Addicted To Greed (10 page)

With this Ella gave Destiny a huge embrace and kissed her on
the cheek, trying to hold her tears back as she witnessed
Destiny’s swollen eyes.

“I am sorry that you didn’t receive as much as Chase and me.”

“It’s not your fault E
lla, don’t worry, right now I couldn’t care
less about the money, all I ever wanted was his love and
approval, and no amount of money can give me that.”

Ella found she was suddenly speechless and sensed
Destiny’s
need to leave, they both promised that they would call each
other in the week. Ella was aware that poor Destiny was
struggling with the fact her and their father had never made
amends before his death. Ella felt for her so much, they were
the closest sisters imaginable and was in contact daily over the
telephone, the guilt Destiny was feeling was one of loss and
regret the finality of death, its inability to communicate no
longer. Ella knew Destiny was secretly mourning their father’s
loss more so than Chase and herself.

Chase finally approached Ella, putting his hand on her shoulder,
biting his lower lip to hold the tears back and said,
“Congratulations’ sis, spend it wisely! I love you, be sure to stay
in touch, don’t go leaving the country in a hurry, and let me
know your plans.”

With this he gave Ella one of his killer smiles and departed,
before she could summon the words to reply.
Now her brother and sister had made their speedy departure, she
shyly approached Wallace, as he ushered her to his desk.
“Ella, my dear, you father asked me to give you these!”

Wallace handed her three large brown envelopes, which were
sealed and addressed to Destiny, Chase and herself! She
couldn’t help feeling the enormous weight of them, which she
found rather peculiar. Before she could enquire to what they
were, Wallace broke his silence.

“I was given strict instructions to give them to you Ella, your
father also advised me in a letter to give you these in private,
that upon opening yours, it would be your decision to pass them
onto your brother and sister, he believed as you are the eldest,
you’d know what to do with them.”

Ella
couldn’t help but think, how bizarre, why her? Why should
she have these in her possession? Despite her been the eldest,
she couldn’t understand her father’s logic, she wondered what
they contained? Why the secrecy? Surely they were addressed
to Destiny and Chase, why the hell were they not delivered to
their rightful owners? She found herself again at a loss for words
wondering if this could be the onset of shock at receiving such a
staggering amount of money.

“Ok thank you Mr Wallace, I don’t really understand why,
however I do respect my father’s wishes.”

“I’d
like to take this opportunity to thank you for attending this
meeting today; I appreciate that this must be very difficult for
you with the sudden death of your father. As you know I
worked for Wilhelm for over thirty years, and it was a complete
honor and pleasure to work for such a noble man. I’d like to
offer you and my wife’s sincere condolences in your time of
grief, your father will be sadly missed by us all here at Wallace
& Brothers, I have not only lost a great golf partner, the life and
soul of any party, I have also lost a very loyal and honest best
friend.”

Wallace was trying his hardest to blink back the tears in order to
remain professional.

“Thank
s Mr Wallace for your kind words, he admired you and
often spoke about you and your wife, the wonderful Christmases
you all spent together in Cumbria, your wife with her
exceptional culinary skills and your fine taste in whisky and
your funniest moments together on the golf pitch, as he assured
me there was plenty.” She held out her hand towards Wallace
and he quickly embraced it, with warm smile, keeping hold of
her hand.
“Please Ella don’t forget if there is anything, I can I do for you,
please don’t hesitate to contact me, and congratulations’ on your
new found wealth, if you need advice, I’d be more than happy to
refer you to one of our finest investment brokers here at Wallace
& Brothers. Here´s my card if you can’t reach me in the office
and here´s home number, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

As they embraced and were just about to say their goodbyes
they were rudely interrupted by a fierce rapping on the door, a
voice that seemed quite familiar was shouting out for Wallace.

“Let me in this instance, Wallace, I am Felicity Pearson,
Wilhelm’s wife; I demand you open this door right now!”

Ella could hear that Wallace’s secretary was trying to deter the
woman from gaining entry.
Both Wallace and Ella exchanged
worried expressions, she found herself nodding in approval
towards Wallace to allow this woman’s requests. Wallace
reluctantly opened the door. Ella came face to face with
Felicity, her face was contorted and she was crying, she couldn’t
understand what she was trying to say, she wasn’t looking at
Wallace, she was staring directly at Ella with pure hatred in her
eyes, the once beautiful goddess her father had married
appearance had changed dramatically, her platinum blonde hair
looked dirty and uncared for. Ella automatically noticed her
dark brown roots, shocked as she thought she was a natural
blonde until this moment. Where was all the makeup she used
to apply? Her skin was dull and lifeless, no Arabian glow, where
had it gone? What had happened to her?
Felicity began to point her finger with anger at Wallace.

“Where’s
my money Wallace? Do you know he’s had my
belongings removed from my home in the states before he died?
He left me a measly eighteen million and said if I have any
disputes I should take it up with you. I want what I am owed
Wallace do you understand me?”

Ella took a few steps back allowing herself to absorb all Felicity
was screaming out.

“Felicity, I understand your frustration but now isn’t the time or
place for this as you’re aware this is a private meeting with your
late husband’s siblings to discuss his will. Now if you will
excuse us, I’ll have my secretary make you an appointment for a
time that suits us both.”

“How dare you dismiss me like this, I think you’ll
find
Wilhelm’s will is very much my business and I have every God
given right to attend this cozy little meeting of yours!”

“I’m
afraid Felicity, I am acting on Wilhelm’s instructions,
which stated in no certain terms you are not permitted to attend
this meeting and in the event you do, I am to call security to
remove you.”

Ella couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of pity for this woman,
although she despised her for taking her father away from her
mother, she had to remember it was also her father’s choice to
leave them, but she couldn’t understand what must of happened
for her father and Wallace to treat Felicity this way?
What had
happened?
She suddenly found herself in the middle of this
bitter argument between the two of them and she couldn’t help
herself interrupting.

“I have no idea why you’re
been treated like this Felicity and I
can only apologise on behalf of my father for his instructions
regarding his will, I really had no idea!”

Before Ella could finish her sentence she was rudely interrupted
by Felicity.

“Oh don’t go playing the innocent
with me, you must have been
aware of your father’s intentions regarding his will, after all I
don’t have to remind you that you were always his favorite, all
those secret meetings he setup with you, he must of confided in
you as we both know he was approaching his final days and his
death was imminent.”

“Let me tell you something Felicity, those meetings my father
setup, I hardly ever attended and on the off chance I did it was
never about his illness, in which he hid well from me, I had no
idea until the night of his death that he was in the least bit ill and
as far as the money is concerned, my father never discussed
anything regarding his will or the value of inheritance he would
leave us, both has come as quite a shock to me my brother and
sister. So if you don’t mind been accused of something I had no
knowledge about deeply offends me, especially from you.”
“I don’t believe that for one moment Ella, he must have
confided in you, he couldn’t have kept all this to himself!”

Ella began to feel less and less sympathy for this woman, she
didn’t owe her any explanations, she owed her nothing, now her
father was dead she knew she didn’t have to tolerate her any
longer and wasn’t going to let this bitch spoil her new found
wealth.

“Believe what you want to believe Felicity, I don’t owe you any
explanations about my father’s money, you see when you stole
our father from us all those years ago, you never gave us any
explanations either, just carried on in your lavish lifestyle,
without any thought of us. We were just children you choose to
ignore, keeping our beloved father away from us and my
mother. I’ll never forgive you for that and now for demanding to
know about what provisions he has left us, it’s none of your God
dam business, so if you’ll excuse me I have more pressing
matters to deal with.”

“May I remind you I am still your father’s wife and half of his
money belongs to me? I will contest his will and see that you
vile brats get nothing!”

The blood came surging back to Ella s head, feeling a little
disorientated with her balance, she knew her anger was building
up and couldn’t control herself a moment longer. “Vile brats I
don’t think so, how dare you insult any one of us?”
Ella shouted with such force Wallace had to hold her back, she
was going to launch her clenched fist right into Felicity’s plastic
nose, after all she had it coming, she wasn’t going to just stand
there and let her insult her family! She quickly launched herself
at Felicity again and managed to slap her face with such force it
knocked Felicity down on to her knees.

“Take that you money grabbing bitch, don’t ever dare to insult,
and threaten my family, or to take what is not legally yours
again!”

Wallace managed to pick Felicity up from the floor instructing
her to leave, informing her that she had no place here, he also
informed her that she had no right to her late husband’s money,
property or businesses and that she was entitled to no more than
the eighteen million that she had already received. The sheer
look of defiance on Felicity’s face showed Wallace and Ella that
she was by no means finished here. However before she got
another chance to shoot off her mouth Wallace’s secretary
entered with two security guards, who kindly escorted her out,
screaming hysterically.

“Mark my words Wa
llace I’ll see you in court, and you Ella
Pearson, this is common assault, you’ll be hearing from my
attorney, I´ll be seeing you in court!”

“I somehow doubt that Felicity.”

Ella doubted Felicity’s ramblings a
lthough somewhere inside of
her she wasn’t entirely convinced. She forced herself to give
Felicity a sweet innocent expression letting her know she wasn’t
in anyway compromised by her threats. Waiting while Felicity
was out of sight she found curiously asking, “Is there any way
that bitch of a woman can take our money?”

“Ella my dear, there’s
no way she can do that, your father was
very clever and this may come as a shock to you but before your
father married Felicity, he had her sign a pre nuptial agreement
stating that his money, property, and businesses would remain
his in the event of his death and that she would receive a
minimum percent of his wealth.”

“Oh my
God I had no idea; I heard they sometimes do this over
in America. Does that mean because she signed that document
that she has no legal right anymore to any of my father’s
money?”

“Exactly my dear
, I don’t want to bog you down with every
fastidious detail of that paper, however I can assure you that
what your father left to you, Destiny, and Chase is yours and
nobody has the right to take this away from you, even if Felicity
was to take this to court, in which I very much doubt, the odds
of her taking anymore of your fathers money from his property
and businesses are very rare, in the event she was granted she
would only get a further seven percent, none of this would be
from your inheritance.”

“Thank you Mr Wallace that’s
very reassuring. I think she’s
received her fair share of my father’s wealth and to pursue it
even further would be pointless, it’s just I don’t want her getting
anything else other than what she’s entitled to!”

“I understand
Ella; this was one of your father’s biggest wishes
and trust me there is so much in place legally to prevent her
from doing so she´d never succeed. Rest assured Ella the
inheritance is all yours, and I know it would have given your
father a lot of satisfaction to see you enjoy it.”

Ella felt overcome with grief, worn out with fatigue and was
struggling to hold it all together. Not only had she just lost her
father to a shocking illness she knew nothing about until several
weeks ago and now this, the vast amount of money she had just
inherited, the horrible scene with Felicity that had just taken
place. All she longed for was the sanctuary of her own home
with her children; all this was just too much to take in. Once
again she heard herself repeating “Thank you Mr Wallace!”

Turning towards the door she left still not knowing the contents
of the brown envelopes but clutching onto them as though her
dear life depended on them. Grabbing a taxi back to the house,
she scrutinized the envelopes for some time until she realised on
the back of each envelope was her father’s small hand writing,
blinking back another onset of tears, remembering how her
father had once taught her how to write. She tried focusing on
the handwriting but it was hard as it was so small, thinking shed
need a magnifying glass if she was ever going to be able to
make out what it said. Was it some form of code? She couldn’t
for the life of her figure it out, unaware that her life would
change forever upon opening one of them.