Caroline soon found out about the change in my will, apparently through her relationship with my lawyer’s son, and she exploded in anger, accusing me of betrayal and irrationality. She called me early one morning, screaming that these boys were strangers and that I was abandoning my own children. I calmly reminded her that she and Ralph had abandoned their mother in her final months and had cared more about the inheritance than family. She had no response.
Ralph came by the house unannounced, furious and demanding to know how I could leave millions to children I’d never met. I explained the truth he hadn’t heard before: during the war, I served alongside a young man named Samuel, who sacrificed his life to save me and others by throwing himself on a grenade. Samuel died at 27, a hero whose family I promised to look after. The triplets are Samuel’s great-grandchildren, orphaned by tragedy when their parents died in a hurricane last year, and left with no family to care for them.Continue reading…
