"To our beloved daughter," the televised ghost of Patrick Stein said, "we leave everything. All of our assets, all our houses and our businesses. Everything we own or have a share in is yours, sweetie."
Patrick's wife, Vanessa Stein, started to cry on the television screen beside him. Patrick Stein put the Will on the table and comforted his wife. They had filmed the video-Will in the exact same room where me (their butler), Camille (their daughter) and Carl (their lawyer) now sat, listening to their digital-selves read the Will.
I glanced at Cami beside me. Her mouth was peeled back in a half snarl and half smirk. Her parents jet went down on their way back to celebrate Cami's eighteenth birthday, barely even a week ago. In that entire week, I hadn't seen Cami cry once. Not once. Not when she heard the news. Not at the joint funeral. And not now she had just found out that she was now one of the wealthiest people in the whole world.
On the tv screen, Cami's mum sobbed and emptied her nose into a tissue. When she was finished, Patrick Stein spoke again.
"But not yet young lady. Your mother, Carl and I have discussed it and decided that 100% of your inheritance - assets as well as money and property - are all to be held in a trust operated by your butler."
The words had a literal weight that smashed right through the lawyer's office. For the first time since both of her parents - her only relatives in the whole wide world - died, Cami Stein cried. I processed this before I processed what her dead father had just said, processed the fact that I controlled everything Cami owned and wanted.
That I controlled her.
By the time I had realised as much, the Patrick Stein who lived on in an unchangeable digital loop had turned to look at me. I assumed that him and Carl had planned where I would sit upon filming this and not that there was a living Patrick stuck inside the television actually communicating with me.
"You have been my butler for as long as I can remember." Patrick Stein said. "You raised my only and beloved daughter, Camille, and managed to keep all of our assets in tact. I know that our relationship never really evolved beyond a professional level, but there is no one else I trust or respect more and I know that my daughter is safe in your hands."
Patrick locked his hands together and rested them on the desk. Cami cried beside me.
"As Cami's trust operator," Patrick Stein said, "you will receive a generous weekly wage but I am afraid that does not convey my heartfelt gratitude and thanks. As such, you will also receive a decade's worth of wages paid out in a lump s-"
"This is a joke isn't it?" Cami's voice was a sharp as a fang.
Carl Worthing, attorney at law, sprung forward in his seat. "Huh?"
"This stupid fucking thing!" Camille picked a paperweight off Carl's desk and threw it into the television screen. The paperweight hit her dead father in the head and went through the screen. Patrick was mid sentence at the time and his voice dropped to a robotic tone just before the screen exploded in a flash of sparks and shattered glass.
"Camille Stein!" Carl stood up, looking horrified. "Your parents raised you better than that!"
Carl took a deep breath and sat back down. "Look, you two both have a copy of the Will so why don't you go home and grieve there? You know where to find me if you have any questions."
Carl turned from Cami and settled on me. "How does that sound?"
"Yeah, alright," I nodded. "Okay Cami, let's go."
Cami stopped crying and turned her fury on me. Her glare was intense, hateful, disgusted, appalled. She looked at me like I was the Bubonic Plague or some other unearthly virus. Then she scoffed and got up out of her chair.
I moved to follow but stopped when I heard Carl mumble.
"Ah, actually, Camille, do you mind if I have a word with your guardian in private?"
The look in Cami's eyes - it was fire and brimstone, hate and anger, death and destruction. "He's not my guardian, Carl." Long gone were the tears and sorrow, back was Cami's bitchy teenage angst. "He's my slave."
Camille stormed out of Carl's office and slammed the door behind her. Carl watched her leave, and studied the way her skirt swayed and revelaved more of her thigh with each step. Then he laughed and leaned forward in his chair.
Carl opened his top drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He poured a shot's worth of alcohol into each glass, slid one over his varnished desk to me and picked the other up for himself and drunk without saying a word.
Carl sat there silently for a few moments after finishing his drink, looking off into the space between his desk and office door.
"Now son," Carl eventually said, "Mr. Stein left you in control of a substantial amount of wealth and power but none of it is yours, do you understand?"
I nodded. Carl and Veronica had always made sure I knew that I was below them, that I worked for them and not with them, that I would never be a part of their family. Yet the Steins, may they rest in peace, weren't so bad, at least not when compared to their daughter.
Cami was the devil. A cruel, stuck up and pretentious cunt. She has no empathy, no compassion, no nothing, just greed and arrogance....Cami did have reason to be arrogant. As much as I hated her - and I cannot stress that enough, she is by far the most despicable person I have ever met - Cami not only had more wealth than ninety-nine percent on the people on the planet but she was a bombshell. Absolutely incredible. Stunning. The heavens had blessed her with a beauty that was beyond belief and too pure for any mortal. And her body... It was art: tight and toned and with just the right amount of curves.
"I don't know you that well sir," Carl the fancy lawyer continued, "but I knew Mr Stein and that man was more paranoid than Stalin. If he approves of you to care for his daughter and empire, well then I would be silly to leave those tasks to anyone else."
"Thank you Carl." I stood to leave.
Carl cleared his throat. "As Camille's legal guardian though, you will have to pay for the damages incurred in today's meeting." Carl looked over at the broken television with the shattered screen.
"Of course." I gestured for a handshake. "Take it out of my pay."
Carl smiled and shook my hand. "Perhaps you ought to take Camille overseas. The Steins have properties all over the world. Here is their portfolio, have a browse, I think it could do Camille a lot of good."
I smiled and left with a folder full of mansions and penthouses that were mine by proxy.
The limo was still waiting out the front. Pauly, the chauffeur, opened the back door and I climbed in. Cami was sitting by the other door. She scoffed and got up to move to the other end of the limo. I ignored her and opened the folder of properties.
Cami scoffed again. Yes, I know, the stuck up little whore scoffs more than she speaks. "Don't bother looking at them. I'm not letting you in any of my properties. It's bad enough your pathetic little shack is on my main property."
I closed the folder and met Pauly's eyes just as he took his seat behind the steering wheel.
"Pauly, can we have some privacy?"
"Certainly, sir." Pauly closed the divider.
Cami scoffed yet again. "You must be loving this. You're not a sir. Anyone with more than twenty dollars can tell that."
I took a breath before responding. "Cami, I hope this whole thing, as awful and horrible as it is, can be a new start for us. One based on a mutual respect. Afterall, you are going to need to prove to me that you can be responsible and obedient if you ever hope to gain access to your inheritance. I understand that you're grieving so I'll let it slide for today but your better wake up with a better attitude tomorrow, young girl, do you hear me?"
"Aw man," Cami laughed and looked out the window. "I've never ever ever shown you the least amount of respect, ever. So don't act like I'm only disrespecting you now because my dumb parents don't know how to catch a plane properly."
Cami turned from the window back to me. "I disrespect you for the same reason I've always disrespected you and the same reason I'm always going to disrespect you and that is because you are filth, unworthy of anything that even comes close to resembling affection or respect or even human decency. You're a butler for Christ's sake! A butler! If this was ancient Rome, you'd be a slave getting arse fucked by their fat master. Just stay away from me. I'm flying to Hawaii for the weekend and I want you out of the manor by the time I get back."
Cami crossed her arms to make her point, but only for a second. Then she pulled her phone out and started browsing as if she was just waiting for the bus and had a polite little chat to a stranger.
Vicious, but not out of the ordinary. Cami went straight for the jugular, saying the most hurtful and truthful things she could. I was used to it and unphased. Actually, her cruel little outburst actually made me smile. And then laugh. I just couldn't help it.
"What are you doing?" Cami looked shocked by my reaction. "What is wrong with you!?"
I got myself under control. "Cami, come here."
Her eyes narrowed like I had asked to do the most disgusting thing imaginable.
I laughed again. "It's alright. I'll just come to you."
I stood up, as much as you can in a limo anyway. Crouched down with one hand on the roof to keep me steady, I walked down the limo to where Cami sat at the other end. She watched me like an accused witch watches the flames moving over the wood toward her.
"Oh Cami, sweet little Cami." I said in an upbeat voice. "Your parents were never around to discipline you, and I was always told it wasn't my place, that I was too scummy to disciple a little socialite like you."
I stopped a foot or so in front of Cami, hovering over her. She looked so small beneath me. She looked away, down at her feet.
"But your parents are dead Cami. You're alone with just me and eighteen years of discipline and punishment to catch up on."
Cami sobbed and slowly panned her face back up to mine. I smiled. Hesitantly and insincerely, she tried to return my smile but her lips kept quivering.
I grabbed a handful of Cami's hair and pulled her off her seat. She landed on the ground in the middle of the limo. She was petrified. I had never even raised my voice to her and now, all of a sudden, I was manhandling her.
Cami squirmed toward the other end of the limo. I laughed, made myself a drink from the minibar and turned the stereo up to maximum volume.
Cami was on her arse by then, her back flush against the seat at the other end of the limo, her eyes on mine, frightened. I put my drink down and moved toward her.
I sat down on the seat she rested against so my thigh rubbed against the side of her head.