The Inheritance
Years ago, I consulted with a local psychic who told me there’d be “problems with an inheritance.” I had no idea what he was talking about and tossed the comment off as random. Little did I know, my ex husband, an eccentric Czech photographer who lived in London, was worth a small fortune. So when he died, I learned that the psychic’s prediction would come true. Because that’s when our family was introduced to a hostile Russian woman named Vera who would harass our family for years.
A FIVE-PART SERIES, BASED ON A TRUE STORY
with new episodes published on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Part 1: The Inheritance
The psychic was an odd guy, with a habit of swaying his head back and forth like a blind person trying to take in his surroundings with unseeing eyes. It turned out his random prediction was right, and someone very close to me would struggle mightily.
Part II: The Inheritance
I only met Vera once, at a lawyer’s office. She was gorgeous—tall and slender with an intense expression in her almond-shaped eyes and a pile of dark hair swooped into a pompadour above her forehead. She wore boots with pointy toes and a tightish dress that brought out the curves of her body. Her voice was as heavily accented as Werner’s and she gave out a hostile vibe.
Part III: The Inheritance
When she was an adult, Jofka would travel to London to see her father. These were not easy visits. Werner loved his daughter deeply, but I think on some level he was afraid of growing too attached to her. Despite their limited connection, they had the same world view, the same fierce political outlook, the same urgency about fighting the wrongs of society. I guess that has to do with genes.
Part IV: The Inheritance
It took only a brief time for Vera to totally insert herself into Werner’s life. She became his everything, which meant she took over his day-to-day existence, involving herself in his lucrative photography business and gaining more and more power. She acted like an amorous partner, but here’s the thing: she already had a man in her life and was the mother of a young child. So that made my antennae go up.
Part V: The Inheritance
Vera removed my many possessions (some of them valuable) from the small terraced house that was legally mine, and flogged them god knows where. What we learned next was even more shocking: Werner had made a deathbed will, leaving all his worldly goods and all his money to Vera. There was no mention of a daughter (in fact, it emerged that he had no idea he even had a daughter; in his dementia, he’d forgotten all about Jofka).