Chapter 2
The weekend flew by with dinner at grandma and Bengt’s, a restaurant visit to celebrate Linn’s graduation, last soccer practice of the season for Linnea, and then she also had to drive Liv to a birthday party.
The thought of the inheritance had been at the back of her mind ever since she had first read the letter, but, even so, she hadn’t mentioned it to her mother.
She wasn’t exactly sure why, but if it turned out to be nothing special, it would have felt stupid to go blabbering about it.
No, she wanted to wait until she knew what it was really about.
Of course, she had spoken to Sara about it and speculated, it was hard not to after a couple of glasses of wine.
Today was Monday and time to finally find out what the inheritance was all about.
The law firm was located in an old, yellow wood building.
The ground floor was made of brick; wasn’t it these kinds of houses people called Governor’s Houses?
She wasn’t entirely sure why. She looked nervously around the cobbled street before taking a deep breath and pulling the door open with a firm grip around the carved handle.
When she entered the dark hallway, she had to blink a couple of times for her eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight outside, but eventually she made out the reception desk and the woman sitting behind it.
She had her hair up in a tight bun and her nails were long and light purple; she looked exactly how Emelie had imagined a receptionist at a law firm might look.
Emelie took a couple of steps forward and realised that she had no clue who to ask for.
She froze and began digging around in her old black leather bag in order to find the letter.
“Who are you meeting?”
Emelie looked up at the strict women with the frigid smile in front of her.
“Yes, that’s sort of the problem, just one moment”, she said nervously.
She dug around among hairbands, tampons, pens and receipts before finding the envelope from the law firm, but she didn’t have time to get it out of the bag before the woman spoke again.
“Are you Emelie Svensson?”
Emelie nodded.
“Then you are meeting Sven Bart, please sit down and wait for a moment and he will be with you shortly,” she said, returning to her screen.
Emelie thanked her and dropped into one of the old, worn and extremely comfortable leather armchairs. She sighed and looked around. Leather armchairs, teak tables, paintings of serious men on the walls. She smiled to herself, it looked exactly the way an established law firm should.
“Ah, there you are, enjoying yourself I see.”
The thick carpet had efficiently muffled the sound of his steps and she didn’t notice the tubby lawyer until he was standing right next to her. She flew up as if he had caught her in the act of doing something criminal.
“Emelie I assume? Sven Bart, lawyer and associate of Bertelson it came bubbling out of him.
He laughed and the tears came running down his round cheeks.
When the receptionist came back with their coffee he was struggling for air and could only wave to her to come in.
Emelie and the receptionist stared at each other, shaking their heads.
When the door closed behind her, he took a deep breath.
“You thought I said Sardinia”, he said, drying his eyes before he started laughing again, and this time, it took him several minutes to regain control over his breathing. Emelie had seriously started to fear that he was having an asthma attack.
“Astrid owned a nice estate on SARDIN?N – Sardine Island. Sardinon is a lovely little island in Bohusl?n on the Swedish west coast, a ferry will take you there”, he said, while unsuccessfully trying to suppress his amusement.
Emelie felt ashamed and stared at her hands.
What had she been thinking? That an old, lonely lady would be the owner of a house in Italy?
Half an hour later she was standing outside the yellow wooden building again, this time, the sun was in her eyes, and she had the thick binder pressed towards her chest. She couldn’t remember anything of what the lawyer had told her.
She had been so ashamed that all she wanted was to get out of there.
So, she had signed where he asked her to sign, almost ripped the binder out of his hands and left as soon as possible.
Her telephone rang and she managed to find it in the mess in her bag. It was Sara.
“What did he say? What have you inherited?”
“Oh goodness, Sara, I don’t know exactly, some house on some island. Would you like to come over and help me to wade through all the papers?”
“Of course, I’ll be there right after work,” Sara said cheerfully.
Back at her own sofa table she told Sara and Linn about the visit at the law firm and the misunderstanding, and she was starting to see why the lawyer had found the whole situation so laughable – it was actually quite funny, and they all laughed pretty hard about it.
To imagine that she had thought that she had inherited a romantic property on sunny Sardinia, when all she had actually gotten was a leaky cottage on a windswept island in Bohusl?n. Sara read through the papers.
“Ok, so it’s the house, looks nice from the pictures, and also all the household goods, that means all the furniture and other objects that might be in the house.”
The last bit of information was for Linn, who was sitting there looking like a big question mark.
“And a sum of money.”
She whistled and looked at Emelie.
“It’s no fortune, but still not bad, 100 000 Swedish Crowns! But have a look at this, there’s another heir.”
Emelie sighed and rolled her eyes.
“I knew it, of course I have to share the house, the old farm chairs and the money with some other, unknown ancestor.”
“No, but there’s an Andreas Wester. According to Astrid, he has always helped her and been like a grandchild to her, he has inherited 300 m2 of the land and a guesthouse that he appears to be living in.”
Emelie shook her head.
“It just keeps getting better, now I have to adjust to some grumpy old fisherman that lives on my land.”
Sara laughed and shook her head.
“Not exactly old, he is 31, according to his social security number – you might get a real hottie as part of your inheritance. A house and a new boyfriend, that’s some inheritance if you ask me.”
“A 31-year-old hottie? No thanks, not for me.”
Emelie lifted her hands in the air, protesting.
“But maybe something for me then?”
Linn tilted her head and smiled, and her brown eyes were twinkling. Before Emelie had a chance to protest she continued:
“I for one, think it sounds super exciting. Just imagine, our very own house in the archipelago with a garden, maybe there are apple trees there, and rocks to dive from.”
Emelie looked at her and couldn’t help but smile.
This wasn’t exactly something to be cross about and it could be just as amazing as Linn said.
Maybe they would have apple trees instead of olive groves, a rolling sea nearby, the kids could play in the garden while she was enjoying a cup of coffee in an old, beautiful cup out on the porch…
“You’re right Linn, this could be something quite wonderful, and if it turns out it’s not, then maybe I can sell the house and get some money for an Italian holiday.
The lawyer wanted me to go over there as soon as possible to deal with all the paperwork.
Can you look after the girls if I go this weekend? ”
Linn frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
“No, do I really have to? It’s the last weekend before I start my summer job and I’m going to a party at Julia’s house.”
Emelie sighed. Of course Linn should go to her party and not be forced to watch her younger sisters, but she also didn’t feel like bringing them to Sardinon. Several hours in the car with them whining about ice-cream and fighting over iPads. Sara raised her hand.
“I’ll take them, we’re going to the countryside and Ville and Klara would love to bring some playmates.
“Christ, how sweet of you! I’ll see if the hottie, Andreas, can come meet me and show me my new house” Emelie said, smiling.