I never expected to spend my 68th birthday sleeping in an abandoned garage, surrounded by the scent of motor oil and decades of dust. Yet here I was, fumbling with an unfamiliar key in the dark, tears blurring my vision as my son’s words echoed in my mind.
“You’re just a useless old woman, Mom. What would you even do with a real inheritance?
Dad knew that.”
My hand trembled as I finally managed to slide the key into the rusted lock. The ancient door groaned in protest as I pushed it open, the beam of my flashlight cutting through decades of darkness.
And that’s when I saw it. I froze in place, my breath catching as the light revealed what lay inside, because this couldn’t be possible.
This couldn’t be what Robert had meant when he left me—just a garage in his will.
But let me back up. You need to understand how I ended up here, homeless on my birthday, clutching a suitcase containing what remained of my forty-two-year marriage. The day had started with me standing beside my son in our attorney’s office—Jonathan in his perfectly tailored suit, me in the black dress I’d worn to Robert’s funeral three weeks earlier.
Mr.
Hoffman, our family attorney for decades, seemed unusually uncomfortable as he prepared to read Robert’s will.
“Before I begin,” he’d said, adjusting his glasses, “I want to assure you that everything is legally binding and precisely as Mr. Campbell instructed.”
Looking back, I should have recognized that statement as the warning it was. The reading itself passed in a blur, but certain phrases stood out with devastating clarity.
“To my son, Jonathan Campbell, I leave our penthouse residence in Los Angeles and my primary investment portfolio.”
And then, almost as an afterthought:
“To my beloved wife, Susan Campbell, I leave the property located at 1420 Industrial Parkway—the garage and its contents.”
A garage.
After forty-two years of marriage, my husband had left me a garage. Jonathan’s face transformed from solemn grief to barely suppressed triumph in an instant.
I remember his hand on my shoulder, squeezing slightly too hard as he leaned down to whisper:
“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
I’d been too stunned to respond, too confused to question.
Why would Robert do this? Where was I supposed to live? What was I supposed to do?
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