Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

house, where Nick’s aunts sat pensively around a table in the library.
Alix looked up at him. “Are we ready to make the call?”
Nick nodded, and Felicity picked up the telephone in the middle of the table and dialed
Oliver’s number. “Hiyah! It’s his international cell phone. Now we’ll have to pay the longdistance
rates,” Felicity grumbled.
The phone rang a number of times before Oliver picked up.
“Oliver, can you hear us? We have you on speakerphone here,” Alix shouted into the
phone.
“Yes, yes, you can lower your voice. I can hear you just fine.”
“Where are you right now, Oliver?”
“I’m back in London at the moment.”
“Ah, how lovely. How’s the weather today?”
“Hiyah, gum cheong hay! *1 Let’s just get on with it, Alix!” Victoria scolded.
“Oh, okay…um, I’ll let Nicky speak, since he is technically the majority shareholder,”
Alix said.
“Hi Oliver. Yes, I just wanted to inform you that we’ve reached a consensus.” Nick
paused for a moment, took a breath, and then continued. “We’re ready to take Jack Bing’s
offer of ten billion dollars for Tyersall Park.”
“Okay. And I am accepting on their behalf. We have a deal!” Oliver replied.
Felicity leaned in. “And Oliver, we’d like your expertise on valuing the furniture. We’ll
sell him most of the furniture and objects in the house, with the exception of a few things
that we wish to keep.”
“He’s not getting Mummy’s Battenberg lace doilies, that’s for sure,” Victoria muttered
under her breath.
“Super. The Bings will be thrilled, and I know it hasn’t been easy for all of you to reach
this decision, but I can tell you that you have made a superb deal. This is a recordbreaking
amount for real estate, and I don’t think you would have realized a price like this
from anyone else on the planet. Great-aunt Su Yi would have been pleased.”
Nick rolled his eyes, while Victoria and Alix nodded.
“You’ll let them know, Oliver?” Felicity asked.
“Of course. I will call Jack right after we get off the phone, and then I’ll e-mail Freddie
Tan to begin drawing up the contract.”
“Okay then, goodbye.” Nick turned off the speakerphone.
The ladies sighed collectively. “It’s done,” Felicity muttered, as though she had just
drowned a litter of puppies.
“It was the right thing to do. Ten billion dollars! Mummy would be so proud of us,” Alix
said, dabbing her eyes with a rolled-up tissue. Felicity looked at her sister, wondering if
what she said was true. Would her mother ever be proud of her?
Nick got up from the table and walked out the French doors into the garden again.