Chapter One: “Babies?”

            Julie wired the money to the account number her grandmother had left her in her will. Julie knew that she would have a tough time keeping the house organized and well, but she figured she could manage…once she got it.

*Flashback to an hour earlier*

            Julie rushed into the old Victorian house, towards her grandpa's old office her grandmother couldn't bare to take down, only bothering to put up a useless T.V. for whenever she got bored. Ever since her grandfather died (a couple years ago), her grandmother was always sad, saying it was her fault for not taking care of him and "the angels" took him away because she was too old to take care of someone. Julie didn't know. Her grandmother blabbed about everything and Julie couldn't tell if it was a rumor or a truth. Yet, she was close to her grandmother; like a sister-to-sister relationship. Julie just couldn't believe she was gone.

She threw open the door to see her grandmother’s lawyer, Julie’s cousins Lilly and Charlie (two ungrateful brats her grandmother and grandfather both hated but pretended to love just to humor the twin girls) wearing ty outfits and pancake makeup, the twins’ babies they each had to have since “all their other friends were getting pregnant” when their “friends” are twenty-nine and they’re seventeen, her other cousin, Eddie (a very smart man who dealt with numbers and statistics all his life. Their grandmother approved of him and was her second favorite Julie had known of), the twin’s and Eddie’s mother and father standing behind them, and the butler Albert and the maid Willow. When the door was thrown open, feet pounding as the person made their way in, the twins glared, the parents smiled gently, the maid and butler giving her scowls for being late, while the lawyer smiled widely at seeing the last person finally there.

            “Sorry, I’m late aren’t I?” Julie said apologetically. The twins scoffed, flipping their bleached hair at the same time, looking at the lawyer with their shirts pulled down, basically flashing the married man who was in his late forties yet still managed to keep his looks.

            “No, no, right on time,” the lawyer said, smiling softly while Julie sat down in a chair besides Willow. He cleared his throat, beginning to speak as he opened the will.

“‘Dear family I have left, it brings me great pain to say that I have not left behind much. I had hoped that I would have left a legacy or something of value behind, but I took all that with me. The only thing left is this house you may be sitting in, the new cars I bought just to race for fun, the crops behind the house, the garden, and the little knowledge in the books upstairs. Even though it may not be much, many of you think it to be a lot of money just waiting to be sold to spend on shopping things. Alas, you cannot receive it.

“‘To my dear nephew and niece-in-law, William and Shelly, I leave my two favorite black mustang and white mustang. Never let those daughters of yours use them, for they’re not on the insurance papers.’” The lawyer tossed the keys to William, the girls trying to pout but ending up looking like the ugly monsters they are. The lawyer rolled his eyes, secretly winking at Julie, basically his child. Julie stifled a laugh as one of the twins practically threw their girl at Julie to play with. Even though they were sitting a foot away from each other, it still scared Julie enough to leap out of her chair, grab the baby, and rock her back and forth. The twin who threw the baby (Lilly) picked up her other baby, patting the child’s back as the girl began to cry while the twins’ mother had the third and their father had Charlie’s second baby.

The twins weren’t that great of parents, everyone knew that, but their own parents were helping them. Lilly was a little happy, though, as she had triplets who were all girls while Charlie had twin girls who were more fussy than the other three. In truth, Julie loved her “nieces,” always taking care of them if the twins were in a good mood – which is only once a year, sadly.

“Anyway,” the lawyer said, clearing his throat once more as he continued to read the will. “‘For my granddaughter Lilly, I leave everything in my purse I had with me when I died. All the money in it, though, will go to the babies while the beauty products (which are all brand new) can be for Lilly.’” The twin grabbed the purse from the table, putting the baby back in its “cage,” as Lilly called it. She opened the purse, pulling out wads of cash and two new bottles of pancake makeup. She squealed, just happy to have the makeup since her family was “rich anyway.”

“‘And to my other granddaughter, Charlie, I leave my laptop, IPad, and desktop computer as they had almost all my work on it. If you complete the work and sell it, it adds to a lot of money. That money will be used for the babies, only, until it reaches six million. If you get more after six million, you can use the rest for yourself. I set up accounts that are in the babies’ names and have your parents listed as main owners, just in case. All the money you get will be automatically wired to the accounts for the babies while your mother and father shall take the money from Lilly and put it in the accounts, equally separated.’” Charlie nodded, a little sad, but happy to get something since she knew her grandmother didn’t approve of her having children at a young age.

“‘To Albert and Willow, my loyal friends, I leave you free of this house with money already wired into your bank accounts. Use the money wisely.’” Albert and Willow nodded, happily smiling as if they had won the jackpot, which they most likely did. Julie’s grandmother and grandfather were very rich, each from owning a successful company – selling one later on and helping with the other one – and from the money they inherited from their own families. “‘And to Eddie, my favorite grandson, I leave my company and all its earnings. I hope you treat our customers well and use the money wisely.’” Eddie smiled, relieved, making his father and mother pat him on the back.

The lawyer rolled up the will, making Julie feel heartbroken while the other ones were confused.

“Wait, what about the house and Julianne’s inheritance?” Uncle William asked on her behalf. The lawyer smiled, silently pulling out a suitcase, turning it so whatever was inside faced the family, and opened it, pulling out another letter.

“‘To my last granddaughter, Julie. I have lived a long life and am happy to have left and stay with your grandfather, my husband. Before your grandfather died, I denied something I shouldn’t have done, only because your grandfather didn’t want me to do it. He was punished for that, being killed by a very bad person. After he died, I did everything I could to protect myself. I had walls built, an alarm to make traps go off and catch anyone on my land, and a fully weaponised house with secret chambers and exits to keep myself safe. I was ready for any danger that was to happen while I was sleeping or in my house. Sadly, I died after I added a gym, converting one of the rooms to a beautiful gym that I only used once. Though before I did that, I even asked to take the responsibility, but they didn’t allow it, saying they couldn’t let me. I was sad, of course, but then I told them something they would be happy about, and they were. Though, they told me, that whoever takes care of this house will be okay as long as they take what I didn’t.

“‘Saying that, to Julie, I leave my house, my garden, all the money in my account, my estate, and everything in it. It is all in her name and all her things are being moved from her parents house and into her new house as my lawyer is speaking. The only thing is that you cannot stay or sleep here until you wire three thousand dollars to the ‘Kiss and Hug Orphanage’ down the street from our favorite bakery. But, once you do so, you must accept everything that comes after. No matter what. Please do well in your studies and make me proud. Good luck, all of you.’ Well that’s it.” The family was in shock about how much things Julie had gotten, even Julie. The only ones not shocked were the lawyer, ex-maid, and ex-butler who knew this would happen all along.

“You were always Adrianna’s favorite,” Willow said as she patted Julie’s shoulder. “And if you need us, we’re just a phone call away.”

“True,” Albert said as he was a man of few words. Then, the lawyer leaned into her, whispering in her ear.

“I already wired the money, if that’s okay with you, so here is your key,” he said handing her a key, a pen, and a document. “And please sign here that you were the one to wire it, just in case.” Julie signed it, dazed, as a man walked in with all her books she needed to study from, placing them on the desk after putting a few knickknacks from her grandfather on the two book cases that held the extra books that wouldn’t fit in the library.

Finally, the family got out of their shock when the lawyer, Willow, and Albert left. Julie’s uncle and aunt hugged her as best they could since all three of them held babies in their arms. Julie handed the little girl back to Lilly who nodded, packed up the money and makeup and left with Charlie; Charlie not even giving Julie a glance. Eddie hung back as they all left, giving Julie a big bear hug.

“Willow and Albert are right,” he said to her after he pulled away, holding her an arm’s length away from him. “We will be here if you need us, those two, grandma’s lawyer Mr. Ling, mother, father, and me. Even though the twins won’t want to be there, we’ll make them come. Just know that every once in a while we will expect a family dinner.” He smiled softly at her.

“I know, Ed,” she said as she pulled him back into a hug before he had to leave. “You’re the only family I have left besides the others. I will make sure to have family dinners.” He nodded, satisfied, and left, following his family back home in their original car.

Julie sighed as she walked up the many stairs she had in this historical castle. Entering her grandmother’s old room, she saw it was turned into a gym and that the wall with the closet had been changed. The room seemed smaller and with the mirror as a gigantic wall, she knew why. She figured that had to be a safe room in case something happened, so she decided to go to her own bedroom she had stayed in, right next door to the gym. Seeing her things in there, she figured this was her room. She sprawled herself on the bed, figuring a couple hours of sleep wouldn’t hurt since her roommate kept her up all last night with the and groaning from her and her boy toy two doors down.

As she fell asleep, she looked at the clock. Being only three in the afternoon, she figured she’d wake up in time to make dinner around six. Boy, was she wrong.

Julie woke up suddenly from the nightmare she’d been having ever since her parents died in the fire that burned her house down. She looked at the clock and sighed when she saw it was around eight fifty. She got up and walked to the kitchen, deciding to make instant ramyun. She started the ramyun when she heard the big dong doorbell ring. She was confused, of course, since no one was supposed to be on the property. She took the two guns from the drawer, sticking one in her bra and held the other one, ready to kill the person who may try to kill her. She looked through the peephole, seeing no one, so she checked with hidden windows next to the door, only to see a figure walking back to a car and driving away, no one else in sight. She waited for the gates to close before she opened the door, peeking out to see nothing. She was about to close the door when she heard giggles. Like from a baby.

She looked down and there sat the two most adorable babies she ever saw. One was chubby, his finger while the other looked adorable with its big brown eyes, smiling at everything it saw. Julie leaned down, smiling wide as she looked at the babies who sat in the basket. It didn’t occur to her that they weren’t hers until she took them inside, setting the basket down on the table to see a letter on the babies with her name on it. She took the letter, quickly running to take the ramyun with her to the table, eating, reading, and watching the babies who gazed around the room.