes in arms." She turned her wheelchair to the bookshelves behind her. "There. That one." She pointed to a framed black-and-white photograph. "And the one beside it."

Jane retrieved the photos as directed. The first showed two well-dressed young couples. The bob-haired women wore gauzy wide-sleeve drop-waist dresses and cloche hats while the mustached men wore dark fitted suits.

Genevieve pointed to the couple on the left. "That's me. And my brother, John. And there's Vivian and her brother, Eugene. I was supposed to marry him. My father thought it the perfect merger. The Westfalls were in shipping, and Father was in oil and lumber. He didn't think I'd dare run off with a Polish immigrant instead. But he was wrong."

The second photo was of a senior couple; the silver-haired man in a light gray suit, the woman in a cranberry gown.

"Vivian and John," Genevieve said. "Their fiftieth wedding anniversary. After I eloped, she sneaked my letters to him. I couldn't write John directly, for Father would have disowned him as he did me. They pretended a courtship to pass letters, and one day discovered they were no longer pretending. Of course, Father approved. In the end he got his merger."

Now Jane understood the trust's name. "Westfall and Montgomery."

Genevieve nodded. "Vivian Westfall and John Montgomery."

"So your last name was Montgomery too?"

"Of course."

Jane glanced at the photos. "What about the favor to Vivian?"

Once again Genevieve patted Jane's hand. "That's what I'm trying to tell you, dear. Vivian didn't write that letter. I did."

Jane remained silent a moment, certain she had misheard. "You! But...it's signed 'Viv Montgomery.'"

"I was Viv Montgomery, long ago," Genevieve replied. "And if Jane ever mentioned me, that's the name she knew. Certainly not 'Gingery.' And not even 'Genevieve.' From infancy I was called 'Viv' or "Vivie.' Vivian and I called ourselves 'The Two Vivs.' We were inseparable. Until I ran off with Jakub."

Genevieve pointed to the shelves behind her, and once again Jane retrieved a black-and-white photo, this one of a handsome young man with dark hair and mustache, wearing a buttoned-down shirt. His intense eyes mesmerized Jane, and she had the fleeting wish to transport back eighty-odd years to see him in person. 

He looks like Danny. Just like Prett said.

"The first time I saw him," Genevieve said, "he was covered in mud and crude. Oh, but such eyes! I spent months admiring him from afar. Father never let me talk to the roughnecks. Didn't want any of them getting big ideas. But Jakub found a way. He bumped into me and stuffed a note into the book I'd dropped. We snuck around for a year after that."

Her smile faded as she gazed at the photo. "Father fired him when he dared ask permission to court me properly. He forbade me to see Jakub, telling me I'd marry Eugene or be disowned. I pretended to go along with the wedding, setting the date for the New Year, all the while planning to elope with Jakub. I had to wait till my eighteenth birthday when I no longer needed Father's permission to marry. During his annual Christmas eve ball, I feigned a headache late in the evening, went to my bedroom and got my suitcase. I'd packed days ahead, and I'd kept the funds Father had given me for my trousseau. I was halfway out my bedroom window when my door opened and Jane walked in. She'd come to bring me aspirin for my headache."

Genevieve flew up her hands. "Lands! Why did she have to be so considerate right then! We stared at each other for an eternity! Then she left, and I was certain she was running to tell Father, so I scrambled down the trellis and ran. I ran so fast, I passed Jakub waiting for me in his truck. He had to catch up to me. We drove all night, to Oklahoma City, and stayed with cousins of his until the courthouse opened and we could get married. We were so afraid Father would track us down that we kept on the run for a month. Then our money ran out, right here in Prairie Creek. I got hired as a maid and cook at the hotel to pay for our room, and Jakub found work as a farmhand."

Genevieve shook her head. "It wasn't until Vivian wrote me, months later, that I learned Father never even tried to find me. Because Jane didn't tell him what she'd seen. Instead, she said I was ill with flu and confined to my bed. For almost a week she kept up a charade of nursing me. When Father learned the truth, he threw her out. She returned just once, to spirit away poor Catherine, and we never heard from them again." Genevieve once again wiped her eyes. "Until I found her orphaned granddaughter." She squeezed Jane's hand again. "Tell me, did you use the money for college? Or invest it wisely?"

"You sent the money?"

"Of course! Good heavens, haven't you been listening? Vivian wrote out the check, but she agreed it was for a worthy cause."

Genevieve looked curious as Jane retrieved the check, but after the old woman studied it, she looked at Jane with confusion.

"You didn't cash it? Why ever not?" After Jane explained, Genevieve shook her head. "My, my, what a turn of events! Why didn't Vivian tell me the check was outstanding? Surely she couldn't lose track of such a large sum..."

Her expression changed from indignation to guardedness, and she stared across the room in silence a few moments.

"But that is neither here nor there," she said, returning her focus to Jane. "The final result is, you didn't receive the money as intended. What can we do about it?"

Jane's heart dropped to her feet, and she flushed. She had gone in search of money from Westfall-Montgomery, LLC. Not someone she cared about. Not Genevieve. I wish I'd never mentioned Vivian Montgomery or her letter. 

"Well, I—"

"I don't manage my accounts anymore," Genevieve interrupted. "Prettamin does. I wouldn't be able to give you such a sum without him knowing." She fidgeted in her wheelchair. "And I'd rather he not know."

Me either. 

"Why don't you want Prett to know?" Jane asked.

Genevieve gestured wildly. "Oh, he would investigate where the money went, and that would just stir up a hornet's nest! Best to leave well enough alone." She straightened her shoulders and thought a moment. "There's only one way around it. I'll call that nice young lawyer and add a codicil to my will. Prettamin won't need to know till I'm dead and buried. Yes, that's exactly what I'll do."

Jane didn't think she could feel any worse. "Genevieve, I don't need you to leave the money to me. I never knew about it till recently, and though it was a nice thought—"

"Nonsense!" Genevieve waved her hand with finality. "I meant for you to have it, and you will. You'll just have to wait a little longer. Possibly a lot longer, because I'm not done holding Prettamin to his promise."

"Promise?" Jane questioned, but Genevieve had already put her wheelchair in rabbit mode and was zipping towards the French doors.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please help me improve my writing by pointing out problems. And if you like what you read, please click the Vote button below. And comment! I love comments!😊

Fun Fact: As I mentioned before, I used floorplanner.com to create floor plans for the hotel and the brothers' apartment. Genevieve's house, however, was much easier since I found just what I was looking for already drawn. Here is her first floor:

You can find the rest of the house plans on http://www.homeplans.com/house-plans/hp/homepw25529.html 😊 (See inline comment for clickable link.)

Be sure to vote and comment! ⤵