Page 78

“Good idea,” Joy said. “Then why the lawyer?”

“It was the estate attorney,” he said, pulling two envelopes from his pocket. “Before I give these to you, I want you to understand that I knew about it. Are you hearing me? I knew about this, and I didn’t tell you.”

“Knew about what?” Joy asked, confused. “You’re shaking, Kian. What’s going on?”

“I don’t want to lose you, Joy. I’m afraid that when you open this letter, that’s exactly what will happen.”

“You love me, right?” she asked, and he nodded. “Well, guess what? I love you too. Maybe I didn’t say it last night, but chalk it up to a head injury. I do. It scares the hell out of me to admit I’ve fallen head over heels for my former bully in these braced heels, but I have.”

A smile spread across his face. “Do we embody the bully trope?”

“No, and I’m so happy that we don’t. You didn’t need me to find the good in yourself. That’s why I could fall in love with you. I could already see you were a different man as soon as we started spending time together. When I came home and found that chair lift waiting for me after our evening together, a little piece of my heart fell for you. Then, that night in the hotel, when you tenderly massaged my legs without a hint of disgust on your face, the rest of me fell too, even if I was too afraid to admit it to myself. I didn’t want to be that girl.”

“That girl?” he asked, confused.

“The girl who is tricked by a man who claims to desire her, but he actually has a different agenda.”

The grimace spreading across his face was impossible to miss. “That’s why I’m so worried about what this letter will do to us,” he whispered. “It was that fear that drove me to demand the lawyer prepare this letter first.”

Joy took the envelope he was holding and opened it, pulling out a single sheet of paper. The letterhead was from the estate lawyer, so she read it aloud. “Dear Joy, this letter confirms that Kian had no choice in how or when this news was delivered to you. In fact, I am breaking my client’s wishes by allowing you to read this letter a day early, but given the circumstances, I have released it. However, the rest of the inheritance will not come until after December 24th. I believe you’ll understand once you’ve read Ms. Van Adler’s letter. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I am available day or night.” Joy dropped the letter to her lap and shook her head. “Consider me brutally and epically confused. What inheritance?”

Handing her the second envelope, she noticed her name written on it in Lorelei’s handwriting. “This inheritance. Again, let me be clear that I know what it is. I’ve known for several months and couldn’t tell you. Well, I could have told you, but I had no access to any of this, and it wouldn’t have made sense to try to explain before you read my mother’s wishes.”

Shaking her head to hold back tears, she tapped the letter on her lap. “Is this one going to break me the way her letter about the coat did? In my opinion, the personal items she left me were enough of an inheritance. I don’t need anything else.”

“No one has seen that letter, Joy. Even I don’t know what it says about her reasons. I know about the inheritance, but nothing else. Please read it yourself. This is between you and the woman who considered you her daughter.”

Once he’d leaned back on the couch, she opened the letter and began reading.

Joy,

You’re probably wondering why all the letters, but you know I love nothing more than gabbing over a cup of coffee. I hope you’re sitting down with one as you read this.

Joy smiled. Lorelei always said she built her empire on her gift of gab.

If you’re reading this on Christmas Eve of 2026, know that wherever I am, I’m pissed.

Joy burst out laughing, tears streaming down her face. The ghost of Lorelei was seriously pissed right now, no doubt about it.

I’ve been thinking about us and the winding road that brought us together. You were never my daughter by blood, but life often lets us choose our family. I chose you. I need you to remember that. I need you to hold it in your heart, because while you aren’t a Van Adler by blood, you are by love.

There comes a moment in life when a woman has to decide whether to focus on the past or look to the future. This is that moment. Remember when I used to say, “You can’t build a future when staring in the rearview mirror”? That’s because looking forward and building a future honors who you were and who you’re becoming.

I want you to enjoy your life. Take a day off, lie in bed, and watch a movie. Eat the cookies. Drink the good wine. Forgive easily. Forget often. Trust your heart to someone. Fall in love. Live forward, because once you get where I am, you can’t go back.

You know better than anyone how fiercely I guarded my flagship mall. It wasn’t just a business to me. It was my legacy, my heartbeat, proof that I had built something enduring. Now that I’m gone, I trust only two people with it. You and Kian.

I saw in you the same fire that carried me through my hardest seasons. I still see it. Even now, when you think I can’t, hear me when I say to let the old wounds heal and to forget the doubts. Be the woman you want to be. The woman you were meant to be. Carry your head high. Carry our bond with you always. Carry the knowledge that I believed in you without hesitation. Sweetheart, you were my greatest unexpected blessing.

That is why, on the Christmas Eve after my death, Snowcap Ridge Outlet Mall will no longer be a Van Adler Holdings mall. It will be yours and Kian’s. You will share it equally, just as you shared my love.

All I ask is that you keep caring for it as lovingly as you have over the years, and I know you will. Don’t worry, Kian will come around if he hasn’t already. He’s known for a few months because he had an assignment he needed to complete to get his half of the mall. The assignment was to visit all the malls to see how they’re run, but to visit Snowcap Ridge last, from Thanksgiving to the New Year, to see how much you love Snowcap Ridge Outlet Mall and how you nurture it in ways none of the other GMs do. Does that mean the other GMs aren’t doing their jobs? No. It means that, to you, the mall is a living, breathing entity to be nurtured. I hope you learned that from me.

I can’t call this a gift, because you’ve earned every bit of it, but don’t fall back into old wounds or familiar doubts. Move forward as the woman I saw in you twelve years ago on the side of the road. The fighter who loves with all she’s worth and understands that joy is found in life’s little things.

Kian wiped the tears from her eyes, the ones blurring the words until she could barely make them out.

“Now that you’ve read the letter, my lawyer will be in contact with you,” Joy read aloud. “He’ll have all the legal information and help you through what happens next. I hope that, by now, Kian has extended an olive branch out of appreciation for what you do at Snowcap Ridge Mall, not out of necessity. It’s my greatest wish that you both find a way to work together for the betterment of Snowcap Ridge, but my ‘mom senses’ tell me you already have.”