"What happens now?" I asked as we exited Mr Greenway's office at Mr Dietrich's request. He wanted to have a word in private with a man who had disregarded his oath for a reason we were not yet aware of.

"Now, we wait and see what Adam says. It all looked rather promising in there and if the witnesses on the April will can confirm their signature and the date of which it was signed, the February will would be discarded completely," Uncle Christopher said.

"So we might keep the house?"

Father nodded. "I read through the will before we went to the office and the house had been left to us with a portion of the estate and the money also going to Charlotte and Zachariah. Mother and Matilda weren't even mentioned."

"So they created a fake will because they had been left off the original? I wonder how much money they paid Mr Greenway to get him to go along with it," Mother said.

"I doubt they paid him anything upfront, no doubt they promised him a piece of the estate once all the paperwork had been sorted out. Mother lost all of her money, she didn't have anything to offer him until the plot to steal the estate went through. With any luck, this will mean they'll both return to Aunt Sybil's since they have no money to their name and nowhere else to go. If they're not careful, they could end up in debtors' prison."

"Well, even if their future doesn't look too bright, I think we can all agree that someone else's does." Uncle Christopher smiled at me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "You did well in there, Izzy."

"I wouldn't have been able to do anything had it not been for Mr Dietrich."

"You put up an excellent argument before he arrived, Izzy. You should be proud of yourself," Mother said.

I smiled and readjusted my grip on the crutches, the wood digging into the palm of my hand. My heartbeat had slowed down and my palms were no longer sweating; my head felt clear and I could breathe again. That original burst of anxiety actually worked in favour and, coupled with the anger I felt towards Grandmother for trying to take my home away from me, it became the perfect combination of emotions I needed to make my point.

Still, I wouldn't have been able to make any progress had it not been for Mr Dietrich jumping to my defence and arguing that he had the right to see the will in Mr Greenway's possession. Without him, I would have been thrown out of that office and we would have been forced to leave Grandfather's house before our case had even been heard. I had just spoken the words, it had been Mr Dietrich who sealed the deal for us so I didn't feel like I could take any credit or see it as a precedent for my future.

We stood outside Mr Greenway's office, watching the occasional shadow pass by the window that faced the street and it looked like someone had started to pace. The front door opened and Grandmother and Aunt Matilda materialised through the gap with neither of them looking all too pleased about how it had all panned out for them. They had expected to come away from the meeting with a property and all of Grandfather's money but they had nothing. They would always have nothing.

"How dare you, you insufferable child! That estate, that house, and that money is mine! It always has been! How dare you try and take that away from me!" Grandmother said, narrowing her eyes at me and her nostrils flaring in frustration.

"Izzy took nothing from you. You lost your right to Father's estate twenty-four years ago through your own behaviour. All Izzy did was see through the act, something that we should have trusted her on from the start. You lost Mother, accept it," Father said.

Grandmother laughed a shrill laugh that echoed through the empty streets. "I didn't lose! This is just the beginning, that estate will be mine once more."

I couldn't stand to listen to her rambling anymore. My heart thumped in my chest once again, a few leftover anger bubbles rising to the surface and exploding. I had had enough of her trying to ruin my family.

"It's not just the estate you have lost," I said, flexing my hands on the crutches. "You have lost three of your children, your grandchildren, your money, and your house through your own vindictive and downright awful behaviour to everyone you pass. I didn't take those things from you, you lost your right to them. All you have is a daughter who doesn't seem like she has the ability to think for herself and instead follows you around and does whatever you say despite being forty years of age and past the usual threshold for marriage.

"Instead, she will grow old as a spinster and you will have nothing and the only person you have left to blame is yourself. You don't deserve Grandfather's estate since he was a much better person than you will ever be. Perhaps, if you wish to see who really caused all your misfortune, you should look in a mirror and stop blaming everyone else for your mistakes."

Grandmother fixed her gaze on me once more, her eyes staring through and I felt a shiver go down my spine at the idea of what she might do to me. It had been her suggestion that led to Aunt Matilda causing injury to my leg and Mother had told me before what she would be capable of if someone were to get on her bad side.

I took a few seconds to try and calm my breathing down, trying to hide the fact that my chest was heaving and that my hands had started to shake around the crutches. For a second, it felt like I had forgotten how to breathe and the ground under my feet lurched to the side before righting itself once more.

"You should watch your tone, young lady," Grandmother said.

"Do not threaten my daughter. You have caused far too much harm to this family and I will not let you do any more. If we see you near us again, we will be in contact with the Constable and we have a backlog of reports that can be made against you, the most recent being the physical attack on Isabel."

"Now it seems like you are threatening me," Grandmother snarled.

"I am."

Grandmother appeared somewhat taken aback by Father's comment and said nothing more, turning around and muttering something to Aunt Matilda instead. The two of them remained in an intense conversation with their heads bowed together for a few seconds more. They turned back to look at us and Grandmother raised her nose up at us, as though we were beneath her and not worth her time - I expected that was how she saw us, but I did not care.

Without another word, although I think we all expected Grandmother to try and have the last word regarding this situation, both her and Aunt Matilda turned and started to walk up the road. We watched them go without saying a thing, what more could we say on the matter that had not already been said?

"Well, that was fun," Father said. "You definitely take after your mother, Izzy."

"That confrontation reminded me of the last time we saw your mother, at our family Christmas party."

"Ah, memories."

Mother laughed. "Some of them are good." She kissed Father on the cheek

Mr Greenway's office door opened once more and Mr Dietrich stepped out with a collection of paperwork tucked under his arm. Through the window, I watched Mr Greenway poke his head through the curtains before disappearing once again and turning off the lights so the room went dark and the street we were standing on also fell into darkness.

Before he said anything, Mr Dietrich went through the stack of papers and handed some over to Father who accepted them with a slight nod of his head. From the tops of the documents, they appeared to be the ones we used to confirm Grandfather's signature on the will we had found and disprove the will Mr Greenway had. I supposed that Mr Dietrich no longer had any need for them if he had other ways to prove the validity of both wills.

"I've taken over this case from Mr Greenway. He has acknowledged that Mrs Ealing promised him substantial funding to read out a forged version of the official will and also to dispose of the correct document." Mr Dietrich said. "I'm going to track down the men listed as witnesses on the April document to confirm its validity, but if everything is in order, then you will retain the house. We'll have to do a reading of the official will at a later date."

"Thank you, Adam. We owe you one," Uncle Christopher said.

"It is no problem. The sooner we get this situation sorted out the better. It should never have gotten this far in the first place. That man is a disgrace to the profession."

"Then perhaps it is time we allow females into the profession, right Izzy?"

I laughed. "Definitely."

"Ah, you have your sights set on a career in law, Miss Ealing?"

"The thought has crossed my mind."

"After your performance in there, I can see why. You had a clear, concise argument and if what Christopher said was true, then we have you to thank for exposing Mr Geenway's behaviour." He paused. "If law is a profession you are considering for the future, then I would welcome having you help me out at my office a couple of days a week. I could do with the help in all honesty so you would be doing me a favour."

"I'd like that." I smiled.

"Excellent. I should go and read through these documents, the sooner we get this sorted the better."

"I'll come with you, Adam. It's on the way to my flat anyway."

"Thank you, Mr Dietrich. For helping us out."

"You're welcome. I'll be in touch."

Mr Dietrich smiled and shook Father's hand before him and Uncle Christopher turned and started to walk away from My Greenway's office and down the road. I watched them go, the two of them laughing and joking as they went without a care in the world between them. I had never had the opportunity to meet one of Uncle Christopher's work friends since he rarely spoke of work if he could help it, but it seemed like the two of them were good friends.

I looked back at Father who flickered through the documents Mr Dietrich gave him, although I don't know what he had been searching for. We just stood outside Mr Greenway's office without really knowing what to say or how to act. We had been so busy over the past few weeks that there had barely been time to pause and think or to even process how we felt.

In truth, although my feelings towards Father had shifted and those anger bubbles that had been heating me up had burst, I still had this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was like someone had twisted my stomach into a knot and refused to untie it and where every little thing put me on edge. I had the feeling down at the pond that day and when Father had yelled at me and it felt like I couldn't breathe.

The feeling just sat there below the surface, waiting to reappear.

"I suppose we should go back to the house, start to unpack everything," Father said.

"What are we going to do with all of Grandfather's things?" I asked.

"We can display some of it in the house, put some in the attic and donate everything else."

"Do we have to? Can't we just unpack his room the way it had been before?"

Father placed a light hand on my shoulder. "I'm afraid not. We'll be keeping most of it, but there are some things that other people need more than us."

"I suppose."

"Come on you, you've got that debate tomorrow."

"Ah, yes, the debate! After today's display, I think you have this one all sewn up," Mother said.

"I still have to speak."

"I know, and we'll be cheering you on from the sidelines."

Mother laughed and three of us made our way down the road to where Marsh had been waiting for us. He looked a little stunned at the announcement that we would be returning to Grandfather's house rather than our house in London, but I could tell he was pleased. None of us wanted to leave Grandfather's house, not even Marsh.

~~~

A/N - We are back with Chapter Thirty-Two! Only 3 chapters left until Will and Testament is finished! I do have an idea for a sequel, but I need to play around with it before I start posting so it will probably be posted sometime next year if I decide to write it. 

Questions! Do you think Izzy was out of line with Mrs Ealing? Should she take up the offer from Mr Dietrich?

Comment below!

First Published - November 30th, 2021