Page 16 of A Christmas Negotiation

“Consider it done.” Mindy grinned and placed her arm around Isabel’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Come on. Let’s go dig through my grandmother’s office.”

The pair trekked through the living room to what appeared to be Victoria Eden’s private quarters, with a large master bedroom, elegant bathroom with its own view of the park, dressing room and, finally, a generous home office. Like the rest of the house, a neutral backdrop of white and cream made room for the more over-the-top elements, like a crimson velvet club chair. Mindy stepped behind her grandmother’s grand desk and opened the closet to reveal six large filing cabinets.

“I’m guessing we start here?” Mindy asked.

Isabel didn’t have a better suggestion. “It’s as good a place as any.”

They quickly set up a system, methodically going through one drawer at a time, file folder after file folder, page after page of surprisingly meaningless paperwork. For a woman who had been considered a business tycoon, Victoria Eden had been keenly focused on the smallest of things.

Mindy shook her head and closed one folder. “She kept nearly thirty years of electric bills. Who does that?”

“Someone who’s watching every penny? Maybe that’s part of why she was so successful.”

Mindy’s shoulders dropped in exasperation. “I hope this doesn’t end up being a big waste of time.”

“I don’t know. Compared to most things I do, this is pretty fun. Plus, we get to spend time together.”

“There you go. Good job looking on the bright side. I need to do more of that.”

“Actually, if anything, I’d take all of this mundane stuff as a good sign. Anyone who kept electric bills likely also kept far more important things.”

“Even superpersonal things?”

Isabel closed up the folder she’d been sifting through and handed it over to Mindy. “Especially that.”

After two more hours of pulling apart the contents of the filing cabinets, they were down to the last drawer. Mindy pulled the handle, but it only opened partway. “Can you help me with this?” she asked, peering down inside.

Isabel rushed over and knelt down next to Mindy. Sure enough, there was a large wood box, turned on its side, preventing the drawer from being opened the whole way. Mindy and Isabel quickly pulled out the hanging files in front of it. Mindy grabbed a letter opener from her grandmother’s desk drawer and slipped it under the bottom of the box, twisting and pulling until the box popped free with a clatter of wood against metal.

Mindy closed the drawer and sat spread-eagled on the floor with the box between her knees. She flipped the small brass latch on the front. She looked up at Isabel, her eyes wide with astonishment. “It’s a bunch of letters.” She examined the first envelope. “The return address says Bradley Summers.”

Goose bumps popped up on Isabel’s arms. She sensed that another piece of the puzzle was about to fall into place. “Bingo.”

Isabel and Mindy spent the next several hours devouring the correspondence sent by Bradley Summers to Victoria Eden, which seemed to begin in the spring of 1979, years before the loan would have been made. They arranged the letters in chronological order, which helped them sort out how the affair began: after Bradley and Victoria had a chance meeting at a cocktail party in the Hamptons. Bradley made mention that he was glad their spouses had not been on hand—Bradley’s wife because she’d had one of her “many migraines” and Victoria’s husband because he couldn’t be bothered to stay away from the racetrack. It was an epic love story that sprouted up between two people thrown together by chance, who just happened to fulfill what the other was so desperately looking for. For the senior Mr. Summers, it seemed to be the undivided attention of a woman.My sweet Victoria, he wrote,When we’re together, I feel like I’m the only man in the world. Every moment with you is priceless, worth framing and hanging in a museum.

“Wow. This is so romantic. They were head over heels for each other,” Isabel said, handing over the letter she was holding to Mindy. She couldn’t help but be astonished by what had been between these two people, sentiments that served as a very plain reminder that Isabel hadn’t come close to finding that kind of passion or affection with a man. She hoped she wasn’t running out of time.

When Mindy finished reading the final letter in the box, she looked over at Isabel with a tear in her eye. It was a bit incongruous with Mindy’s normally tough exterior. “Their love affair was real.” Mindy’s shoulders dropped. “I don’t know what to think about this. Or how I’m supposed to feel. I really loved my grandfather, but it’s pretty well known in our family that he was not a great husband. This is at least confirmation that my grandmother stayed in a loveless marriage for her entire life.”

“That part is incredibly sad.” Isabel glanced down at the pile of letters. “It was also pretty clear that your grandfather had a serious gambling problem. Bradley mentions several times that he hated your grandmother living with the burden of his many debts. Do you think that’s where the money could have gone?”

Mindy shrugged. “I have no idea. I mean, going to the racetrack with our grandfather is one of the only things I ever remember doing with him, but we were kids and it was nothing but fun. We’d drink soda and eat junk food and he’d let us pick our favorite horses so he could place bets. Sophie always picked names like Fancy Frolic, and I always picked ones like Emperor King. My grandfather used to tease me, saying that I needed to learn to like ‘girl things.’” Mindy made air quotes. “As far as I was concerned, I liked what I liked. No big surprise, but he handed those same ideas down to our dad. Even so, those days at the track are some of my fondest memories of my grandfather. He at least wanted to spend time with us, which is more than I can say for my dad.”

Isabel was struck by how even a family with great wealth and power could have such a bittersweet legacy. “If the money went to gambling debts, it might be harder to track down, especially depending on who he owed money to. And it still doesn’t change the fact that it appears that the loan was real.”

Mindy again looked down at the letters in her hand, but it was for several moments this time. She brushed her fingers across the envelope at the top of the pile. “This means that the store is really on the line, doesn’t it? We aren’t talking hypotheticals anymore. I mean, chances are that the promissory note is real, and we’re going to have to find a way to pay off the debt.”

“No matter what I’m able to negotiate, chances are that it’ll still be a huge chunk of money, and from everything I’ve seen of Mr. Summers, he’s serious about wanting it in one lump sum, right away. Early January, right after New Year’s.”

“It’s just hard to come up with that kind of cash without a loan. And the most valuable thing we have to use as collateral is Eden’s. It’s all Sophie has, aside from her apartment and Eden House, our family’s vacation home, which she would never let go of in a million years.”

“What about selling this apartment?”

Mindy nodded, looking around the room. “Yeah. I could definitely do that, but we’re talking maybe fifty million, and that’s if we get top dollar from the right buyer, which could easily take a year to happen. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we have to come up with.”

“Can Sam help?”

“He’s looking into selling some bigger properties, but like I said, that all takes time, and it all costs money, too. Real estate agents need to get paid. It sort of feels like we’re throwing money into a big black hole.” Surprisingly, a smile crossed Mindy’s face.