The will

An excerpt of the book 'Summer Tempest' that would be published soon.

After an embarrassing meeting with her late husband's relatives at the office of the family's lawyer, relatives she did not know very well and some of them she did not know at all; except having met them once in her wedding ages ago with mosts of them, and with some individuals haphazardly during the holidays. Neither she nor her late husband referred to them as persons who deserve any sort of attention. Their baseless claims were rejected one after the other. They were in fact her late husband's relatives, but it was her late husband himself that kept them away from his life; and as he did not leave a will, Erella was declared the sole heiress to his huge possessions and as the president of the corporation that he presided on up to his tragic death.

During the short meeting that did not last more than forty minutes Erella did not say a word, just listened with a stern face full of scorn to the claims of her late husband's relatives; and then to the summing speech of the old family lawyer.

After the latter sent away the bothersome bunch of relatives of about a dozen females and males, and when Erella was left with him alone a smile lighted up on her face. She hastened of course to feign the grief of the beloved woman that became a widow, and is supposedly still in utter shock.

The old lawyer a sympathetic Jew Trudenheim is name, emigrated from Germany before World War Two, and served her late husband family with loyalty more than four successive decades. Now after his patron had perished suddenly and left Erella as his sole heiress, the old lawyer expressed his loyalty to her; and without hesitation he read to her the full details of the possession she inherited and the various bank accounts of her late husband in the U.S. and abroad, which most of that information was to her a mystery, but he wrote immediately an authorization and provided her with all the needed relevant formal documents.

The dust cloud that covered Manhattan started to disperse and moved southward. Erella did not have any intention to wait till it would cover her penthouse, she sent her crew of household workers to their families, while she moved to a comfortable suite in Waldorf Astoria hotel at Park Avenue; not far from a hidden spacious apartment that served her late husband for clandestine meetings with various persons dealing with economical issues, and with other dubious factors in various domains, which she intended to investigate and expose his interest in them. She intended to visit "their home" in which her late husband lived all alone, and another summer abode in the northern suburbs of the city; a site that only now she learned on its existence, in which her late husband must have hosted his different lovers and some other dubious women, on their existence she did not have any information except her suspicions.

The only employee left with her for the next two weeks was the experienced driver her late husband nominated to serve her right after their marriage.

He was an introvert type but an excellent driver and very experienced one. His ugliness might have been the cause for his limited relationships with other people, he was already then middle aged and he could retire nowadays if he wished to, but his tight relationship with his boss's wife and his loyalty to his boss were the reasons why he served Erella on. As long as his boss was alive he had to report to him his wife's comings and goings, where she was and with whom she talked or to whom she called in his presence… But now Pat O'reilly did not have to pretend his loyalty anymore, his pretence turned into reality. He had no other choice but be Eralla's dedicated and loyal driver.

Just one day after she has settled down in the suite she booked in Waldorf Astoria O'reilly drove her to her late husband's hidden house. Bernard Volkovitch that served as her personal secretary prepared the house agent for the visit, and warned him to leave everything in its original place.

The only problem that was left to Erella was to reach her destination. A problem that did not bother her much of course for she was surrounded by enough vassals and lickspittles, who were ready to serve her with all their abilities.

© Haim Kadman 2007 " all rights reserved.

Reviews

[Ketal]

The concept is good, however there are gramatical problems. There's a quiet mysteryrious quality to your protagonist.

[Haim Kadman]

Thanks Ketal, it's an excerpt of a manuscript before editing.