It had been two days since the will of late Lord Marcus was read and Mrs Susan was still finding it difficult to accept the fact that she and her son, Elmer, had received only a small share of her late, ex_husband's property, after she had worked so hard to have it all to her son's name.
"I never should have divorced Marcus, maybe you would have been the sole Heir to his empire now"
"Relax mother," came Elmer,
"...it can still be corrected, I just need to find out who the heir is, if it fails to be me, then I'm afraid whoever it is will have to give it up by force." he said as he caressed his mother's palms. "How?...how do you want to achieve that? she asked
"This is your future Elmer, you should be the heir, but Marcus never met you in person ever since we left, did he?" She asked...
"No...not at all..." He replied and Mrs Susan burst into tears,
"then someone else might be the heir." she said
"do you think its Charles?...or...or Curtis?...oh...maybe the son of that whore...Ryan...he...can't possibly give his company to a woman can he?" she thought aloud.
"But to think of it,...could it be that little girl...umm...Treasure?" she panicked
"Mom!" Elmer yelled.
"I don't know if I I'm the heir, but since dad said the heir knows himself, I believe he must have met with him before and had secretly handed everything to him. He said he's among us, but I believe not all the women are included in this, except the mother of the so called heir, who is likely to know about the properties too. So I will investigate the moms first, before the kids. Let's leave the girls out of this, in my own opinion, Trinidad, and Treasure are still too young and even at the right time, they will not be strong enough to handle the companies." he suggested "He gave houses to none of the males, which makes my search easy, I will just figure out where each stays and search for the property papers myself" he said "which one of the properties are you actually interested in?" Susan asked "That heir was given two third of Marcus' possessions, do you intend to take it all?"
"yes mom!" Elmer replied and Mrs Susan sprang up from her seat...
"What?! are you being serious right now?" she yelled.
"I thought you said you are only taking the chains of companies which you have always wanted. I mean, that's the appropriate thing to do instead of the entire...I mean..." she struggled for words.
"Whose side are you on? Mine? Or this unknown heir?" Elmer yelled in rage, but Mrs Susan replied...
"son, its possible you are the heir and"...
"nonsense!.. " he said interrupting her...
"you of all people should have known father and I were never in good terms... He never really liked me you know, so why will he entrust the best and the most valuable of his possessions to me? Why would he give me the company??... He never really trusted me and you know it...he was just being unfair to me..."
"be quiet Elmer!" Susan spoke.
"you are the reason Marcus never loved you, how could you steal from your own father? You sold yourself out even before you were considered a true son of his. Why would he give you the company? Even I wouldn't do that if I had a son who stole my money at such a young age..." she snapped at him.
"So what are you insinuating?" Elmer asked furiously.
"That I'm the reason father gave his cherished properties to someone else?"...he asked, but Mrs Susan didn't say a word...
"you are not a Saint either." he blurtted outI hope you are aware of that?"
" You did even worse things than I did, yes, I stole but I never left him, but you did and for your greed, you divorced him and you dragged me into this too, so you better support me while I try to get back my inheritance or we'd both end up becoming poorer than we ever thought"... Elmer said and stormed out of the house with Mrs Susan yelling after him.
"I have already made the mistake of being greedy once before, but Elmer is about to make that same mistake again. she muttered to herself sadly.
Miss Cherry and her children were equally disturbed about who the heir was. Miss Cherry called her two sons and asked them if any of them had met with Marcus or had been given any document before, but the both of them were just as confused as she was. Curtis however didn't feel concerned about it at all, he was happy having a casino and only dreamt about travelling to Mexico. Charles on the other hand was not satisfied with him and his brother's share of Marcus' properties...
"a casino and a club? That's not enough!" he said
"I mean,...do you know how much those chains of companies worth?"
"a ranch! a car shop...and so many others. The money in his account could sum up to billions...do you know how much it would amount to?" he asked no one in particular.
"we are his kids, we have been good to him, why should we be given something so meagre?" he complained.
"If I end up not being the heir, I promise, I'd take my properties from whoever is holding it." he said sternly.
"Charles..." Curtis spoke
"The heir could be anyone, so I still have a chance to own everything as well." he said. Charles walked up to him.
"what do you mean by that?" he asked "The heir could be me you know." Curtis spoke
"You shouldn't assume you're the only eligible person" he said. Charles was already making a fist when Cherry quickly stood in between the two of them.
"enough you two, don't be stupid...you are brothers, you shouldn't be fighting against yourselves, rather you should fight others for what should be yours." she said
"you both should keep your eyes out for the heir if it so happens to be neither of you." she looked them in the eye,
"Grab those property papers, I'm solidly behind you." she said
Curtis and Charles thought for a while, then relaxed their muscles, but just as Cherry made for her seat, Curtis said... "Anyone of us who finds this heir, and the property papers, will have them all, no brotherhood in that..."Cherry was about to object when Charles replied...
"yeah..." he said
"no darn brotherhood, whoever gets it, gets all the wealth, no matter who pleads." He said looking towards Cherry...
"Deal!"... Curtis replied but Cherry walked away angrily.
"Trinidad!" Valentina called her daughter excitedly.
"I'm so happy Trini, finally, we can make a smooth voyage to Ecatepec de Morelos, you never stopped admiring it's beautiful supermarket in magazines, now it is ours, isn't that unbelievable?"...she asked clapping her hands in excitement.
"Yes mom, its incredible"... Trinidad replied absent mindedly.
"Oh goodness! Marcus was god_sent after all, and I think that Hotel in Juarez would really help promote my business...what do you think Trini?" She asked hugging Trinidad from behind, but Trinidad grew in a rage,
"mom, you made me a promise never to go back to prostitution again, don't break your promise." she said.
"Didn't you see the way you were insulted back there? They believe you are a whore and you'd always be one, can't you prove them wrong? Its time to set things right and earn your respect too, and I need to be a great woman mom" she said at the brink of tears.
"I'm tired of being called the daughter of a whore!" she complained. Valentina grew cold
"I'm sorry" she said.
Trinidad turned to face her.
"look mom, we could have chains of companies to ourselves, a car shop and more if I happen to be the heir." she said but Valentina replied
"Darling, you shouldn't be worried about that, you talk as if those properties are luxuries to be won after a quest,...no! they aren't." she said.
"For all I know, Marcus could never have chosen a girl as his heiress, so please it's best you stop dreaming about it, ok"
Trinidad smiled sadly, she knew her mom was right, and how could she even be the heiress? she was the daughter of a whore, that could bring shame to the family as a whole.