The Landlord

The summer had just started when I heard the news. I was at the beach with friends when my aunt called me. Her husband, my uncle, had passed away. I collapsed there and then, unable to speak or do anything. He was my favourite uncle, always happy, always kind, and always encouraging. In short, he was my role model. I just couldn't believe it.

But I had to believe it, and I would believe it, because later that week I found myself at his funeral, crying my eyes out. Then a few days later, I was in the notary's office, with all of his close friends and family, hearing his last will and testament read out by a stern, balding man. His house, and a large sum of his money would go to his wife, my aunt, Diane. Most of his cars went towards his brothers, as well as the motorcycles. Various sums of money went to the rest of the family, but then the notary read out;

'And in the case of me having no legal heirs of my own, my apartment complex will go to my favourite nephew; George Felton, when he is of age.'

I hadn't expected to be named in his will at all, apart from perhaps a small sum of money, but this was high and above what I expected. That apartment complex was an investment that had him set for life, had he lived longer. Unfortunately, the complex has only recently been completed after an immense rebuilding that took five years, and only half had been rented out so far. Which meant I could now fill it with whoever I liked, and the building held many apartments.

When the words finally hit me, I almost blacked out. My family gasped, and loud arguing broke out inside the room. In the end, there was nothing to do about it legally, and so, at the age of nineteen, I took possession of a huge apartment complex.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent signing contracts and going over huge amounts of paperwork. It felt a bit tasteless to do it so quickly after his , but I was secretly very excited about all of this. I was going to miss my uncle, but I was also embarking on a huge adventure.

That night I slept at home, having arguments with my parents about what had happened. But the fact remained, I was nineteen now, and they couldn't stop me from doing anything. So I decided to move into one of the free apartments in my new building.

My parents were sorry to see me go, but were generous enough to provide plenty of help during my move into the apartment complex. I found out that my uncle had a little apartment for himself already in use as a makeshift office. In the middle of the living room space stood a desk with a massive iMac computer.

I took the desk and computer to a secret attic space while my parents helped me move and decorate my new apartment, and didn't tell them anything about it. The computer had been locked with a password, but I had high hopes of breaking the code. This was because I found a bed in the apartment, a lot of condoms hidden away in the bedside table, and some female bra's and underwear in one of the closets. My uncle was cheating on his wife, or something else very fishy was going on. I of course intended to find out everything about it.

On my first day alone in the apartment, I woke up in my new bed and got dressed. During breakfast, I tried to decide what to do today.