AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If you’re reading this letter it means that you have fallen from the path I set forward for you, and as such you believe that you have forfeited your chance to inherit. I’m writing to let you know that, depending on the circumstances, that might not be the case.
In my previous letter to you, I listed nine rules to guide your future and if you have failed to meet these expectations from sheer lack of will and a weak nature, then my estate will be passed along to your sister, who will then be expected to abide by the same rules that you were unable to adhere to. If this is the case then I hope she is more capable of honoring our family’s name than you are.
I left in a few clauses that act as a get-out-of-jail-free option. If you have waited until you are twenty-five and have chosen to walk away from my estate, then I applaud you and the money is still yours to enjoy as you see fit. I feel that if you have made it to this age without having broken the stipulations, then you are already the type of person whom I would be proud to call my family. I advise you to invest wisely, work hard, and leave a legacy that your children would be proud of.
Alternatively, if you have deliberately broken one of the stipulations of inheritance in order to release yourself from the obligations of my will, then I have left the redistribution of my wealth in the hands on my good friend and trusted lawyer, Andrew Worth. He will assess your reasoning for breaking the will and move forward in accordance with my guidelines as he sees fit.
Regardless of how this letter comes to be in your possession, I wish you health, happiness, and prosperity for your future life.
Kind regards,
Harold Archibald the Third
“So who gets the money?” Wats asks.
“I’m not sure,” Priss answers, her voice a little dazed.
“Is this guy the lawyer you saw when you first broke the will? Wouldn’t he have told you if you were still going to inherit?” Arlo asks her.
“Yes, I saw him, but he didn’t mention anything. Maybe he decided my reasoning for wanting out wasn’t just, maybe whoever gets it after me was better suited,” she says with a shrug.
“You need to go see him,” Olly declares, excitement lacing his voice.
Her entire body tenses. “Why?” she asks incredulous.
“Because if you still get that money, your parents are going to drop down dead on the spot, and if you don’t, perhaps you’ll be able to find out who does and who we’ll be up against at the shareholders meeting,” Olly says, practically bouncing with excitement.
“You need to go see the lawyer, baby,” I tell her.
“I don’t want that money,” she says, her voice a little too loud.
“I don’t care about the money, you can give it all away,” I say, cupping her cheek in my palm. “You wanted revenge, Priss, and this would be the ultimate revenge. Can you imagine your parents’ faces?” I say, watching the heat flare in her eyes.
“You wouldn’t care if I gave it all away?” she asks.
“If you want, we can go up to the top of the Empire State Building and make it rain money from the roof with every single penny,” I laugh.
Her teeth worry at her full lower lip as she swallows and then nods. “We’ll go see him tomorrow.”
15
Carrigan
How did I go from a normal fourteen-year-old, to almost worth a fortune, to a worthless eighteen-year-old, and now possibly worth a fortune again in just four years? I wish I could bring my great-grandfather back from the dead and demand to know exactly what the hell he thought he was playing at with this godforsaken will he wrote. I’d love to really understand what he hoped to achieve. Was he just so narrow minded that he thought he could brandish his money like a carrot to a donkey and we’d all just fall into line?
I imagine that’s probably exactly what he thought, because that’s what he did and it worked, at least for a while. Did he understand who his grandson was? Did he expect them to manipulate me, to use me, to break me as a way of accessing the inheritance? Was that his plan all along?
My mind plays over a thousand possibilities on the drive over to the lawyer’s office, but the only real conclusion I can come to is that my great-grandfather was an asshole. He used his money to play with all of our lives. He overlooked his only son, his only grandson and left all his money to me. But the ironic thing is that my grandfather is really the only one who’s dealt with this whole situation with any real dignity. He disputed the will to start off with, but when the courts told him the will would stand, that the money was mine, he just walked away. He and my grandmother just carried on living their lives in their homes in New York, the Hamptons, and Martha’s Vineyard. I didn’t see them before, I don’t see them now, and I have so much more respect for them because of that.
I don’t know what I want the lawyer to tell me today. Inheriting the Archibald fortune with no stipulations would be the ultimate revenge on my parents, but the truth is I don’t think I want the money. It’s tainted by all the sins I committed in its pursuit and I don’t want that on my conscience again.
For the first time in four years my soul is light, and it’s because I’m free. I’m working on my relationship with my sister, I’m engaged and in love with a guy who wants me just the way I am, sins and all. I want my parents to suffer, but I don’t trust who I’ll become with this inheritance on my back again.
If Tally and I weren’t friends now, I’d wish this burden onto her, but she’s too pure, too good for me to do that to her. I don’t want any of us to have to deal with it, but if not us, does it fall back to my parents, my grandparents? Who inherits if not me?
We’re all here, all six of us seated in Olly’s limo on the way to the lawyer’s office. I haven’t made an appointment again, but just like last time I know he’ll see me. I didn’t want him to have time to forewarn my parents about this, although, as we found this letter hidden in my mom’s safe, I’m assuming they’re already aware of this convoluted plot twist.
The others are all chatting, but I’m feeling too introspective to be good company, so I’m just sitting, silently freaking out.
