himself despite having all the advantages, but heâs not stupid. Remember, if he challenges the trust and he loses, he forfeits what she left him. You know the law on testamentary capacity, I assume?â
âIâve been reviewing it.â
âHeâd have the burden of proving incompetence at the time she signed the trust. Mind you, the legal test isnât that she must have had a reasonable basis for what she did, but that she had the capacity to understand what she did. Look at Gaddy vs. Douglass : âEven an insane person may execute a will if it is done during a sane interval.â So once Randall consults a lawyer, he should come to his senses. Of course, I canât guarantee that. He might just be angry enough to ⦠But look here,â he says, âif you canât handle this, Iâll find someone else. Probably plenty of starving young lawyers out there whoâd be happy to take it on, black cat and all.â
He hardly knows me, has no inkling of how the words âyou canât handle thisâ bring back the Sally Baynard whoâd stay up all night preparing for a trial, who would stand before the jury the next day making her opening argument, fighting exhaustion, fending off the judge who made a pass at her at lunchtime, battling a paternalistic prosecutor, dealing with the ungrateful and almost certainly guilty client. But when Sally Baynard took a bathroom break, sheâd stand in the stall for an extra minute and silently repeat her mantra: You can handle this.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
On the way back to the office I stop in Washington Park. Itâs a mild day, the air heavy with humidity. I need this five-minute respite, this brief anonymity. These tourists donât know me, hardly notice the middle-aged woman in the gray suit sitting on the bench under the giant live oak. The tour guide tells them about the earthquake of 1886, after which Charlestonians whoâd lost their houses set up a tent city here. Some even brought their oriental rugs and silverware from home.
I try to imagine living in a tent with my mother. She would definitely insist on bringing her silverware. Iâm lost in this thought when my cell phone rings.
âYou still at the Probate Court?â asks Gina.
âJust left.â
âJoe Baynard called. Said he needs to talk to you. I told him you had the deposition at ten thirty. He said it would just take a minute.â
âWhat about?â
âHe wouldnât say. For Godâs sake donât let him stick you with another bizarre pro bono ⦠No, nothing much going on here except that Natalie Carterâs husbandâthe judgeâmade an appointment for four thirty.â
âI was going to try to leave a little early.â
âHe was pretty insistent. Said he wants to talk to you about the offer. He sounded kinda nice.â
âThatâs a ruse.â
âAnyway, I told him you could give him half an hour.â
âHowâs Beatrice?â
âFine. Curled up back there on your sofa, sleeping. She was playing with a big palmetto bug and that must have exhausted her.â
âYuck.â
âShe chased it around the office, caught it once and batted it around a little, then it got away.⦠You know how one minute those things are running around the floor and then all of a sudden they fly? It was a huge one. Iâve already called the exterminator.â
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
My relationship with Joe is an ongoing drama for the Family Court set, the story line based loosely on fact but routinely spiced with fiction, which in the telling and retelling reinvents itself, acquiring new details, such as: (1) we split up because I wouldnât join the Junior League (true that Joeâs mother wanted me to, but that had nothing to do with my leaving), and (2) that his father and uncle forced me out of the family firm (false). The drama experienced a revival
Aubrianna Hunter
B.C.CHASE
Piper Davenport
Leah Ashton
Michael Nicholson
Marteeka Karland
Simon Brown
Jean Plaidy
Jennifer Erin Valent
Nick Lake