Chapter: Bad News, Good News
Getting back from the Marine Ball, Renee finds a box at her door. Looking at the mailing label, then who it was sent from, Renee's heart sank.
Picking up the box, Renee and James walk into the house. Once inside, James sees tears forming in the creases of Renee's eyes.
"What's wrong, Sweetheart? Are you okay?" James asks his new fiancé.
"I don't know. I'm afraid to open the box," Renee replies.
James had been looking through her mail when he came across a large Manila envelope from a lawyer.
"Sweetie, this might explain it. Do you want me to open it? I can read it then tell you what it says," James offers Renee a helping hand.
Renee looks up at James. He could see relief hit Renee.
Slowly James opens the envelope and reads what it said to himself. After a few minutes, James starts to read it to Renee.
"We regret to inform you, but Marine Corps General Sydney Parker passed away in his sleep. They sent you a box of his possessions from the VA home. Please call us we have a very important item to discuss regarding General Parker's last will and testament," James finishes reading the letter and looks at Renee.
He can clearly see the grief in Renee's eyes.
"Baby, I'm so sorry. I know how much the General meant to you," James says as he holds Renee close.
With her hands still shaking, Renee asks James to open the box for her. Opening the box, he quietly inspects the items inside the cardboard box.
Renee eventually gathers her strength and goes to stand next to James. She needed to see what was in the box. Renee thought of Sydney as a father of sorts.
There in the box were the rest of the one-star General's medals. Renee knew that he wanted to give the medals to Piper so she would be able to remember her grandpa. There was only one other item in the box.
In tears, Renee gently pulls out a folded up flag. The flag was inside a beautiful display box. At the bottom was a simple engraved plate.
"Sydney Wallace Parker, US Marine Corps General"
"World War II, Vietnam War, Korean War"
"Awarded a Bronze Star, a Distinguished Service Medal, an Army and Marine Corps Medal, and two Purple Hearts"
"April 08, 1925- November 9, 2018"
Renee placed the folded up flag display on the mantle of her fireplace. Renee quietly asked James a question.
"Do you think that Piper would mind if I kept one of the medals for myself? I wanted to keep the Bronze Star. She already has one of those. One of the Rear Admirals gave her one last Christmas."
"No, of course, she won't mind. She knows how much you love Sydney," James reassures Renee.
"Will you tell Piper when she gets back from school. She loves Sydney too," Renee begs him to be the one to tell his daughter that General Parker died.
"I'll tell Piper about Sydney when she gets home from school," James tells Renee consolingly.
About that time, the front door goes flying open as Piper runs inside laughing. When Piper sees the two of them standing in front of the kitchen island, she knows something is wrong. She can clearly see that Renee had been crying.
"Piper, Sweetheart, come sit down with us. We just got some bad news," James tells his teenage daughter.
Without saying anything, Piper sits down on the leather sectional couch. The girl was sure that she knew what it was about.
"We just found out the Sydney died in his sleep. I'm so sorry, Sweetie. He did leave you a few things," James tells his daughter as he hands her four small wooden boxes.
Piper knew what was in them without opening them.
Quietly she took the Medals out and tucked them into the display box her dad had built for her. She gently placed the box back on the mantle.
"He was just so sweet to me," Piper quietly told her dad and Renee.
"Darling, you need to call the lawyer about Sydney's will. Why don't you call them on speakerphone, so Piper and I can be there to support you through this," James gently tells Renee.
Without saying anything, James sees Renee nod, yes.
He then pulls his phone out and dials the lawyer's number. James turns the speakerphone on and hands it to Renee.
"Robin Maverick, Attorney at Law. How may we help you?" The voice on the other end says.
"Hello, I just got a letter telling me to call you about General Sydney Parker's will. I guess I'm just a little confused. As far as I knew, he didn't have anything," Renee responds to the woman's question in a quiet and shaky voice.
"Oh Darling, can you come into the office? We need to go over his will. He did leave some things in his estate," the lady's answers Renee question.
Renee was not able to speak, so James talks for his fiancé, "I'm Renee's fiancé, we can come in anytime that works for you."
"Can you come to the office in two hours? That will give us time to get all the paperwork and everything we need," the lady says to the three of them.
Renee says, "We will be there." She is finally able to say anything.
Two hours later, the three of them pull up to the lawyers in James's red F-150 extended cab truck. As they get to the front door, James pulls it open and holds the door for his daughter and his fiancé.
Once in the office, the lawyer pulls out a large folder. Placing it on the table, the lawyer can clearly see the confusion in Renee's face.
"The retirement home sent you his possessions that he had at the VA house. He did have a rather sizable estate. He also left keys to several safety deposit boxes at several different banks all across the city. He put your name down as co-owner of the boxes. We need to give you the keys to the boxes as well as the locations of the banks he used. He also owned several houses in New Orleans and here in Miami. Sydney was very private and never talked about money," the lawyer finished talking to a confused Renee.
The lawyer then handed Renee five deposit box key envelopes and a print out listing five different banks that Sydney had boxes at as well as keys and addresses of the houses. They were apparently vacant homes at this point. The lawyer also hands a Renee the deeds of three houses. One in Miami and two in New Orleans.
Getting up to leave the room, the lawyer turns to talk to Renee one more time.
"If you have any further questions regarding the estate, please don't hesitate to call us," she says as she walks out of the room.
Looking over at Renee, James could clearly see she was shaking. Seeing that, James wordlessly gathers the envelopes and puts them in his pocket.
He then slowly and gently reaches for Renee to hug her. His fiancé was on the verge of tears again by this point.
"I've known him for twenty years, and I didn't know any of that," Renee tells James between the sobs.
"This way Sweetie," he tells Renee as he leads her out of the office.
Getting to the first bank, James looks at Renee before he asks her a question.
"Baby, are you sure you are ready for this?" He asks very lovingly.
"I can do this. Pull yourself together," Renee tells herself out loud.
Without another word, Renee opens the door and gets out. James is right behind her. Piper brings up the rear of the group of three.
Walking up to the first available banker James pulls out the envelope for the bank's deposit box. Giving the envelope to the banker, Renee pulls herself together long enough for her to tell the banker what happened and what she wanted.
"My friend died and left me these keys. The lawyer told me that my name was on the list of people who can access the box," is what she says to the banker in nothing but then a whisper.
The banker took pity on Renee and changed his mannerisms to a more sensitive tone.
"Let's see what I can do for you, Sweetie," is what the banker says as he bustles off to get the box log-in sheet.
He quickly returns with a sign-in book and tears in his eyes.
"Sweetie, I didn't realize that its Sydney's box. He was a great man, from what I knew about him. He would come in every month to put something in the box or take something out of it. You must be Nae. He talked about you all the time. He thought of you as the daughter that he never had," the banker says as he leads the three of them into the vault.
He then leads the three into a private room to look in the box. Sydney's box was a very large one. Slowly Renee opens the box, not knowing what was inside.
In the box, Renee found more than she expected to find.
Several World War II war bonds, World War II savings bonds, keys to a storage unit close by, as well as his US Marine issued 1911 Colt sidearm. James carefully put the contents of the box in the bag that the bank had given them. Reaching for the 1911, Renee stops him.
"Let me take this one," as she gently straps the firearm and holster to her right hip. Sydney was a righty, so the holster was made to sit on the right hip. If Renee put it on her left hip, it would be facing the opposite direction.
The three of them then head off to check out the storage unit. Sydney had them running all over the city on a treasure hunt of sorts. As James unlocks the large outside storage unit, no one was ready to see what was inside. In the middle was a mint condition 1964 candy apple corvette convertible. Without skipping a beat, Renee gets Piper's attention when Renee grabs the keys from a hook on the wall.
"Piper, It's your's Sweetie. I mean when you turn sixteen, of course. I'll help you get her running," Renee says as she tosses the teen the keys.
Piper's eyes widened larger than the Corvette's hubcaps. "Really," she screams as she looks at her dad.
"It's fine with me if you are sure, Renee?" He questions Renee if that is what she really wants.
"I have a mint condition 1966 Cherry-red Mustang Convertible that my mom left me when she died down in New Orleans. I could have it shipped here if I wanted. Besides, it's what Sydney would have wanted," Renee reassures James and Piper that this was her final decision.
Further, in the storage container, Renee and James are left in complete shock. When they find an arsenal of weapons, most of which were military issue or Vietnam War age.
Among what they found was: a Gatling gun, a flamethrower, a military Willie Jeep in pieces, several M1C Garands, M1 Carbines, M14 rifles, M16 rifles, Winchester Model 1912 shotguns, M26 fragmenting grenades, M40 rifles, Sten Submachine gun, M 1903 A4 Springfield rifles, Browning M 1917 A1 Heavy Machine Gun, M3 fighting knives, and a German-made Walther P38. Both Renee and James knew that some of these weapons dated back to World War II. They also knew that some of these were illegal to own. During the cover of night, Renee and James agreed to return and move the weapons to Renee's hidden underground weapons vault she had at home.
Getting Piper's attention, the three of them closed the container and locked it. Piper didn't go in the back of the container. She had spent that time checking out her "new" car. The teen couldn't have been happier.
The three then went to the next bank that the lawyer had listed. The second safety deposit box that they had keys too. By now, Renee had processed the death enough for her to do the talking. The last time James had done all the talking.
Again the banker was very supportive to Renee. This banker too, recognized the other name on the sign-in sheet. Again the banker offered their condolences. The banker then led the three of them into a private room to look in the box. Before the banker left, he handed James a bag so that they could take what they wanted.
When Renee opens it up, she can't say anything to James. She just looks at him with a blank stare in her eyes. Being unable to read Renee, James goes up behind Renee to see what his fiancé sees. Again he is speechless. Finally, Piper couldn't stand not knowing what was inside, so she walks around to be in front of Renee and James. Piper is the one who broke the heavy silence.
"Holy Cow, that's a lot of money, daddy. Isn't that a lot of money," she virtually shouts to her dad. Piper's shouts snapped James out of his shock.
"Yes, Sweetie, that is definitely a lot of money," James tells Piper as he tries to snap Renee out of her total daze.
"Nae… Baby… Snap out of it, Sweetheart," he tries to get her attention before he attempts to grab her. James didn't want to cause a PTSD episode.
Renee does manage to snap herself out of it when Piper steps between her field of view and the box.
"I'm sorry, Sweetie. Yes, that is a lot of money. We should probably count how much it is. I'll put it all into a college account for you. I will pay for Sydney's funeral myself. He will be having a full military funeral with full military honors," Renee tells a surprised Piper and James.
As they all counted the money, they all came back with the same number. Sydney had stuffed six hundred twelve thousand five hundred dollars into this box alone. They all really wanted to go check out the other three boxes that Sydney had if he put the same amount of money in each of the boxes that two million four hundred fifty thousand five hundred dollars. If you add the bonds to the total, it is probably another fifty thousand five hundred dollars at least.
"I don't think Sydney ever spent any of his money. This is literally his life savings. I don't know what to do with this much money. With Piper's grades, she will probably get a scholarship to any college. I do want to make sure that she can afford to go to any college regardless of a scholarship or money. I'm going to pay off my mortgage. Maybe I'll build a state-of-the-art dog and horse training facility away from here but nearby. This box alone would be more than enough to pay off my mortgage," Renee is getting really excited by now.
Taking a deep breath, Renee puts the money back into the box, only keeping one package of cash. She wanted to pay off the storage unit for a long time.
On the way to the next bank, Renee stopped back at the storage unit to give the owner some money. When Renee tossed the bundle of cash on the counter, the owner was surprised, to say the least.
"That is enough money to just buy the unit from me. You wouldn't need to keep paying month to month. You will also be able to come and go as you please," the owner tells Renee.
"Agreed, I'll buy the unit if that works for you, "was what Renee says in response to the owner of the storage property.
Renee had called it. Opening the next three boxes, they find exactly six hundred twelve thousand five hundred dollars in each deposit box. They leave the money in the boxes after counting it all.
Getting home, the three of them had a lot to think about. Renee was really thinking about what to do with all that money. One thing is for sure, the following morning, Renee is taking James and Piper to visit the other three vets at the VA home. She wanted to make sure that they knew how much she loved them. Renee also wanted to ask the Lieutenant Colonel a question.
The next morning dawned very peacefully. Renee had fallen asleep being held by James. It was Renee's turn to cook the three of them breakfast that particular Saturday.
James hated to wake her up since Renee did have a tough day yesterday. Not wanting to wake her up, James slides his arm out from under Renee. Tiptoeing to the door, he snuck downstairs to make breakfast.
He knew what he was planning on making for breakfast for a Saturday morning. Pulling out a box of Café Dumont Beignet mix, James starts to make the delicious French pastry.
James knew that the aroma alone would wake Renee up from the deepest sleep. He knew that his daughter just loved Beignet too. These women are the most important people in his life. He would do absolutely anything for either of them.
Just as he thought, halfway through making breakfast, Renee and Piper sleepily walk into the kitchen. Both of them were following the aroma.
As he places the tray with the fresh Beignet on the counter, James needed to remind both Piper and Renee not to inhale while they eat. If they did, they would inhale powdered sugar, and that is no fun.
"Don't inhale or you'll inhale the sugar and start a coughing fit," James says in a slightly scolding tone.
"We won't," both Renee and Piper say in unison.
They promptly proceed to inhale while they eat. That caused them both to start coughing fits.
As he throws his arms up in the air, "Why do I even bother to warn you guys, you never listen," exclaims an exasperated James. He then starts to laugh, James was incapable of staying mad at either Renee or Piper.
After breakfast, the three of them are busy getting ready to go visit the three other vets over at the VA home. Renee loads Charlie and Echo into the truck with Piper and James.
All of the vets loved it when Charlie went to the home. She brought great comfort to a lot of them. Since she was also a veteran, they found comfort in her calm demeanor. She wore her military vest with her medals she earned both officially and unofficially. Officially she was awarded six Lois Pope Medals for Courage. Unofficially she was awarded two Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts.
The five of them then walk into the VA house to visit their friends. Quietly Renee walks up to the receptionist to ask about her friends.
"Can you tell us where Lieutenant Colonel William Kingston, Rear Admiral Clayton Webster, and Rear Admiral Patrick Barnett are?" Renee asks the receptionist quietly.
"I don't know offhand, but they are probably in the game room. You can all go back and find them if you want. We all know who you are, Renee," the receptionist kindly answers Renee's question.
The three people and two dogs then walk back to find their friends. Sure enough, they locate the vets in the game room. The Rear Admirals were engrossed in an intense game of chess. The Lieutenant Colonel was giving them both bad advice since he was playing the winner.
Walking into the game room, Piper ran to surprise the Navy veterans. The Marine had seen the five of them come into the room. He was not going to ruin the girl's fun by telling the others about her coming their way.
Charlie and Echo were both right behind Piper as she approached her "grandpas."
The Navel veterans didn't look up until Piper was right in front of them. Renee and James could see their faces light up when they saw Piper.
"What are you guys doing here? It's not Thanksgiving or Christmas yet, is it?" That was the first thing the vets told the visitors.
"We wanted to come and see you guys," was what the teen told her hero's.
"We take it that you heard about Sydney's passing," Clay asks Renee in a very sweet manner.
"Yes, I never told him how much I loved him, so I came here to tell you all in case you didn't already know that," was what Renee was barely able to talk to them.
"Sweetie, he knew, and we all know," the Lieutenant Colonel tells Renee as he reaches for her to hug her tight.
Renee really wanted to ask the Marine Lieutenant Colonel a personal question, so she pulled him over to a private corner of the room.
"Colonel, can I ask you a question? James proposed to me at the Marine Birthday Ball at Camp LeJeune. I wanted to ask you if you would like to walk me down the aisle. I don't have a father, and you don't have a daughter. At least think about it," Renee finally gets her question out.
Renee didn't look at his face as she asked her question. If she did, she would have seen his face light up. The Marine vet had tears in his eyes as he answers the question.
"Of course, Sweetie. I would be honored. I'm so touched that you even thought of me. You deserve to be happy, and I know James makes you happy. If I didn't approve, I would not walk you down the aisle. He is a good man. Besides that, he has an amazing daughter that we all adore," is what the Marine told Renee as they both fought back the tears.
"We all have a bet going on. The Admirals say you'll keep Sydney's car for yourself. I say you gave it to Piper. Who gets the money?" The Marine asks Renee.
Seeing the confusion on Renee's face, The Marine explains his question.
"We all know about each other's estates. That is one sweet ride. It was running great a few months ago when we drove it last."
"Oh, you get the money, I guess. I gave it to Piper, but she can't drive it until she turns sixteen years old," Renee answers the question as they look at the rest of their group.
Winking at the Marine vet, Renee asks Piper a question.
"Piper, Sweetie, why don't you tell your grandpa's what you just got?" Renee asks the teen.
Piper couldn't have been more excited.
Quickly she takes out the keys to the Corvette and shows the vets gathered around her.
Renee just chuckled out loud when she saw the disappointment in the two Rear Admiral's faces. They then hand the old Marine vet one hundred dollars each.
Renee and James then make the announcement to the two Navy Rear Admirals. Renee wanted them to know about the wedding since they were invited to attend.
There were a lot of congratulations around from all the vets in the room. By this time, they all knew and loved Renee. After sitting down and chatting with the vets for a while Renee, James, Piper, and the dogs get up to leave. Kingston grabs James's arm as the start to leave. Pulling James off to the side, He tells Renee that James will catch up in a few minutes. Renee looks at the veteran for a few seconds, as the tries to get a read on what was going on. Being not able to read the Colonel Renee leaves with Piper and the dogs.
Back with the veterans and James, they wanted to talk to him about Renee.
"You might not realize this but we all think of Nae as our daughter. If you hurt her we will end you and they will never find your body. That being said we also know how much you love her. We know that she was there for you when Piper's mom died. You were there for Nae when Delta was killed. Nae has always been one who does before she thinks. She tends to not think thing through and she puts others above her. We are sure that you know about that personality quirk. We are all trusting to keep our little girl from doing something stupid." Bill finally lets go of the death grip he had on James's arm.
"I know what you guys mean. When Delta was killed it was shortly after her mom had died. I had to tell her after she had made it back to base from her kidnapping. She ran out of the medical tent and went to her barracks she shared with Delta. I was worried so I ran after her. I tried to open her door to talk to her but it was locked. I banged on it for a while, when I think that I heard her rack a round and I panicked. She had no family left and family was everything to her. I ended up kicking the door down and she dropped her gun. I never saw her with the gun in her hand but I had a feeling I stopped her from doing something stupid. Last year she told me that I did stop her from going through with it. That's why I moved in with her. Someone needed to be there to keep her from doing something stupid. I loved her and wanted to keep her safe."
"That woman has risked her life to save my butt too many times to count. I owe her my life and her brother I owe Piper's life. What are the odd of the person who saved my little girl would be the long lost brother of the woman who saved my life so many times." James finishes talking to the vets and turns to leave.
Bill catches James's eye when he silently nodded. Bill knew how much James love Renee and how much Renee loved James and Piper. The World War II vet knew that James and Renee's marriage story would be one that they write books and movies about. He also knew that their love story would last both of their lifetimes.
The following morning Piper wanted Renee to take her clothes shopping. The teen needed some pants and couple of shirts. She asked Nae to take her to her favorite store. Piper really wanted to go to Cabelas. She knew Renee loved going there too.