Spencer sighed. “I have to give of my money and my time and commit a selfless act.”
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound to hard. Who decides when each of the three tasks has been completed?”
“That’s where I come into the equation,” Ronan said. “As the trustee, It’s my responsibility to monitor what Spencer’s done and then write an affidavit attesting to what I witnessed. The attorney made sure to warn me that the document is legally binding, and that there would be consequences if I lied. Which of course I wouldneverdo.”
“Out of all the possible trustees I could have gotten, I get stuck with Dudley Do-Right.” Spencer rolled his eyes.
Ronan burst out laughing. “Aren’t you a little young to know who that is?”
“Nah, I love watching old cartoons.” Spencer shrugged and went back to sipping his juice.
Looking at the young man, Ronan couldn’t help but think how young he looked and not just because he was sipping a child’s drink and talking about cartoons. “Tell us about your parents.”
“They worked a lot. Mom and Dad were both research chemists for some fancy company in Cambridge. While they worked, I was stuck at daycare. When I got older, they signed me up for every after school program and sleepaway camp they could find. I didn’t really see them a lot.”
Ronan didn’t like the sound of that one bit. It sounded to him like Spencer had been raised by strangers. “Where was Effy Lou when this was going on?”
“She had a job of her own, doing accounting or something to do with finance. Her hands were full with that and Uncle Blue. She really loved him. I think that was the only loving relationship I saw growing up, but then he died and Aunt Effy Lou lost her mind.”
“What do you mean she lost her mind?” Ten asked, looking alarmed.
“After the funeral, she wouldn’t get out of bed. She stopped going to work and was eventually let go by her company, which made her even more depressed. My Mom was too busy with her own life to help and I didn’t know what to do to help, so I did nothing. It took a few years, but she managed to get back on her feet. A few friends forced her to get out of the house with them. They went on road trips to Foxwoods to gamble and see old lounge singers and to play Bingo on Saturday nights. She found her smile again, but things were never the same. Then my parents were killed in the accident when I was fifteen.”
“I’m so sorry you lost them, Spencer. If they were prominent chemists, they must have left you pretty well off, right?” Ronan asked.
Spencer shook his head. “It turned out the house was mortgaged to the hilt and there wasn’t a lot of money in their accounts. When the will was read, the lawyer dropped a bombshell. I didn’t know it at the time, but Dad had a second family.”
“What, you mean he was married before and was paying alimony and child support?” Ronan asked.
“No. He had a second wife and two other kids with that woman. He was a bigamist.”
Ten’s mouth dropped open. Ronan felt as shocked as Ten looked. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah, you’re telling me. The will stated that everything went to the other wife. She showed up one day and kicked me out of the only home I’d ever known. The joke was on her though, because the house was upside down and had two bank liens on it. She had to pay some of her own money to clear the debts after the house sold, so all in all, Dad fucked us all.” Spencer shrugged as if he didn’t care, but Ronan could see that the opposite was true.
“What happened to you after you moved out of your house?” Ten asked.
“I couch surfed with my friends’ parents for a while, but two months later, I ended up with Aunt Effy Lou. She was always bugging me to pull myself together and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Did I want to go to college or get a job? Where was I going to live? How was I going to afford to pay bills? It sucked and I was an asshole to her. I wish I wasn’t.”
Ronan understood where Spencer was coming from. His entire world had been upended and there was Effy Lou forcing his hand to make big decisions he wasn’t prepared or even qualified to make. “There’s still time to apologize to her, you know.”
Spencer nodded, but stayed silent.
“Getting back to the will,” Ten began, “explain to me about having to give money? If you don’t have the inheritance, how can you comply with that part of the will?”
“There’s an allowance. The lawyer gave me a check.” Reaching into his back pocket, Spencer pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Tennyson.
“Okay, twenty grand is a lot of money.” Ten looked up at Spencer. “If you like, Ronan can take you to the bank so you can deposit it into your account.”
“I don’t have an account,” Spencer said glumly.
“You’re twenty-five years old and you don’t have a savings or checking account? How have you been paying your bills?” Ronan asked, trying to keep his voice calm. He and Ten had started bank accounts for Everly and Ezra when they were babies. A certain percentage of Ronan’s pay and his pension from the Boston Police Department were deposited into those accounts every month, along with birthday and holiday money from Kaye, Fitz and the others.
“The only bill I have is my cell phone. Aunt Effy Lou is paying for that. She had her bills on automatic payments.” Spencer shrugged again, as if he didn’t understand how that worked.
“Okay, so we’ll take you to the bank in the morning and you can open an account.” Ten looked up to Ronan who nodded. “We’ll also need to see what’s going on with the electric bill, cable,house insurance, property tax. How are those things being paid and what needs to be done to make sure they stay current.”
“I don’t know anything about that.” Spencer looked as if he were going to cry.
