Granger's Threat. Teresa Pijoan

to his head and jerked it back, “‘I’m sure your brother’s attempt to thwart your father from committing suicide was seriously upsetting. This left Margaret with only one alternative, which she used wisely in her task. She found the lawyer Mr. Alfredo Costa in Santa Fe, who specializes in the elderly and mentally unstable, and went after Walter’s attempt to change his will.”

      “Geoffrey, why did she want to move everything over all at once? Wouldn’t this look suspicious to some?” Sophia took the folded blanket off the couch and covered her legs.

      “Wait, let me continue.” Geoffrey cleared his throat to use his professional voice as he read on, “This deals with Legal Incapacity. It requires a person to be legally competent in order to enter into a contract, sign a will, or make some other type of binding legal commitment. A person may be judged incompetent by virtue of age or mental condition. A contract made by a mentally incapacitated individual is voidable or invalid. This means a person can legally declare the contract void, making it unenforceable.”

      Geoffrey stopped to pick up the next page. Sophia asked, “Is this much longer?”

      “Wait, this is the finish and it comes with a phrase that you will remember.” Geoffrey held the paper, “A person who executes a will must be legally competent. The traditional recital in a will states that the testator or the maker of the will is of “sound mind.” This language attempts to establish the competency of the testator.”

      Sophia shook her head, “In other words Margaret made herself guardian of her husband’s will since he was in the process of changing it when she deemed him mentally incapacitated. Then she made Granger her executor to further confuse the issue and passed the properties to him thus clearing any judgment against her. This is extremely well thought out for the two of them. Do you believe it is just the two of them?”

      The papers were folded in Geoffrey’s lap as he answered, “Somehow this is too complicated for your brother, but your mother? Yes, she could pull this off. Remember she was made a millionaire when her mother died. All of her money became your father’s money when they married. Your mother, believing the men should hold the power of the family, gave him her wealth. Your gregarious father had no problem spending her money. Your father told me how he helped his patients by giving them financial aid. He gave his patients money to fill prescriptions, to pay their gas bills and to buy food. It didn’t end there.”

      Geoffrey pushed his recliner to recline, “Remember how your father after he retired was buying expensive fishing equipment, going to Europe, and traveling with women from all over the globe? Your mother played the role of victimized wife yet she wouldn’t go with him on his trips.” Geoffrey laughed, “Your mother had to stay home and grow food for the starving children of the world.” He quickly put out his hand, “No, wait she had to watch the hired help pick up the horse apples. She had to stay home and monitor the horse apple pickers for if they weren’t picked up correctly the world would end, right?”

      “No, she had to stay home to keep the planet on course.” Sophia threw her shoe at him, “You know I couldn’t understand why she didn’t go with him? Why didn’t she go and kick up her heels, have fun, see the great museums or go to the top of the mountains in China. He would have loved to have had her with him.”

      Geoffrey frowned, “Sophia, your mother and father had strange attitudes toward marriage. Their commitment didn’t appear to be to one another. It was as if she wanted to suffer. Being married meant she had to be tortured or in pain.”

      Sophia pulled off her other shoe, “She was raised to be penitent, and perhaps she felt she had to suffer if she was happy or married or who knows?”

      Jerking the recliner forward, Geoffrey stretched and stood, “You know I am bone tired after all of this. It is time we had some libation to help us appreciate our situation.” He tossed Sophia the folded papers, which she caught in her right hand.

      “Geoffrey, why would they go to this much trouble to change the whole of the will or did they just declare the whole of the will void, as it says here?” Sophia studied the papers.

      “What?” Geoffrey was pulling on his jacket.

      “Where are you going?”

      “I’m going out to the truck. I stopped at the liquor store and got us some whiskey. I plan to get heavily sedated tonight.” Geoffrey smiled at her as he pulled open the front door.

      Sophia mumbled under her breath, “or inebriated.”

      The martini went down dry as Sophia swallowed. Then she started to cough, “Geoffrey, this is way too strong!”

      “Just drink it. Sophia, this is medicine after getting kicked in the head by your family. Don’t argue with me, just enjoy it.” Geoffrey swirled his cognac in a Mickey Mouse glass that was bought at Disneyland years earlier.

      Sophia winced as she sipped her drink, “What are we going to do? Are we just going to stay here and pay off the loan or can we sell the house? We could move somewhere else after getting our half from the house.” Sophia tried to keep the martini glass as far from her as possible.”What does Granger gain if we are divorced? I don’t understand why he wants us to live separately. Geoffrey, this seems pathological to ruin someone’s marriage.”

      “Nothing, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that we can do. We could pay off the loan or not. Therein lies a choice,” Geoffrey’s eyes gleamed, “we can take out another mortgage and then another never paying off the house completely ever!”

      “What good would that do? How would that get us out of this mess?”

      “Ah, my sweet, we shall make Granger sorry that he ever got involved with the Vinder family. We can take out one loan or mortgage after another thus never paying off the loan, thus never giving him any authority over us in any form. We are the one’s who must pay off the loan and if the loan on this property is never paid off then he has no hold over us at all.” Geoffrey lifted his Mickey Mouse glass to the ceiling, “My dear, he shall regret messing with me!”

      Sophia put her martini down on the side table, “Geoffrey, you are as evil as he is. I don’t approve of either of you. We need to pay off this loan. We don’t want to be in debt. At least I don’t nor do I want my daughters burdened with a huge debt when we die. What are we going to leave them if we are so entrenched in debt there is nothing left for their college or marriage or travel?”

      Geoffrey smirked, “Too bloody bad. Those girls are on their own thanks to your mother. Sophia, this is your entire mother’s fault as well as your fault and if you don’t mind it is the fault of the whole Pino blood line. I have no respect for any of you, not anymore!” He swigged down the liquid in the glass in one swallow. “There you go and now I’m off to bed.”

      Stunned with Geoffrey’s remark, Sophia sat frozen. “What the hell was that all about?” She could hear Geoffrey in the hall closet pushing items around and dropping hangers on the floor. Slowly, she raised herself to stand then cautiously went into the hall. “What are you doing, Geoffrey?”

      “I’m leaving. I’m taking a sabbatical just as you did from the university. I’m going to retreat into the trenches. I never signed up to be attacked by your bloody bastard of a brother. I shall drive over the mountain to my buddy Fred’s cabin in Pecos. He doesn’t know it yet, but by morning he’ll have company.” Geoffrey pulled his black suitcase from the back of the closet. “It is time to reconsider my options and my place in this clan.”

      Sybil’s soccer ball fell from a shelf to bounce down the hall. Sophia walked back into the living room, picked up the martini glass and took it to the kitchen sink. Tossing the liquid down the drain, she inventoried her options. There was no reason for her to argue with him. He was drunk. He was angry. He had every right to want out of this mess. She wanted out as well. She would stay and be with their girls for they were the innocents in this mess. Geoffrey certainly needed more time to meditate over his options and she would give him this time.

      Taking a bag from the lower cupboard she put his instant coffee, his favorite traveling black mug, some of his