Page 55 of Assisting the Alpha
He gets serious again all too soon, though. “Who knows about this inheritance of yours?”
I sigh and eye the stack of paperwork. “You’re the only one I’ve told. I’ve been hoping you’ve maybe figured out who’s after it, based on whatever it is I’m due to get. I haven’t even told Ethan or Nyoka.”
His expression grows tight. “I have an idea, yes. You did the right thing coming to me. Let’s get through the legal parts first, since I don’t know how long my brother will be able to keep your boyfriend busy.”
We get down to going through the daunting legal process, and I’m so glad I decided to call my uncle rather than trying to meet the human solicitor. I doubt she’d have been as patient with explaining it all to me.
I sign my name more times than I can ever remember doing before and eventually we get through the entire pile. Uncle Vittorio locks all the paperwork in a desk drawer before he pours another cup of tea and hands it to me, gesturing for us to move to the comfortable leather chairs in one corner.
“Now, Ayo, tell me what you know so far. What did the human solicitor say to you?”
I take a sip of my tea, then put it on the small coffee table. “Just that I had an inheritance and had to claim it by my twenty-first birthday. She said they’d sent me multiple letters since I turned eighteen, but I never received any until the most recent one. That’s literally all I know.”
My uncle taps his chin thoughtfully. “The recent letter came to your apartment at the manor?”
“Well… no. It would have, I suppose, but because I had to move out I redirected the post to the office I work at.”
Uncle Vittorio raises a well-groomed eyebrow.
My mouth falls open. “Wait… You’re not saying… Someone at the manor was intercepting my post?”
“Is that a possibility?”
I gape at him, because yes, of course it is. Nyoka and Lola live there, the task force work in the building, and other coven members are often in and out, especially the admin staff I worked with.
“I mean… yes? Loads of people could have taken the letters before I saw them. But why? And who? And why?”
Uncle Vittorio snorts. “That’s an easy one to answer,cuginetto, although the explanation is a little long-winded.”
“Go ahead. I’m not going anywhere until I understand what’s going on.” I sit forward in my chair.
“It starts with your great-great-great-grandfather.”
He wasn’t kidding about a long explanation.
“When your ancestor started the coven in this area, he was a wealthy man as well as being an extremely powerful sorcerer. He built the manor, rented out the cottages on the estate to the coven members in most need, and allowed coven business to be conducted in his home for the sake of privacy from humans. He devoted his life to his people.”
“Sounds like one hell of a guy.”
Uncle Vittorio smiles slightly. “Quite. In his will, he left everything to his son with the stipulation that if it wasn’t claimed by the son’s twenty-first birthday, it would all be left to the coven. The reasoning at the time, I believe, was that the son was away from Britain, fighting in the army, with no guarantee of ever returning home. It was intended as a failsafe of sorts, to protect the coven from being without homes or a safe place to practice their magic.”
“So then…” I prompt.
“So then, it became a family tradition. Every coven leader’s will after that had the same stipulation about the age of twenty-one, or one year after death if the recipient was already over that age. They also stipulated that the most powerful in the family would become coven leader, which is how your mother became the head of the coven even though your aunt was significantly older.”
I pick up my tea again and sip it, thinking. “Is that how Nyoka inherited the manor even though the coven leadership went tomy mum? Because I was a child, so he and Qadir were the only eligible family members to take over when Mum died?”
Uncle Vittorio studies me. “At this point, I haven’t been able to access the most recent three generations of wills. I can’t say who has inherited what, even though legally, wills that go through probate are public documents. Your family’s are missing.”
“How is that possible?”
Uncle Vittorio raises an eyebrow. “Bribery, most likely.”
Right, that makes sense. If I’m inheriting something dangerous that other people want to get their hands on to potentially misuse, of course my family would take precautions to keep the wills of previous generations a secret. Thank goodness Nyoka and Qadir thought of that.
Or perhaps Lola advised them. She was dating Qadir at the time.
Ugh, I hope I don’t have to thank her for actually doing something helpful.
