The Love Of Money - S01 E06

Story 2 weeks ago

The Love Of Money - S01 E06

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 6

Inheritance

Introduction:

Helen, one of the lawyers from Yunger, Price, and VanCamp visits him and makes an intriguing proposition.***

Surely I hadn't heard him correctly.

"I'm sorry. It sounded like you said I inherited nine-hundred thirty billion dollars."

"That's correct," Karl said as he pushed a binder across his desk. This is a summary of his entire estate. In there, you'll find a collection of assets categorized by genre and in alphabetical order.

I opened the binder and began pouring through it, still in shock over what I'd just heard. They had to have the wrong person.

Karl continued as I flipped through page after page, "You'll find holding companies, financial services, realestate, Investments, art

I just so happened to be on a page entitled art and stopped my perusing to look up at Karl, "Saint Paul Preaching in Athens? As in one of the seven Raphaels?"

"Yes," one of the three women at the table interjected. "You'll see that your grandfather's collection was quite extensive. He has several pieces on loan to museums all over the world."

I tore my eyes away from the collection of assets in front of me to assess the woman. She was sitting across the desk from me and wearing a small, amused smile. She was gorgeous, with long, blonde hair teased into luxurious waves that framed a perfect face. She had fair skin, ice-blue eyes, and makeup that looked professionally done. My throat contracted every time I looked at her. If you looked long enough, you could see a few fine lines around her eyes that betrayed her age - possibly late 30s or early 40's. Those faint signs of aging subtly enhanced her lovely features, giving off an impression of experience and sophistication that far from detracting from her beauty-punctuated it.

And I stared at her more than long enough to make that determination.

One corner of her mouth teased into a half-smile, breaking the momentary spell she'd cast on me as I realized I'd been staring at her an inappropriate amount of time. I tore my gaze away from her perfect face to look at Karl again.

"Are you sure you have the right guy?"

This had to be a mistake. There was no way I could be the inheritor of so much wealth. Was I being tricked? Was someone playing a prank? This couldn't be real.

"Oh, we are most certainly sure we have the correct person," said William Price, one of the partners of the firm who had met me downstairs. "We wouldn't have come to you if there was any chance of being wrong. Can you imagine the lawsuit?" he asked with a chuckle at the absurdity of making such a mistake.

"Mr. Gerrard laid out all the evidence and its appropriate documentation," Karl confirmed. "We even took the time to verify the information after his passing. There's no doubt you're his grandson and his will made it completely clear that you were to be the sole inheritor of his entire estate. It includes everything. The money. The houses. The majority shares of his companies."

"Of his companies?" I repeated. Did I own companies now? That was alarming... I didn't know the first thing about business on the kind of scale that billionaires dealt with. Would I crash, burn, and go broke like the people you heard about who won the lottery?

"You don't have to worry about that, Karl continued. He could obviously sense what I was thinking, "They are fully staffed and completely self-sufficient. You don't have to worry about steering that ship."

I got up from the seat and started pacing. I breathed deeply - in and out while running my hands through my hair. I looked out the window and took in the city skyline from the heights of the building. I was in, then looked around the room at all the lawyers staring at me. There were twelve or thirteen people in here... all watching me as I tried to process life-changing information that threatened to leave me in shock. Half of them looked amused. One of the other women near the end of the table who looked to be in her early 20s smirked at me as I locked eyes with her.

I'd always dreamed about winning the lottery and had a plan laid out for what I was going to do, but actually winning it? What was I supposed to do? Just quit my job? Do I cash everything out and take the money? What about taxes? What about fees? What would my friends and family say? Do I tell them? What about the unforeseen responsibilities my grandfather had that I wasn't aware of? Was my grandfather really worth that much money? How? Was it legal? Did he find a secret cache of Nazi gold? How much of heaven and earth had he moved to gain that sort of wealth, and what sort of repercussions would I be facing if I took that money?

Wait... I wasn't considering not taking the money, right? I'd be a fool not to.

"I know this is a lot. Please take your time," Karl said.

"He seriously didn't have any family?"

"No," William said, "He has family, but he didn't leave them with anything."

I balked at that. "What? Why?"

"It's complicated. Mr. Gerrard was a hard and very prideful man. Of course, his family pushed back on the will, but we've already taken care of that. The ruling has already been made. The will is being honored."

"Can I meet them?"

"If you want," Karl said and threw a glance at William that looked uneasy. "Could everyone give us the room? We'll call you back if we need anything else, but it's clear Mr. Upton is going to need some time to process this. Thank you."

Everyone began to clear off their stuff efficiently and leave. The only ones to remain in their seats were Karl, William, the other man who met me downstairs-who I assumed was Roger VanCamp, and the beautiful blonde from earlier. The younger woman caught my eye as she was slipping her bag on her shoulder and she gave me a tight-lipped, but warm smile and I could feel myself giving her one in return. It was clear that my libido was still working despite the shock of the situation.

Soon as the five of us were alone and the door was shut, Karl continued, "Look, Mr. Upton. Our firm has worked for the Gerrard family for decades. In fact, I'd say half our firm is dedicated solely to the Gerrards, wouldn't you say?" The rest of the room nodded in response.