2797.Our little secret © Bruce Goodman 27 July 2023

After her father died and his funeral, Shona began cleaning up his house. He had been a rich man – extremely rich – although never particularly generous to his family of two boys and another girl besides Shona. In fact no one could find his will or much else for that matter. No bank cards, credit card, anything. Not even the keys to his Lamborghini could be found. So as she cleaned up his messy house Shona kept half an eye out for such items. Shona brothers and sister had decided that the two girls would sort things out in the house and the two boys could be responsible for the outside and for carting stuff away. Their mother had died suddenly the previous year so it was solely up to them to tidy up. Their parents had provided a not particularly convivial family life, but even so the four now adult siblings missed them. Suddenly, sure enough! In the wall behind a painting of a ballerina was a safe – or more specifically a locked steel cupboard. It didn’t seem to need a pin number but opened with a key. “I wish my brothers and sister would hurry and turn up,” thought Shona. “They’d be as keen as mustard to find the key.” Turn up they did! Find the key they did! It was a silly place to keep a key: simply on a nail behind a curtain. They opened the cupboard. There was the key to the Lamborghini. There were the bank and credit cards. And there was a sealed envelope marked “Will”. They opened it. It was hand written. Their father had left everything – his entire spectacular fortune – “to Ms Avery Nissan, my mistress for over forty years”. The four siblings never got a mention. Shona looked at the others and said “Let’s!” She produced a box of matches. “This will be our little secret.” Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story