Free Esme and the Money Grab: (A Very Dark Romantic Comedy) by Paloma Meir Page B

“What?” I asked with an abundant amount of paranoia screeching through my voice.
      Did they know about the watch? Were they taking pity on me by sending Mr. Richmond instead of the police? Thoughts flew through my mind. Did he have a plan for me to work the debt off? 40,000 dollars, I would be paying it off for the rest my life.
      I deserved much worse, but I wasn’t looking forward to it.
      “Mr. Galloway left you the entirety of his estate. Two caveats, but I don’t think they’ll be a problem.”
      “What?” I couldn’t have been more shocked, “The man hated me, taunted me everyday.”
      “He was worth roughly eighty million dollars, and he left it all to you. He may have taunted you, I would imagine that he did based upon one of the requirements, but he didn’t hate you. He left you a note…” He shuffled through the papers and handed me a sealed envelope.
      I didn’t take, “Could you read it to me?” My numb emotional state was growing surreal, with a fuzzy edge. I wasn’t quite sure I was awake.
      “Of course,” He painstakingly opened the envelope, as if trying to preserve its original condition. This made me smile.
      Esme,
      You were one of the good ones, but I never liked your name. Esmeralda Perez is the heir to my fortune. I suggest you sign the name change document the lawyer sitting across from you should be holding in his hands right now. If he isn’t holding it out to you, have him fired.
      What kind of a man wouldn’t abide by an elderly man’s dying wish? That’s not someone you want on you team. Fire them all, Esmeralda.
      Take care of Mila.
      Best, Edward Galloway
      Serge had reached across the table as he was reading the letter to me. In his extended hand was the name change form. I signed it.
      And broke down into a waterfall of hysterical tears, happy, sad, every emotion poured from me. Serge held me paternally in his arms. I soaked the shoulder of his suit.
      “He was such a horrible man,” I lifted my head and laughed through my sobs, “So mean… The things he would say… You have no idea.”
      “Esme… Esmeralda… I do know, stories of Mr. Galloway are legendary, mythical at our firm. The partner’s have been putting the rookies on his affairs for the past ten years. It’s a rite of passage.”
      “Was he always that way? Did something happen to him?” I continued crying my mixed emotion of tears.
      “No, as far as know from the partners in my firm, he was always this way. No sad story behind him. Some people are just born that way.”
      “Jack was born good…” I mumbled into his arms and cried forever more.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Twelve
     
       A year later…
      I did move back into a very small apartment in Sun Valley. I didn’t stay there long. It felt martyrish after a few months. There were other ways to atone for my sins.
      I bought the apartment building across the street from the Catholic School Jack and I had attended as kids. It was a wreck, but I had a lot of money. The architect I had hired wanted to raze it and build anew.
      I think he wanted to build a world-class cultural center with the money from his new client. I just wanted the neighborhood kids to feel safe and at home. We compromised.
      We kept the original bones of the crumbly two-story building, which even I could see wasn’t worth keeping, and rebuilt it with quality materials. Gorgeous reclaimed wood, shiny steel beams with sweeping windows that spanned the front of the superstructure.
      What was once a barren front yard, was filled with a maze of tunneled play structures. The modest backyard was a vegetable garden with towering stalks of corn. At our first Halloween we turned into a haunted garden.
      The afterschool center opened at noon for the kindergarten class that got out early. We stayed opened until 9:00 for the few parents