“Grandma, you need to go — Mom and Dad are planning to move you to a nursing home today,” my 7-year-old grandson told me in a worried voice. I left without luggage or destination, holding only my dignity. They had no idea about the 22-million-dollar fortune I’d kept secret, and what I did next left everyone stunned…
My son Mark’s Victorian mansion always felt chilly, no matter how high the fireplace was. I, Eleanor Vance, 72, sat in an old armchair in the living room, knitting a scarf I knew no one would ever use.
“Grandma…”
A small, warm hand rested on my knee. I jumped, dropping my needle. It was Leo, my 7-year-old grandson. He had big, round, worried eyes, just like his grandfather used to.
“What is it, Leo? Aren’t you going to school?” I asked, picking up my knitting needles.
Leo glanced around nervously, then leaned close to my ear and whispered something that made my blood run cold:
“Grandma, you need to go—Mom and Dad are planning to take you to a nursing home today. They called them. They said it’s cheap and has iron railings.”
I was speechless. The knitting needle fell a second time.
Mark and his wife, Linda, had hinted many times that I was a burden. I knew Mark’s real estate business was struggling. I knew Linda hated having to cook me an extra bowl of soup every night. But I didn’t think they’d be so cruel as to send me to a cheap hospice on my birthday.
“Are you sure, Leo?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.
“I heard Mom tell Dad, ‘Send her out before lunch, I need that room for a yoga studio.’ The hospice van will arrive at 10 o’clock.”
I looked at the wall clock. 9:15.
I had 45 minutes left.
A pang of pain shot through my heart, but it was quickly extinguished by a stronger emotion: cold resentment.
I had spent my whole life sacrificing for Mark. I sold our family home to give Mark his startup capital. I lived frugally so as not to burden them. And this is how they repay me.
But there’s one thing Mark and Linda don’t know. A secret that my late husband, a brilliant but secretive stock market investor, and I have kept for 40 years.
They think I’m a widowed old woman living on meager social security benefits.
They don’t know I’m the sole owner of the Vance Trust, with a current net worth of $22 million.
I stood up. I didn’t go into the dressing room. I didn’t want to take anything from this hellish house, not even the clothes Linda bought me at the thrift store.
I kissed Leo on the forehead.
“Thank you, Leo. You’re the bravest man I know.”
“Where are you going, Grandma?” Leo whimpered.
“She’s gone in search of freedom,” I smiled. “And she promised she’d come back for you. But first, she has to teach your parents a lesson.”
I opened the front door and stepped outside. The November wind in Connecticut lashed my face, but I didn’t look back. I walked to the main road and hailed a taxi.
I left without luggage or a destination, only my self-respect and an old flip phone in my sweater pocket.
Chapter 2: The Disappearance
[Mark’s Perspective – The Son]
10 a.m. The dilapidated 16-seater van from the “Twilight” nursing home screeched to a halt.
Mark and Linda stepped out, their faces feigning excitement.
“Mom! We have a surprise for you!” Linda called into the living room.
There was no answer.
“Mom?” Mark walked in. The living room was empty. The armchair was still there, the half-finished ball of yarn on the floor.
Mark ran up to his mother’s bedroom. Empty. The wardrobe was still there.
“Where’s the old lady?” Linda hissed. “The car’s waiting and they’re charging a waiting fee!”
“I don’t know! Maybe she just went for a walk in the garden,” Mark reassured, but his heart began to ache. His mother never went anywhere without telling them.
They searched everywhere. The backyard, the nearby park, the supermarket. There was no sign of Eleanor.
Leo sat on the stairs, silently playing with Lego. He didn’t say a word.
By evening, Mark had to report his mother missing to the police.
“She’s old, she’s senile,” Linda cried to the police officer (acting perfectly). “We’re so worried. She didn’t take any money, no warm coat.”
A week passed. No news. The police found a picture of an old woman taking a taxi toward Stamford train station, but then the trail disappeared.
Mark and Linda began cleaning out her room to turn it into a yoga studio as planned. While cleaning, Linda found an old savings passbook hidden under the mattress.
Balance: $500.
“My God,” Linda scoffed. “She only had $500 her whole life. And she always acted so high and mighty. Well, at least she freed us from this burden.”
They didn’t know that a real storm was brewing, and it was about to sweep away their lives.
Chapter 3: The Call from Manhattan
One month later.
Mark and Linda’s lives had returned to normal, even more comfortable without the “senile old woman.”
One Monday morning, Mark received a phone call.
“Hello, Mr. Mark Vance?” A deep, professional voice answered.
“It’s me.”
“I’m Arthur Sterling, attorney representing Sterling & Partners Law Firm in Manhattan. I’m calling to invite you and Linda to our office at 2 p.m. today to announce some matters.”
“The legal matter concerns Eleanor Vance.”
Mark’s heart pounded. “My mother? She… she’s been found? She’s dead?”
“Please come to the office; we’ll discuss the details.”
Mark and Linda drove to Manhattan in a state of anticipation.
“She’s probably dead,” Linda whispered in the car. “Maybe she hid some gold or life insurance somewhere we don’t know about. A lawyer calling certainly means there’s an inheritance.”
They entered a skyscraper in downtown New York, taking the elevator to the 50th floor. A luxurious law office overlooking Central Park.
Mr. Arthur Sterling, an authoritative man with white hair, invited them to sit.
“So… my mother…” Mark hesitated.
“Eleanor is still alive,” Mr. Sterling said calmly.
Mark and Linda exchanged glances, utterly disappointed.
“Where is she?” “Why isn’t she home?” Linda asked sharply.
“She’s at her penthouse on Park Avenue,” Mr. Sterling replied.
“What?” Mark gasped. “A penthouse? You’ve got the wrong person. My mother only has $500 in her savings.”
Mr. Sterling smiled, pushing a thick stack of files toward them.
“That’s what she wants you to think. In reality, Eleanor Vance is the honorary chair of the Vance Investment Fund, with a net worth of $22 million. She’s entrusted me with managing her assets for the past 10 years to test your filial piety.”
Mark took the files, his hands trembling. The numbers, the financial reports…it was all real. His mother was a millionaire.
“So…so she called us to pick her up?” Linda’s tone softened. “Oh, poor Mom, she must be so lonely.” “We’ll bring you home right away, Mom.”
“No,” a familiar voice rang out from behind the oak door.
The door opened. Eleanor entered.
She was no longer wearing her old woolen dress. She wore a perfectly tailored Chanel suit, a South Sea pearl necklace, and her hair was neatly combed. She exuded an aura of power and elegance that Mark had never seen before.
“Mom…” Mark stood up, intending to rush to embrace her.
“Sit down!” Eleanor commanded. Her voice was sharp and cold.
She sat down in the chairman’s chair.
“I called you two here today not for a reunion. I’ve come to deliver justice.”
She tossed an envelope onto the table.
“Mark, do you remember the house you’re living in?”
“Yes, my house…”
“Your house?” Eleanor chuckled. “You mortgaged it to the bank for business capital and lost it all.” “The bank foreclosed on it last week.”
“I know… I’m trying to raise the money…” Mark broke out in a sweat.
“No need to raise it anymore. The bank sold it.”
“Sold it to whom?”
“To me,” Eleanor said. “My fund bought back your bad debt and took ownership of the house this morning.”
Mark and Linda were speechless.
“And,” she continued. “Linda, the Range Rover you’re driving. You’re the leaseholder, right? But the guarantor is Mark’s company. And Mark’s company… actually, I secretly bought 51% of its shares through a shell company when it was on the verge of bankruptcy last year.”
Linda gasped. “Mom… you’re our creditor?”
“That’s right.” “And as the new owner of the house and the one in control of the company,” Eleanor stood up, looking directly into the eyes of the two ungrateful men. “I make the following decisions:”
“First: Evacuation of the two of you from the Connecticut house within 24 hours. That house will be sold for charity.”
“Second: Fire Mark from his position as Director. The company will be dissolved to pay off debts.”
“Third: Reclaim the Range Rover.”
“Mother! You can’t do that!” Mark knelt on the floor, weeping. “You’re my mother! You have $22 million! Why are you ruining my life?”
Eleanor looked down at her despicable son.
“Because on my birthday, you gave me a ticket to a shabby nursing home,” she said slowly. “You treat me like a burden. You haggle over every bowl of soup with me.” “So now, taste what it feels like to be a burden to society.”
“But what about Leo!” Linda yelled, pulling her son out as a shield. “Are you going to leave your grandson homeless?”
Eleanor smiled. A victorious smile.
“Thank you for mentioning Leo.”
She gestured to her lawyer. Mr. Sterling opened the side door.
A woman in a police uniform and a social worker entered.
“Mr. and Mrs. Vance,” the social worker said. “We have received evidence of child neglect, an unsafe living environment (due to debt and impending bankruptcy), and most importantly…”
Eleanor played a recording on her phone.
Linda’s sharp voice: “Get rid of her… I need the yoga studio.”
Mark’s voice: “Don’t worry about Leo, just let him play games all day to get rid of the debt.”
“I recorded all the days there,” Eleanor said. “I have…” “I filed an application for emergency guardianship of Leo. And given my financial resources compared to your impending homelessness, the judge signed the temporary order this morning.”
Chapter Conclusion: A New Beginning
“No! You can’t take my child!” Linda lunged forward but was restrained by the police.
“You don’t deserve to be fathers.”
“Mother,” Eleanor said coldly. “You were going to throw me away like a piece of junk. Now you’ve lost everything: the house, the car, the money, and even your only son – the only one in that house with a kind heart.”
Eleanor walked out of the meeting room. Mark and Linda cried out behind her, but she didn’t turn around.
Outside in the hallway, Leo was waiting with a nanny. Seeing her, he exclaimed, “Grandma!”
Eleanor opened her arms and hugged him.
“I promised I’d come back for you,” she whispered, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks.
“Where are we going, Grandma?” Leo asked.
“We’re going on a trip, Leo. Disneyland, Paris, or anywhere you want. And then, we’ll go to our new home.” “A real home, where there is no calculation, only love.”
Eleanor led Leo into the private elevator. The doors closed, leaving behind a painful past and two greedy individuals facing the most fitting punishment of their lives: the poverty and loneliness they had once inflicted upon her.
22 million dollars couldn’t buy happiness, but it bought freedom and justice. And for Eleanor, that was more than enough.
