But because the man who had made me feel safe for the first time in years was gone.
After the funeral, Richard's lawyer asked me to come to his office.
When I arrived, Richard's three sons were already there.
No one greeted me.
On the lawyer's desk was a small wooden box.
There was no visible will.
No thick pile of documents.
Just the box.
Rebecca lay in her chair with a slight smile.
Then the lawyer looked at me.
“Richard left very specific instructions.”
No one spoke.
He slowly pushed the wooden box down the desk to me.
Then he said:
“He made sure you got exactly what you deserved.”
Rebecca let out a chuckle.
And as I reached out to the lid, I suddenly wondered if Richard knew anything about me that I had never told him.
The story takes an even more unexpected turn from here. You can read Part 2 via the link in the comments 👇!!️
PART 2
My hands were shaking when I opened the wooden box.
There were no jewels inside.
No cash.
Not a key to Richard's mansion.
Just a folded card, an old photograph of the two of us and a small brass key.
Rebecca smiled.
“I told you.”
I ignored her and opened the letter.
The first line caused my throat to close.
“Anna, I knew why you married me.”
I stopped reading.
Richard knew that.
The letter continued.
He wrote that, from the beginning, he understood that security had been part of the reason why I agreed to marry him. I was seventy-three years old, I was not a fool.
But then he wrote:
“What I cared about was why you stayed after you didn’t have to anymore.”
My eyes filled with tears.
During his last few weeks, Richard had offered to transfer money to my name.
I refused.
I told him his kids would think he had been waiting for him to die.
He had even asked him to leave the family home to them.
I never knew that I had told his lawyer that conversation.
Then I got to the last paragraph.
“My children will inherit my businesses, my investments and the house in which they grew up. You never tried to take those things away from them.”
Rebecca's smile disappeared.
I looked at the brass key.
Finally, the lawyer spoke.
“Richard bought something six months before he got sick.”
