When the Rich Boss Asked for My Hand, I Thought I Would Save His Child, but After His Funeral the Lawyer Smiled Strangely

The morning after Richard’s funeral, his lawyer knocked on the door as if he already knew that no one else would be found in my house.

Lia was sitting in the living room at that time, arranging wooden chess pieces. These were the pieces Richard had given her five years earlier and had taught her every evening how to protect the king. And I was holding his favorite coffee cup in the kitchen. It had a small golden crack at the bottom, but Richard said that was exactly why it was special.

There was another knock on the door.

“Mrs. Elene, I need to talk to you,” came from outside.

I recognized the voice. It was Mr. Valeri, Richard’s lawyer.

My heart tightened strangely.

“Come in,” I said.

He entered, but did not let go of his hat. He cast his eyes around the room, as if checking whether I still had the right to be there.

“Please, sit down,” he told me.

“You must speak in front of Lia. I have nothing to hide.”

Lia immediately stood up.

“Will Uncle Richard come back today too?” she asked.

The lawyer looked toward her and tightened his lips.

“No, little one. I’m sorry.”

Lia sat down again and took the white king in her hand. I saw her fingers trembling and realized that I could no longer hide my own fear.

Mr. Valeri settled onto the sofa.

“Mr. Richard’s will was opened yesterday,” he said.

“I know everything will be difficult,” I replied. “But we were his family.”

He tilted his head slightly.

“That is what you thought.”

Those words turned out to be heavier in the room than the mourning bell.

But five years earlier, everything had begun differently.

I was thirty-five then, a widow and the mother of one-year-old Lia. My husband, Niko, had died after a year-long battle with cancer. The debts from the treatment took away the apartment, the savings, and my last peace. During the day I worked in a store, and in the evening I cleaned Richard’s enormous house.

Richard was a rich sixty-two-year-old widower. He was always polite to me. When Lia was burning with fever and I had no money for medicine, he sent a doctor to our home, although he never once mentioned that help.

One evening, in the library, he placed a cup of tea in front of me.

“Elene, I know what you will think,” he said. “There is a big difference in age. You may even laugh at me, but I am in love with you.”

I laughed. Not with joy. With despair.

“Richard, after losing my husband I can barely breathe. And you are telling me to marry you?”

“Please, do not reject me only because of the words.”

“Why me?”

He looked at me for a long time.

“Because you do not show others when you are afraid.”

That night my landlord called me and said that I had to vacate the apartment in one month. I had medicine for Lia left for only three days. There were twenty-one coins in my account.

So I agreed.

At first, marriage to Richard seemed like a deal. But when Lia had a high fever at night, he sat by her bed all night. When, years later, he found it difficult to walk, I pushed his wheelchair in the garden, and he taught Lia chess.

“Mom, does Richard really love us?” Lia asked me once.

I could not answer.

Now, the day after his death, Mr. Valeri leaned forward.

“Elene, almost nothing in the will is connected to your name.”

“Almost?”

He opened a black leather bag and took out a thin folder.

“Richard knew that you would accept his proposal. He knew that you would need hope.”

My hands went cold.

“What does that mean?”

The lawyer took a dark green envelope from the folder and placed it on the table.

“He told me to give it to you only after his funeral was over.”

Lia slowly stood up. Mr. Valeri’s fingers moved toward the envelope, but stopped before opening it…

I looked at the envelope as if my whole life were hidden inside it.

“Open it,” I said.

Mr. Valeri carefully broke the seal. From inside he took a small copper key and a folded letter. The key had a white ceramic tag, and the number “nine” was written on it.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Read the letter first.”

I recognized Richard’s handwriting immediately.

“Elene, if you are reading this page, you already think that I deceived you.”

My breath caught.

“Continue,” the lawyer said quietly.

The letter said that he had deliberately left the main part of the property inaccessible to me. He did not explain the reason. He only repeated one sentence: “You must understand why I chose you.”

“Did he love me or was he simply testing me?” I asked.

Mr. Valeri could not answer.

At that very moment Lia took the key from my hand.

“Is this the key to our house?”

The lawyer lost color.

“No, little one. It is for the room that Richard hid from everyone.”

“Where is it?” I asked.

He looked toward the wall where Richard’s large portrait hung.

“In the old wing of the house. But before entering there, you must know one thing. Last night someone tried to open the safe.”

“Who?”

Instead of answering, he took a phone from his pocket.

“The camera captured only one person. And this person is now about to leave this house…”

Mr. Valeri turned on the phone and showed us the recording. The corridor of the old wing appeared on the screen. It was two o’clock at night. A man dressed in a black coat bent over the safe, then turned his face toward the camera.

I recognized him immediately.

“That is Alex,” I said.

Alex was Richard’s nephew. At the funeral he stood at the very front and kept repeating to everyone that he was his uncle’s only blood relative.

“Why was he trying to open the safe?” I asked.

“Because he did not know it was there,” Mr. Valeri said. “Richard instructed me to reveal all this only to you.”

We went into the old wing. The air there smelled of wood dust and cold stone. Behind the portrait hanging on the wall, we found a small lock. The copper key fit exactly.

The wall opened.

Inside was a small room. On the table stood a recording device, several folders, and a white metal box. Lia clasped my hand.

“Mom, why did he hide this here?”

“I don’t know, darling.”

Mr. Valeri turned on the recorder.

Richard’s voice sounded—weak, but calm.

“Elene, if you are listening to this, I can no longer speak with you. I know that it was not love but fear that answered my proposal. That is exactly why I did not leave the property in your name.”

My eyes filled with tears.

“Continue,” I said.

“You did not buy my house. You bought time to save Lia. But I did not want my money to become your freedom. Everything I created belongs to Lia until she becomes an adult. The house, the education fund, and the income have been transferred to a protected trust account. You are her only guardian.”

I sat down on the chair.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

On the recording Richard seemed to sigh.

“Because I wanted remaining in your life to be a choice and not a calculation. If you ever decide to leave, nothing will hold you back. If you stay, know that I trusted your loyalty.”

Tears appeared in Mr. Valeri’s eyes.

“All of this is legally formalized,” he said. “But the main danger is Alex. He knows that if he takes your guardianship rights away, he will gain control of the fund.”

At that moment the phone rang.

An unknown number was displayed on the screen.

“Do not answer,” the lawyer told me.

But the call ended and a message came immediately: “Elene, I know what Richard left you. I will come with the police in one hour. If you do not leave the house, they will take Lia away from you.”

Mr. Valeri looked at the message and his face changed.

“That is a threat,” I said.

“No,” he replied. “This is only the beginning. Now you must know that Richard left one more thing, something that will frighten Alex the most. And that document has not yet been seen by anyone in court…”