“Now Half of Your Property Belongs to Me,” Declared the Strange Woman

We lived a good life together. We married when we were both 30. Shortly after, our son was born. We were a happy family, and money wasnt an issue. We purchased a flat, renovated our cottage in the countryside into a lovely, comfortable home, and enjoyed holidays abroad. I was devoted to my wife, never once considering another woman.

My son grew up and wed a sweet English girl. They were just in their early twentieslike me and my wife, but ten years younger, I thought with pride. Naturally, as their parents, we bought them a small flat to help them start their life together.

I honestly felt content. But as the years went by, perhaps because of age or a sudden sense of foreboding, I started to worry that fate might deal us a rough hand. A simple superstition, maybe but then, as if on cue, disaster struck.

My wife passed away.

It took me ages to recover, but slowly, I learned to find my footing again. I went back to work, after years of being at home.

Everyone kept saying I needed to sort out the inheritance. My son and I went to the solicitors office, though I didnt really understand the needhalf of everything, I thought, was already mine. There didnt seem to be any other heirs, since my wifes parents had long passed away.

When we turned up at the office, the solicitor invited us in. Sitting at the desk was a woman I didnt recognise at all.

She had inherited my wifes share.

Confused, I glanced between the solicitor and this unfamiliar woman. She appeared olderperhaps around fiftyand rather plain, that is to say, nothing about her suggested she was any relation to my wife.

The solicitor explained there was a will. My wife had written it twenty-seven years earlier. Because she never revoked it, the will held up in law.

A stranger…

Their romance, it turned out, was like something out of a film. Theyd been university sweethearts, young and with their whole lives ahead of them.

He was her first love, and he valued that deeply. He was so protective of her, hed joke, Youre my little girleven though they were the same age. She used to laugh gleefully.

One evening, while watching a film where two lovers wrote wills leaving everything to each other, they fell in love with the idea. With a chuckle, they penned their own, All thats mine is yours. Forever, for always. She mused aloud about it being just a piece of paper but insisted they make it official. So, they visited a solicitor, then popped a bottle of champagne and spent the night in joyful celebration.

But real life intruded. His father became ill, so he and his mother took his dad abroad for medical care. Meanwhile, the girl reconnected with an old friend, and soon after, she found herself expecting. He proposed, her mother urged her to marryafter all, her old flame was gone, and this new man was a solid choice. Letters to her old boyfriend were never answered.

She married, moved to another city for her husbands new job, and soon had a daughter. But it didnt lastthey divorced.

She remembered the old will and, long ago, wrote a new one for her daughter.

Years passed. One day, she was stunned to receive a registered letter. Shed thought her first love was long forgottenor at least, that part of her life closed. But upon seeing his name, it all came back. How much shed loved him!

Meanwhile, the man had his own troubleshis fathers death, followed quickly by his mother falling ill. Learning of his girlfriends marriage and departure, he resolved to put her from his mind. Eventually he met his future wife. While there wasnt any magic, he admired her sense of duty. They had a durable marriage.

But then came this legacy. Would she take half? I asked the solicitor.

How strange, I thought, that my wife had never cancelled that will; she must have cared for this woman deeply. I decided I would take what came as her memory.

Half the estate is now mine, the woman told me plainly.

And not just half. The flat, the cottage, the car, the money in the bank.

My heart nearly stoppedfirst my wifes death, and now this blow. It felt like betrayal.

All those years together, yet not once did she mention this former lover!

And now so much money, gone in an instant

I pursued it in court, but nothing changedexcept the toll it took on my nerves.

In the end, she got the money.

She bought herself a new flat and went on holiday to the seaside with her daughter.

She said thank you every day.

Through all this, Ive learned that the choices of our youth, however far behind us, can echo across a lifetime. Perhaps its best to look forward, rather than dwell on what we cannot change.