Rory and Logan spent the next morning touring around Stars Hollow and catching up with some of the more notable residents.
"She pinched my ass!" Logan yelped as Rory was nearly crying with hysterical laughter.
"I tried to warn you." Rory chocked out between laughing fits.
"I thought you were kidding!" His high pitched voice just made Rory laugh harder.
The two were cutting through the town square when they were intercepted by Lane. "Hey, guys." Lane turned and when she noticed Logan's red face yelped, "He's been Pattied!" which just made Rory laugh harder. Once the two friends calmed down Lane spoke to Logan again, "How are you liking your initiation to Stars Hollow, Logan?"
"I could have done without the crazy lady pinching my ass then saying I looked like her sixth husband. Did everyone know she was going to do that?" Logan said a little irritated.
Rory patted his shoulder mockingly and teased. "What can I say, you've got a cute ass." Logan grabbed Rory by the waist pulling her to him and whispered in her ear, "I've got proof to show just what you think of my ass." Rory turned beet red as Logan lightly kissed her cheek.
Before Rory could say anything Lane jumped in, "You guys are nauseatingly adorable." Lane quipped as she fell into step beside them. "Babette would have done the same thing, and you should have run into her first since she lives next to your mom, what's going on?"
Logan looked at Rory, not knowing how she would react to having to explain what's going on between her and Lorelai to Lane. Rory gave him a small smile before turning to Lane and explained the state of her relationship with Lorelai. They looped around the town square again as Rory got into the specifics, by the time Rory was finished explaining the situation Lane was shocked but not all that surprised and voiced her opinion. "Wow. Lorelai always seemed so relaxed about whatever you wanted to do, but now that you bring it up she got more nervous once you went off to Yale and started making your own decisions. I can understand why she might not be overly thrilled about Logan, no offence, but I'm really surprised that she's not supportive of you taking this job. This seems like the perfect job for you, Rory I love you, but you were never going to be a foreign correspondent, you're too much of a homebody for that."
"I agree. I tried to explain all of this to Lorelai but she wasn't having any of it. She's convinced that I'm throwing my life away for Logan, to become a high society trophy wife. She refuses to see that I'm pulling my life back together, that I got a good job that I'm excited about for the first time in almost ten years, for her it's just about Logan and that I'm not repeating history."
"Look, I'm on your side but whatever is going on between you two, is between you guys. I just have one question, are you happy?"
Rory's smile could have been spotted from a satellite she was grinning so wide. "Extremely happy." Lane grinned and pulled Rory into a hug. Once the two girls separated Lane turned towards Logan with a stern look on her face.
"Now, pretty boy, I don't care how happy she is or how much she loves you, if you hurt her, I will beat you to a pulp."
Logan was completely taken aback by the Korean girl's threat, which made Rory snicker. "Hey." Lane blurted out "I may be tiny but wrangling twin boys has given me a strength you wouldn't believe."
"Lane," Rory interrupted before either Lane or Logan could say anything "I really appreciate you threatening Logan, but it's not necessary. We actually have to go to Hartford for a meeting."
"Is this with the lawyer about your grandpa's estate?" Logan's eyebrows shot up in surprise but before he could interject Rory spoke.
"Yep. I still have no idea what is going to happen but it's adding an air of mystery to this already stressful weekend."
"Going to tell the rest of the family this weekend huh." Lane smiled sympathetically.
"Yep. Friends from Yale first, then Grandma, then dad. And this is after the lawyer and whatever mayhem she has in store for me."
Lane gave her a hug whispering "It will not be quite as bad as you think." She backed away with a wide grin on her face. "Hey, if Mama Kim can come around to my life choices, anyone can be ok with yours. Even Lorelai."
"Thanks, Lane. I hope your right."
"I am, now get going but come back soon, you can't leave me in this loony bit alone!"
"Never! I can't have my kid not knowing their auntie Lane!"
Lane smiled before pulling Rory into another hug. When they pulled apart Rory smile then spoke; "I really do have to go, but I'll talk to you soon!"
"Yes, I want to know what happened with the mystery lawyer."
"Of course. Bye Lane."
"Bye Rory." With one more quick hug between the childhood friends, they headed towards the car. Ten minutes later they were on their way to Hartford to deal with the unavoidable mess that was their family.
An hour later Logan and Rory walked into an extravagant office building and went up to the law firm that was located on the 10th floor. Logan could feel Rory vibrating with nerves as she stood next to him as the elevator started its ascent.
"Ace, you're going to have to relax. It'll be fine."
Rory scoffed and turned to look at Logan. "Fine! They lost a part of my inheritance from the most important man in my life. They simply forgot that I had another couple million dollars to my name. A couple million dollars Logan! And if your guess is accurate, which I'm thinking it is because you know more about this kind of stuff then me, it's a couple hundred million. Hundreds of millions of dollars they just neglected to tell me about! Their entire job is to make sure that when people die things go the way they want. They don't even have to deal with the fact that my grandpa is dead!" Rory's eyes went wide at that last statement as if it only just occurred to her that her grandfather was dead. "He's dead," Rory said as a whisper to herself than an actual statement to Logan.
Logan shifted so he could get a good look at Rory's face and realized that she had started to cry. He wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders and he started to whisper lightly to her when the elevator doors dinged open. Luckily for them, the elevator opened into a hallway just outside the law office, so he pulled her around a corner to give them some privacy. When Rory looked in his eyes she chocked out "He died," she said in between her sobs. The sobs broke Logan's heart and he gathered her into his arms which just made her cry harder. "Oh Ace, it's going to be ok." He said soothingly and kissed the top of her head.
"No, it's not!" Rory wailed "He died. His heart stopped beating and I'll never see him again." Logan didn't quite know what to say so he held her tight, rubbed her back and let her cry. He rocked her gently whispering calming words in her ear.
Slowly the sobs turned to hiccups then to whimpers as Rory calmed down. "Breath baby, just breath" Logan said gently as he tried to get her to calm down a little. After a few minutes, Rory had gone quiet and she slowly moved so she could look at Logan. "I'm sorry." She said quietly.
"What are you apologizing for?" Logan said shocked
"For crying, for not staying calm-" Rory looked at his shirt and cringed. "For ruining your shirt."
Logan barked out a laugh at the last thing Rory mentioned. "The shirt can be washed. But why are you apologizing for not staying clam?"
"After grandpa died, grandma was a mess and mom is never good in a crisis so I had to make the plans for the funeral and call the lawyer and keep calm. I took over grandpa's role as the calming presence and the one with the plans and I'm failing." Rory trailed off with tears gathering in her eyes again.
"Ace, you shouldn't have had to do all that by yourself. Did you even have a chance, or give yourself a chance to really mourn him?" Rory just shook her head in response. Logan sighed not overly surprised by her response. "Rory, you don't have to be the calming presence around me. I'll be the person you lean on, the one that you cry all over and you are allowed to really mourn Richard. He was the most important man in your life and I'll be here while you do it."
"You sure?" Rory said watery. Logan just smiled sadly at her and kissed her forehead.
"I'm sure," Logan said. "Are you feeling a little better?"
"Yeah. I'm actually a lot better." Logan disentangled himself from Rory then grabbed her hand. "Then let's go deal with the lawyer and the suspiciously large amount of money you were left."
"Suspiciously large? See I knew something was wrong-" Logan cut Rory off with a quick kiss before she could collapse into hysterics.
"Rory, let's go get all the facts ok?" Logan said calmly, hoping that he could appeal to her rational side and love of information.
"Ok" Logan nodded and gently pulled her towards the doors to the law firm.
Logan guided Rory through the doors of the law firm and up to the desk. A slightly bored-looking receptionist looked at them before speaking. "Hello? How can I help you?"
Logan was about to speak up when surprisingly Rory spoke up. "Yes, I'm here to see Sharon Collins."
"Is she expecting you?"
Rory put on her best Emily Gilmore impersonation because, by this point, she was more than a little fed up with the situation. "Yes. I'm Rory Gilmore, I have an appointment at noon to talk about my missing inheritance." The receptionist paled under Rory's glare and quickly called down to the lawyer to tell her that they had arrived. "She'll be right out. Would you like me to get you something to drink while you wait?"
"Green tea if you have it." The receptionist nodded and ran off. When the secretary was gone Logan burst out laughing.
Rory whipped around and glared at him not having turned off the angry society women setting she was currently on. "What?"
"That woman ran away from you because she was terrified of what you might do to her."
"No, I-" Rory started to protest but then her eyes went wide as the realization struck her. "Oh my god, I did. I'm horrible! I didn't mean to terrify the poor woman!"
Logan just chuckled at Rory's rambling before speaking. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you aren't high society. That performance would put your grandma to shame."
"My mom always hated the way that grandma would treat the people in her employ, whether it was the maids or personal shoppers. As much as I love my grandma and no matter how much my life is starting to look more like hers then my moms, that was one part of her personality I never wanted to replicate." Rory said quietly.
"Rory, you're angry, sad and you're finally letting yourself grief your grandpa. It's ok if you lash out a little. I believe it's perfectly normal." Rory started to argue but Logan interjected before she could. "I have seen your grandma at her worse, when Richard has health scares or when someone really angers her, and she is much MUCH worse than that. So, if that's you at your worse, I think we'll be ok."
Before Rory could say anything else a woman who strangely resembled a young Ms. Patty came around the corner. "Rory Gilmore?"
"Hi," Rory stepped closer to shake the woman's hand. "Nice to meet you. This is my boyfriend, Logan Huntzberger." Rory gestured to Logan then he stuck his hand out to shake the lawyer's hand.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Sharon Collins would you come with me to my office then we can get down to business."
Sharon led Logan and Rory through the law firm to a large office in the corner. Once they were all inside she gestured for them to sit down as she moved to the other side of the desk and picked up a large file folder. Before anyone could speak the receptionist came bustling into the office and handed Rory her tea before quickly leaving.
"I'm sorry about that." Rory broke the slightly awkward tension that had developed after the secretary's entry. "I took some of my emotional issues out on your secretary. I really didn't mean to frighten her."
"That's alright. Let's get down to business shall we."
"Yes please." Logan could tell that Rory was getting agitated so he reached over and squeezed her hand.
"I do have one question before we get started if that's ok?" Rory just nodded her head in acceptance. "The name I have of the beneficiary on these documents is different than your name. But I have been assured that it is you. Can you explain that please?"
"What name do you have?" Rory asked.
"Lorelai Leigh Hayden Gilmore"
Logan's mouth dropped open when he heard Rory's full legal name. He knew that Chris' last name was Hayden but he never knew that she had his name in any way.
Before Logan could get too far into that train of thought patted his knee and gave him a reassuring smile before turning to the lawyer. "Yes, that my legal name."
"I'm sorry to have to do this, but can I see some ID to that effect?"
Rory nodded and pulled her driver's license out and showed it to the lawyer. "My mother named me after herself and my great-grandmother was also Lorelai Gilmore, so I go by the nickname Rory to avoid confusion."
"Right. Thanks, sorry about that." Rory simply waved off the apology then Sharon looked over the paper before speaking again. "When we spoke on the phone I originally told you that there were specific directions your grandfather wanted to be followed in the event of his death that involved the estate of your great-grandmother."
"Yes." Rory nodded urging Sharon to continue.
"When your grandmother was still alive she decided that she wanted to leave you more than your trust fund."
"Now that I think about it, I never received that trust fund. Can I still claim it?"
The lawyer looked at Rory baffled by the statement before continuing. "Yes, of course, you can. You can claim it today when we sort out the rest of your inheritance. Do you know how much was in the trust of your great-grandmother?"
"No, it was never mentioned. When Trix died the trust went to my grandpa but I never heard about it again."
"Well, the trust contains about 15 million dollars. She kept adding to it even after you turned 18." Rory looked gobsmacked but the lawyer continued before anything else could be said. "When your great-grandfather died he left a substantial amount of money to your great-grandmother and your great-grandmother had family money separate from her marriage. Now she made you the main beneficiary for her estate. She had implicant instructions that when she died the money would go to Richard until you married."
"Why wait until I was married to receive the money?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry." Logan realized that Rory was starting to get worked up again and he gave her hand a squeeze hoping that she wasn't working herself into a tailspin.
"What does the estate contain?" Rory asked curiosity filling her voice
"Well, there is a substantial amount of money in the estate as well as properties. Monetarily speaking the estate has close to 150 million dollars. Which is on top of the trust fund."
Rory's mouth dropped open in shock. "I'm sorry did you say that my great-grandmother left me a total of 165 million dollars."
"Yes, that seems to be the case."
"But why did that not go to my grandpa, and how did I not know about it?" Rory said utterly baffled.
"I'm sorry, I really don't know."
"Ok then, why did I not receive any of it until now?"
"That I do know. Your grandfather originally left his will in the hands of Janlan DuGrey." Rory snorted after hearing the name of her grandfather's lawyer. Logan looked at her confused but before anything could be said the lawyer kept speaking. "Mr. DuGrey was a very good lawyer and was a good friend of your grandfather, because of the nature of their relationship the extra issues regarding your inheritance were kept separate from his will and other people within the firm did not know the specifics of Richard Gilmore's estate. The issue directly lies in the fact that Mr. DuGrey died less than two weeks before your grandfather did. Because of the timing of his death and that the extra information regarding your information was kept from the rest of the firm, we didn't find out about the rest of the inheritance until I replaced another lawyer who retired."
"But how did you find it?" Logan interjected after a moment of awkward silence, Rory was too shocked to say anything so Logan took over.
"I was going through a safe and looking through some of the recently retired lawyers opened cases, because I was supposed to take the cases over when I found your grandfather's file. I went through it baffled that it wasn't opened because I knew that he had passed. I worked in the firm when your grandfather died so I heard about it."
"Oh my god. I don't even know how to respond to that." Rory said confused.
"I really am sorry about our errors and we'll do anything to fix it." The lawyer said solemnly.
"It's not your fault!" Rory said passionately. As much as she was angry at the whole situation, she understood that the woman in front of her was not to blame. She fixed a situation that would have gotten much worse as time went on and was taking all the blame herself. "You said something about a property?"
"Yes, there was one property that your grandmother instructed be left to you. It's a three-story country manor located in England, about an hour west of London. The manor was built in 1885 specifically for your family and was handed down through generations. The manor itself is on 5 acres. The manor is worth 5 million pounds, which works out to almost 9 million dollars, though from what I can gather from the paperwork sitting in front of me, the personal value is much higher."
Logan and Rory were stunned into silence at what the lawyer was describing. Rory knew that her great- grandmother lived a grand lifestyle but she always assumed that it was slightly less ostentatious than her grandparents. Knowing just how much Trix had and left to her, stunned Rory to her core and she said the only thing that came to mind. "Holy shit."
Rory's outburst broke the tension that had grown in the office and Logan and the lawyer started to laugh. Logan was silenced quickly when Rory sent him a glare but he couldn't help but likely chuckle despite himself. "I'm sorry Ace. But that was a remarkably accurate sentiment for what you were just told."
"So, what this property has been sitting unused for 15 years?" Rory said her head starting to spin.
"I don't think so. While the money went straight to you the house did not. Your grandfather had to take ownership of the house and as far as I know, it has been looked after. Based on these bank statements, he probably employed somebody to keep the place in good shape."
"Ok, but then why did I not find out about it when we first went through his will?"
"I honestly don't know. It was filed with your great-grandmother's estate information instead of your grandpa's assets. I'm sorry."
Rory looked back and forth between Logan and Sharon not sure what to do with this information. Logan looked at Rory letting her lead their reactions knowing that this was going to be hard for her to hear and process. As Logan watched he noticed that Rory got her 'Emily Gilmore expression' on again. He was a little amazed that they got this far without her losing her cool. "What do I have to do to claim all of this?" Rory gestured vaguely in the direction of the will and other documents retaining too her inheritance. She was clearly upset and baffled and was trying not to meltdown right there in the law office they were in.
Sharon shuffled through her stacks of papers and handed Rory a large amount, all flagged for where she needed to sign. "This is for the money inheritance, just sign where it's marked and fill in your banking information on the last page and everything will be transferred to you by the end of next week." Rory nodded and started reading the pages when she finished reading parts she would hand them off to Logan to see what he thought. When they finished reading the large stack of legal papers, Sharon picked up another stack of papers and put them in front of them. "These are about the property in England. They are simply for taking possession of the property and transferring everything to your name." Rory and Logan repeated the process they used on the previous papers with these and once they were finished Rory looked up at the lawyer, without returning the paper. "Would you mind if we had our lawyer take a look at these documents before we sign anything? I just want to make sure that everything is accurate, and considering the amount of money involved I want to make sure there is no loophole anywhere." Rory smiled at the lawyer, which if Logan hadn't known any better would assume was a 'society smile,' and considering the last hour or so, it could've been.
The lawyer, who seemed to want this meeting over as soon as possible nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea and considering the strangeness surrounding the situation. Once you have your lawyer take a look at those and you sign them, just send them back to me. I'll be around the rest of the day, so-" Sharon pulled out a business card and handed it to Rory. "Give me a call if you can sort it out today. My cell number is on there, and just call before you drop by."
"Great, thank you and we'll speak soon." Rory and Logan stood and both shook hands with Sharon before leaving her office.
Logan put her hand on her lower back and gently steered her out of the law firm, they were in the elevator, leaning tiredly against the back wall before either spoke. "So, who are we taking these papers to exactly?" Logan said slightly baffled by Rory's earlier statement. He knew that Rory wasn't as opposed to the high society life as he once thought, but even he thought it odd that Rory would have a lawyer on speed dial.
"Well, I was hoping that Colin would take a look at these. I am not sure if grandpa had a lawyer on standby or if when one was necessary, he'd call one of his friends and considering what just happened I'd like to avoid using grandpa's friends for my legal questions."
"So you want to use one of mine?" Logan said with a smirk
Rory looked at Logan clearly miffed then answered the question. "Yes. We're seeing him in an hour anyway, maybe this was we can have all of this-" Rory gestured vaguely around her clearly agitated. "dealt with by the end of the day."
Logan smiled sympathetically at her, knowing that she was freaking out. Logan pulled her into a hug, holding her close as she shook lightly. "Oh, Ace, it's going to be ok," Logan whispered into her hair.
"It's really not. The trust fund that Trix set up, I knew about it when I was sixteen. She was going to give it to me then but Mom didn't want me to have it and she took it out on Grandma, who yelled right back. Trix wasn't having any of it and said that we were all too immature to handle the amount of money I would be receiving."
Logan glanced at Rory shocked at what she was telling him. Normally when trust funds were threatened it was because the recipient was not behaving in a way that the creator thought was appropriate. It was rare that it was because other family members were acting strange. "Ok, well that explains why you didn't get it at sixteen, but why didn't you get it sometime later?"
"I really don't know, but I think grandma might." Rory sighed and leaned her head against Logan's chest exhausted even though the day wasn't nearly over.
"Ace, we can cancel the guys so you can rest. We don't need to see them today." Logan said quietly as he rubbed her back, making her relax even more.
"No, I want to see them and they won't be anywhere near as tiring as that was."
"They'll be more!" Logan stated, a little frustrated that Rory wouldn't relax.
"I'll rest on the plane ride to Grandmas."
Logan sighed in resignation, knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere. This was partially his fault and he probably should have had the guys meet them in New York once they scheduled the meeting with the lawyer, but it was too late now.
The elevator doors dinged open and they headed out to meet their childish but always entertaining friends.