Felicitas✔️

chapter two

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Felicity's POV.

On the train to Brookesfield, I call my father. He lives in Dubai, but I see him at Christmas and on my birthday. He and my mother were not together when she had me, I was an accident from a one-night-stand. Despite not wanting to be together, they managed to tolerate one another enough to co-parent me through childhood.

I lived out of a suitcase as a kid, spending weekends at my dad's and living with my mother on weekdays. I didn't mind it, I loved seeing both of them. When I grew up and went to university for my art degree, my father took a job out in Dubai and it was hard at first, seeing him only twice a year. Now, at twenty-four, I'm used to our biannual visits.

I'm invited into the solicitor's office where I meet Evora, my aunt's friend and executor of her will.

"Now that both beneficiaries are present, we can begin," Mr Cotton states.

A sum of ten thousand pounds is left to Evora, a woman my aunt has known for years since they went to university together. Evora cries but is incredibly grateful for the gift. Evora is dismissed and I wait with bated breath, very curious as to what my aunt has left me. We were never close, so I never expected to be left anything.

"For Felicity Ava Figo, I leave all the residue of my estate under the condition that she must live at the house until she has (a) read her mother's diaries in full and (b) received a sensible offer from a one Mr Pax Ortus."

The statement baffles me completely. I had no idea that my mother kept diaries, let alone that my aunt had possession of them. My eyebrows draw together as I wonder why my aunt is so insistent on me reading them.

"The total sum of her estate, not including the property, comes to £37,560. I will need you to provide bank details for us to make the transfer for you, Miss Figo. Remember that you have six months from the end of this month to pay the inheritance tax."

My jaw nearly hits the floor. My aunt has left me nearly forty thousand pounds and her house.

"There must be some mistake, are you sure that I am the only other beneficiary?" I blurt to the solicitor.

He nods and smiles at me. "I am sure, Miss Figo, but please feel free to take a look for yourself. Congratulations, you have just become a very wealthy woman."

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Half an hour later, I step onto the street from the solicitors, still shell-shocked. I was expecting some heirlooms, maybe a hundred pounds or something. I cannot believe that I could count on one hand how many times I met that woman, and she has now left me all this estate.

The whole train ride home I stare out of the window. I don't even listen to music; I just dwell on what has happened. I feel guilty for inheriting so much. If it were the lottery, I would feel lucky. But knowing that I am being giving something for free, something that my aunt no doubt worked hard to earn...it doesn't sit well with me.

I will definitely uphold her conditions from the will. I decide to book tickets to travel to wherever her house is when I get back to my flat. I will go to her home, fix it up for selling and read all of my mother's diaries. I've always wanted to know my mother better; my aunt has now provided the perfect opportunity.

When I get home, I search up the address on the internet. It doesn't seem right, so I close the web page, open another and search it again. I refresh the page, and nothing changes.

The address drops a pin in the middle of a green patch on Google Maps. When I change it to satellite mode, there is nothing, but trees shown. It must be a mistake, there can't be some random house in the middle of a forest...can there? If there is, it's going to be one heck of a job trying to sell it.