The Inheritance

*knock knock* the door creaks open

"One sec!! Casey shouts Running to the front door

"Heeeey baby hun how are you?" She hears a horribly familiar voice and recognizes it immediately hesitation sets in as she opens the door.

Somethings wrong she thought.

She never calls me "baby"

"what.... Whats up." Casey nervously bumbles out.

"Hey babyyyy come heeerreee" said Shannon. Casey's unforgivably eccentric for a closeted racist, step-mother had shown up. Unannounced as always!

Shannon was wearing a baby blue satin komodo, leggings, a crop top with Adele on it and bright red lipstick. At 68 years old "she still dressed like me when she was 17." Casey thought to herself

Casey did love her. She had a better relationship with Shannon than her Father. For what ever that's worth. They barely spoke these days.

But when Shannon hugs her she's taken back to the time they went out together, when she was little, to get ice cream once her father.

"Wait a minute, Shannon's trembling" she thinks. She squeezes Casey tighter and starts crying quietly

"What is it Shannon" Casey said

"What did happened?... "

"Uuugghh what did he say?!" Casey asks, assuming they were fighting again. Its the 10th time in the last few months. Casey's dad was a right Ass hole.

"Are they fighting again?" Casey's partner David asks cynically.

"Hes dead!!" Shannon Screams.

Casey drives up to her father's Estate Pritchard Manor the estate house her grandfather gave to her father and mother as a wedding gift she missed Pop Pop.

That's what she used to call him.

Right up until he passed. That was a funeral. General love for that man. Unlike her father's who's funeral was short and bitter. Fake compliments not a tear shed for the most miserable man in Bradford.

Casey walks down the path up to the manner.

A place of great wonder in her childhood. As well as great sorrow.

She looked over the field to the forest that engulfed the estate from all sided.

Casey, Tenacy, Jacob, Hannah and Anthony; her old school friends would play in there for hours. Until their mum's came calling out for them.

One time they hid out their all night "That was so much fun.., until we saw the police lights" She thought.

Even mum would come out to play with Dad back before...

Before.... then.

Casey thought back to her mum's face she remembers the glow of her shimmering brown hair. The warmth of her skin.

The smell of pine whenever she walked by. Even tho Casey had no idea what it was at the time. She's loved the smell ever since. The whole house smells of pine at all times.

Even the Manor has dads pine rooms. Shannon hated that. But tolerated it.

Not that she had a choice. "When The Lord of the Manor speaketh, none shall have a say" Casey laughed as her mined wondered back to her mothers features. She always remembered everything, but her face.

Despite all the photos Casey had seen of them together, happy, smiling she struggled to see her Mum's face happy, smiling or even content.

Why?! Why always the back of her. Or her in that wretched bed. Pale, sick, tired, bony and full of pain. Tubes coming out of her every orifice. That incessant beeping!!

But still, never her face.

Casey settled for the memory of love and play without Mum's face and remembered a simpler time when life seemed like nothing could break them. Their perfect family of 3.

"You coming in then" Their house keeper Jake barks. Well Jacob to everyone else Jake to her.

Casey snaps back to reality to realize she'd been fumbling erroneously for the key while staring into the field for what must've been minutes now. ei

The house keeper repeated. "You OK Casey"

"I'm fine Jake thank you " she stammered

"He was a great man, we all miss him" he lies on, she knows Jake hated her father but what else could he say "I wished the mans death everyday since i worked here" He picked on him the most. "Maybe that was my fault" She thought.

Her dad knew she had a crush on him growing up. Even accused him of stealing her when she ran away. I always felt bad for that. His reputation never recovered fully.

"But Fucking stealing me" she thought "am I a toy" she grumbles.

"What was that hun" Jake pressed

"Nothing Jake, I'm fine" Casey hurried in the house.

Jake developed an inappropriate crush on Casey after her school girl faze was over. Probably due to Casey's small flirtations which by this point was harmless banter as she'd grown up and understood the weirdness being with someone she saw as a big brother.

Also due to her father's constant torment. Jake probably just wanted to get one back on him after a while. Casey hated that. And was passed her faze. Poor Jake she thought as she shut the door quickly behind her

"Byyee" she Shrilled awkwardly. Just like Shannon would.

She drops her head in shame.

Casey looks around. The house is covered in dust and all the furniture shrouded in white sheets.

She walks past the front hall with its low hanging chandeliers that used to look like stars in the night when she was younger.

As she strutted along to the dining hall she sees the Grand Piano. Mahogany & Beach-wood sitting there, probably still tuned. "Was likely that old farts dying wish" she chuckled to herself.

She remembers the times he used make her recite the notes on her violin with him on the grand piano in the dining hall, lounge area for her violin recitals.

"ABCDEFG " a young Casey innocently recite as he played away.

"No Casey!!" Her father would yell "BACH WASN'T RECITING THE FLIPPING ALPHABET STUPID GIRL!!!" SMACK

The violin crashes to the floor snapping in two.

"AAHHH LOOK AT THAT do you know how much that costs"

Casey, believing herself to be at least half as smart as her father wanted her to be, would always reply with a flame in her eyes which her father recognized all too well.

"It cost as much as your dad paid for it, no?!" Still she couldn't hold back the tremor in her voice

She was only 6 the first time she did that.

Her father was a stocky, bear looking, beer bellied man who drank more than his weight in whatever was expensive by this point.

He stood up over Casey, towering with all of his presence to bare down what she knew would be the beating of her life.

The anger in his eyes was different it was painful. Pop pop providing for us has always hurt him more than anything else, "he should really stop taking his money then".

"Jonathaaaan sweetyyy" Shannon called from the door way with here shrill initiating voice

"Come and help me with my bath pumpkin" She attempted to seductively shrieked down.

Even though she distracted her father. She hated Shannon at the time. Casey hated that Shannon always tried to fill the gap her mum left behind.

She hated her for trying to replace her, for existing. She was the one who made him miss mummy's last day Casey was sure of it "Shameful Slut" Casey hushed the thought as if her father could hear it.

This was her time with him even if he was beating her. This was how they bonded.

"Coming hunny" He shamefully bellows up demeanor suddenly changed now he was getting some pouch.

Leaving her there broken violin red faced and So soo angry.

The memory washed over Casey like a rainy day

Casey walks down the stairs to the basement.

It's dusty. Everything's covered in sheets apart from a red box with a post-it note on it.

Casey shuffles over to the box and opens it.

A out letter flutters out

She picks it up blows on it and reads

"Casey my petal"

That was her father. He was the only one who used to call her that. But that was before mum died. Back when he was Dad.

" I have been plagued with this family secret my whole life. While you knew your grandfather as a war hero who fought for Britain and Australia before moving back here to retire.

I've wanted to tell you this since your mother passed but she wanted one good memory for you to live with after she was diagnosed. So we wrote this together when he told me.

I am writing this part now as I am old and frail and I look back on my failures and my selfishness. I know now as I write this I won't have the balls to all you and say this in person. Its been too long now.

Too much has happened too much said and that's my fault I understand and I am sorry. I want you to know I always loved you and I am so proud of the woman you've become. Thank you for allowing me to see my grandchildren the small amount of time that I did.

I know I didn't deserve even that privilege as well as the privilege of raising you by myself. With the help of 10 House servants or slaves I realize more and more how trapped they must've felt as I get closer to my end. Only wanting more time to say more, do more, change more. You'll be glad to know they inherited some of the shares from the company.

That was a good idea you were right about that, so was she. God I miss her. I don'k know if I'm going where she is but if I do. I don't know if she'll forgive me but just to see her glowing face her long locks her crooked smile. You remind me of her so muck.

I Love you so much Casey

Dad"

A smudge from what looks like a tear drop turns t to a k & h into a k.

He only ever cried over her once at the funeral. Married Sarah within a month.

Never spoke about mum again after she died. He probably fell into Shannon and any other woman that would have her after she died. They were happy before though. When she was well.

When he was well." Sarah flashed back to when she was 4 before she got the news before everything changed.

Going to the beach with both her parents. "Happy. We were happy" she thought "He was happy, but he had changed even before she died. Something changed him. What was it what could've Pop Pop told him? What could've Pop Pop done"

"Hey mush." This was mum I'm sorry I'm haven't been there. I'm sure it's been hard. I made your Dad promise not to read this. Although we both know he did. *wink face* "God I miss her" Casey thought as she chuckled and a solitary tear rolled down her cheek.

"I decided your relationship with your Granddad was more important at the time than the truth. You may think differently bit the options we had were limited I hope you can understand that. We did this because we love you so much. I'm not sure when you ate reading this. If your old and grey and lived your full life of wonder or your still the little munchkin that calls me to kiss her knee better. You could be just growing into a woman in which case stay away from drummers and that cool scary boy at school. I wish I could cover everything. I'm sorry I can't be there. I love you mush. And I'm OK looking down on you there in all of your wonderful achievement. Forever. You are my greatest accomplishment." the page is littered with tears here it's all crumpled from where they dried.

"Hey pet I'm sorry your mum couldn't right anymore after today things got really bad. She had so much more to say to you but you know how much she loved you. I thought it best you read that first.

Unfortunately mine and your granddads story won't bring you much soles. So I'm going to get into it.

This has brought most of my life and my future into questions and I don't know how to deal with...." Casey reads on. She covers her mouth she drops the read book as she reads on she can barely recite the words in her head.

"SL

SL

SSSS

SLAVERY!!!"

The red box smashes on the floor.

Out of it falls a black book and what looks like an old certificate with 1945 on the title.

She opens the black book first thinking its her granddads journal.

"J.P Pritchard II" in granddads ridiculous script which now looked evil in nature

She opens the first page to a table of names weights horribly racist descriptions, dates and costs.

"Was this... this was the ledger!?" She thought. For years Casey spoke about how she was owed something for a life of stress. Besides a derelict Manor House. And traumatic memories. But Fuck Me she wanted to burn it all down now. Or did she? Did She Have to Say anything. Her Dad clearly didn't.

Casey picks it up and reads down expecting more floor shattering information $20000 in government bonds.

Her stomach squirmed as she looked around what she thought her family earned but had stolen was now tainted, dirty covered in blood.

Chapter 2 ¿Sisterhood?

At 6 am Sarah walks into her apartment hot, sweaty tired after an intense night. The oncologist was off sick today so she had to spend the day telling a bunch of Sick and dying people that their diagnoses operation check up would just have to wait a week and she could attempt to make her comfortable withing the parameters of their insurance. Since the hospice started providing private care her job has become both amazingly more rewarding and confusingly more useless. In a day she could be in a lovely polished clean white room with dimmers on the lights Michelin star meals and a dimly lit moderately clean, grey, dull room with a 2 year old equipment while state of the art equipment sits less than 10 meters away.

The thing is, even if we were able to bring some of the addicts smokers and plebs over there to where the bigwigs get treated It'd cause a riot.

She could imagine them all now as grumbling and storming over to reception I their slippers and dressing gowns, Courtesy of their insurance of course, just to wag their finger in a harsh whisper at poor Sue about the "FILTH" being trawled through "THEIR corridor"

Half of em might drop dead from the site of it

"Oo I might have to do that tomorrow" Sarah looked around with a cheeky smirk as if someone could hear her thoughts

"Invitation To Pritchard House Reunion Banquet"

Sarah gulped. She knew what Pritchard Manor was.

But why I'm nothing but a nurse" she thought.

Sir Jonathan Pritchard III's funeral had already happened what kind of morbid late ass reunion was this?

What reunion!? shed never met Mr Pritchard or anyone of the Pritchards for that matter. Could she have treated them on a busy day at work when you just glaze over till the final breakdown bell where 5 of you take turns crying in the 3 stock cupboards

"But why"

She red on as she steadied her hand this fear was strange. But familiar she remembers this she felt it when she saw mister Pritchard face for the first time.

The familiar terror behind his eyes made something in her scream she started to sweat her DNA was Screaming. "But why" why was she not surprised by the name on this letter. "But why" the words echoing in her ears.

"To Sarah J Pritchardson,

Hi my name is Casey Pritchard,

You may recognize my last name

I guess you could say we are related in a distant kind of way. I have recently come into something that I think you should have. It is kind of difficult to put this into a letter. Will probably be harder in person but I feel that is how this should be done.

I am going to be at Pritchard Manor over the next week.

I would like to invite you over for a dinner on Friday as an honorary guest. We will be having roast beef, Southern fried chicken, Brisket, collard greens and pounded yam. If you have any suggestions please let me know in your RSVP.

If you would like to come before hand to stay and speak In person please feel free the door is Open.

Thank you hope to see you there

Casey"