From real life. “I lost my son, then discovered the surprising truth about the inheritance”: I didn't expect such a trick

A few weeks after the funeral, I got a summons to the law firm to hear Mark's will.

When my son died, the world stopped making sense. He was only 28, with his whole life ahead of him. A car accident took away the only person close to me who still kept me afloat. My wife had passed away many years ago, and Marek was all I had. On the day of his funeral, I realized how empty my life had become.

After Marek died, everyone around me told me to focus on my memories and cherish his legacy. But what did that mean? Marek was young, without a wife or children. His only assets were a small house he bought on credit, and a few savings he had saved up for the future. I didn't expect that inheritance matters could cause any problems.

A few weeks after the funeral, I got a summons to the law firm to hear Marek's will. I was surprised – he didn't have anything that would require such formalities. But I went, wanting to find out what the future of his estate looked like.

At the law office I found unexpected guests – Elwira, Marek's ex-partner, whom he broke up with two years ago, and her lawyer. Their presence was incomprehensible to me.

„Why are you here?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

Elwira looked at me with a cold smile.

– „I am here because Marek left me everything.”

What I heard next was like a blow to the heart. The will, which the lawyer began to read, clearly stated – all of the property, including the house and savings, was to go to Elwira.

I was shocked. Marek had never mentioned it to me. They had only been together for a year, and they had broken up on bad terms. From what I knew, Marek wanted nothing to do with her.

„This is some kind of mistake. Marek would never do that,– I said, stopping reading.
The lawyer looked at me with a look of sympathy.

„The will had been drawn up two years ago, just before they broke up. According to the law, it is fully valid.”

After the meeting, I couldn't find peace. I felt that something was wrong here. I started searching through Mark's things, looking for any clues as to why he made this decision. Finally, on his old laptop, I found messages that shed new light on the whole situation.

Elwira was with Marek only for his money. In their messages I found conversations in which she pressured him to make a will in her favor, promising that their relationship would only survive if he showed her “trust.” Marek, in love and naive, complied with her request, but when he discovered her manipulations, he immediately left her.

I understood that Marek never changed the will because he thought he still had time. He thought that such things could wait, that he would have time to fix this mistake. But life did not give him that chance.

I returned to the law office with this evidence, but the law was inexorable. The will was valid, and what I felt and knew about my son's intentions did not matter. Elvira inherited everything.

Today I live with the pain of two losses – Marek and the feeling that his trust was betrayed in the cruelest way. The house he grew up in was sold by Elvira, and the money went to fund her new life. I know I can't turn back time, but there is still regret and anger in my heart. Marek deserved more, and I have to learn to live with the fact that his last decisions were laced with love that I didn't understand.

Because sometimes the greatest dramas are hidden not in death, but in what remains after it.

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