Chapter 7

"Your father, Joe and I married two sisters, Joe married Mary your mother and I married Alice. Mary and Alice came from a wealthy family, their parents were early settlers and they bought up a lot of property locally. Joe and I came from similar although not so wealthy backgrounds. Alice was unable to bear children due to childhood illness that left her barren, Joe and Mary tried for several years to have children but without success, Joe had a low sperm count. Mary and Alice decided that I was to be the donor to make Mary pregnant, Joe was agreeable but I was reluctant, I loved Alice and didn't want to be with any other woman. In the end they wore my resistance down and I impregnated your mother."

"When you were born there were complications and Mary died giving birth. We were all devastated, I blamed myself for her death, if I hadn't bowed to their demands she would still be with us today. Alice took over as your surrogate mother and raised you until she had a massive heart attack. With no one to care for you Joe employed Jessica as a nanny you were about a year old at this time. Before long Joe had taken Jessica to his bed, after about a year she became pregnant with Jenny, Joe confided with me that he knew the child wasn't his but he didn't want it known, he let Jessica think that he thought he was the father."

"When Jenny was born he was the proud father and he doted on her. Move forward several years, about a year ago this John De vent appeared on the scene and Jessica was seen on several occasions with him, I suspect the he was Jenny's father. Joe talked to me about the situation and I advised him to alter his will. Joe's will gave you 51% of his total assets and Jenny 49%, if anything happened to him before you came of an age to fend for yourself then Jessica would receive 50% of the profits from the store."

"What store?" I enquired, "I'll get to that in a minute" replied Ron. "When Joe passed away Jessica took up the reins and employed De Vent to manage it, she only had access to the store, all of the other assets are under my control."

I cut in "I had a short meeting with this 'John' he left me with the impression he owned the store and this house and that he was doing me a favour by allowing me to stay here."

"Definitely not, he is employed by Jessica to manage the store, anything else is only his perceived importance, I'll certainly be having a few words with him and put him in his proper place. If need be I'll take the matter to court and have control of the store taken away from Jessica, I think she is being bullied by De Vent into letting him run things for her."

"Regarding the store, your father started out selling hardware, soon his was selling furniture and electrical goods, now Watson's department store is the biggest in the county, the war years slowed growth down quite a bit, just like any other business during that period, since the war things have picked up and the demand outstrips supply."

"Let's move on then Ron, I think it would be wise to still call you Ron, a slip of the tongue could raise a few eyebrows. The thing that troubles me more than anything is what I learnt from De Vent when I probed his mind, Dad didn't die of natural causes he was murdered." I went on to tell Ron what I had found out.