Inheritance

Chapter 36

(Sasha's outfit the New Year's Party^)

To bring in the New Year, Isabella and Sean had decided to host an intimate pre-wedding gathering at their home estate. Fortunately for Marco and myself, the party gave us solidified plans for the evening, which wouldn't be in our nature to decline.

A few days earlier, I had unexpectedly received a mailed wedding invitation from the soon-to-be Gilmore union. Based on the details outlined in the letter, it was apparent that their ceremony would be a destination wedding held in Dublin, Ireland— presumably where Sean's native roots lied.

Receiving the invitation had been quite a pleasant surprise in itself, when I took into account how I'd only recently met Isabella during the Vermont trip. Given that their wedding was just a few weeks away, it was rather thoughtful that they'd still carved out the time and money to extend a courtesy invitation to me. I'd have to thank them in-person later tonight. 

Being that Coco was still in Florida with Ahmad and her family, I felt a bit precarious pulling up to their home with just Marco. Don't get me wrong, Marco was great company and all. But, Sean and Isabella were technically part of Coco's friend group, not mine. Since she was dating Sean's best friend, my only link to them was through my affirmed ties to her and Kendall. 

Only problem was that Kendall and I hadn't been speaking at all as of lately.

As recommended by Milton Co.'s Media and Communication's Team, Kendall had been traveling around the east coast conducting strategic interviews while also intentionally building new commercial relations with core companies. As a result, I hadn't seen much of him since the Christmas Eve incident at my uncle's villa, which had been rather opportune. 

Considering how chaotically things had spiraled into, I wasn't quite ready to initiate the necessary but difficult conversations I knew I needed to have with him. Throughout the week, he'd called me on a number of occasions, but I'd purposefully ignored his calls. I was still mortified from the chilling thought of how he'd practically beaten Caleb unconscious. 

Even now, I had yet to receive any news on the state of Caleb's health, causing me to grow even more apprehensive about whether it was too soon to reach out. 

I thought it was particularly important that I offered him a decent amount of time to fully recover from the situation. If I were in his shoes, I'd be juggling a multitude of humiliation, anger, and disappointment, which is why I wanted to wait before trying to contact him. If he still didn't want to see me or accept my apology, then I'd completely respect his decision.

~~~

When Marco and I arrived at Sean and Isabella's residence, I felt an odd sense of deja vu sweep over me. The estate marked one of the very first interactions I'd had with Kendall before learning of his true identity. So much had happened between us since then that the memory now seemed ancient.

As Marco and I entered the homely establishment, I noticed that party guests were randomly dispersed throughout the downstairs lobby and piling out into the backyard. Now that I thought about it, I never really did get a good look at the pool. 

Deciding to move towards the outside patio, I squinted my eyes as I came into contact with a vibrant gleam reflecting from the full moon. It was a little past eleven, so the sun's natural light had been swept away by the starry night sky. 

Not too far off in the distance, I could hear the playful sounds of people splashing around in the candidly-lit pool, while others drank and chatted by the lodge fire. Once I scanned the hilly backyard scenery, I immediately spotted Isabella's blonde locks near the fire deck. She sat on top of Sean's legs, laughing as a woman I didn't quite recognize whispered something into her ear.