Lili didn’t want to be rich. All she wanted was to find her grandmother, Miriam. The paintings were Alena’s legacy, which Lili knew should be passed down to her daughter – Lili’s grandmother – if she was still alive.
Lili took exception to the way she was being portrayed in the media. She was also worried what any journalist who started really digging into her story might find. So far, her connection to Joseph had been explained through his parents’ friendship before the outbreak of war with the Greek family on the island of Corfu, of whom she was a descendant. So far, nobody knew George had really died on Corfu in the war and that Lili’s great-grandfather, Otto, had assumed his identity.
That explained why the police – and, Lili imagined, some journalists – were baffled as to why Josephs’ father had gone to such lengths, and spent so much money, to piece together his Corfiot friends’ art collection over the years. Lili knew that one word from her would reveal everything.
Right now, with all the media hoopla, Lili knew that Elspeth had been right. She didn’t trust how her great-grandfather would be portrayed if the truth came to light now.
She hoped the fact that she would now inherit The Summerhouse would slip quietly under the radar, because that could not be as easily explained away. Fortunately, the haul of priceless paintings was of far more interest to people than the house on the shore of the lake in Thorpeness.
Alex had already suggested, on more than one occasion, that if she wasn’t happy with what they were saying about her in the media, then she should tell her own story.
Lili had had plenty of offers from newspapers and reality television shows. A publisher had even offered her a book deal to write her memoirs. ‘I’m not even thirty, for goodness’ sake,’ Lili had scoffed. ‘Why would I want to write my memoirs?’ Besides, if she did that, then the truth about Otto’s identity would come out, and she wasn’t ready to reveal that. She had enough media attention without the world at large finding out about Otto.
‘You know, the truth is going to come out,’ Alex had said to her one day, soon after Joseph was released.
Lili really didn’t want to think about that. She hadn’t asked for all the media attention. She was just a horticulturist who wanted to make her own way and lead a quiet, innocuous life, like her great-grandfather, Otto.
Lili had discovered that Elspeth had been right when she’d told her about the observations Ray had made as an heir-hunter. Although, in his experience, people were thrilled to discover they were lost heirs to an inheritance, with ties to relatives they had never known existed, it often came at a price. One of the unexpected downsides to Lili’s apparent newfound wealth, in the form of those priceless paintings, was the media getting wind of her search for the grandparents she had never known.
The number of people, some as far afield as Australia, who had come forward claiming to be her long-lost grandparents was laughable. Except that Lili didn’t find it funny; they were all after one thing – her money. She had thought that all the media attention about her story would help her find them, but the reality had been the opposite.
‘What are you thinking?’ Alex asked.
Lili touched the ring on her necklace. She wished that Otto had never given her the Hebrew wedding band that turned out to be the ring he’d had made for Alena. He must have known he would never see Alena again when he gave it to Lili on the only occasion she’d met her great-grandfather. It was Elspeth who had told Lili this. Lili realised that if it hadn’t been for that ring, she would never have discovered her connection with Joseph and his family; a connection that was now irretrievably broken because of Otto’s silly will, leaving The Summerhouse to his descendants – to her. He’d had no right to do that. Somehow, she had to make things right – but how?
Lili fingered the other ring on her necklace. During her last meeting with Joseph, he had told her that he’d known she was Otto’s great-granddaughter the moment she’d walked into his shop. He had seen the resemblance to her great-grandmother, Alena, and had recalled the first time he and Lili had met, when she was just a toddler visiting The Summerhouse with her mother. He had always wondered why Lili and her mother had never returned; he’d hoped that someday they would. At that last meeting, he had taken off the ring on his finger, Otto’s ring, and had given it to her.
Alex stared at the two Hebrew wedding bands on Lili’s necklace. It reminded him that he still hadn’t proposed to her. He knew why he was holding back; it wasn’t just because of all the things that had been going on in her life lately.He was holding out to do it in Washington. There was a reason for that; Alex still wasn’t wholly convinced that she was coming too.
A piece of notepaper that Lili hadn’t noticed with the invitation dropped out of the envelope and floated to the floor.
Alex knelt and picked it up, his solicitor’s eye roving over its contents. ‘It’s from Ray,’ he said in surprise.
‘Really?’ Lili took the note. She too was surprised he had written to her.
‘What does it say?’
Lili skim-read the contents. ‘I think I need to sit down.’
‘What is it?’ said Alex, concerned.
Lili retreated to the kitchen, followed closely by Alex. Perched on a stool at the counter-top, she re-read the note. ‘Ray continued the search for my grandmother in Israel.’
‘You’re joking.’
Lili shook her head. ‘It’s true.’ She remembered to breathe. ‘There’s more …’