When Ellie’s dying, blind grandfather gathers the greedy family together to announce that he is bequeathing his fortune to charity, tensions flare. The open safe tempts everyone and, as the relatives enter the room one by one, Ellie suspects foul play. But when it is her turn, her grandfather reveals a shocking truth.
At 19, I was the black sheep of a family that treated me as if I were invisible. After mum died, dad married Sharon, who came with two daughters and had enough emotional baggage to sink a cruise ship.
The way they looked at me – as if I were something they’d just kicked off – made our spacious house seem smaller than a cupboard.
Their matching designer suits and perfectly styled hair only served to highlight how out of place I looked in my second-hand clothes and messy ponytail.
“Ellie, dear,” Sharon said to me with a falsely sweet voice, ”wouldn’t you be more comfortable eating in the kitchen?”
It was her way of saying that she was embarrassed in front of her country club friends. Dad would stare at his plate, suddenly fascinated by his roasted asparagus.
My cousins were no better. All six of them treated family gatherings as if they were networking events, chatting up anyone who might improve their social status.
I used to end up in the kitchen, helping the staff clean up. At least they spoke to me as if I were human. María, our cook, always saved me a piece of her famous chocolate cake.
“Those people out there…” she’d say, slipping me an extra-large piece. ‘They don’t know what they’re missing.’
But Grandpa? He was different. He had worked his way up from nothing to build the family fortune, but being rich never changed him. Grandpa was salt of the earth, through and through.
He was the only one in the family who saw me as I really was when everyone else saw through me.
Grandpa taught me everything worth knowing, from how to plant the perfect rose garden to how to laugh when life kicks you in the teeth.
While the rest of the family was busy climbing the social ladder, Grandpa and I would sit on the porch, drink lemonade and talk about everything and nothing.
“Remember, Ellie,” he would say to me when I was having a bad day, ”the best revenge is to live well. And maybe a little joke now and then.”
I didn’t fully understand what he meant until that summer when everything changed.
Grandad fell ill and his health deteriorated rapidly. His eyesight failed and suddenly he was bedridden. The family descended like locusts, their concern as fake as Sharon’s designer handbags.
I visited every day, watching him weaken, and each time my heart broke a little more. While the others gossiped about his huge safe and what might be inside, I would just hold his hand and read him his favorite books.
We read “The Count of Monte Cristo” at his request, which should have been my first clue of what was to come.
“Read that part again,“ he said, ‘where Edmund discovers the treasure.’
Now I wonder if he was trying not to laugh.
Then came the day that changed everything.
“Family meeting,” Grandpa announced through a voice message, his voice barely above a whisper. “Everyone come to my house. Right now.”
The whole family rushed to grandpa’s house, almost trampling each other in their haste to reach his bedside. I stayed behind, leaning against the wall by the door.
Then I noticed that the safe in grandpa’s bedroom was ajar. Grandpa never left the safe open. I glanced around the room and my heart sank as I realized I wasn’t the only one who had noticed.
All my relatives were staring hungrily at the dark crack in the door. Sharon’s daughters, Amber and Crystal, were elbowing each other and pointing at it when they thought no one was looking.
“It saddens me that I won’t be able to see any of you again,” said Grandpa. ”I’d give anything to see your faces again, but it’s too late for that. The doctor says I don’t have much time left. That’s why I’ve called you all here today. I’ve been sorting out my affairs and I want you all to know that I’ve decided to donate all my money to charity.”
The silence that followed was deafening. He could practically hear his dreams of inheriting millions shattering like cheap glass. His cousin Bradley let out a muffled scream and turned to look at the safe.
Everyone else followed his gaze. It was as if they were all thinking the same thing: if they took something, he would never know.
“Now that it is no longer necessary, I would like the opportunity to speak to each of you in private,” continued Grandpa, adjusting his dark glasses. ”Who goes first?”
What happened next was like watching piranhas in a feeding frenzy. Everyone started talking at once, jostling each other, trying to be first in line.
“Enough!” my uncle declared loudly. ‘I’m the oldest son and I’ll be first.”
His gaze silenced everyone.
“Grandpa, wait!’ I shouted, trying to warn him, but Amber and Crystal pushed me into the hallway.
I watched from the hallway as they entered one by one. Each one came out with a smug look on their face, like cats that had gotten into the cream.
My stomach churned. I knew exactly what was going on. The open safe was too tempting, and a blind old man would never know if they had helped themselves, would he?
They wouldn’t let me see Grandpa until everyone else had had their chance to ‘say goodbye’. I went in and sat by Grandpa’s bed, completely ignoring the safe. It was too late to stop my relatives from ransacking it.
“Grandpa,” I whispered, taking his hand. ”I’m not ready for you to go.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks as memories flooded back. “Remember when you taught me to fish? I was so afraid of hurting the worms, but you taught me how to bait the hook gently. Or all those summer nights on the porch, watching the stars come out? You taught me all the constellations.”
“And you remembered them all,” he said softly. ‘Just like you remembered to water my roses every day while I’ve been trapped in this bed.”
He squeezed my hand. ’You’ve always had a good heart, Ellie. And you’ve always been the only person I could trust.”
Then he did something that made my heart stop. He raised his hand and took off his dark glasses, revealing clear, bright eyes that looked straight at me.
“You’re probably wondering how I could see this coming,“ he said, smiling like a child with a secret.
“You… can see?” I stammered, almost falling off my chair.
“Yes, and I saw it all,” replied Grandad. ‘Every greedy look, every hand that slipped into the safe. They didn’t think an old blind man could catch them, but I did.’ Grandad pointed to the safe. ”Let’s see how much is left, Ellie.”
I walked towards the safe, my legs trembling, and opened the door wide. It was empty!
Grandpa laughed.
“I had ten million dollars in counterfeit bills in there,” Grandpa announced proudly. ”And they took every last one. The real money is in the vault of a bank downtown. And it’s all yours, Ellie.”
I couldn’t speak. My throat felt like I’d swallowed sand.
“You’re the only one I trust to use it wisely,” he continued. ”And if you want to leave this toxic family mess behind you, don’t look back. God knows I’ve been wanting to shake the dust off their shoes for years.”
A few days later, Grandpa’s health suddenly began to improve with a new treatment. The doctors were shocked, but I wasn’t. You can’t keep a good trickster down.
The next day I bought two plane tickets to Bali. First class, because Grandpa insisted we start our new life in style.
The family exploded when they realized what had happened. Sharon threatened to sue. Dad finally found his voice, but only to demand his “fair share”. My cousins showed their true colors with a rainbow of creative swear words.
We left anyway, with nothing but our suitcases and the satisfaction of knowing that justice had been done.
Now I write this from a beach chair in Bali, watching as Grandad teaches the local children how to build the perfect sandcastle.
He has more energy than all of them put together, and his laughter cuts through the sand like music. His recovery seems even more miraculous under the tropical sun.
“Pass me another coconut drink, Ellie. “Planning the perfect revenge makes a man thirsty.”
I bring him his drink and sit down next to him, watching the sunset paint the sky with colors I’ve never seen at home.
“Was it worth it?” I ask him. ‘All that planning, pretending to be blind?”
He takes a sip and smiles. ’Look around you. You’re smiling. You’re free. And those vultures back home are probably still arguing about the fake money. I’d say that’s worth it all.
I lean back and close my eyes, feeling the warm breeze on my face. For the first time, I know exactly what he means when he says that living well is the best revenge.
And you know what? He was right about the practical jokes too.