Chapter 2: Melissa

Cooking isn’t my favourite pastime, however Olivia is good company. For a doctor, she’s an excellent cook. At least the repetitive task of peeling potatoes gives me time to consider my situation, and decide what to tell the rest of the staff about myself. April already knows the truth ... or so she thinks ... but it’s only a matter of time before Madame Nicole or one of the others starts probing for more details about my bizarre situation.

Firstly, who should I blame for putting me in this demanding position. My father is the prime candidate. He purchased both the island and the club called ‘La Chatte Heureuse’ two days before he died of a heart attack. Of course, he didn’t anticipate dying so soon when he negotiated the deal, but such is life ... and death. I’ve no idea what he intended to do with his new acquisition, but the purchase was all signed, sealed and delivered before he died. My father’s lawyers were unable to reverse the deal. I first learned about my father’s purchase from his executors. In typical male-oriented fashion, my younger brother, Charles, inherited the bulk of our father’s estate. I was given the benefit of a small trust fund that provides me with a modest income until I marry, or when I turn twenty-five, at which time the trust’s assets will finally become mine.

If mourning the loss of my father wasn’t difficult enough, Charles added to the woe. As soon as he learned of his inheritance, Charles promptly purchased a fast car; went out partying, and managed to drive his car into a cement truck two hours later. Both the car and Charles were total losses. Now I must mourn the loss of both my father and brother ... something I struggle to do given the strained family relationship we had.

April is a further complexity, and a probable second person to blame for my predicament. She is my late mother’s younger sister, who I later discovered was my father’s not-so-secret mistress since before I was born. However, following the death of my mother when I was twelve, their relationship became more public. I’ve despised April ever since. Given their long standing affair, I don’t know why April and my father never married, but ‘Aunt’ April became my step-mother in all but name. She disliked me calling her ‘aunt’ and I refused to call her ‘ma’, so our stormy relationship went from bad to worse. Fortunately we soon had very little to do with each other. April ensured that I got packed off to an exclusive academy in Switzerland. My academic efforts there earned me a scholarship to university in Paris. Meanwhile my Father, April and Charles played at being a happy family. Thankfully there were no baby Aprils entering onto the scene.

The reversion provisions in my father’s will made Charles’s premature death a legal nightmare. Charles didn’t survive long enough to irrevocably inherit my father’s estate. My father’s various properties and investments had to be redistributed according to my father’s, rather than Charles’s, will. Fortunately, my father’s will was clear about who inherited what in that situation. That is, clear about everything except the investment in La Chatte Heureuse. That acquisition was too recent to be itemised in his will, so there was an impasse as to whether it should be part of my trust fund, or inherited by April ... or perhaps my cousin Ralph was intended to be the new owner.

Cousin Ralph soon dropped out of the contest as his claim to inherit La Chatte Heureuse was tenuous at best. To give April her due, she wasn’t foolish enough to engage in a long protracted legal battle with me that would have made our lawyers extremely wealthy at our expense. Instead, April and I reached an agreement to create a private trust that would own La Chatte Heureuse. April would manage the club and property until I marry, or reach twenty-five years of age. At that time La Chatte Heureuse would become mine. However, the devil is in the detail of the agreement. I must reside and work at the club until I turn twenty-five, effectively sabotaging any likelihood of me marrying before then ... not that I’ve ever had time for more than casual boyfriends. Should I leave the island, other than on club related business, then I forfeit my inheritance rights, and April will become the owner outright. My lawyer added a number of safeguards to ensure April operates the club as a profitable business, and place a limit on the size of her generous salary. Another clause prevents her from making major changes to the way the club operates without my consent.