Part 2
The Kriticos family fortune fell to Cyrus in the fall of his twenty-first year. The news came whilst he and his two younger brothers were away at Harvard - the executor of their father's estate - a lawyer named Franklin Moss - arrived early in the evening of October 12th and delivered the news in person. The three brothers were sitting down to dinner when he was shown into the room. Two of them didn't eat a thing that night.
The news of their father's death was not unexpected; his lung cancer had remained untreated for over six months and the brothers had been doing their best to reconcile themselves to the fact that Charles Kriticos was indeed going to die. By that night, the three brothers were ready. They took the news well. In fact, the two youngest were quite simply relieved that their father's suffering was over at last.
Moss carried the will in his briefcase. Whilst not legally permitted to read it until the following morning - in the presence of the whole family and other interested parties - he alluded obliquely to several clauses. It did not come as a surprise that the bulk of the estate would go to Cyrus; William and Samuel had all the money they could ever possibly need held in trust until their twenty-first birthdays, and it was, of course, tradition that the family estate pass to the first-born son. Everything was as it should have been. There were no contestations of the will. The family was satisfied.
Until, five years later, Cyrus cut all access to the family accounts. Then tempers flared, along with lawsuits. But there was nothing to be done - Cyrus had every right to cut access. It was, after all, his money, and his estate. It began to dawn on William and Samuel, their wives, their children, their aunts and uncles, their cousins, the whole extended Kriticos family, that Cyrus had only ever agreed to their allowances to assuage any thoughts they might have harboured to contest the will. He was smart. He'd waited five years and now there wasn't a thing they could do. Cyrus had everything; he cut them all off without a penny. Even the trust funds were reclaimed.
After that, most of the family moved away. Samuel, Charles' second son, moved out to his wife's home state of California. Aunt Adriana and Uncle Andrius moved to a retirement community in Florida. Some of the older family members moved back to Greece, the original motherland of the Kriticos family. In fact, apart from Cyrus, the only family members who hadn't moved within a year of the allowance being severed were William Kriticos, his wife Marta and their two-year-old son Arthur.
They were the only ones nearby when the fortune began to disappear.
***
The Kriticos family fortune fell to Cyrus in the fall of his twenty-first year. The news came whilst he and his two younger brothers were away at Harvard - the executor of their father's estate - a lawyer named Franklin Moss - arrived early in the evening of October 12th and delivered the news in person. The three brothers were sitting down to dinner when he was shown into the room. Two of them didn't eat a thing that night.
The news of their father's death was not unexpected; his lung cancer had remained untreated for over six months and the brothers had been doing their best to reconcile themselves to the fact that Charles Kriticos was indeed going to die. By that night, the three brothers were ready. They took the news well. In fact, the two youngest were quite simply relieved that their father's suffering was over at last.
Moss carried the will in his briefcase. Whilst not legally permitted to read it until the following morning - in the presence of the whole family and other interested parties - he alluded obliquely to several clauses. It did not come as a surprise that the bulk of the estate would go to Cyrus; William and Samuel had all the money they could ever possibly need held in trust until their twenty-first birthdays, and it was, of course, tradition that the family estate pass to the first-born son. Everything was as it should have been. There were no contestations of the will. The family was satisfied.
Until, five years later, Cyrus cut all access to the family accounts. Then tempers flared, along with lawsuits. But there was nothing to be done - Cyrus had every right to cut access. It was, after all, his money, and his estate. It began to dawn on William and Samuel, their wives, their children, their aunts and uncles, their cousins, the whole extended Kriticos family, that Cyrus had only ever agreed to their allowances to assuage any thoughts they might have harboured to contest the will. He was smart. He'd waited five years and now there wasn't a thing they could do. Cyrus had everything; he cut them all off without a penny. Even the trust funds were reclaimed.
After that, most of the family moved away. Samuel, Charles' second son, moved out to his wife's home state of California. Aunt Adriana and Uncle Andrius moved to a retirement community in Florida. Some of the older family members moved back to Greece, the original motherland of the Kriticos family. In fact, apart from Cyrus, the only family members who hadn't moved within a year of the allowance being severed were William Kriticos, his wife Marta and their two-year-old son Arthur.
They were the only ones nearby when the fortune began to disappear.
***