107: Paternity fraud and inheritance.

KIKI.

Almost a week have passed since Giovanni’s father died, it made a statement for days as he was a very influential and wealthy man. Even his burial was full of people of high calibers.

Giovanni had been contacted yesterday to come over to their home since he was no longer staying with them to avoid their drama and unnecessary toxicity. He had been with me in my suite For the days after the burial. I was shocked when Grace told me that she got a call to come to the house too, and then Giovanni asked me to tag along as his emotional support too, I was eager to go with him as well.

The moment we stepped into the huge house for the third time ever for Grace and I, the tension was way too high to ignore, two strange men were seated on the chair closer to the huge flat screen TV while Mrs. Callisto, Imelda and Gaston were both seated on the couch directly opposite the TV.

As soon as our presence was noticed by Mrs. Callisto, she was immediately up on her feet, “why on earth are these two in a gathering like this that is supposed to be private and within the family?" She asked in a furious tone.

We simply followed Giovanni as he sat on the long sofa right in front of the strabge men in suits. I took my seat in between Grace and Giovanni as we all ignored Mrs. Callisto at first.

“Do you not hear me? Have you gone deaf so fast too? Lawyers, say something! These two cannot be here, they aren’t family!” She said again, adamant on her stand.

“Uhm, mother, Kiki is here as my emotional support and she’s family. She’s my family, she’s my girlfriend so of course she’s family.” Giovanni simply stood up for me.

“And her? The… the… this homebreaker?” She asked further.

Giovanni was about to say something but one of the men beat him to it, “Mrs, Callisto, she was called here too ma’am. She’s required here, infact, the late Mr. Callisto had instructed us to make sure we get her to be here before the will is read, and we shouldn’t be reading the will yet since it’s barely a week since his burial, but you and Mr. Gaston Callisto here specifically kept calling on us to come share the inheritance as you said and I’ll put it in your exact words, ‘we need to get it over with already and own what is rightfully ours.’ So here we are.” The man said.

I found myself shaking my head in total disappointment as I heard that Mrs. Callisto and Gaston was the cause of the sudden will reading.

These people are despicable, who gets so concerned about inheritance when their husband and father had just died.

“There must be a mistake somewhere, why will she need to be here when the will is being read? What is her connection with the will, she’s a nobody to us!” Mrs. Callisto went on, still bitter.

“Well then, if you don’t want her here, then that would mean that this will reading will have to be postponed till whenever you’re ready to tolerate her being in the same room with you, until them, this will not hold.” The same man said sternly as he began to pack the various documents he had spread out on the table before him.

“What? Hell no! Mom, sit your ass down and let’s get this thing done! Stop overreacting over some woman who had sex with your dead husband, nobody cares about that bullshit anymore, he’s dead!” Gaston snapped at his mom earning a silent gasp from me.

Mrs Callisto seemed to listen to his son as she immediately went mute and took her seat.

Wow. Talk about a crazy duo, quite befitting as well, I guess it goes with the saying that the fruit doesn’t fall far from its tree.

“So, if that is settled, let us proceed. I’ll start by telling you people my name, I am John Craig, legal practitioner and lawyer in charge of all of Mr. Callisto’s asset, it was managed by my late father before he died and then Mr. Callisto had chosen me afterwards, this man beside me is my assistant, a lawyer too, he’s Xander Smith. Now, I’ll like to let you all know that whatever we are about to do, show or say today is nothing at all different from what Mr. Leonardo Callisto instructed us on. So if that is well and settled, we shall start the reading by playing the following video.” John said as the large screen TV came on and the late Mr. Callisto’s face popped up.

Everywhere went silent as we began to listen to him speak, “Good day to you, my beloved family, if you’re watching this then it means I’m… uh… dead already and it’s the time when everything I’ve owned is shared amongst you all.

Well, I’ll like to start by thanking my dearest wife, Laura. I know that I wanat exactly the best husband to you and there’s a lot of expectations that you had for me that I didn’t meet and I’m sorry. I want you to know that even though we were in a forced marriage all our lives, you’re my wife and I adored you…”

I mirrored Mrs. Callisto’s expression and she was literally gloating.

“And Gaston, my big baby, the eldest yet the most babyish of them all, I love you so much and I wish I could have done better in raising you, I hope you forgive my shortcomings and hopefully become a better man…”

Gaston rolled his eyes and scoffed as Mr. Callisto continued, “Imelda, my sweet baby girl, you know, sometimes I can’t help but wonder how you turned out so good and amazing despite the environment you were raised in and who you were raised by, its so amazing how you were able to carve yourself better than we carved you and how you stand by the right side of the world no matter who’s on it. I hope that you continue to retain that goodness in you and get the utmost need to continue to pursue your dreams and actualize them.”

Tears rolled down Imelda eyes as she wiped them just before she said, “I love you daddy, no matter what.”

I found myself feeling the emotional moment as he continued, “Grace, I hope you’re here, I really do. I simply want to say I’m sorry for whatever pain I caused you. I love you, I really do but I knew that I couldn’t be caught showing emotions and I decide to lock up all up and throw the key away, I was the worst person to you, I caused you pain physically and emotionally, I didn’t expect you to forgive me but I want to say I’m sorry nontheless.” Grace simply looked down at her hands as he mentioned her and then continued.

“My darling son, Giovanni, I know that I’ve never showed any affection towards you and that I raised you in the hardest way when it comes to my children, I want you to know that I did it just so you can be stronger, just so my wife doesn’t feel like I was favoring you and as I say this right now, I know that it was such a wrong approach, I was a bad father to you and I know I caused you so much trauma and pain and I can’t even ask for your forgiveness because I know that I do not in any way deserve it.”

I turned my head to look at Giovanni beside me and he simply looked emotionless although I somehow knew that he felt sad within him, I squeezed his hands showing that I was here for him before turning back to look t the TV screen.

“Theirs is one thing everybody in this room needs to know, something or somethings that may come as a huge shock to everyone of you, even the perpetrator. Laura, my dear wife, I want you that I know of the fact that Gaston and Imelda aren’t my biological children, I know of the fact that they belong to a random man who you made sure was eliminated to keep the secret for as long as you can but I’ve known for over twenty years and had just decided to keep mute about it..” There was an awkward silence in the room immediately Mr. Callisto said that.

We all refused to look around as if doing so was going to cause mayhem and so we decided to listen or pretend to listen on.

“Since that is done with, I’ll go on with the inheritance which I know a lot of you are more interested in. So for this house we are in, I’m giving it to Gaston,” I turned to look at Gaston and he was gloating for signing who had just learnt that he was a bastard child.

“My dear Imelda, I’m giving the whole hospital I was planning on opening soon to you, I am still your father no matter what and I cherish you so much, I know you love being a doctor and I hope you prosper at your dream.”

I turned to look at Imelda as she whispered a “thank you, daddy.”

“Grace, I know this can never compensate for the pain I put you through all these years but I want you to know that whether or not you accept it, I have a twenty percent shares in your name in my brand and I am giving it to you.”

At this, we all gasped, “twenty freaking percent for the bitch? What?” Mrs Callisto yelled, and for someone who had just been outed for paternity fraud, she sure has a lot of guts.

And for the rest of my properties and I mean every single one, from the branches in different countries to the houses and shares I own, everything now belongs to Giovanni.”

Another gasp filled the air as soon as we heard that.

Just before anyone could speak, Mr Callisto did, “and uh Laura, I want you to know that I’m very aware of the fact that you have been changing my drugs to that slow poisoning drugs for years, I knew but I kept on asking it because I thought of you as my karma, my karma for all the evil I’ve done. So you did a good job taking my life, my dear wife.”

After that, the screen went off and the silence in the room was deafening, even a pin could be heard if it fell.