**Diary Entry**
*”Watch out, Mum and your brother are coming to claim their share: Youve cheated your brother, youve no conscience.”*
Id given up my inheritance share for my father, yet he left me the entire flat. His words still echo in my mind: *”Youll understand one day. Just dont trust themtheyll lie.”* Back then, I didnt know who he meant. Now, its all clear.
My names Emily. I have an aunt, Beatrice, my mothers younger sister. They hadnt spoken in yearsrumours said Beatrice had taken our grandmothers inheritance for herself. I knew I had cousins, Oliver and Charlotte. We played together as children, but we grew apart. Recently, Charlotte found me on social media and told me things that chilled me to the bone.
The last few years have been shadowed by grief. Mum passed three years ago. Dad held on until I finished university in Manchester, then followed her. They adored each otherhe doted on her, bought her flowers, praised her endlessly. I dont think he ever recovered from losing her.
After Mums death, Dad inherited half the flat. I signed my share over to him, but to my surprise, he left it entirely to me. *”Youll understand later,”* hed said. *”Dont trust them.”* I pressed him about who *”them”* was and what lies he feared, but he brushed me off.
Six months after his funeral, Charlotte reached out. She reminded me she was Beatrices daughter and said shed be in Manchester soon. *”We need to talk,”* she wrote. *”Its important.”* I saw no reason to refuse. I gave her my address and number, telling her to call before coming.
Charlotte arrived a week later. I met her at the stationshe seemed uneasy. Stepping into the flat, she muttered, *”Its nice here. Shame youll have to leave soon.”* Over tea, she laid it all out: Oliver was my half-brother. She didnt know the details, but she claimed thats why Grandma left everything to Beatrice instead of splitting it between the sisters.
Charlotte told me Dad had been with Beatrice first, left when she fell pregnant, then married Mum. *”Mum and Oliver are coming for their share,”* she warned. *”Be ready.”*
I was stunned. Oliver wouldnt get a pennythe flat was mine, Dads savings (kept at home, distrusting banks), and the car Id bought myself. Everything he owned was now mine. The half-brother story seemed absurdDad loved Mum too much for that. But life has its twists.
*”Thanks for the warning, Charlotte,”* I said. *”Let them come if they dare. Theyll leave with nothing but their lies.”*
And so I prepared to face them, knowing the truth, as it always does, would win in the end.
