AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The lawyer is already here,” Francesca went on, snapping her hands together. “As you meet with him, I will take your bags to your rooms.” She smiled serenely at first Alyssa, then Maggie, adding, “I know you never met your grandmother. She was a truly inspired woman. One of a kind. Unique, you might say.”
Alyssa and Maggie exchanged curious glances.
“We’re eager to learn more about her,” Alyssa said.
“Oh. You will,” Francesca said, then spun on her heel and led them into the adjoining dining room, where a very short man with a fat mustache sat in front of a thick folder. Francesca introduced them, then pulled out chairs for them to sit before the lawyer, whose name was Mario Benticcini.
As soon as Francesca was out of the room, Mario opened the folder, cleared his throat, and began to read.
“This is the last will and testament, by Teresa Cacciapaglia, which I have written in my own hand, in English— a language I have hardly spoken since I left the United States many, many years ago, especially given the fact that you, my dear and handsome son, have never visited.”
Alyssa, Maggie, and Janine exchanged glances, sensing the volatility behind the woman’s words.
“This isn’t to say I’m angry with you, Jack,” the lawyer went on. “Rather, as I studied you from a distance, with only the love a mother can offer her son, I recognized that you were never fully just your father. Rather, you were half mine, whimsical and alive and open to the mysticisms of the universe.”
Janine felt like laughing, but she folded her lips and managed to keep it in. In truth: she’d fallen in love with Jack for these reasons, for his eagerness and his uniqueness, for his brash confidence, for everything he’d been. What he’d done in cheating on her didn’t negate all that had come before that.
“In any case, Jack, now that you’re here, in my home, so far from yours in Manhattan, it is time you play by my rules,” the lawyer read.
“Rules?” Alyssa asked. “I don’t understand.”
The lawyer gave Alyssa a sharp look of disapproval. “The villa, all my belongings, and everything else I have to give will be yours, if and only if you play and win my game,” the lawyer read.
“A game?” Maggie laughed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Now, this is starting to sound like a horror movie.”
“Your first clue is this,” the lawyer went on, clearly annoyed that they spoke over his performance. “Find me with the unburied woman who lost her son far too soon.”
Alyssa and Maggie’s jaws dropped.
“The unburied woman?” Alyssa demanded. “Is that really all you’re giving us?”
“Once you discover the next clue, you will move on to the next, and the next, until all is revealed,” the lawyer continued. “When you’ve discovered the truth and defeated the game, all my riches will be yours. Good luck to you, Jack. My condolences on the death of your mother.”
Abruptly after he finished reading, the lawyer stood, slid the first page of the will over to the three Potter women, packed up the rest of his things, and left. Alyssa, Maggie, and Janine sat in dumb silence, their heads spinning with jet lag, reading and rereading the letter.
“I seriously do not get it,” Maggie said.
Footsteps outside the dining room made Janine leap from her chair. “Who’s there?”
Francesca appeared in the doorway, laughing. “I’m sorry to scare you. This old house can give anyone a fright.”
Janine grimaced and pointed to the will. “Have you read this?”
“She never let me, no.” Francesca approached to read the letter, slowly smiling. In Italian, she said something nobody else understood, then mumbled, “I’m sorry. I was just thinking, what an incredible woman.”
Alyssa laughed. “She was clearly unique, like you said.”
“Any idea what this means?” Maggie asked.
Francesca scrunched up her face. “I don’t know. I haven’t eaten anything yet, and my brain just doesn’t work when I haven’t. Would any of you care for some croissants and espresso? I brought them in from a local bakery.”
They couldn’t refuse something like that. Francesca hurried into what was probably the kitchen, and, in a moment, there was the growling sound of the espresso machine.
“Francesca has to know something about this clue, right?” Alyssa said.
Maggie grumbled. “We’re really going to play this weird game?” She glanced at Janine, adding, “I mean, isn’t it a waste of time? Maybe we should just tell the lawyer to give the money to charity. We never knew her. For goodness’ sake, Dad hardly knew her! And she clearly despised him for not having some kind of relationship with her.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Alyssa demanded.
