JANUARY 2005
"Mom, come on. Why don't you and Kate take my car for the trip, and I'll take the Wagoneer to the mechanic to get the heat properly fixed before I come up for the funeral," Randall suggests as he picks up Rebecca's suitcase.
"No, no. It'll be fine. The mechanic did a temporary fix that he said should hold us over until the part comes in to fix the vent door. Besides, the problem is only on the passenger side – it's fine on the driver's side."
"So what, Kate's just going to freeze if it goes out again?"
"No, I can sit in the back on the driver's side," Kate explains as she brings her suitcase down. "Not to mention, I have plenty of extra padding to keep me warm," she quips. "Besides, this will probably be the last time we go up there, and I want to stop off at the Pilgrim Rick motel. And doing that in a different car just wouldn't be the same."
[Note: if I were casting this I would use the teenage actors, because Hannah, Niles and Logan are more believable as 24-year-olds than Chrissy, Sterling and Justin at this point. But teenage/young adult Kate is significantly heavier by this point than when we last saw her in 1999].
Randall rolls his eyes. "Well, for the record, I still think it's a really bad idea for you guys to take an 8-hour trip to Connecticut in the middle of January in a 17-year-old car with a faulty heating system."
"Noted," Rebecca says pointedly.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you guys?" Randall asks.
"And miss Beth getting that award? Absolutely not. Tell her I'm so sorry I won't be able to be there," Rebecca says. "Now, your flight gets into JFK late Thursday night. Kevin's flying in Tuesday to hang out with some friends in New York on his way, so he'll meet you guys at the airport and hopefully pick up the rental car before you land."
"Alright," Randall says as he loads Rebecca and Kate's luggage into the Wagoneer. "How are you doing?" he asks Rebecca softly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm…it's still sinking in but I'm okay. I thought…It all just happened so fast."
"You know there's nothing you could have done, right?" Randall urges.
"Yeah, I know," Rebecca says, but she doesn't seem fully convinced. "Hey, so I'm excited for you to meet your cousin Trevor," she tells him.
Randall raises his eyebrow. "Are you excited for Kevin and Kate to meet him too?" he asks, catching Rebecca by surprise.
"Well, yeah, of course I am, but…you're the one who always complains that nobody looks like you at family gatherings, and…you know what? You're right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to single you out…"
"Mom, stop," Randall says, confused about why Rebecca is suddenly getting so anxious and uneasy talking to him. "It's fine. It's no big deal. I shouldn't have even said anything. Honestly, I'm kind of excited to meet him too," he admits.
"Okay…" Rebecca says vaguely. Randall gives her a hug to reassure her and then starts to walk away. Rebecca doesn't seem fully satisfied and still feels guilty, but it's clear that Randall doesn't want to discuss it any further, so she doesn't push.
"Call as soon as you get there, okay?" Randall asks in a way that a parent would typically ask of a child.
"Okay, I will," Rebecca promises.
OCTOBER 2010
"All the stuff Jenny was telling me from the research she had done on 'transracial adoption' was making me really insecure at that point," Rebecca explains. "I know I told you my doubts came from things that happened during the 2008 election, but really, even before that, I was starting to realize how clueless we were when we adopted Randall, and how many mistakes we made with handling race issues, or not handling them. And then I found out about my mother changing her will, and it just amplified all of that insecurity, because I felt so powerless to protect him," she says, tears welling up in her eyes.
JANUARY 2005
Rebecca is ushered into a lawyer's office, looking slightly confused. A young light-skinned African American woman extends her hand.
"Mrs. Pearson, thank you for coming in," she says. "I'm Anna Mae Pollard, an associate with the firm handling trusts and estates. I'm very sorry for your loss."
"Thank you," Rebecca says. "I brought the paperwork your secretary requested for my son's adoption," she says, handing her a folder.
The lawyer takes a look at the folder and frowns as she looks at Randall's birth certificate, a photo of Randall as a toddler, and other paperwork from the social worker's records and court proceeding.
"I explained on the phone, they're not original originals because our house burned down, but I was able to get replacement copies from the state of Pennsylvania that we used to settle my husband's estate," Rebecca explains.
"The paperwork is fine, or it would be," Anna Mae says delicately, not sure how to proceed. "But I'm guessing you're not aware that about eight months ago, your mother made a change to her will," she says, showing Rebecca a piece of paper.
"What?!" Rebecca asks, completely shocked as she reads the document. "No, no, that's not right. That can't be right," she protests. "My mom wasn't all there," she explains after a minute. "She was showing signs of dementia…my husband died almost seven years ago, but the last time I saw her, she asked me where he was, why he hadn't come with me."
"According to the notes, the lawyer who made the change asked her questions and found her competent to make the change. She understood that she was executing a will and that it was a legally binding document. But if your son wants to challenge the will he can file a petition in probate court…"
"No, I want to challenge it. My son can't know about this. This will crush him…he can't ever know."
"Unfortunately, you don't have standing to challenge the will, because from a strictly pecuniary standpoint, the change is beneficial to you."
"Beneficial? I have to tell my son that his grandmother, whose love and approval he worked so hard to earn when she just gave it freely to her biological grandchildren…I have to tell him that she cut him out of her will because he was adopted, and probably because he's the wrong race if we're being honest, and you're saying that's somehow beneficial to me?" Rebecca asks with disbelief.
"Ma'am, I understand that you're upset, and I don't blame you," Anna Mae says sympathetically. "This is a harsh situation, one courts often try to avoid, but in this case…"
TWO HOURS LATER
Back at their mother's house, Jenny is on the phone with the caterers making arrangements for the funeral when Rebecca storms in and grabs the phone out of her hands.
"Rebecca, what the hell?" Jenny asks, shocked.
"Did you know that Mom changed her will to limit the inheritance to grandchildren by blood?" Rebecca demands.
"What? Oh, yeah, she wasn't happy that I was considering adopting Trevor, so she insisted on changing her will."
Rebecca just stares at Jenny with utter disbelief.
"Look, I wasn't thrilled about it, but she kept bringing it up, and it just felt like pouring salt in the wound every time, so finally I brought her to a damn lawyer in the hopes that she'd shut up about it," Jenny admits. "Why are you so upset about this? I mean, I know you and Trevor hit it off at Mom's birthday party, but since the adoption hasn't gone through he wouldn't have gotten anything anyway…wait, this doesn't affect Randall, does it?" Jenny asks, suddenly realizing (or pretending to realize – we'll never know for sure) why Rebecca is so upset.
"The lawyer said that it does. But maybe…maybe you can explain to her that Mom didn't intend to cut Randall out of her will," Rebecca says hopefully, her panic starting to subside a bit.
"I guess…I mean, I really don't know if she did or didn't," Jenny says vaguely. Rebecca glares at her. "But yeah, talk to the lawyer and ask if there's anything I can do," she says reluctantly. "I don't want to see my nephew get hurt any more than you do," Jenny insists, but her tone is such that Rebecca and the audience doubt her sincerity.
OCTOBER 2010
"Do you believe her?" Miguel asks. "About not knowing that the change to the will would also affect Randall?"
"I don't know," Rebecca answers. "I definitely believe the Trevor situation was the catalyst that prompted my mom to make the change, but do I believe that it never even occurred to Jenny that this could affect Randall too, and that if Randall was excluded she and her biological children would get a little bit more? That I'm not so sure about. And the truth is, I don't know…I don't know if my mother intended to exclude Randall or not," she says tearfully. "But I knew how much it would hurt him, and I was willing to do anything to keep that from happening."
JANUARY 2005
Rebecca returns to the lawyer's office the next day, armed with a stack of papers.
"Thank you for seeing me again," she says to Anna Mae.
"Of course. What can I do for you?"
"Obviously I'm not a lawyer, but I was up all night doing research, and I found a bunch of cases where courts refused to interpret 'by the blood' literally and ruled that adopted kids shouldn't be left out even where the will had those words," Rebecca begins, eagerly handing the folder to Anna Mae. "And my sister said that my mom probably didn't make the change because of my son – she did it because my sister was considering adopting a child born to her husband out of wedlock, and it's a whole complicated mess…not that I think he should be excluded either, but it means she didn't intend to cut Randall out, and…"
Anna Mae looks through the cases Rebecca brought and frowns sympathetically. "Unfortunately, all of these cases involve situations where there were no adopted kids in the family at the time the testator executed the will, and often the adoption was a generation or two later. In your case, your mother made that change after your son was adopted with full knowledge of the adoption. Even the most sympathetic judge is likely to rule that her affirmatively making that change was a clear expression of intent."
Rebecca shakes her head, feeling utterly defeated as she blinks back tears.
"Then he can have my share," she says after a minute.
"I'm sorry?"
"I forget what it's called, but when my husband died they told me I had that option, to pass on all or part of the life insurance money so it would go straight to my kids. I wasn't in a position to do that then because our house had burned down and I had been a stay-at-home mom for decades with no income, but I know it's an option and so if I can't challenge my mother's will, then Randall can have my share. That way he'll never have to know what she did."
OCTOBER 2010
"Wow, so you just gave up everything your mom left you so Randall wouldn't feel left out?" Miguel asks in awe. "How much money are we talking about here, anyway, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Not enough that I'd never have to work again, but enough to buy a new car and the new HVAC system that I'd been putting off. But it didn't matter. Once I had the idea it was an easy decision. It turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought – if I gave up my share the money would be split equally among all three of my kids. So I had to sign a – disclaimer of interest, I think it's called – saying I was passing on my share of the inheritance completely, and then Kevin and Kate had to sign a partial disclaimer rejecting only the additional amount they would have gotten as a result of my disclaimer…I made them swear on Jack's memory that they'd keep it a secret from Randall, and they did. And then Jenny…"
Rebecca stops talking for a minute as she struggles to compose herself.
"I'm sorry, I just…five years later, the whole thing still makes my blood boil," she admits, her hands shaking with pent-up emotion.