Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I enter the combination; my birthday and my mom’s birthday, another easy guess for any thief who’d bothered to do a bit of research before breaking into the house, and wait for the door to click open. There’s a large brown envelope propped up right at the front of the safe and I go to push it to one side, but the name on it catches my eye.
Arthur Jagger. Last will and testament.
I shake my head. It’s like I can’t escape my grandpa’s legacy for even a second. My breath catches in my throat when I spot the date on the envelope. It’s dated three months after the document Andrew Garfield presented to us. With a shaking hand, I reach into the safe and pull the envelope out.
There has to be something bad in here for my dad to be hiding it from me and my mom. What other crazy stipulations has my grandpa added to his will? And doesn’t my dad know that if they’re not met and this document ever reaches the light of day, I’ll lose everything? If it’s as bad as I’m imagining, he should have just shredded it, as Andrew clearly doesn’t know of its existence.
As I start to pull out the papers from the envelope, I realize that it might not affect me. Maybe the bits that have changed since the other will are about something else and that’s why I haven’t seen this document. Perhaps it just references the original document for my part of the legacy and that’s why Andrew was using the old will.
I scan through the part about me quickly and then I reread it slowly, sure I’ve missed something. I haven’t. I know I haven’t, but I read it a third time just to be sure. I’m right. I shake my head and flick through the rest of the document, giving it nothing but a cursory glance. Nothing else has changed.
As I flick through the papers, a sheet of paper with my grandpa’s handwriting on it falls to the ground. I pick it up and read it and it confirms everything I have just read. It’s a short letter from my grandpa to my father.
Dearest Gerald,
If you are reading this letter, then I am no more.
I hope you’re okay with that for I have lived a full and active life, and I am okay with it coming to an end and you should be too. Live your life, son, and don’t waste any time worrying about me.
My attorney is under strict instructions to deliver this to you exactly one week after the reading of my will. He has no idea what’s inside of it. As you’ve no doubt worked out, it’s a new and updated version of my last will and testament. It’s been officially written and is above board, and once it is brought forward, it will replace my old will. You can bring it to Garfield’s attention if you so desire.
The only change is as follows: in the event of my death, my grandson, Finn Jagger, will inherit my shares in my company in their entirety. Contrary to my first will and testament, Finn does not have to marry Ashley Winters nor anyone else, to gain his inheritance.
I suppose you could say I’ve gone soft, because as I wrote out my first will, my chief concern was bringing the two families, that of me and Walter Winters, back together. I thought if our grandchildren were brought together, it could make for a great partnership. In time, I’ve come to see that forcing Finn and Ashley onto each other is wrong.
I do hope that by the time this letter and will come to light they will have at the very least developed a firm friendship, and I hope they can laugh about this.
Please give this will to Finn when you feel the time is right.
Your loving father,
Arthur J Jagger
At least, now I know why my father was adamant I could cancel the wedding if I wanted to. And he’s clearly left this here for me to find. I should be overjoyed. I don’t have to go through with any of this now, and I actually think my grandpa was right about one thing. I really think when I tell Ashley about this, we’ll both laugh. It’ll be a relieved laugh, but we’ll laugh all the same. And I think he might be right about us being friends now.
Funny thing is, I can’t imagine not having Ashley in my life anymore. I can’t imagine going back to my apartment knowing she will never be there.
I think of my mom. This is going to destroy her. Cancelling the wedding will seem like such a bigger deal to her than a divorce would. That’s how her society friends work. A divorce is almost expected, but a cancelled wedding?