My Late Husband Left Me A Dilapidated Shack While His Family Inherited Millions. I Thought I Was Penniless Until I Moved A Bed In The Basement. How Could He Keep This Secret From Me?

The Reading of the Will

Jim Parker’s law office was unusually crowded that day. That was because numerous relatives of the deceased wealthy landowner came in for the reading of his will.

It was rumored that Francis Hughes was a quarrelsome and greedy man in his lifetime. However, when the rich man died of a heart attack, all of his relatives, both close and distant, suddenly decided to show up hoping that the childless millionaire mentioned them in his will, which judging by the rumors he drawn up a long time ago.

At that point, Jim Parker’s office looked more like a buzzing beehive than an actual law firm. At first, the relatives tried to stay calm and talk in low voices, but when one of them accidentally raised his voice, the rest quickly followed suit.

The lawyer cast a displeased glance at the crowd standing in front of him and coughed softly to get their attention. Everyone immediately got quiet and looked in the direction of Jim Parker.

“Silence, please. Don’t make me raise my voice,”

The man asked.

The relatives of the deceased nodded their heads in response and got ready to listen. Deep down, every single one of them believed that the late rich man didn’t forget about them and left each of them something of value.

Rachel’s Unhappy Marriage

Only the wife of the deceased didn’t hope to get anything special. Rachel Hughes knew her husband all too well to expect any kindness from him.

It took the woman too long to realize that agreeing to marry Francis was the biggest mistake of her life. Rachel grew up in an orphanage and had no family apart from Francis.

Nevertheless, she did marry him for the money, but for a completely different reason. Moreover, Rachel agreed to her husband’s terms and signed a prenup which stated that in the event of a divorce, she wouldn’t get any of her husband’s money.

Francis knew what he was doing; it was his third marriage after all. Therefore, he didn’t have any illusions when he got married to Rachel and behaved as his inner voice prompted him.

The age difference between Francis and his wife was 15 years, which looked strange at best in the eyes of other people. In their life, no one could believe that Rachel didn’t marry her husband for the money and that her feelings were actually sincere.,

Judged by the Family

And now, standing in the lawyer’s office, Rachel caught the sharp glances of her late husband’s relatives. All of whom seemed to condemn her for something, but she didn’t know what.

Barbara Hughes, the late businesswoman’s mother, seemed especially displeased. The old woman always despised her young daughter-in-law and never even tried to hide it.

“Why would you want to marry this provincial orphan? Couldn’t you find someone better to be your wife?”

She said to her son.

Francis only smiled in response and didn’t say a single word. At the time she first met the millionaire, Rachel worked as a manager in a small company and couldn’t be considered a catch.

But Francis didn’t care about all that in the least. The aging rich man wanted to have a young beautiful woman by his side, someone to show off to his business partners as well as to make him feel young again.,

Many thought that it was Francis’s irregular working hours and the stress of doing business that caused his early demise. But the truth was that it was all the alcohol which Francis consumed in unthinkable quantities.

Of course, that wasn’t something you could say out loud in public, and Rachel understood that all too well. The last thing the woman wanted was to stir up the past and remember the grievances her late husband caused her.

The Shocking Bequest

Rachel was pulled out of her painful thoughts by the lawyer’s voice when he started reading out Francis’s will. The first person mentioned in the will was quite unexpectedly his mother, who got her son’s huge mansion and all of his companies.

Then came some distant relatives, most of whom Francis only ever saw back in his childhood. Since the millionaire had no children, everyone expected Rachel to get most of his financial assets.

But when the lawyer announced that all the widow was getting was a house in a suburban village, everyone gasped. Truth be told, Rachel was just as shocked.,

She knew that Francis got that shack shortly before his death from someone as a payment for gambling debt. At best, it could serve as a shelter for some homeless people; at worst, a haven for rats and other rodents.

Seeing her daughter-in-law’s reaction, Barbara Hughes smirked smugly.

“That’s right, you filthy beggar! That’s all you deserve. You wanted to get your hands on my son’s money, but instead you got some shack in the country!”

Francis’s mother exclaimed.

Rachel turned pale and left the lawyer’s office amid snarky chuckles. She didn’t want to look like a laughingstock in the eyes of those quarrelsome people, and therefore she decided to forget all about that family as if it was all just a bad dream.

Accepting the Crumbling Inheritance

Bitter tears were flowing down the woman’s cheeks, but they didn’t bring her any relief. Rachel wandered down the street oblivious to the other people who deliberately tried to avoid her.

Of course, Rachel didn’t expect to get anything special from Francis, but her husband’s will still shocked her.

“Is that really all I deserve after 10 years together? Some old ruins in a small town God knows where,”

The woman thought bitterly.

A week passed during which Rachel calmed down a bit and pulled herself together. Rachel’s first thought was to give up the inheritance that Francis left her as if to make fun of her.

But then she weighed all the pros and cons and decided to at least take a look at the house with her own eyes. To say that the building looked untidy would be a huge understatement.

The ivy-covered walls, the burned-out tiles on the roof, and the chimney leaning to one side; it all made a very sad impression on the woman. The windows of the house were boarded up a long time ago, and then there was no doorbell or even a handle on the door.

Having opened the door with the key she got from the lawyer, Rachel winced in displeasure. Darkness and desolation reigned inside the house.