This is the second part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I before continuing.
“Ms. Ver Halen, thanks so much for coming down here to meet with me,” said the lawyer as she shook Maddy’s hand.
“Maddy is fine,” Maddy said as she returned the handshake and started following the lawyer to her office.
“Good. You can call me Helen. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“No thanks.” Maddy just wanted to get this over with.
As they were sitting down, Maddy said, “So, this is it? No gathering of the family to read the will?”
Helen smiled at her. “I’m afraid that only happens in movies. Although I would have liked to have your brother here, since the two of you are joint inheritors of her estate, but I couldn’t get hold of him.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“I’d appreciate that. I have all the paperwork here, and of course you can take a copy with you. This meeting is just our chance to go over the broad strokes. She set up a trust for you and Tolbert. That trust includes most of her estate, including some real estate here in Chicago, as well as some property up in Wisconsin. In addition to the real estate, she had two cars, the usual investments in the stock market, and the rest is sitting in her bank account ready to be transferred. I would advise waiting for your brother to respond before you make any transfers, but your aunt did make you the executor of her estate, which means, once we get the paperwork signed, you can transfer the funds at any time.”
“Why did she make me the executor?”
Helen shrugged. “She didn’t say. Maybe it was because you’re the oldest, so she thought you might be more responsible. Maybe she flipped a coin. The how doesn’t matter at this point. What we have to deal with now is the logistics of getting all this property transferred to you and your brother, so the earlier you could talk to him about this, the better.”
Maddy nodded.
“I know this is a lot to take in, so take all the time you need. If you want to take this all home and look it over there, that’s fine. Like I said, I can give you a copy of all the paperwork. Oh, and there’s this for you.” She opened a file folder full of papers and pulled out a thin letter envelope with “Maddy” written on it. “She left this for you. You’ll probably want to read it somewhere private. I have another one for your brother, but I was instructed to hand it directly to him.”
Maddy took the envelope and considered the loopy handwriting. It looked a lot like her dad’s handwriting, and she was surprised to feel a pang at that realization. Until that moment, some part of her had continued to insist that none of this was real. It was all some sort of joke. The handwriting was hardly proof, but it demonstrated a connection.
Maddy thanked Helen, gathered up the armload of papers, and tried to maintain her dignity as she tottered under the weight of them on her way to the elevators.
To be continued…