Chapter One
Well, crap. It was going to be one of those days. I came home from the lab, very late, I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep. When I got home my girlfriend Rachel was sitting on the couch, in our very stylish open plan living room, watching T.V. She was watching a cheesy show on Netflix. That was the good thing about being a teacher, you were able to finish work around 3.30pm, come home, relax and watch T.V. But being a biochemist meant that I got to finish work around 7pm, come home, eat, shower and sleep. It was the same old shit every day. I even sometimes worked on the weekend. I just longed for something else. Something better. Hell even a few days’ vacation would have made me not want to become a homicidal maniac. But as usual, I kept my homicidal urges buried deep within, this is how you function as an adult in the real world.
"Hey, Babe, how’s it going?", I said to Rachel, as normal as possible. "Hey, it’s going. You?" she replied. "I’m okay, long day at work, ready to hit the sack." That night I fell sleep straight away. I didn’t bother to eat or to shower. I just wanted to be in my warm, comfy bed. I didn’t even notice Rachel going to bed either.
I woke up because my 8am alarm was going off. I usually got up at 8am on the weekends. This is so that I can workout in the morning, shower and make breakfast. An early start to the day is just a more productive day for me. My girlfriend usually gets up on the weekends around 11am, which gives me some alone time. Some time for me to be with my thoughts and do a workout. That morning after my long slumber, I felt refreshed and ready to start my Saturday. I headed to our gym room and started working out. But about 30 minutes in, the doorbell rang. We didn’t usually get company on the weekends and certainly not this time in the morning. So, I paused my workout and headed to the door. When I opened it, I saw a strange lanky man, wearing a pin striped suit and a 1920′s hat. Weird, I thought.
"Hi, there, I am Stanley. You must be Joseph Wilson. Am I right?" Said Stanley. "Yes, but I don’t know you. Who are you?" I said, annoyed. "I am Stanley Sourkas, your uncle Robert’s attorney. I have a Will for you to take a look at." There was a lot to unpack here. So, I took a deep breath and said "A will? Does that mean he is dead?" "Yes, sorry for your loss." Stanley said, with a creepy smile on his face. "Um, okay, come in." I waved my hand to show him into the kitchen. We sat down at the kitchen island and just looked at each other. "So, let me just get the papers ready and we will get started" Stanley said. While he fumbled around his briefcase looking for these alleged papers, I just waited. I heard Rachel waking up, earlier than usual. Must have been all the noise that she wasn’t used to. "Um, hey, Mr. Stanely, would you like some coffee or tea or water?" I asked. "Why yes, thank you. I would love some black coffee, hold the sugar". Why! Why the fuck do people drink black coffee and with no sugar? This is so bizarre to me and made me even more creeped out by the attorney. "Uh huh, sure, no problem" I said glumly. "Ah ha. Here they all are!" Stanley exclaimed, too joyfully. "Here is your coffee." "Thank you. So, Joseph, if you could just read this, that would be great." "Sure" I said.
Stanley handed me the papers. And, shit, there were a lot of them. I skim read through the papers quite quickly as I was used to reading many reports at work. And the will basically said that I was the only known heir left in my family and I would inherit my uncle’s house in New York, his vintage car collection, any businesses that he had and any remaining fortune that he had acquired.
Wow. What the fuck. Had I won the lottery? This was the most amazing news I had heard in a long time. My uncle, whom I barely knew anymore, was a multi-millionaire, and I was the sole recipient. It was true. My family did not produce many offspring. Something about the world being too over populated; which let’s face, was definitely accurate. My father and uncle Robert were the only children that my grandparents had and Uncle Robert didn’t have any kids that we knew of, and he never married or even had a girlfriend, that we knew of. I guess when I was a kid and my parents would take us to visit Robert, I had made a lasting impression on him. But as far as I can remember, I always got the feeling that he didn’t like kids very much, or anybody for that matter.
I remember one summer, when I was fifteen, we had visited Uncle Robert for a few days. One morning in the garden, I heard my father and Robert screaming at each other, about what you ask? I have no idea. We returned home early that day. My mother and father never mentioned what it was about and we never saw Uncle Robert again. I guess I just totally forgot about him after that. So why is he giving me all his shit? It was baffling but rewarding at the same time. My father; Lucas, died about 8 years ago, so of course, I was the only one left in the Wilson family bloodline.
Rachel came into the kitchen wearing her gym outfit. The sun was shining through our huge glass apartment windows, and the rays were lighting up her beautiful face. Her white gym clothes looked good against her Dominic skin.
"Hey babe" she said. "Hey, Rach, this is Stanley, he is my deceased Uncle Robert’s lawyer, and he has a will for me to sign. So, I will probably be busy all morning with this." "Okay, but are we still going out tonight, with Tony and Adriana?" Shit, I forgot we had made plans to go out with Rachel’s stupid friends. "Uh, yeah sure." "Okay great, I’m just going to work out" Rachel said and walked away to the gym room. "So, Stanley, I sign these papers, and this is all mine, right?" "Indeed." Stanley said. God he was so weird. "Okay then." And I was off signing all the relevant parts, you didn’t have to tell me twice. I was going to be fucking rich.
