Chapter

The Long Con

EXCERPT

Amongst the lessons we can learn from the movies: when in receipt of an unexpected inheritance, it pays to be wary. One bright morning the letter comes, a discordant note struck in the everyday. Estranged relatives assemble at the notary’s office, bickering and expectant, ambitiously reckoning the level of their own entitlement. Everyone hushes to hear the will read aloud in the lawyer’s calm strong voice. But, uh-oh: a few surprises. It reveals that family members thought long dead are in fact alive, or alerts the family to the existence of relations hitherto unknown; the terms of the will’s fulfilment are cryptic, demanding obscure tasks be accomplished before the funds are released…