When the attorney finished reading Grandmother Elena’s will, the silence in the conference room was heavy with disappointment and barely concealed resentment. The mahogany table was scattered with legal documents that had just redistributed a lifetime of accumulated wealth among family members who had spent decades calculating their expected inheritance shares.
My cousins received the substantial assets everyone had anticipated—Marcus inherited the Victorian mansion with its carefully maintained gardens and proximity to the prestigious medical facilities where our family had built their pharmaceutical fortune.
