Scheduled StoriesNext:None scheduled at this moment.Next Empty Day:Mon, Dec 9th
Organizing a funeral is a lot more work than I ever anticipated, especially when the deceased has a lot of money: everyone tries to exploit you and get as much money as they can.
Fortunately, my mother was a devout Christian loved by her pastor for her charity work and we managed to get the church service at the normal rate.
But everything else, from the flowers to the limousine for the immediate family was severely overpriced. To make matters worse, Kelly, my younger sister who is used to live in opulence just wanted to get it over with at whatever the cost.
Just because she had it easy all of her life didn’t mean I had to cede but there is a limited amount of time in each day and the funeral arrived too quickly.
At first, we wanted a private ceremony but all of my mother’s business employees wanted to come and people she helped with her charities increased the turnout and in the end, we filled the big church so that many people had to stand during the ceremony.
I guess she was loved more than I thought and that’s a good sign. I just hope people didn’t only love her money.
My father and his new wife did come to ceremony as well as my half-sister Cathy. Fortunately, she wore a long serene black dress which enabled me to not think about the time I made the mistake of visiting my father’s vacation resort in Jamaica while single.
I tried everything I could to erase from my memories the image of her tanned nude body but never succeeded. Only Lindsey ever managed to top her and I lost her.
It didn’t help that Cathy called her older half-brother to design the resort’s website, along with a photo gallery of herself in various places on the resort, naked.
Let’s change the subject. Cathy is off limit. Back to the funeral.
It was touching. My sister cried a lot, but honestly, I barely knew the woman. Don’t get me wrong, I saw her from time to time like for Christmas and her birthday party but we didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
I always thought that my past porn venture hurt her religious sensibilities but the reality is that even when we were young, she only had eyes for Kelly.
I used to be mad of her injustice but now that I realize that life is unfair, I simply enjoy the sweet cognitive dissonance of my belief that she did it for my own good, as a way to prepare me for life.
I suspect she simply didn’t know what to do with a boy and if that’s the case, why should I take it personally ?
After the funeral, a man I had never seen gave me his card, explaining that my mother’s will would be read the next day at 10h00 am at his office. I thanked him and noticed that he gave his card to quite a lot of people.
The close family all ate supper at a fancy restaurant downtown and I sat as far away as Cathy as I could but she sadly came before dessert to ask me a few technical questions about MKTWO. I wanted to tell her it was not a good time but her smile forced me to just answer politely.
As soon as I was home, I played Lindsey’s greatest porn hits as I masturbated a few times in the evening to purge myself from thoughts about my half-sister.
I went to bed crying, unsure if I was shedding tears because my mother was dead or because Lindsey was too far away while Cathy was too close.
Sadly, I still had to see her one more time at the will reading.
Fortunately, within 5 minutes, most of the invited people, including Cathy and my father, were asked to leave after having been read a simple letter from my mother thanking them for sweet memories she received from them. I learned that my mother still owned 5% of the Jamaican resort which she hadn’t sold yet and out of friendship toward my father’s new family, she donated them to Cathy, despite being technically unrelated to her.
Soon, only Paul, Kelly and I were left in the room, with Kelly’s family needing to leave the room like everyone else.
The attorney explained to Paul that he was allowed to live in my mother’s downtown condo until his death but that it would officially belong to my sister after that. Since technically, half of the condo belonged to him already, Kelly had to buy from him today his half which would, according to my mom, provide enough money for Paul to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
I felt a little sad for Paul because it meant he didn’t actually inherit anything from my mother but I knew she always insisted that Paul was her husband but not her business partner. That was Kelly’s role.
The attorney continued the instructions.
“The first 500,000$ of my other personal assets not tied into my various companies are going to be split 50/50 between my two children or their descendants, should they not survive me. All of my remaining assets are going to be inherited by Michael, my oldest son”
What ? I get it all ? I don’t understand. I thought she loves my sister better. Something is wrong.
“Kelly, on the other hand, will inherit the majority of the shares in companies I founded or co-founded, up to the value of the assets inherited by Michael. If my company shares are worth more than my personal assets, the exceeding shares will be split three ways: a third will go to Kelly, a third will go to Michael, and third will go in a special new trust to divide amongst all my grandchildren when my oldest one will turn 18.”
The attorney explained that my mother’s personal assets, including external investments, totalled approximately 4.2 million dollars, meaning I would inherit from close to 4 millions dollars in a few days.
My mother’s investments in her businesses on the other hand, were valued over 20 million dollars at the moment, meaning that I would also inherit from roughly a third of close to 16 millions.
Kelly was devastated. I am guessing that she thought she would get it all due to her proximity to my mom and the fact she devoted all of her life in being my mother’s financial assistant, but in the end, my mother was completely fair between us, well, from my point of view.
Kelly would calm down in a few days. She already had 2 kids and I didn’t even have a mother for future kids. There is a good chance her kids would get all of the money from the trust.
Plus, I explained to her that I was willing to sell her any share she wanted in any of our mother’s company at it’s normal value.
“You don’t understand Michael, I only get 250,000$. I can’t buy any of your shares. I have almost no money. Most of my revenues came from mom to pay me for the help I provided. I’ll be broke in a few weeks if I do not sell you my shares”
“Kelly, you are not thinking straight. The CEO of most of these companies just died. You and I control the majority of the shares. We control the boards of director indirectly. Just name yourself CEO and you’ll get her old salary.”
“Oh. Right. I didn’t see that.”
“Kelly, mom was close to you but she kept you under her skirt. Now it’s time for your to fly by yourself.”
It felt good to help her out, but what felt even better was that now, I was rich. I had something I wanted to buy for years and that I finally would be able to get.
A little house in Germany, near a certain mansion where a certain girl I lost now lives. Lindsey, I am coming back for you, and this time, I am not letting you go.