The Inheritance War

A story of a hidden life, a surprise twin, confusion of skin color and a strange scar.

Inheritance War

Story of a Hidden Life

 

 

            Ian VanZant poured another drink, straight Scotch this time, no water. He was surprised to see how steady he poured considering how nervous he felt inside. This conversation with Ben was not going as he had hoped. As long as he has known Ben Carter, he’s never seen him get so riled; and why should he be, he wasn’t the one having to deal with this�"this weird anomaly. He wasn’t the one being confronted by a strange woman claiming to be his twin sister and also claiming that he was trying to steal her inheritance away from her. He downed the drink in one chug and turned toward his best friend.

            “Ben, there’s something you don’t understand. This woman can’t be related to me in any way. Did you not hear me say that she’s---she’s a woman of color?  She’s not from here. I don’t know where she’s from. She has a very distinctive accent like maybe she’s from Egypt or someplace like that.  How could we be related, much less twins?  And why are you getting so upset over this? I was hoping you were going to admit to playing some stupid joke on me, but I can tell from your reaction that you’re not.”

            “No, hell no, I’m not playing a joke on you.  Look, there are people out there that follow the obituaries online and when they see that someone prominent has died, they check into the surviving family to see if they’re about to inherit something big and they concoct schemes to lay claim to it. That’s what this woman is apparently doing. She saw your Dad’s obit and that your Mom’s admitted into an asylum and you are the sole survivor of his wealth. She’s targeting you, Ian. You need to report her to the police.”

            “First off, Ben, Dad wasn’t wealthy and he didn’t leave me anything but the responsibility of my mother’s care, their house, and vehicles. There’s no money to speak of and the house is old and needs repairs. Your scenario doesn’t seem to fit to me.”

            “And second?” Ben asks.

Ian c***s his head at him.

            “You said ‘first off’, there must be a second reason you have for debunking me.”

Ian releases his breath, “this woman seems so genuine in her claims, Ben. She’s been practically following me around just waiting for a moment that she can corner me and try to make me believe her. She doesn’t look or act like someone off the hinge. She’s very beautiful and organized. She dresses like a professional businesswoman. She speaks elegantly. She doesn’t strike me as someone trying to or even needing to con someone.”

Ben drops his chin, “so, you’re going to meet her? You’re going to go have dinner with her and listen to her scam? What’s Beth going to think about this?”

            “I’ve told Beth about her. I don’t keep secrets from her, you know that.”

            “And what does she think about it?”

            “She’s leaving the decision up to me. She knows she has nothing to worry about. She’s knows I wouldn’t cheat on her. She trusts me, Ben. Apparently, you don’t.”

            “No, I trust you, Ian, it’s this woman I don’t trust. Just what is she after? Why is she insisting that you two are twins? Is she color blind? Does she even mean it literally?”

            “These are the reasons I’m meeting with her, Ben, to get the facts and the reason for this charade.”

Ian gave his phone a quick glance for the time and threw back another shot glass of Scotch.

            “Gotta go, Ben. You’ll wait here for Beth and stay until I get back?”

            “Yeah, sure. You’re okay to drive?” he asks when the realization hit that Ian had been drinking straight Scotch on an empty stomach.

            “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything that makes sense.”

 

            Ian loosened his tie as he kept a sharp eye on the entrance to the restaurant. ‘This strange woman has good tastes’ he thought, ‘She made reservations at the best of the many five-star restaurants in Atlanta’. A waitress comes toward him, carrying a tray with two drinks.

            “Good evening, Sir” she greets as she places one glass in front of him and the other at the vacant seat across from him.

            “Excuse me, but I haven’t ordered drinks yet. I’m still waiting for someone to arrive.”

            “Your companion will be joining you shortly. She placed the order. I believe she visited the Lady’s Room first.”

            “Oh, I see. Thank you” he replies and watches her walk back toward the entrance where at that instance ‘she’ stepped into sight. His heart skipped a beat. She is indeed a beautiful woman but there also seemed to be an aura of danger about her. Gracefully, she saunters toward him with a pleasant smile spreading as their eyes meet. He rose to his feet and pulled her chair.

            “Thank you, Ian. You are as perfect a gentleman as any of our ancestors” she said in that beautifully foreign-accented English.

Ian thought it a strange thing to say but figured it must be a custom of her native country rarely seen nowadays. She continued before he could reply as he took his seat.

            “Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice. We have some very important things to discuss---you and me, things that you have no knowledge of. Things that are going to change your life completely. There is so much you need to learn. It is why I thought it best that you come alone this time. It will be easier to explain to one than to many. Your Fiancé will be much harder to convince than your friend, Ben Carter.”

            “To convince of what?” Ian asks.

            “Of who and what you will become in six days, Ian.”

            “My birthday is in six days. What is so special about that?”

            “Our birthday, Ian, our birthday is in six days. We will be turning thirty-two, an important milestone in our lives.”

Ian sits back, forcing himself to relax, “let’s back up a moment here. You know my name, you know I’m engaged, you know my best friend’s name, you know my birthday is in six days and I know nothing about you, not even your name.”

            “I’m so sorry, Ian. I thought I had introduced myself to you at our first meeting.”

            “Not by name, I’m afraid, you only introduced yourself as my twin sister for which I promptly told you that you were mistaken. I have no sisters or brothers. And in case you haven’t noticed, you and I are not of the same nationality. You’re are a beautiful woman of color and I am just a plain Caucasian man. You’ve obviously confused me with someone else.”

            “Ian, my name is Oni Drake. We were born in a small community of New Orleans called Roosterpride. Silly and quirky name, I know, but it is a very small community with very powerful roots. The name was actually supposed to turn people away, you know, keep people out of the community’s business. Roosterpride sounded like a backwoods hillbillies slum that no one would be interested in visiting. And it worked. To this day, strangers tread lightly and don’t care to stay.”

            “You live there?” Ian asks.

            “Off and on. I travel a lot. I had to. It was my mission to find you and I have to say, your guardians did a fine job of hiding you. Almost too well.”

            “How do you know you have the right guy? What proof do you have?”

Oni reached into her purse and presented Ian with an envelope. “It’s all in there, birth certificate---the original one, Guardian papers, DNA report, foot and fingerprints, photos and other documentation to prove that you are in fact Ian-Allyn Drake, son of Kieran Drake and Simone Kakra, twin brother of Oni Drake. Documentation to show legal guardianship transference to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas VanZant. They were given permission to change your name for your own safety. Another document shows the agreement made between our parents and your guardians to explain to you your heritage and the situation of your placement upon your fifteenth birthday. Clearly, they did not keep their end of the bargain. Tell me, Ian, when you turned sixteen, did you begin having dreams that made no sense to you? Dreams that in some instances could be considered nightmares?”

Ian stopped scanning the contents of the envelope and looked up at her, “how would you know about that?”

            “Because I had them too, only they didn’t scare me because I was made aware of them just days after my fifteenth birthday.  You see, when we turned fifteen, our powers were awakened and the dreams are like a tutorial. If you’re not prepared, then the dreams mean nothing. They are only pictures and dialog of unknown people and places. They can’t connect with you in order to activate your powers properly. You’ve gone many years with dormant powers, Ian. This has been the real cause of your headaches and insomnia.”

            “Wait, how did you know I’ve been having trouble sleeping and headaches?”

            “I just told you, dear brother, are you not listening to anything I’m saying?”

            “Don’t call me that. I’m not your brother. There has to be a mistake here---”

            “Ian, did you take a close look at the DNA report? What is it going to take to prove to you that the VanZants are not your biological parents? Maybe you should have your own DNA tests conducted to prove to yourself. I know Mr. VanZant passed away not so long ago, surely you still have a hairbrush of his or a razor, a toothbrush maybe. DNA can be extracted from any of these items and Mrs. VanZant is still living and can contribute her own samples.  And as for the difference in the color of our skin, Ian, I can explain that. Our father was white and our mother was Egyptian. She was actually Royalty. Our parents never actually married in the sense of traditional marriages. They had a Pagan ceremony and our mother kept her last name. We are fraternal twins, Ian. Normal fraternal twins have their own fetal sacks in which they develop to term and so did we in the beginning. But sometime during the first trimester, our sacks merged somehow and we were together in one sack. Look at your right palm, Ian. What do you see?”

            “I see the burn scar I got when I was a child. Why?”

            “That’s what they told you that is?”

            “Yes. How did you know about it?”

            “Because I have one too” she replies holding up her left hand showing him an identical scar on her palm. Ian sat back again, a shocked look on his face.

            “It’s not a burn scar, Ian, it’s a surgical scar. It’s where the doctors had to separate us. We were born holding hands and that small patch of skin had grown together.”

Ian’s face goes pale as he lightly rubbed the V-shaped scar on Oni’s palm and then rubbed his own. Oni motions for the waitress as she holds up her empty glass.

            “Are you all right, Ian? You look a little pale. Have you eaten anything today?”

He shook his head slightly, “not since lunch. I have so many questions floating around in my head right now. This sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie or something.”

He looked up at her, “you mentioned ‘powers’ before. What did you mean by that? What powers?”

She smiled at the first sign of his acceptance, “powers beyond your belief, Ian. This isn’t the place to discuss that. When I tell you who you really are and what you’ll be able to do, what’s expected of you----you’re going to be amazed, to say the least. But there is something I want you to know. You don’t have to accept it. If you prefer to go on living the life you are accustomed to, marry that lovely Fiancé of yours and enjoy your life together, you can do that. You can pass the inheritance to me. I am not married or attached to anyone. I want this responsibility. I want to follow in our father’s footsteps. You needn’t be bothered with any of it or disrupt the life you’ve come to love. Do you understand now why I have searched for you for so long? I’ve come to free you of a life that I’m sure you won’t enjoy. It will cost you the love of your life, your career, your friends and the ones you know as your family. All you have to do is tell me that you don’t want it and I will take care of the rest.”

            “Wait, wait, slow down. Give me a minute to take this all in. What responsibilities? Why would I have to give up everything and everyone? Explain exactly what it is you’re talking about.”

            “This isn’t the place to go into detail, Ian. There are too many people around and some of them could be a danger to you.”

Ian jerked his head at her last words, “a danger to me? How?”

Oni was already preparing to pay for the drinks as the waitress was bringing the second round. Oni waved off the drinks and placed her money on the tray, telling the waitress to keep the change.

            “Ian, let’s take a walk. It’s a nice night, not too cool or too hot. There’s a park near here. It’s late and it would be a perfect place to talk. There’s a sandwich shop on the corner. I’ll pick us up something there. You need to eat.”

Ian agreed and rushed to help her with her wrap as she stood.

Author's Note

This is an excerpt of a story I wrote more than ten years ago. I'm revising it to hopefully publish. I need opinions, please. Thanks in advance.

Reviews

[Shep]

Ok, you got my attention I am ready to dig in. Awesome beginning.