Chapter 119
I got the lawyer's call in the evening.
He said Chase was in the hospital fighting for his life, and Chase had a will that mentioned me, and I needed to come to the hospital right away.
I didn't want to go. There was no room for him in my heart anymore, so there was no reason for me to wait outside the emergency room.
But the lawyer kept insisting that I had to be there.
I called Levi and told him not to wait for me for dinner. I said I was going out for drinks with Nola and the others.
This was my own business, and I didn't want to drag Levi into it. I didn't know what Chase's will said, but I knew nothing good would come my way.
I parked my car and saw Jessa's assistant in the parking lot. I figured she'd gotten the call too.
She was here, so I had a pretty good idea what the will was about.
I grabbed a water bottle and prepared for a long wait.
Outside the emergency room, Jessa paced back and forth.
She was still dressed the same as this morning, all covered up.
"You're Ms. Blair Ember, right?"
"Yes."
The lawyer held a folder of documents that probably contained Chase's will.
"Mr. Greer is still in emergency care. If the worst happens, I'll need to inform you both about this will." The lawyer looked refined and spoke in a very formal tone.
I stayed silent. I didn't want any part of his affairs.
Right now, I just had to tough it out and wait.
Jessa handed me a bottle of water. "It's cold, to keep you alert."
"Water doesn't keep you alert, and cold water upsets my stomach."
My stomach had been bothering me lately, and of course, I didn't want to accept anything from her anyway.
"Maybe he's leaving you the family fortune, so the will concerns you too."
I couldn't see her eyes, so I didn't know if she was envious or disappointed.
But I didn't care about Chase's stuff. When he kicked my mom and me out, he showed no mercy. There's no way he'd leave me anything now that he's dying.
"I don't want anything to do with him. Whatever the outcome, I won't take anything. It's all yours." I wasn't here to fight with her.
Jessa smiled. "I'm only his daughter in name now. Once my mom gets out, they'll finalize the divorce, and I won't have any blood relation to him either."
"He raised you all these years, and that's a fact that can't be changed. Your mother did cheat on him, but he treated you okay, better than he treated me."
I was being honest. Before she came along, even if Chase wasn't sincere with my mom and me, the three of us were happy together.
Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have gone on that outing, wouldn't have met that boy, wouldn't have been given those stars.
"That's why I came. He was good to me, that's true, but he really hurt me, too. The things he said were so cruel. Even as an adoptive father, he shouldn't have attacked me like that."
So she hated Chase too—hated his harsh words, hated how he turned his back on people.
The emergency room light suddenly went out. Jessa rushed over. The doctor regretfully announced Chase's death.
"I'm sorry, we did everything we could. Please accept our condolences."
Silence. An eerie silence.
Neither Jessa nor I spoke. Our world seemed to have lost all sound.
Medical staff wheeled Chase's body past us. No heart-wrenching cries, no soul-crushing regret or pain.
We stood on opposite sides, watching as a white sheet disappeared from our view.
Jessa's eyes turned red. Mine did too.
At the end of Chase's life, not a single person cried for him. Maybe this was the ultimate meaninglessness of life—when everything loses meaning.
The lawyer opened the document folder. "Ladies, now that Mr. Greer has passed, I'm legally obligated to inform you of his will."
The lawyer read Chase's will, but I couldn't take in a word.
In the end, he summarized: Chase left all his assets to his elderly father, my grandfather, whom I'd never met.
As for Jessa and me, he hoped we would handle his funeral arrangements.
Even in death, Chase left us nothing, yet expected us to deal with his affairs.
How ironic, especially for me.
Aside from the fact that he fathered me, I had absolutely nothing to do with him. He didn't deserve to be my father, and I didn't want to be his daughter.
"We'll transfer Mr. Greer's money to the old man. As for his funeral, we've made the notifications, so our firm's responsibility ends here."
"Okay."
Jessa responded.
We watched the lawyer leave, then both sat down in the hospital chairs.
"He's really something, isn't he? Even dead, he wants us to spend money on him." Jessa laughed bitterly, tears falling that even her sunglasses couldn't hide.
I checked the time. "Since there's nothing major, I'm going home. I won't be part of his funeral."
"His will said you and I should handle it together."
"That's what he wanted. I never agreed. Legally, I have no connection to him. I have no obligation to do this."
Jessa looked troubled. "It's too hard for me to handle this alone. My mom's not here. How am I supposed to notify people about a memorial service?"
"Would someone like him even have a memorial service? Would anyone mourn him? Have you ever met his family?"
"I really don't know."
Jessa had never met Chase's family either. Of course, he never showed his true situation to anyone, not even those closest to him.
"My mom and I never knew he had family. He always said he was an orphan."
The stories were different. When he was with my mom, he said he kept his parents in their hometown to avoid family conflicts. With Arabella, the story changed to his parents being dead.
What was there to mourn about such a fake man?
"He probably just wants us to buy him a nice burial plot. He left his money to his old father and expects us to pay for this."
Thinking it over, that's what Chase meant by this will. He knew he'd have no influence at the end, after all the evil he'd done.
"This money..."
I stood up. "I won't pay a cent. Just pretend I was never here today."
"Alright then. He raised me for a few years. I don't want people talking behind my back, calling me ungrateful. I'll buy him a burial plot, but I won't make a big deal of it. After cremation, I'll have someone bury him."
Jessa really should handle Chase's funeral, both morally and logically. Technically, she was still his daughter, and even though he always cursed at her after Arabella's affair came out, he still treated her a hundred times better than he treated me.
And me? A child he abandoned. If he thought I'd claim him, no way. Forget about handling his funeral. At my mother's funeral, I swore I'd never have anything to do with Chase again.
Now, he died before finding a suitable donor match. I felt nothing. The hatred hadn't disappeared, but I didn't hate anymore either. With his death, I wanted to let myself go.
I'd hated for so many years, and it only hurt me. Chase never felt the slightest bit of remorse. To me, he would forever be a zero as a "father."