The Love Of Money - Episode 6
26-07-25 (06:03)
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.
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