Chapter Eleven
The call came through Amanda's phone almost instantly as she started her car to head home for the day.
"Hi Amanda, this is Attorney George Ebbet. I'm handling the probate case you received a certified letter from us about."
She didn't move the car, and sat back in the drivers seat figuring she'd go when the call was over, "Okay," was all she said.
The attorney continued, "Just to answer some preliminary questions you may have, Mark was declared dead almost six months ago. The Probate court usually waits between five to seven years before making a finding in that direction, but because we were representing his parents, the argument was made that people in the modern world leave an electronic footprint or fingerprint by so many different methods it would show his survival in some area financially or even as simple as his checking his e-mail. There is no evidence that any money has left his account or any of his known e-mail addresses have been accessed."
She began to weep again, it was finally too true for her to maintain what hope she still had! She sobbed and asked, "But what do you need me for?"
"We need you to come to our office and sign some paperwork and discuss what he has provided for you in his will, which was also cleared by the Probate court about a week ago," the attorney said.
The beautiful blonde girl behind the wheel of her Ford Mustang finally lost all control and cried. All the pent up emotion, the hope, the questions all came to a crashing conclusion that Mark was finally and eternally gone from her. Something had happened and no one is likely to ever know what, and she has to go through life without him. The attorney listened to this in silence, not knowing what to do or what to say, which he thought was an odd position for someone of his profession.
Finally the sobbing started to subside, and her body was wracked with sudden heaves. She heard the attorney on the phone in her lap speaking. She picked the phone up and even though she was still unable to conduct a reasonable conversation, she heard him ask when she could make an appointment to go over things in his office. She heard herself say, "Right now," and he agreed.
She closed her phone and sat in her drivers seat gripping the steering wheel and staring ahead intently. The thought dawned on her, that maybe this last weekend wasn't that almighty "shot" of her renewed independence but that perhaps, it was the one threw her heart. She decided it didn't feel right. This was the beginning of the end, but that didn't feel quite on target either.
She grabbed a napkin from her folded lunch sack and wiped her face down. That led to the sun visor being lowered and the mirror being utilized so she could look proper again for her soon to be appearance with the man she just spoke to on the phone.
Chapter Twelve
She parked on the street next to the attorney's office and locked her doors to her car. Inside the office a pretty Asian girl with straight black hair sat behind a desk just inside the door, doing the job that Amanda does all day too, directing traffic!
