Chapter 1 - Reading of the Will
The office was filled with bookshelves and boxes, Victoria suspected they were just for show as Mr. Williams only dealt with estate law and had only a few very wealthy clients. He was in his late sixties himself and showed his lavish lifestyle her grandfather and other clients had provided him, with his large gut and unhealthy appearance in general.
Victoria hated being here, it reminded her of the last time she had been in this office, after her parents had died 20 years ago when she was just 7. Her grandfather had sat with her and comforted her as the will had been read but there really wasn't much to go over. Her parents hadn't been rich and having gone so early in life they still had a mortgage and other debts left over.
Her grandfather on the other hand was quite rich and had taken care of her since then. Where he had been stern with his own daughter, he had been generous with Victoria. At least up until the last couple of years.
Recently he had pretty much cut her off, giving her only $10,000 a month to live off! How could she live off so little?
But now it didn't matter, she was going to be getting it all as his last surviving heir. His estate had to be worth at least 60 or 70 million, maybe more. Mr. Williams had been going through the preamble and a few specific items to various friends and charities, but he was finally getting to the heart of the will.
"...as for the rest of my estate, I leave it to my granddaughter Victoria..."
Yes!
"...under one condition."
"What!?!" Victoria almost screamed. Fortunately there wasn't anyone else in the room.
"Victoria, if you would please let me continue..." said Mr. Williams.
"Victoria, I know I have spoiled you but over the last few years I've tried to get through to you to change your ways.
You have no appreciation of money or how fortunate you are. You've spent almost your entire life acting like a spoiled brat and to my great shame I have to take responsibility for that.
As it is too late for me to do anything more I am giving you a choice. You may accept a limited allowance of $5,000 a month for the rest of your life, the rest of my fortune will be placed in a trust and eventually go to needy charities.
Or if you wish to inherit my entire fortune, you must become a contestant on Bimbo or Billionaire and complete at least one round of the game."
Victoria couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her grandfather had gone insane and changed his will, she'd fight it in court, no one could make those kind of demands in a will!
Mr. Williams continued to read, "In case you're thinking of fighting the will in court, you can try but in that case if you lose you will inherit nothing. And you will lose. You don't have the money to hire lawyers good enough to fight it and I've made all the arrangements needed to ensure no judge will find me incompetent."
"I'm afraid he's quite right Victoria, he had me document the will with a video recording. He had three separate psych evaluations and even had two sitting judges witness it all."
Victoria fumed, her money was right there... just out of reach.
"You don't have to give me an answer right now Victoria, Roger left you a month grace period here so you could have some time to think about it. He really did want what is best for you."
Victoria stormed out of the office, livid with what her grandfather had done.
Chapter 2 - Opening Credits
The studio curtain raised as the theme music blared from the speakers with the applause of the live studio audience. Victoria was still full of anger of having to go through this farce to get her inheritance but she'd be damned if she'd live off of the pittance her grandfather had suggested in his will.
The collar around her neck was the current source of her displeasure, it had been there for a week and a minute hadn't gone by that it didn't feel like a noose.
"Yes folks it's time to answer the question that is on all of our minds... Is she a... Bimbo or Billionaire!" the announcer's voice came across the PA system and gave me something new to focus on for a moment.
"Is she a... Bimbo or Billionaire..." I wined and scrunched my face up as I said it. The assistant beside me turned his head to see what the problem was now.
"Oh just turn your head back around the other way jackass!" I spat at him.
She was even angrier when he did so. Normally if she'd been wearing such a revealing outfit all the men's heads would be turning towards her. She kept in shape and when her grandfather was still being generous to her she'd splurged on the best breast enhancements she could buy. The nose job had cost even more but the master stroke on that had been her skiing "accident" they had used to cover it up.
Coupled with her natural blonde hair, petite frame and workout regime, she could turn heads anywhere she went.
Except the set of Bimbo or Billionaire. These guys saw the results of the collar all the time and clearly she couldn't compete with what trotted out of the game each week.
The stage lights came up as I walked out towards my pedestal revealing the entire set in all its glitzy glory. It was even worse than what I'd seen in the episodes I had watched on TV. With the television camera's muting many of the colours the reality of the set looked even more garish. The shag carpet looked to be at least four inches deep with overtly thick piles in it. The pink of the set was almost glowing in real life.
The pedestal, which on TV looked so large, was tiny on set. They didn't want there to be anywhere to hide when it came time for the collar of fate to do its magic. The bank of monitors were glowing, their brightness cranked up to overcome the glare of the stage lighting and make sure they appeared on screen correctly.
"Thanks Dan, now to get to today's contestant... Victoria!" the crowd cheered as Jack approached me with an overtly drawn out frown on his face.
"Ohhh... Victoria you look so sad, what's the matter?"
"Oh you know what's wrong Jack! The only reason I'm here is to get this first round over with and then get out!"
"What? You want to leave us so soon? Don't you want the billion dollars?"
It was for show of course, he knew why I was here. But ratings matter and that meant I'd better just answer and get it over with.
"No, I'm here because to inherit my grandfather's money he made it a stipulation in his will I had to be a contestant."
"Oh there's a little more to it than that isn't there?"
"I... I... don't know what you mean..."
He couldn't know about the options in the will could he?
"Well it turns out that the Accountant and your grandfather, Roger, were good friends. As part of his estate he left the show a copy of the will, which I have right here..." Jack said reaching in to his jacket pocket and pulling out a sheath of paper.
He unfolded it and turned a few pages in, "And it says right here that you had a choice. A $5,000 a month allowance or coming on to our fine show and getting over $70 million?"
The crowd booed at the thought of me turning down $5,000 a month, more than most of them made. I didn't care though, I deserved all of it!
"That's private Jack!"
"Don't worry Victoria, I'm sure our audience and viewers will keep it to themselves." He said as he winked at the camera.
The crowd continued to boo as Jack started to speak again.
"But audience, don't worry, she's here and now the only question that remains is she a..."
