It Takes A Strong Will

This caught her completely off guard. She had no idea who Great Aunt Martha was. She must have been on her fathers side of the family. A side she knew basically nothing about as he died when she was only five.

“Hello? Mis– Doctor Grey, are you still there?” Carl asked, sounding frustrated.

“Sorry… Yes, I can be there. What’s the address?” Laura asks and Carl gives an address of somewhere in Belfast city centre. Laura rooted around in her bag for a notepad and jotted down all the information she needed and he ended the conversation with a curt goodbye. Laura put her car in gear and drove home, all while beginning to wrack her brain for any mention of a Great Aunt Martha but came up blank.

‘Maybe they have made a mistake and he just didn’t want to admit it?’ She wondered as she repeatedly drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She was confused as hell but very curious.

Laura arrived home, kicked off her shoes at the door and went straight to the drainer, grabbed a glass and poured herself a glass of water.

Martha Kerns. Martha Kerns. Martha Kerns.

Her name circled in her brain until the name began to meld together like some kind of tongue twister. She plopped down on the sofa an as Laura sipped her water, her thoughts continued to swirl around in her brain.

‘Maybe mum knows her?’

Laura opened her phone, pressed the contacts app and rang her mum’s number.

“Hello love! How you keepin’? Bit early for you, isn’t it?”

“Hey, ah, yeah it is… but I got this weird phone call from a guy called Carl Patterson. Says he’s in charge of the Estate of someone who is apparently my Great Aunt… Martha Kerns, ever heard of her?” She asks then takes another gulp of coffee.

Silence.

“Mum? You there?” Laura asks and lifts the phone from her ear to check that she hadn’t accidentally hung up. “Mum?”

“Yeah, yeah, still here, love,” she paused for a few seconds and Laura heard her take in a steadying breaths. “She was your fathers Aunt. Strange old bat. I don’t think she ever married, no kids. Came to our wedding dressed like she was at a funeral. Think she came to Christmas once, just after you were born but that’s about it,” her mum replies in a shaky voice.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Laura asks, her leg bouncing with impatience.

“It’s… it’s just an old rumour. Nothing really,”

Laura sighs heavily. “Just tell me, please,”

“There was a rumour… a rumour that the man she was engaged to when she was in her early 20’s, I think, died in unusual circumstances. Nothing more came of it. But she somehow got his house and money. And apparently his family was not pleased. But like I said… all rumours,”

“Well, this Carl fella says my name is in her Will. I’m going to a reading at the start of June.” Laura takes another sip of water. “Think I’ll meet any strange relatives?” Laura asks with a small laugh which eases the tension.

They then chatted a bit about what Carl Patterson said then general chitchat before hanging up. Laura decided to Google Carl, just to be on the safe side, and found that he had a legitimate law practice at the address he had given.

‘So at least it’s not a scam?’

The story Laura’s mum had told her about Martha bounced around her head any time she paused her work and it was getting frustrating. She looked at her calendar and counted the days.

‘19 days. Just 19 days then you’ll find out who this woman is… was. Maybe she’s left something valuable?’

Her mind wandered with all the possibilities of what Martha Kerns might have left her as she finished her paperwork. Eventually her daydreaming came to an end when she felt her body starting to protest at her still being awake. She fell into her bed and drifted off into an exhausted and dreamless sleep.

Even though she had had the night shift from hell that had kept her at the hospital an extra 3 hours, it didn’t mean she had the next shift off. So, even though she let out a pillow-smothered yell of frustration when her alarm clock sounded, she forced herself up and out of the house.

The day passed her by in a daze of dealing with patients from the train derailment and the street brawl, her mind still thinking about the phone call with Carl and her mum.

***

Laura counted down each day, not really knowing why she was so nervous. Maybe it was because she knew nothing about her fathers family? She didn’t know if she was going to be the only one there or if she was about to meet several new family members.

Her days played out in a slow blur. But the 2nd of June finally rolled around.

When she was read she forced herself out the door. She caught the bus and counted the stops. Everything felt like she was watching someone else control her actions or like watching a movie of her life.

Laura arrived at the solicitors office 40 minutes early and made her way to the office Carl had told her to.

His receptionist smiled pleasantly and told her to take a seat, as she busied herself with some paperwork; having not long arrived into work. Laura looked around the waiting room to find that she was alone. No strange looking potential family members but she was early. Laura’s leg began to bounce with an uncontrollable mix of nerves and impatience.

“Doctor Grey?” A small elderly man in a tweed suit announced from his open office door. Laura stood and pulled down her suit jacket to straighten it out before walking over to the man. “I’m Carl Patterson. Nice to meet you,” he says as she shakes his hand and he motioned for her to enter his office and to take a seat at his desk then closed the door behind them.

“Am… am I the only one?”

“Yes, it appears your Great Aunt was a rather solitary woman,” he explained as he sat in his office chair that engulfed him, making him look even smaller. He lifted a thick paper folder from a drawer in his desk and opened it. Carl placed a small pair of spectacles on and cleared his throat.

“Shall we begin?” He asks while briefly looking up at Laura. She nodded then inhaled deeply, there was no turning back now. Carl cleared his throat and looked at the papers in his hands.

“I, Martha Kerns, am writing My Last Will and Testament with sound body and mind on January 1st, 2000. As I have no heirs of my own, I leave my entire Estate to my Great Niece, Laura Grey. My funeral has been arranged and paid for.” Carl read out in a tone of voice that had an unusual air of authority to it. He looked up at her after the short reading and moved his spectacles up onto his head.

“That’s it?” Laura asks in sheer disbelief.

“Yes. It appears so. I have the address of the property, the financial gains and list of miscellaneous items that are included in her Estate,” Carl explained, handing over the folder he had just been reading from.

The first page had an image of a decaying but grand Victorian-era mansion with the estimated sale value which made Laura choke in surprise.

“Would you like some water?” Carl asks, eyebrows raising in concern. Laura shook her head and continued to read the details of the house, its contents, other goods; which included an old but well maintained classic car and the money she had also been left.

“Mr Patterson. Is this a joke?” Laura asks incredulously.

“Of course not! I was Mrs Kerns solicitor for many, many years. I oversaw the Will signing,” he straightened himself in his seat. Laura had clearly offended him.

“I’m not trying to offend you. It’s just… this all comes to a total of around 30 million pounds,”

“Correct. And my fees have already been paid. So… it’s all yours, Doctor.” Carl said plainly, sounding like he was already bored with the situation. He plucked an imaginary bit of lint from his sleeve as Laura’s heart rate increased to that of a race horse.

She stared at the numbers on the page until they all blurred into one.

‘How could my family not know that we had a relative that was swimming in money and riches?’ She thought as Carl’s voice faded in and out. They discussed when she would be able to pick up the cheque and keys to the house. Once Carl had given all the information he could, Laura began to feel like she was a burden to him. So, she thanked him and they said their quick goodbyes.

Her journey home seemed even longer than her journey to Carl’s office and when she finally arrived home, she sat in stunned silence for at least 2 hours, reading and rereading her copy of Martha Kerns’ Will and everything she had somehow just inherited. Things like this didn’t happen outside of the movies! She was just a NHS doctor; now turned multi-millionaire in the space of a couple of hours. The solicitor Carl Patterson, who had made her feel incredibly uncomfortable, told her that the keys to the mansion would be hers by the end of the week.

Laura just hoped that no more family secrets would be waiting for her at the Grand Estate…