Southern Greed by Peggy Holloway Read Free Book Online

and asked him, “You mean you don’t have to check up on anything?  All I have to do is sign this piece of paper?”
    He chuckled , “If Miss. Gracie is convinced that you’re her granddaughter then I am too. ”
    I signed the paperwork he presented to me and he began to explain everything in layman’s terms.
    “You now have power of attorney and, as such, you are responsible for her treatment.  You may choose any doctor for her you think i s best .”
    He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye, “I have a good feeling about you .  You are also her heir.  You will inherit everything she has with stipulations.
    “I’m not going to go over all of them, but the main thing is that, in the event of your death, everything will go the charities she has listed here.  You can read them over.  I’ll leave you a copy of everything.
    “She has done this for your protection.  If you have children, the assets will be divided equally among them and the same will apply to them.
    “In other words, the assets go to a direct desc endant or to charity .  That way, no one can marry into the family with the intention of doing away with their spouse in order to collect the inheritance.  Do you have any questions?”
    I felt so o verwhelmed that I could only shake my head .
    He left after telling me to feel free to come by and see him if I had any questions or concerns.
    I showed him out and I noticed N urse Rachael had her head in a book when we passed by the outer room where she sat.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 17
    You may be wondering why I hadn’t given much thought of my mama, or who I had originally thought of as my mama.
    I guess, at first it was simple rebellion.  I felt like a bird let out of cage and I didn’t want anyone to spoil it.  I didn’ t want to think about anyone fro m my former life.  Then I had the distraction of Adam and had fallen head over heels in love with him.  Then there was my wonderful grandmother.
    It was over a month later that I began to think of the mama I had grown up with.
    The day the lawyer came and I signed all the papers, I went back inside to check on my grandmother.
    I found her sitting up in bed grinning like a cat that swallowed the canary.  The first thing she said to me was, “We outsmarted them, didn’t we Kathy?”
    “Outsmarted who, grandmother?”
    “Whoever will try to get your inheritance. ”
    “Do you have any pictures of my real family, grandma?  Can I call you grandma?”
    “Yes and yes,” she said and rang the bell on the bedside table.
    When Rachael appeared, she said, “Rachael, get those albums out of the other room.  I want to show Kathy her real family.”
    Rachael gave me a look of pure hatred before going into the other room.
     
     
    The first pictures she showed me were of my real parents and I thought they were beautiful.
    When she saw me staring at one of my mother she said, “You look so much like her, I knew who you were right away.”
    “But she’s beautiful, grandma!”
    “And so are you.  Both of you have an exotic beauty instead of the classic beauty that people refer to when they talk about beauty.  Sh e was a runway model when your daddy met her.”
    My dad dy was so handsome with sandy hair and eyes like mine, the same shade of blue.
    “See, you have his eyes.” Grandma said.
    I had often wondered, while growing up, why my eyes were blue and both my parents had brown eyes.
    She showed me pictures of great aunts and uncles, all dead and pictures of her husband, my grandfather.  He was a handsome man.
    “He was as good as he was handsome,” She said while I studied it.  “I wish you could have known him.”
    “ I do too,” I said an d felt a great sadness and also anger about being raised in the wrong household.
    “Grandma, how do you think my mama and daddy was able to keep me with everyone looking for me?  Rehobeth is such a tiny town surely the police would have been able to find me there.”
    She stared off into space and