Addicted To Greed (2 page)

“Jesus Christ Wil
helm you haven’t even told the children? My
god I just don’t know what to say. Why now? Surely you could
have made the time to tell me this before now. I am sorry for
you I really am and to be honest I am absolutely speechless.”
“I know that this has come as a shock for you. I’m deeply sorry
to be putting this on you now, as a dying man this is my last
wish Jeannie. I know it doesn’t make much sense to you now
but hopefully in time it will and the children. Please I beg you
to do this one last thing for me. I have been a very a selfish man
in my life and in a way I deserve to die for this.”

Without further hesitation he replaced the handset wiping the
tears of anguish away feeling relieved that he told her his real
feelings. His heavy heart beat began to slow down just as Nurse
Patterson and his wife entered the room.

Felicity hadn’t changed her cold expression, but allowed him to
drink his whisky without too much disapproval.

“Felicity, my dear I know the time is near
. This is for you.”
He handed her a small white envelope.
“What’s this?”

“It’s for you and our only son
. I hope this is suitable, if not, take
it up with Mr Wallace, I am sure he will be able to advise you of
your rights.”

Felicity tore at the envelope with such urgency trying to open it,
breaking one of her perfectly manicured nails in the process.
Choosing to ignore the broken nail she looked at the contents of
the envelope, it appeared to be a cheuqe for eighteen million
dollars. Her eyes soon filled up with fear, despair and anger.
“Is that all our worth? I’ll see to it that your filthy siblings get
nothing as all your wealth belongs to me, this house, the villas,
the penthouse and the cars and you lucrative businesses. I will
not accept this, its sheer peanuts.”

“You’ll
find that you’re entitled to a lot less before you plan to
seek any legal advice. On the country I believe I was quite
generous, it’s your choice to accept or not my dear, but you
won’t get another cent from me. You and your blackmailing
antics are the reason for this. Do you know I have never loved
you, once I found out what you were and as far as I am aware
still are? How many more husbands will you cheat out of their
families and fortune hey? You’ll get nothing more from me.
Now get the hell out of my house and let me die with some
dignity. The biggest mistake I made was meeting such a money
grabbing bitch like you. But rest assured one fine day you’ll be
exposed for your indiscretions.”

“You can’t
do this to me Wilhelm. I am after all your wife, and
we have a daughter together. What about Benjamin our disable
son? The one you’re so keen to hide away from this world?
What about him?”

Wilhelm could feel his temper rising but was too weak to get
into a long debate about his son.

“Benjamin is indeed my son and he will receive the
best care
available. I’ve never hidden him from this world, my dear that
was you. Before I fell ill Benjamin and I went fishing every
weekend. I know his likes, his dislikes, and he has come on
remarkably over the last several years. Something you’ve not
even taken the time to find out. According to the hospital you
haven’t visited him in over four long years, not even on his
birthdays. You simply forgot about him. I never did and I don’t
have to explain to you that I have a very healthy father son
relationship with my son. I think you’ll find that our daughter
doesn’t belong to the both of us. I had a paternity test upon her
birth, as I did with Benjamin. The reason for this is because I
never had any trust in you and my suspicions were correct when
the test revealed that Bonnie was not mine. I had a second
paternity test just to make sure. All this time I’ve raised another
man’s child and I’ve kept this to myself up until now because
me and my lawyers as well as my private investigators have
been building a case on you that will in effect entitle you to
nothing more of mine, except the nine miserable years I’ve been
married to you, and I think you will find the cheque over
compensates you for that.”

“You bastard Wil
helm, I hate you. I’ve always despised you
and your horrible siblings. So in simple terms what you’re
trying to inform me is that I’m worth a measly two million per
year in this joke of a marriage? I should have gone for Senator
Gordon while I had the chance, at least he had no wife, no
children, and it would have been so much easier. I hear now
he’s been accepted for vice presidency. My life would have
panned out so much better I believe. However, instead of the
senator I was tipped to meet you, an English architect new to the
states, who had many successes in Europe and to my great
surprise here also. That’s the reason I stuck this marriage out,
much to my disappointment, you couldn’t even perform in bed
as you’d get so drunk on the whisky. I was hoping if the tumor
doesn’t kill you, the whisky would sooner or later.”

Summoning every little bit of energy he had from his weak body
he couldn’t resist the urge to rub it in a little further.

“You’re
one nasty piece of work Felicity; rest assured you’ll
receive your karma very soon. I’m glad I won’t be setting eyes
on you again, not in this life and hopefully not the next. As we
speak, I’ve arranged for several associates of mine to collect
your belongings. Just to let you know I’ve already allowed them
access, so I suggest you let them know where to place your
personal belongings. As far as I’m aware they have no
forwarding address and they have my strict instructions to
dispose as they see fit.”

With this Felicity raced t
o the window to check that he wasn’t
bluffing her as she honestly believed that he was delusional due
to his medication and the whisky he seemed to drown like a rat.
But to her sheer disbelief she saw three white vans with a
number of rough dressed looking men carelessly loading her
possessions into the back of their vans. She noticed her Lois
Vutton suitcases, with what looked like the entire contents of her
Versace dress collection tossed to one side as if was dead cattle
that didn’t count for anything.
“Oh my god Wilhelm, how could you stoop so low? You’ll pay
for this, I´ll sue?”

With this Felicity fled much to Wilhelm and Nurse Patterson’s
relief.

Wilhelm had never felt such a wicked sense of gratification as
he did now and he knew that would be the last he saw of the
woman who ruined his once loved family life.

“Nurse, please could you get me another whisky? This time
can
you make it a little stronger and if you wouldn’t mind a touch of
lemon that would be great.”

“No problem sir, would you mind if I joined you in
celebration?”

“Why not, I must apologi
se for my wife’s sudden outburst. I
should have done this a long time ago. If you’ll pardon my
abruptness, it was completely necessary I’m afraid.”

They both nodded in approval. Before Nurse Patterson returned
Wilhelm had passed into a deep peaceful sleep never to wake
again.

Felicity
Chapter 1

“
Come here this instance child that’s no way for a young lady to
behave. Your mother would turn in her grave if she could see
you now.”

Madame Clemenceau grew more agitated with the child each
day, not only was she the child’s soul guardian she was also the
child’s dead mothers’ patron.

“But Madame, I was only trying to behave like Charlie.”
“Nonsense child, Charlie is a dog, a dirty homeless scavenger.
You’re a lady and there’s a huge difference.”
The child quickly got up from her hands and knees rubbing the
soil from her pretty pink lacy halbiller.

“Can’t we
keep him, he’s adorable? I promise I won’t let him go
in the house, he can live in the barn, there’s ample room for him
in there and then he won’t bother to sneak in through the fence
every day.”

“Dam it Felicity, how many times have I told you
no.
The God
dam beast scares the other women here, they simply don’t like
him and why should they? He stenches, makes the most
grotesque noises, and he’s probably carrying a number of dieses,
such as rabies. I forbid you to stay away from him, do you hear
me child?”
Reluctantly the child nodded in approval, not daring to push it
any further.

“Now come it’s time for your elocution
. Today you’ll learn
some essential pronunciations, grammar and tone. It was your
dearest mothers wish child. Now go to your room and make
yourself presentable. I’ll meet you in the library in ten minutes
sharp.”

Felicity started to run, then came to an abrupt stop.
“Conduct yourself child, running is prohibited!”

When Felicity returned to the library ten minutes later, she was
sent back again to scrub her nails as they were not satisfactory
for the Madame.

Clemenceau prided herself on cleanliness at all times. She
tossed her perfectly self-manicured nails in front of the child
hoping the next time the child came down she would have paid
some attention, tapping her foot in anticipation for the child’s
return she noticed that her beloved Bihar fine Persian rug had
several threads coming away. How could her butler or femme
de ménage miss this? She made a mental note to have stern
words with the pair later. Right now she wanted to concentrate
on the child, since the death of her mother seven months ago,
she made a number of vows and promises that she must keep.

Felicity was growing into a beautiful young woman, just like her
mother Adrianna, her most prestigious and high class employee
Clemenceau had come across in her time, especially in the late
1940s until Clemenceau was forced to close the “Le Cabana”,
her notably famous brothel in Paris which entertained the
famous King Edward VII. She remembered a number of
successful campaigns to close all establishments of that kind.
She was forced to move to the south of France where she could
re establish her business indiscreetly, where there was more
tolerance.

Adrianna had been her greatest beauty she had wanted to keep
and take with her, at the tender age of eighteen Adrianna
followed Madame Clemenceau, and in return Clemenceau
welcomed Adrianna into her lavish lifestyle, keeping her under
her wing, teaching her all she had once learnt, grooming her into
the perfect high class escort, she had once been.

The child approached her holding her hands out, Clemenceau
nodded in approval.
“Come child, lets commence, we can’t keep Monsieur Bernard
waiting any longer. I can see you must also learn punctuality.”
The child obediently followed.

Clemenceau sat in for ten minutes to ensure the child was
behaving in the appropriate manner, once satisfied she excused
herself. Tomorrow she would take the child clothes shopping, it
was time for the child to dress as a young woman as she would
be sixteen in several days time, the perfect age for her to start
learning her mother’s profession.

When Felicity became sixteen her world started to change, no
longer was she referred to as child, she was Madame Felicity,
and she was rather proud of this new title and embraced it with
pleasure, smiling whenever anyone called her name. She missed
her mother dearly and putting up with the Madame day in day
out was proving to be awkward and difficult, however she
couldn’t summon up the courage to express this as she felt
indebted to the lady.

Felicity thought that
the Madame’s beauty clearly hadn’t
diminished with old age, as she was still very beautiful and
always impeccably presented. However her beauty alone wasn’t
enough as she sensed the Madame was losing patience with her
on a daily basis as she would raise her voice and quite often lose
her temper with anyone who got in her way. Felicity tried her
best to avoid her as much as possible pretending to hide away in
her books. Today she wasn’t given the opportunity as soon as
she entered the vast library, Madame Clemenceau and Monsieur
Bernard stopped their conversation and stared at her curiously.

“Monsieur Bernard informs me that you are doing incredibly
well in each of your academic lessons and that he believes
you’re perhaps ready for finishing school. Monsieur Bernard
and I are particularly impressed with the SIRVA Mont-Fleur in
Switzerland, where you shall reside for two years. I have
arranged for you to travel on Wednesday this week, providing
you keep up your good work with Monsieur Bernard in the
meantime.”

Felicity could hardly believe her luck and replied excitedly,
“Really a finishing school in Switzerland? I can only express
sincere gratitude for your recommendation Monsieur Bernard.”

Before Monsieur Bernard could reply Madame Clemenceau
insisted Felicity go shopping with her for the appropriate
clothing for the new school.
“Come Felicity we have much work to do. You shall resume
your studies at 4 O clock this afternoon.”

Felicity asked breathlessly unable to hide her excitement.
“Clothes shopping really, this is all so thrilling, I can’t wait.
Will I be required to wear a school uniform?”
“Yes you are that’s all been taken care of. You’re school
uniforms will be waiting for you to pick up on your arrival.”
“So why are we going clothes shopping now Madame?”

“Som
etimes it is in your best interests to be not so inquisitive
Felicity. You must be aware you’ll need more than uniform over
the next few years, as you’ll also need evening wear, warm
clothes as I believe it’s particularly cold at this time of the year,
and you will also need skiing wear and ski equipment. The List
is endless Felicity.”

“Oh my goodness Madame skiing I can’t believe it! I’m so
excited. Will I have to share a room with the other girls?”

“No you’ll
have your own private quarters, quite modest I may
add, a generously sized bathroom with Jacuzzi and a huge walk
in closet for all your clothes. I have also agreed on the sum of
five thousand Euros per month for your clothing allowance, if
you exceed this there will be a penalty. A further twenty
thousand will be credited to your new Swiss bank account, every
six months, for any additional costs.”