Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

time Mummy had so little money!”
Freddie sighed. “Well, she did have one major income-producing asset, and that was
her Ling Holdings Preference Shares. She had one million shares that paid a considerable
dividend, but she reinvested it all in buying more shares. Her shares are valued at about
half a billion dollars today, but as you all know, that’s spoken for now.”
The sisters stared at Jacqueline in absolute horror. Su Yi’s beautiful goddaughter had
automatically inherited more money from their mother’s estate than they did.
“So you’re telling me the only thing of any income-generating value we’re inheriting
from our mother is Tyersall Park?” Felicity said slowly, as if not quite believing her own
words.
“Well, that isn’t exactly chopped liver. Tyersall Park is worth about a billion dollars
today if you sold it,” Freddie remarked.
“Two billion,” Alfred piped up.
Victoria shook her head vehemently. “But we could never sell Tyersall Park! It has to
stay in the family. Where does that leave us? We get nothing! Am I supposed to live off
the proceeds of one miserable Vuillard?”
Felicity looked at her husband with tears in her eyes and said in a quivering voice, “If
we are forced to sell Tyersall Park I only get a few hundred million. I’m going to be a
nobody now!”
Harry squeezed her hand encouragingly. “Darling, you’re my wife. You’re Puan Sri
Harry Leong and we have our own money. You’ll never be a nobody.”
Philip got up from the table abruptly and spoke for the first time. “This was obviously
Mum’s plan all along. If she wanted one of us to get Tyersall Park, she would have left it
to that person outright. But the way she divided it up, she knew there would be only one
thing we could do. She wanted us to sell the damned house!”
*1 The Leongs’ third son, Alexander, who married a Malay woman and has three children with her, lives in Brentwood,
California. He has neither returned to Singapore nor spoken to his father in eleven years.
*2 None of the grandchildren’s spouses were invited to this meeting, with the exception of Henry Leong’s wife, Cathleen
Kah. The fact that she is a senior partner at Tan and Tan and is descended from the distinguished family that provides
the firm with forty percent of its billable hours might have had something to do with it.
*3 For comparison, a 1936 Hispano-Suiza Type 68 J12 Cabriolet sold at 2010 auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, for
$1,400,000.
*4 Indonesian slang for someone that is stupid or retarded.