More Tragedy

MORE TRAGEDY

It was just over a year later when Betty decided that she had had enough of the retail world and wanted to start her own law practice. Her dad hated to see her leave but he realized that she needed the independence. She wasn't going to leave town, just rent some office space and hang out her shingle.

She found an office and rented some furniture, a computer, phone equipment and other office products. The sign on the door said legal counsel and that's what she did.

The family had an investment advisor and Betty went to visit him one day.

"Hi Tom." She said as she approached his desk.

"Welcome to Financial Associates." He replied. "I haven't seen you in some time. How have you been?"

"Some good and some bad. I know you know about my husband and I know dad keeps all his money with you. I have a proposition for you."

"Fire away." He said.

"I have several million dollars from my husbands accident and I expect to receive a check soon. The insurance company wants to pay me over time and I need some advice."

"Do you need the income?"

"No, I have money dad put aside for me years ago and I take a stipend from it to pay the bills. I recently opened my law office and I hope it begins to generate some income. So I think the answer is no."

"So, what can I do for you."

"Tell me how to take the money, over time as income or all at once."

"What interest rate are they offering you to pay it out over time?"

"Three and a half percent." She replied.

"That's robbery. If I invested it for you we could easily do eight or nine percent with very little risk. Your young and I think you should invest some of it more aggressively earning up to twenty percent in the good times."

"I think that settles that. Dad speaks highly of you and told me you would do a good job for me."

"Let me ask you a question? I would like to offer estate services to my clients. That requires a legal team to create all the documents and filings necessary to properly plan and execute estates. Would you be interested in doing all the legal work for my clients?"

"Don't you have somebody now?" She replied.

"Yes, but I am a very small part of his business and don't get the attention I think I deserve."

"I can certainly use the work. Promise me that if I don't meet your expectations you will let me know. I want to do good work."

"Do we have a deal?"

"We do, and I will start as soon as you want me to."

He said he would send a letter to each of his clients advertising her as the official advisor to the firm and available for any estate planning needed.

When they were walking out of the office he handed her a file off of his secretary's desk and said. "Take this and work up something for me. Full estate plan, trust documents, will, power of attorney, advanced care, the works. When you get it done, let me see what you have and we will fine tune the product."

"Wonderful, I have work to do. I will bring the insurance check too, when I get it."

"I guess that puts both of us to work."

She left and headed to her new office to start her career as a lawyer."

When she got home that night there was a message on her phone from Gail telling her she was safely home and missed her already. She really was a good friend.

That evening her mother reached out and they chatted for a while. With Betty on the mend and busy her mom and dad wanted to take a vacation to Ireland and were leaving at the end of the week. Betty told her about her meeting with Financial Associates and how he had promised her work. Everything was going smoothly for a change.

The airplane went down in the north Atlantic sometime in the early morning hours that Saturday. It was several days before they found the wreckage and in that water there were no expected survivors. The final investigation blamed it on a bomb that had been placed aboard before it left New York. Betty had now lost her husband, son, mother and father in half a year.

She refused to yield to the bottle this time. Instead she buried herself in the work of taking care of her parent's affairs and working for Financial Associates. She was tireless, rarely slept and within a month had control of all the moving parts. There were no bodies for her parents. They were lost at sea. She had a marker made for the family plots in the city cemetery and made arrangements for funerals and a full military honors ceremony for her dad. He was a war vet as well as an important member of Richmond society. The turn out was excessive.

Gail came to help and Betty was eternally grateful. They resumed the sex and both of them seemed to charge up the other. The energy level both in the bed and out of the house was off the charts. They worked tirelessly and played relentlessly.

She soon had to decide what to do with dad's business. She had no desire to run it herself and as a silent figurehead they called her time and time again for advice. It was a headache that she didn't want. Money wasn't an object for her but she wanted out. With Tom's advice and help she took the company public and sold the shares on the market. She retained forty nine percent for herself, which paid her well but took her out of the decision business. She declined a seat on the board of directors, preferring they get more experienced people.

Betty was now a wealthy woman of Richmond. She had her own legal practice and a giant house to do something with. She wanted to live in the old house so she had it renovated making it into two very large apartments, one up stairs and one downstairs. Each had it's own entrance and the detached garage was modernized with a full smaller apartment upstairs as well and automatic doors.

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She moved in downstairs six months later and invited Gail to come spend a week helping her with decorating the place. She secretly hoped Gail would want to move to Richmond and take the upstairs apartment for herself.

Gail came and they had a grand time. They decorated the walls, found furniture, refinished some of the old furniture her parents had and both seemed to be on the same page for every decision. The rooms came together beautifully and after a month they started on the upstairs apartment. Betty let Gail take the lead in colors and paintings, furniture and floors. Gail sensed what was going on but bent right into the task and together they made the place beautiful.

"When can you move in Gail?" Betty said one night after they had made love in the newly decorated second floor apartment.

"Oh Lord, you want me to live here?"

"Yes, and live in your own space. We can spend all the time we want together and still have our privacy."

"Betty, I love you and I have always loved you but I can't stay. I have too much going on in Baltimore and don't want to leave that life. Baltimore is my home just like Richmond is yours."

She wanted to help her friend but couldn't leave what she had. Betty understood and no hard feelings were expressed.

Gail returned to Baltimore and Betty went in search of a tenant for her upstairs apartment.