Charlaine Harris own them all but one
Thanks again guys for all your wonderful reviews and putting me on your story alerts and favorites. It means so much to me to hear what you are thinking. Hope you stick with it. I would definitely consider this another transitional chapter, short but to the point. Enjoy!
To my wonderful friend and beta, Sassyvampmama, thanks for being the Best!
Chapter 9
Sookie found that she loved sharing a home with Dec. She felt like his home was slowly becoming hers and Dec had encouraged her to make any changes she wanted to the interior. She didn't make any drastic changes, however the ones she did make were done gradually, in hopes that it would make it easier for Dec to adjust. She knew once they were married she would feel like it was finally their home.
Work was going great for both of them, but Dec had been doing a lot of traveling recently. His company was looking into a new acquisition that had required Dec to travel back and forth to the west coast many times during the negotiations. Sookie sometimes joined him, but when Dec asked her if she was going to going to go to San Diego with him that particular morning she had opted to stay behind and work on some things for the publishing company.
Dec was planning to turn the day to day operation of Pelican over to her soon, and she was planning to become the Vice President of Operations. She had already put her heart and soul into it as it was her favorite subsidiary of Channing Enterprises. She had surprised herself, Dec, and several of Pelicans editors with her keen insight on spotting new talent and had even signed on some very promising authors. Working at Pelican was truly a dream come true for Sookie.
She had thought that she wanted to work as a librarian because of her love for books, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she would be running a publishing house at some point. She was still working towards her degree in Library sciences by taking some classes on-line, but had chosen to take a semester off so she could settle into her new position without having to worry about school work as well. She was too busy already with work and planning a wedding to add more to her already over-flowing plate.
After Dec left to go to the airport, Sookie took a long shower, got dressed, and went down stairs to grab some breakfast before walking into what was now considered her office. She loved not having to get in a car to go to work. After her second cup of coffee while sitting at the breakfast bar, Sookie finally got up and dragged herself into the office and started up her computer. She was checking her email when she received a phone call that would alter her whole life.
"Hey Meels, what's up?" Sookie answered after looking at her caller ID. She thought it was slightly odd that Amelia was calling her this early, but it wasn't completely unheard of. She had a date with a new guy last night, and usually called to dish about her dates the morning after.
"Sookie, where's Dec? Please tell me he is with you. "Amelia practically screamed through the phone.
"No, he was going to San Diego today. Why, what is the matter? Why do you want to know where Dec is?" Sookie sounded confused.
"Sookie, when was the last time you spoke to him." Amelia asked nervously, hoping that Sookie would say she had just talked to him.
"Early this morning before he left, what is the matter?" Sookie heard the office line ringing and told Amelia to hold on. She placed her cell phone on her desk and picked up the other line, effectively cutting Amelia off. That was when Amelia heard a heart wrenching scream coming from Sookie.
"Sookie, Sookie, are you there? Sweetie I'm coming right over." Amelia knew right then and there what she had feared had happened. A Channing Enterprises company jet went down somewhere over the Arizona desert and she had figured that Dec was on that plane. Amelia knew from the news coverage that there were no survivors. She rushed out of the house, knowing that her friend needed her now, and she may have broken more than a few traffic laws getting to her side.
The death of Dec was a complete shock to everyone, but no one was more shocked than Sookie. It was headline news and the media were relentless in their efforts to try to interview Sookie. Sookie was not prepared and was too in shock to talk with them. She refused to speak to anyone about Dec and was, quite understandably, a complete basket case for the first few days. Amelia stayed with her that first week and handled all the calls. She made sure Sookie didn't do anything to hurt herself; she wasn't sure what Sookie would do after being faced with such a monumental loss. Sookie stayed in her room for the first two days and simply refused to eat. Amelia made sure she had at least water to drink, but didn't push her to eat any food.
On the third day Sookie came out of her room, her eyes all swollen, and told Amelia that she had decided to face the fact he was gone and that she wanted to help make the necessary arrangements. She knew what Dec liked, and she knew that he would want his death, and by extension his funeral, to reflect his life. Dec was a prominent business man in the New Orleans community and his death was big news. There were over 500 people who showed up and paid their respects at the viewing, but Sookie had made sure that there was a private service for his closest friends and what little family he had left. Dec had no siblings and both his parents were only children, so all of the relatives that came were distant.
A week after his death, Sookie met with Declan's lawyer. He had requested this meeting; she wasn't sure what he was going to tell her, but she was hoping he wouldn't make her leave Dec's house right away. She still couldn't grasp that Dec was dead and she kept thinking that she was going to wake up and this would all be a bad dream. She asked Amelia to come with her to the lawyer's office for emotional support. What she wasn't expecting, and had never dreamed of, was that the lawyer told her that Dec had left his entire company to her and most of his personal assets as well. He had left a portion of his net worth to some charities, but the main part of his estate went to her. Including the Garden District house and the beach house on the Gulf, Sookie was now worth over $500 million dollars.
Sookie and Amelia were completely silent the whole way home in the car. Amelia drove, while Sookie was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was now worth so much. She always knew that Dec was wealthy, but it just never registered he was worth that much. Amelia parked the car and they both went straight into the family room and silently sat down.
After a few moments of silence, Amelia couldn't take it any longer, and blurted out, "Oh, my God Sookie, what are you going to do? I can't believe you are the new owner of Channing Industries. Holy shit! Sookie are you even interested in running the company?"
"I can't even believe Dec is gone, let alone being the owner of Channing Industries. I don't want any of it Meels, I just want him back." Sookie started to cry and Amelia leaned over and held her friend as mournful sobs wracked her body. When Sookie stopped crying she told Meels that the only part of the company she was interested in was Pelican Publishing. She wanted no part of the rest of it; it was all meaningless without Dec.
Within six months after Dec's death, Sookie had made all of the arrangements for most of his holdings to be sold off with the exception of three things. There were two companies that were currently interested in purchasing the Channing Offshore Drilling and Services division of the company and she had buyer for the ship yards, ships and all. It was an overwhelming process, and Sookie made sure she hired the right people to walk her through it. It took another six months to close the deals and then all of Channing Industries was sold off, except for Pelican. That was the only part of Channing Industries that she was interested in keeping.
Sookie had been through more in one year than most people have to endure in an entire life time. She was completely drained and felt that she needed a change. She wanted to get away for a while and figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. There were too many memories of Dec in New Orleans, and she wanted to make a fresh start somewhere else. She had no doubts where she wanted to go or needed to be. She wanted to go back to her family home. She missed Bon Temps, Jason and her friends. She had kept in touch with Sam, who had been taking care of her home for her and called him and told him she was coming home.
Amelia was sad to see her friend go back to Bon Temps but she also understood why Sookie needed to go. Before Sookie left, she met with Amelia and surprised her with the deed to the shopping strip where Amelia and Octavia's store was located. Amelia was floored and very grateful to her friend. Sookie closed up both the house in New Orleans and the Gulf house, and named a new VP of operations at Pelican publishing to replace herself. She was now the President of the company, though she had decided to remain a silent owner for now. She didn't know how long she would need to recover, but she had already made sure she had qualified people who would be running it in her absence.
She settled into her Gran's house and immediately started to make some major renovations to her family farm house. There were so many things that needed replacing and upgrading and she was excited she could finally do it all. She wanted to make sure no alterations were done to the original structure, because she wanted to keep it looking the same as it had while her Gran was alive. It was also a little weird for Sookie not having Bill across the cemetery anymore. Bill had written to her after she and Dec got engaged telling her he was happy for her and that he had decided to do some traveling throughout Europe for a while.
Sookie also had plenty of ideas on how she wanted to spend her money helping to improve the quality of living in Bon Temps. She made considerable monetary contributions to the local library stipulating that the funds be used to open a much needed children's library. She gave a donation to the local school district wanting to bring them up to speed with technology and to help promote reading. The Bon Temps Fire and Emergency Medical Response departments also became benefactors of Sookie's generosity and she even donated a sizeable amount to the local Monroe Hospital.
When it came to her brother and her friends she was just as generous. She bought her brother a new truck and gifted him with a sizeable amount of money- with a few restrictions on how much and when he could make withdrawals. He had no problem with that, he knew that it was for his best interest and that they would help keep the gold-diggers away from him. She paid the mortgage off for Tara and JB's home, along with a generous cash gift as well. She was aware of how they were struggling to make their monthly payments since the arrival of their new baby and wanted to help ease their worries. Sookie knew Sam would not accept anything from her, so she made him an offer to invest in his bar by becoming a silent partner. Sam had always wanted to add an outside bar at Merlotte's, and now with Sookie's investment, he could make that dream come true.
Moving back to Bon Temps was just about the most cathartic act of healing she could have made for herself. In giving back to the local community and helping her friends and family, it not only took her mind off of missing Dec, but it made her genuinely happy.
After being back home for a month, Sookie thought long and hard about what she wanted to do with her life now, and she decided that she wanted to open her own business. Bon Temps was in desperate need of a place where kids, especially the teenagers, could go and hang out. It would be a place where they felt safe and that could keep them out of trouble and off the streets. It would be almost like a modern version of the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club of America. It would house a gym, library, art room, a computer lab, and a restaurant area. She would hire local residents and high school age kids to run it. She was thinking that families could rent out certain rooms for parties, and yearly memberships would be available on a sliding rate scale. One thing for sure, everyone would be able to use it, no matter what their economic background.
There were lots of details to work out, but she already knew that the library section would be her favorite part to set up. She envisioned comfy couches all around beautiful dark wood book cases. She wanted the restaurant area to be set up almost like an old style soda shop. The gymnasium could be used for basketball, volleyball and dance classes. The art room would be fully equipped with all kinds of supplies and would even have the ability for the members to do pottery. A lot of kids in Bon Temps could not afford their own computers and having them available would be also helpful, of course they would be fully monitored and have parental restrictions placed on them. It would be like all of the fun parts about school without worrying about being graded.
She had a lot more ideas related to her new venture, but she wanted to start with the basics. Her first step was to find a location. There was a perfect piece of property she thought would be ideal to build on. The location was right outside of town and it was already zoned for commercial building, making it perfect for her vision. Sookie went to the township offices to find out who owned the land; she didn't think it would be a problem to convince the owner to sell it to her. She knew she could make them an offer that they would not refuse. Unfortunately, when the woman in the county clerk's office gave her the name of the owner, she instantly realized she had a major problem.
It was owned by Northman Enterprises, Inc.
