"Marcel, calm down. We're worried about Maisie's health. Sierra suddenly appeared from nowhere. Roberts had disappeared for one year before that. She came back with Robert and swept him off his feet. Not only had they secretly registered for marriage, but this woman also abuses Maisie in private. How could this kind of woman deserve to be the daughter-in-law of the Simpson family?" Kenny immediately blamed Sierra. The only connection between them was that his grandfather was Robert's great-grandfather. Right now, Kenny was quite far away from Robert when it came to bloodline. He could only live on a small number of stock dividends.
This time, taking the chance that Roberts had passed away, Kenny and Dora figured out a plan to target Maisie. Anyway, Maisie had a lot of assets.
Although they were greedy, they also knew that they didn't have any right to inherit the most estate of the Simpson family. Anyway, as long as they could get even just some benefits, they would be satisfied.
"Exactly! Marcel, look at Maisie now. Can you truly rest assured to let Sierra Moon take care of Maisie? I suggest letting all family branches supervise her and take care of her together. No matter which family would take care of Maisie alone, I don't think others wouldn't rest assured."
That was plan B from Dora and Kenny.
If each of their families could participate in supervising and taking care of Maisie, they believed that Maisie's assets could be divided among the families, and the stock dividends belonging to Maisie could also be divided to them as they would supervise her.
Sierra inwardly sneered. How couldn't she read those people's minds?
In fact, Sierra didn't care about Maisie's assets at all. She just wanted to get the assets that belonged to her and then she would sell them and escape.
However, before getting the assets, she couldn't show to them that she didn't care about Maisie at all, and nor could she let those people snatch her guardianship.
If she didn't care about Roberts's mother and she still wanted his estate, her reputation would be completely ruined.
"Aunt Dora, Uncle Kenny, I agree with your suggestion. If you don't believe me, each of your families could send a representative to supervise me. Also, Mom's room will be covered by the surveillance. Can you rest assured now? It's just an accident today. I need the family doctor to check up on Mom as soon as possible. She's mentally unstable now. Please don't stand here. We can talk in another place."
Much to their surprise, Sierra took a retreat, so Dora and Kenny exchanged a glance with each other and didn't continue troubling Sierra.
It seemed that their plan B could work. In that case, if all the families would supervise Maisie together, the dividend from Maisie's assets could be divided averagely as well.
As others were thinking, Sierra cast a glance at Paul, who was the oldest and most respectful one in the Simpson family now.
"Grandpa Paul, Robert's mother is also mine. Of course, I'll try my best effort to take care of her. Since aunts and uncles don't trust me, I agree with them on supervising Mom together. Let's go to the living room and discuss the details. What do you think?"
Paul from the Simpson family was almost ninety-year-old. He nodded in agreement, turned away, and walked towards the living room with the help of his walking stick.
Sierra breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't ruin her reputation if she gave up a tiny part of the estate. With just a piece of cake, those people would be satisfied, so she wouldn't mind it at all. She didn't want to lose the greater for the less.
Marcel and Joanna walked in front of the crowd.
Looking at each other, Joanna said worriedly, "All other family members have come here. Why hasn't Ivan come yet? We've been calling him for such a long time, but he never answered the call. Would anything happen to Ivan?"
Although the couple was worry-free, always traveling around the world, and occasionally called their son, this was the very first time that they failed to contact Ivan for such a long time.
Marcel and Joanna couldn't help but get panicked.
"After things are done today, let's go find Jason. Both Jason and Jasper are looking for Ivan as well. I wonder if they have any clue. The estate of our family has been clearly divided after my father passed away. Anyway, even Ivan had come back, he wouldn't fight with those people for Robert's estate. We came here for taking a look and avoiding others from fighting too fiercely. I don't think anyone of them would be afraid of Ivan. I just can't understand."
The couple walked to the living room. In the huge living room, all the relatives of the Simpson family sat down gradually.
Of course, not all members of each family branch had attended. Only the representatives had come. There were more than a dozen of them in total.
The oldest and most respectful man was Paul, who came here with his grandson.
When Paul was young, he took care of Robert's grandfather. Hence, after Roberts had become the master of the family, he had been taking care of Paul and his family members in return.
As long as anyone from his branch wanted to work in the companies run by the Simpson family, Robert would employ and train them if they were capable.
Paul's grandson, Randy, was the most capable man in his family branch now. Randy was taking care of the overseas businesses of the Simpson family in Europe. Since Robert passed away, Randy came back instantly to help with the aftermath.
Robert's grandfather was the second son of his family. He also had another two younger brothers, Smith and Jenkins.
However, both Smith and Jenkins had passed away long time ago. Only his offspring were left. Neither of the branches are close to Robert, but Robert's grandfather kept looking after them when he was alive.
After all their fathers were his younger brothers. After Robert's grandfather passed away, the family members of Smith and Jenkins had a big fight with each other for the estate distribution, so they seldom contacted Robert in the past decades. Alex was Smith's son. Since Alex was doomed now, Smith's family members didn't keep in touch with Robert.
Today, one of Smith's daughters and one of Alex's younger brothers had come over. They were quite sensible, watching the scene silently. They only lived on limited stock dividends all through the years, but they didn't want to fight for the estate today.
Of course, it would be best if they could get some benefits. All other family members listened to the plan B of Dora and Kenny just now. They also understood what their purposes was. Most of them had tacitly approved this plan.
As for the family of Jenkins, in which there were a lot of family members. In addition to Kenny, there were another two daughters and two sons here. Hence, Roberts had two aunts and three uncles in Jenkins's family.
However, except for Kenny, the loser who always failed in businesses, other family members of Jenkins were not businessmen or businesswomen.
They were all lawyers and professors. They were pretty good at studying and most of them had Ph. D. degrees. Several children of their younger generation were studying in the Ivy League universities of the USA. They seldom contact Robert usually, but they had relationships with him.
After they got to know Robert had passed away, all of them came back.
Seeing that everyone had sat down, Sierra said to Paul, "Grandpa Paul, now Robert's funeral has been complete. I called everyone here today to witness how Robert's estate will be distributed. I've asked the lawyer about it. Since Robert didn't have any will and he had a lot of properties and stock shares in his name, I'd like to discuss with you all about distributing his estate. I also don't hope you misunderstand that I want to get all his estate. Hence, I hope we could achieve a fair and reasonable plan."
Upon hearing Sierra's high-sounding words, Dora sneered, but she didn't say anything.
Kenny directly said, "Yesterday in the mourning hall, you said Robert and you have registered for marriage. Now we are all here. Can you show us your marriage certificate?"
Sierra smiled, turned around, and looked over at her assistant standing next to her.
"Please take out my marriage certificate. I'll show them."
The assistant opened the briefcase and pulled out a folder.
Opening the folder, the assistant took out two red certificates. Sierra sent one of them to Paul, and the other to Marcel and Joanna.
She was pretty clear -- Paul was the elder of all of the family members here. He had the final say. Also, Marcel was Robert's uncle. He also could influence the decision. Both men would determine how things would go further.
After Paul and Marcel took a look at the marriage certificates, others also looked at them. Some family members looked annoyed, including Dora and Kenny.
Of course, except for the two, when facing such a huge amount of estate, few people could keep calm.
As Robert's wife, the legal first heir, Sierra would inherit most of the estate. Even an outsider would definitely envy her for it, let alone the family members.
"It's quite easy to fake certificates nowadays. Could it be a fake one?"
Dora snorted ironically. She could never know that her reluctant remark turned out to be true.
"Aunt Dora, I know you don't like me at all. However, when Robert and I got registered, we had a lot of witnesses, including Robert's secretary and driver. Also, you can send someone to look it up in the Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs."
Upon hearing it, Dora curled her lips.
"All right. Since Robert hasn't left any will, please let the lawyer explain how to distribute his estate," suddenly Paul said.
Sierra chuckled. She called over her lawyer, Kent, who was sitting aside.
"Excuse me, Kent. Please explain to us how Robert's estate should be distributed."
Kent stood in front of them. He wore a pair of glasses, in his forties. He had a faint smile on his face.
"Since Mr. Simpson did not make a will, according to the law, the estate should be inherited by the first heir. Ms. Sierra Moon is Mr. Simpson's wife and she is naturally the first heir. Of course, Mr. Simpson has a mother and a son. According to the law, Ms. Moon, Mr. Simpson's mother, and Ms. Moon's son, Wesley Simpson, are all the first heirs. The inheritance should be equally distributed to all of them. However, Mr. Simpson's mother is mentally unstable and Wesley Simpson is a minor now. Theoretically, we need to find a guardian to supervise the estate for Mr. Simpson's mother. As for Wesley Simpson, he can inherit the estate only after he reaches adulthood, so before that, Wesley's estate should also be supervised."
Then, Kent talked a bit more about Robert's estate. He handed a printed document to all of the people at the scene.
"This is the list of property of Mr. Simpson, including his stock shares, real estate, jewelry, paintings, antiques, and so on. All his assets are listed. The current market value of all assets under Mr. Simpson's name is about fifty billion dollars."
After Kent finished speaking, Sierra said, "As I mentioned just now, we all can supervise Robert's mother's future life and take care of her altogether. Hence, according to the law, Mom should have more than half of the fifty million Dollars. Wesley and I will take the other half. Since Wesley is still young, I'll help him take care of the estate. As for Mom's assets, all of us could supervise together. Robert also mentioned all members of the Simpson family are a union. Hence, the families of Grandpa Paul, Smith, Jenkins, and Uncle Marcel should inherit part of the estate as well. I'm willing to share ten percent of the estate I inherit with Grandpa Paul, Smith, Jenkins, and Uncle Marcel.
"As for the company operation, I'm not good at it at all. Robert used to praise Randy a lot. Randy, would you like to inherit his position. I'll put the burden of Shaos Group on your shoulders."